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The Greatest Don’t Tell You They Are The Greatest
When looking for great leaders, those who are truly great (or potentially great) usually don’t tell you they are great. In fact, they often don’t realize they are exceptionally gifted by God to lead.
With rare exceptions, whenever someone initially rattles off a resume of success, I find that most of the time, these “apparently” great leaders are either:
A) Very insecure.
B) Overselling themselves.
Those who are truly the best don’t seem to be driven to convince you they are the best. The most gifted do more than they talk.
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Great post Craig.
Discovered that when leaders begin to replace the word “the” with the letter “a” when describing themselves to others, the greatness of our God can be embraced more.
Example:
THE voice of a new generation…
…with A voice of a new generation.
Or THE leader in church development…
…with A leader in church development.
I can not agree with you more that we are often guilty of OVERSELLING ourselves and UNDERSELLING the God who gave us our talents in the first place.
Again, great post Craig!!
[...] out Mark’s post…..I could not agree [...]
Do great leaders know that they are great leaders? I wonder about this from the perspecitive of being humble and underselling themselves. I see the pride that is involved in overselling.
Good post - you got me thinking early in the morning.
AMEN! I learned this lesson the hard way.
In our quest to find help the “confident” people with the “credentials” tend to be more trouble than they are worth, title conscious and focus on self rather than on the mission and vision.
Truly great people just want to put their heads down and work hard. Like John Maxwell always says, “It is amazing how much gets done when you don’t care who gets the credit.”
People that have to tell you how great they are, are usually the ones that need their egos stroked constantly. They need everyone to know how much they contribute instead of deflecting the praise to the God and the team they serve with.
Thanks for the post Craig, it is an important reminder for me.
True Word. I’m learning this more and more.
“do more than talk”
Excellent!!
Went to a really inspiring talk on Biblical Leadership (given by some Army Chaplains). Their take on it was to look in the Bible and see how many “anointed leaders” actually thought of themselves as unsuitable, which resonates with your excellent point here.
Thanks for stimulating thoughts.
Good post Craig. The funny part (not haha funny) is that we are often told, “You gotta sell yourself!” or some goofy thing like that. What a fine line we step on between telling a pulpit search team, “yes I can do that” and being truly humble and honest.
Failed to finish: and not being sure if you can or not.
So true…people that ONLY rattle off “stats” drive me banana’s!!!! If I EVER act like… “I’m all THAT and a bag of chips and here is why I am IMPORTANT to you (worldly)”…I seriously want my friends to take me aside, smack me across the cheek (in a loving way..lol) and say, “SNAP OUT OF IT!…you’re Just Jenn.” Great Post.
I agree with one exception…Muhammad Ali.
It’s about redefining “greatness” for me. Great people often live in the tension between being the center of attention and loneliness. Their “greatness”, many times, isolates them from people, because the intentions of others is sketchy at best.
I think that’s one reason Jesus instructed his disciples to choose the lowest road to greatness and in the words of Bill Hybels, “The way down is the way up.” Following a path of lowliness (not loneliness) reminds me of my greatest need for God and serves as a caution to promising more than I can deliver. Lowliness also helps me to identify with commonality all people share in being human…not superhuman.
This reminds me of taking out the trash. At the last church I was on staff at, one day a person saw me reach down under my desk & pull out my trash can. I then took the trash bag out, closed it up, and put in another trash bag. The person went on & on with me why I shouldn’t take out my own trash. “There are individuals who are paid to do that..” blah blah blah.. “You’re a _____.” blah blah blah… The very moment I think I’m too whatever to take out my own trash is the very moment I’m not who God has said I am. I think I’ll go with what He says instead.
My husband recently became the pastor of the church. As I sat beside him during the meetings with the search team, I couldn’t help but be thankful to be married to him, call him my brother in Christ, and also have him as my pastor. Why? He said to the team, “I know I will mess up. That is a given. I’m counting on members of this team to tell me when I do out of love. I don’t know it all and won’t pretend that I do.”
I am not a staff member of this particular church body. I know I don’t have to be. A servant serves wherever they are at as they go through life’s moments - not just when they get paid.
As always, Craig & any who read and/or comment - you’ve been prayed for!
Oops. My husband became the pastor of a different church.. not the one where we were both on staff at together.
In response to comment #11, I was going to bring up Michael Jordan. :-P
It is very hard because it seems everything else makes you feel life is a competition…
but God is fixing/healing me!
Servant attitude
Got Jesus big promotion
Highest name and place
http://ChristianHaiku.com - Phil 2:5-11
Now to be honest…the reason I feel the way I do (as displayed in my last comment, #16) is because I am very insecure.
I hate it and am praying for God to help me fight against this attack of Satan!
Thanks for the post Craig, great food for thought. In my experience I have often found that with a little prayer and encouragement it’s often the ‘quiet’ ones that grow into great leaders. They are the ones that simply get on with the job and rarely seek praise. I think that Churches have bought the wordly lie that we need to look for people with big reputations, who are well known and have great profiles to make things happen. We serve a God who often works in the exact opposite to what we expect and we should be prepared for that!
Humility, a ‘get it done’ attitude and a deep dependence on God to ‘do the work’ are qualities of a great leader I think.
To even comment at all risks my own humility as a leader. So difficult to confidentially use God given leadership and never let it cross that ugly line.
Something I continue to do every weekend is to serve our teams in some area I that is not required. This could be sweeping the stage, making the team’s coffee or any number of behind the scene things. This I feel is when my leadership is the strongest.
I could never sell myself - view this as weak if you choose but I would never want to be hired because of what I say I am…
I think great leaders live with & even learn to embrace a little insecurity as they understand it is the catalyst to remind them that without God they truly can do nothing! Great post Ps Craig & thanks for the reminder to follow the Holy Spirit’s prompt to see greatness & potential as he sees it. Often delicatly wrapped up in earthen vessels waiting to be nurtured & released!
Spot on Craig.
I would add one thing (as if I can improve on something CG said!)
Not only do the greatest leaders not TALK about being great, they also do not ACT or CARRY THEMSELVES as if to say, “I am a great leader.”
I have served on leadership teams with those who did not talk about how great they thought they were but they communicated it other ways like:
….not contributing to the discussion because their “coolness” and superior insight would not allow them to
….appearing to look at printed material or a computer screen because it was more interesting than what the leader of the team or others were saying
….shrugging of the shoulders (and other similar body language) when asked to contribute, which communicated to the rest of the team that what they were discussing was insignificant and irrelevant
….not laughing when the rest of the team is enjoying a lighter moment
….when this person does finally speak, they use sarcasm that is on the edge of mockery and then they laugh to cover it
….resents having to ask for permission from direct reports
….subtly but consistently communicates in various ways that the organization and senior leadership is not “with it”, rather than bringing constructive/loving evaluation and criticism
I could go on. My only point is that you communicate your “greatness” in ways other than speaking.
I love this blog! It has taught me so much!
THANK YOU!!