Invest in Your Leaders
It takes intentional effort to develop quality leaders who
will serve alongside of you. The idea
that quality leaders can be selected, given brief instructions, and then be
released to succeed is simply false. Developing
a solid leadership team will take an investment of both time and energy. If we are willing to make such an investment,
it will pay big dividends in time. When
we think about investing in our leader there are three levels to consider:
1. Invest Initially.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the perfect picture
of a leader laying out the basics for his followers on the front end of a journey. Matthew 5:1 notes, “Seeing
the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down…” Jesus saw a large number of would be
followers and wanted to make sure that they knew what would be expected of them
and what it would look like. This is a
great lesson for any leader to learn; we must make the expectations clear on
the front end.
Too often leaders assume people know what
is expected of them. If we are not
careful, we simply assume that everyone thinks the same way we do. As a result, we never clearly lay out the
expectations of the job that is being entrusted to another. Because the expectations were never made
clear, they simply cannot be met. In
order to avoid this, the leader must be painfully clear as to what is
expected. It is a good practice to sit down
and write out the top three to five expectations for a given position or
task. When the expectations are written
out, rewrite them, making them clearer and more specific. When the rewrite is over, rewrite them
again. Continue to rewrite these
expectations until you are absolutely convinced that they could not be any more
specific or direct. Once such expectations
are clear, then the one who is being assigned the task has a fair chance of
succeeding.
2. Invest Continually.
The whole of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John) record the relationship of Jesus and his disciples. Jesus constantly invests in these twelve
men. He teaches, he corrects, he
encourages, and he rebukes. Jesus made a
three year commitment, not only to carry out his own ministry, but to prepare
these twelve men to carry out the ministry after he was gone. His pattern was often simple; he would
instruct, he would model, and he would release.
In the end, this group of stumbling men who always said the wrong thing
at the wrong time and did the wrong thing at the wrong time, became a powerful
force that could not be stopped.
Many times leaders, under the pressures of
time and expectation, fail those who are looking to them for guidance. Leaders must make time to instruct, model,
and provide feedback for those around them.
If a leader is unwilling to do this, then he must accept that what he
has, is the best he will ever have. Or,
worse yet, he will have to accept that what he has will diminish before his
very eyes because people will grow discouraged, frustrated, and eventually leave.
Make time to lead. This will mean that many leaders will have to
take intentional steps to clear the calendar.
Careful planning will be needed to make time to impart knowledge to
others, to help others fine tune their performance, and to recognize those who
are ready to go to the next level. In a
very real sense, taking the role of leaders removes one from the day to day
operation of the organization. The
leader becomes the one who prepares, equips, and launches others into the
operation of the organization. If one
leads well, then the organization will function well. If one leads poorly, then the organization
will function poorly.
3. Invest relationally.
Jesus told his disciples in John 15:15, “No
longer do I call you servants,
for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called
you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus was willing to take his relationship with
the disciples beyond a merely formal relationship. Jesus invested in his disciples
emotionally. The disciples were Jesus’
friends. Jesus was willing to share with
the disciples what the Father was sharing with him and the directions they
would soon be going.
Certainly a leader must remain the
leader. In the end, it is the leader who
will be held accountable for the success or failure of the organization as a
whole. However, if the leader thinks
that he can merely use the people around him as pawns, then he will soon find
that no one is truly following. However,
if the leader will invest emotionally, if the leader cares for and shares with
those around him, then he will find that he has true followers. If the leader is willing to make an
investment at this level, he will find that his team will support him when many
others would not. All good leadership is
rooted in relationship, not position.
Good leadership takes investment. Leaders will have to invest time, energy, and
yes emotion into the people around him.
If the leader is unwilling to make such an investment then he should
find another role in which to serve.
However, the leader that is willing to instruct, model, and encourage
will experience results that are profound.
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