21 comments (+ Add)
Developing Leaders: Part 2
If you want to develop great leaders, develop a great leadership culture.
In the next few blog posts, I’ll share some thoughts on developing a leadership culture.
First, you must grow as a leader.
If you’re not growing, how can you help others grow?
John Maxwell says, “If you are a 6 (out of 10) as a leader, you’ll attract and develop 4’s and 5’s. If you grow to a 7, you’ll attract and train 5’s and 6’s. If you are a 9, you can build 7’s and 8’s. You must work to “lift the lid” of your own leadership.” (This includes leading spiritually.)
This is a constant struggle for me. Here are some random thoughts:
- Listen to trusted mentors. If you don’t have a circle of mentors, find them!
- Try to find new people to speak into your life. I don’t just look to other pastors. There are many great leaders in other fields. Ask them questions. Invite them to help you grow.
- Read outside of your comfort zones. If you’re reading the same types of books, you’ll never stretch your mind.
- Consciously expose yourself to different leaders. Recently, I’ve mingled with new leaders outside my circle and traveled to churches with distinctly different leadership cultures and styles.
- Disturb your normal routines. It is so easy to settle into a comfortable mode. Change where you meet. Change how and when you pray. If you want a different result, use a different approach.
- Unlearn something. If I’m not changing my thoughts, my mind, or my theories, I’m in trouble.
- Mess something up. If you haven’t failed in a while, fail. The antidote for the fear of failure is not success, but small doses of failure. It is hard to grow without learning from failure.
- Take time off. I don’t know many things better to sharpen my leadership than rest and time with family.
What helps you grow as a leader?
Visit 
Craig,
This is an area I am passionate about. I wanted mentors desperately and the men I asked didn’t want to do so. I guess they didn’t know how. One man said yes then he asked me to get in his downline with AMWAY and I declined. I have never heard from him again.
The good news is I have never stopped asking. I attend conferences, listen to CD’s and read tons of books. I am looking forward to hearing you @ Catalyst in October.
This forum has been helpful to me. Thanks.
Another thing I have done is been persistent in finding a mentor. There are a lot of guys talking about church planting but not many about transitioning. So I contacted one who wrote a book on it and we were to meet in December finally. Unfortunately I drove a long way and was stood up.
I still didn’t give up. I have been talking to another pastor who transitioned a church that most people probably think was a church plant. But it was a very traditional church that is now one of the cutting edge churches in the US. He is flying me up to his church next month to spend 2 days with him and paying for the trip! I am blessed.
I have learned don’t give up. I found that I can mentor too. I have mentored 4-5 guys over the last couple of years and I’m proud of what they have become. I have another mentor who is a well known communicator who is asking me to mentor him back in areas that he is weaker in. That one took me by surprise. I think I’ve learned mentoring/leading is give and take.
I also find that recruiting and hiring strong leaders forces me to become a better leader. Leading leaders is a sink or swim situation. They push you to be your best.
P.S. Who is this Maxwell you talk about? Not bad stuff. Maybe he should write a book or something.
Kevin,
I’m glad you are so persistent. God will honor that. I pray when you successfully transition your church (which is much harder than starting a new one) that you’ll be able to mentor a ton of other leaders.
Bryan,
Great thought. Thanks.
What about the rest of you? Help us grow? What are you reading? Who are you studying? What is God showing you? What are your theories?
Bryan,
John Maxwell is an author/leadership expert. I am not sure which of his books that is from; however, I have read that cited in The Next Generation Leader by Andy Stanley. The key thought he uses it for is that if you are stuck under a leader of inferior skill, then the entire group will be held up. Usually, that will reflect back on those beneath him who are just not given a chance to succeed.
I think the challenge for us is to be the opposite of that. Be the superior leader who enables those serving under us to flourish and give our ministry lofty goals to strive toward.
What has been most helpful to me is the idea of staying on point. Be intentional with your time. If you are a good planner or organizer, spend the bulk of your time doing that. Stanley warns against being the leader who has to have a hand in everything. People, including me, have a nasty habit of attempting to do things we have no business doing, we call it “leading”. Delegation is also leading. I am good at children’s ministry, I would be a fool to convince myself that I am an accomplished speaker at this time.
I’m just finishing reading “The End of Poverty,” by Jeffrey Sachs. It’s basically this genius economist who has been gathering insights around how economies go from stagnation and extreme poverty into growth and diminished poverty levels.
It’s a little outside my usual canon.
I’ve realized that growth doesn’t happen because of many of the reasons I think it does.
Economic growth occurs most when someone spends time learning about the reasons why it isn’t growing. When you invest time into learning the region, climate, history, politics, geography, relationships, and real resources of an economy, you have greater ability to speak into it and show real people why things aren’t working…
It’s the same with people. The more time you spend learning about their individual situation, history, skills, strengths, weaknesses, passions….well the more fuel you have to help them grow….
Craig,
I completely agree with the “comfort zones” mindset you set forth here. Some of the most influential leaders or ideas that have helped shape me are ones that I have not agreed with at all. But because of this, I have had to really address what it is I believe, what areas of ministry I truly value, what about this person has made them influential and if I have become stagnant in thought or action.
I believe this concept of escaping comfortability for situations ripe with conflict and change is essential to the process of discipleship itself, which is, of course, leader based in function.
I also can personally attest to messing up being the means to growth, as a disciple and leader. If you never attempt something that is creative or risky, then can you really say that you’re doing all you can to lead or help others grow? Playing it safe is, intellectually speaking, self-centered and even selfish.
Failure necessitates change which therein perpetuates growth. After all, what are we really afraid of? Seriously.
So go and try something you’ve dreamt and stayed awake at night thinking about…the worst that can happen is you’ll mess up, learn and grow because of it. The best thing that can happen…it might open up more eyes than just your own.
Craig,
I think one thing that helps me grow is to step out and step up. Do something I have never done before. You will pray and prepare like never before. I think to many leaders lead from comfort and fail to rely on God as much as they should.
When I started as a children’s pastor 10 years ago. I desperately needed a mentor and could not find one. I read books like crazy. I know read books and blogs like crazy. I think reading is one the the most essential growth tools for any leader.
I think that John Maxwell is really onto something when he talks about increasing your leadership ability in order to attract better leaders, but there has to be more to it than that. There are some great leaders, much better than those above them, that stay where they are. On the good side you could say it’s loyalty to the project, organization, purpose. And on the other side you could say they are simply waiting to overcome that lackluster leader. Either way I think some people, who are better leaders than those who are supposed to lead them, stay.
Craig,
The Difficulty I have in finding trusted mentors to listen to is what questions do I ask them. How do I get them started on their life experiences, failures and success stories. The bible says that “Counsel in the heart of man is as deep waters, but a man of understanding will draw it up”. Maybe you have some suggestions for drawing that counsel out of possible mentors. Thanks!
John (like many others) expressed some challenges on getting help from mentors. He asked for suggestions on drawing out counsel.
It seems this is a common struggle. Can some of you who have great mentors offer advice to those who are struggling finding one?
Ministry mentors are hard to find. My theory is that they’re a lot like musicians. Many musicians are wary about teaching the lessons that they had to learn the hard way (i.e. “I’m self-taught so why shouldn’t you be). Also, senior leaders are often too busy to mentor. My point is that there just aren’t a lot of willing mentors out there. Paul said that “even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers”.
I think that these are relationships that have to be developed not recruited. If I call up John Maxwell (yes, Brandon, I do know who he is) and say, “Hey, John, can you mentor me?”, it probably won’t work. But if there is a man in my network of relational ministry that I admire, then there is an opportunity to develop a strong learning relationship. It would seem to me that he would be more willing to share his life, his ministry or maybe even how to play a bar chord.
Anyway, that’s just one opinion. Good luck, guys.
On the subject of finding mentors… in my case I found people that I admired for some particular aspect, such as their pulpit skills, prayer life, leadership abilities, etc. I then asked them for a specific, rather than a general, commitment. For example, I asked one pastor I knew to meet with me for lunch (my treat) once a month for the next six months or so.
I always arrived at these meetings prepared. I kept a notebook where I wrote down questions that arose over the course of the month. This way, I didn’t forget any issues that came up, and I honored my mentor’s time.
If we prepare for such encounters and make them as convenient, congenial, and concise as possible, we communicate to our potential mentors that we are serious about wanting to grow and that we place value upon their input.
I also found that because I invested something in the relationship, this pastor made himself accessible to me at other times, as well, when urgent input was needed between meetings. But I was careful to not abuse this privilege, and only called when necessary.
One godly businessman that I approached in this manner lived in another city, but responded to my initiative by committing to mentor me for almost two years. I grew and benefitted from this relationship in ways that I am just now beginning to realize.
I agree with Bryan for the most part. But even Maxwell asked to meet with 10 pastors of the largest churches around. Some met with him because he offered to pay $100 and almost no one took the money.
I started asking the “big” ask. Sure I’ve been turned down a lot. But just within the last year I’ve had 2 very successful men help me because I asked. As I mentioned one is paying for me to spend 2 days with him.
I came to the conclusion years ago that I was responsible to grow myself so Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Andy Stanley and John Maxwell have mentored me through conferences, CD’s and DVD’s.
Craig,
I think that one of the things that helps me to grow as a leader is having visions or plans of what new I can do for Christ. Another ‘thing’ that helps me is my little daughter. I feel a need to be a leader for her and pass godly stuff onto her. On the subject of growing a godly heritage I learnt a lot from Ken Ham’s programmes.
See http://www.answersingenesis.org/video/ondemand/
I think what would help me grow faster and stronger would be support from other people.
Thanks for the post.
Can someone explain to me what ‘to mentor someone’ means in the context of the church, please.
Thank you
I planted a church bi-vocationally 5 years ago. Last year I realized I was teaching them, I was preaching to them, and had even organized them into serving teams. But I wasn’t LEADING them!. I then decided to step back into the blogging world and deliberately follow the blogs of real leaders - guys like Tim Stevens at granger, Tony Morgan at Newspring, Perry Noble at NewSpring - and of course Craig. I also decided I would invest money in conferences to build and train me because if I wasn’t growing how could I expect my people to grow - or grow a church. So I went to 3 conferences so far this year and will go to more before the year is over.
This process is just beginning but it gave me the faith to take my church from a small rented facility to a movie theater to get more seats and involve more people in serving and grow the thing. Also it was at a conference that I heard you speak these words Craig “the thing that is keeping you from where you are to where God wants you to be is the painful decision you refuse to make.”
God had been dealing with me for months about quitting my secular job and going full time in ministry. Those words still haunt me today but after hearing them, and then getting more wisdom from guys like Gary Lamb, and the leaders of my church - and my wife - I stepped away from a job that pays almost 6 figures to pastor my church of 125 people.
I think it was Erwin McManus who said something like he would rather go out with a blaze of glory than just maintain the status quo in his book the barbarian way. God didn’t call me to maintain the status quo at my church. He called me to change the eternal destiny of as many people as I can before I step off this planet. To do that - I have to learn to be a better leader.
One more thing - I also read and network with people who are in similar sizes and situations. If we only look a the maxwell’s, stanley’s and young’s of the church world its easy to get disillusioned when the results are not the same.
Thanks Craig for speaking into my life.
I want to contact Kevin Bussey regarding re-starting a plateaued or dying church. Been there, tried to do that, and as Craig stated, it is infinitely more difficult. But if I can help, I will. But you’ve got to start with leadership - yours and new (yes NEW - the old leaders have taken the church as far as they can go) leaders.
What kinds on things should I look for in a mentor and what should I avoid? I agree that they should be those over me and therefore a better opportunity to learn from them. Having the trust to start a mentorship, but how do you go about asking? Is it something that is offered or asked?
Can I ask for directions if I don’t know the destination?
Stacey and Marcin,
Instead of throwing a quick answer your way, I’ll work on a week of posts defining how to find and grow from a mentor. This is such an important topic. Thanks for asking.
I feel like reading as much as you can get your hands on is a great way to grow. Be willing to do things differently, even if it’s a risk. Some of the greatest successes in life happen with a planned risk.
I am reading “Divine Nobodies” by Jim Palmer. It is an amazing book.
Rocky,
I would love your help. You can contact me @ bamabusman@yahoo.com
Thanks!