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10 January 2012
It’s one thing to lead followers and another thing to lead leaders. Followers are people who want to follow. They don’t really want to make decisions, they want someone to tell them what to do and they will do it.
Leaders are people who want to lead. These are people who think for themselves. They have opinions that are different than yours. They don’t really want to follow, they want to be the leader.
How do I get people to follow me who would rather be the leader and why should I try to get people to follow me who don’t really want to follow?
Followers are great at getting things done, but you will reach more people if you focus your time and energy on leading leaders. There are risks in trying to lead leaders, but if you want to grow as a leader you have to increase your influence with other leaders.
1) Staff to your weakness. Whenever I take on a new CP job, the first thing I ask myself is: Who are my leaders? I start building my team right away. I am looking for people who are strong where I am weak and that have a passion for kids. For example, I know that I am not a detail person, so I surround myself with people that are good with details.
2) See yourself as a resource to your leaders. I will never forget when I shared the vision for Super Church Curriculum with Pastor Mac. He looked at me and said “One of my jobs as pastor is to be a resource to you to help you fulfill your vision” I could not believe what I was hearing. I had never heard a pastor talk like that. Didn’t he hire me to help him? Yes, your leaders are there to help you, but you are also there to help them.
3) Be quick to hear. Create environments where you take time to listen to your leaders. You can do this during one on one time, but I like to do it as a group. I like to meet with all my leaders at a local Starbucks for a brain storming session. I listen to their ideas. When someone shares a good idea I put it into action. It is really motivating to a leader when you take one of their ideas and run with it.
4) Be slow to speak. If you want to lead leaders then you will have to do more listening and less talking. If you put someone in charge of a meeting, never jump in the middle of it. You can probably communicate it better than them, but that doesn’t mean that you should.
It is really empowering to a leader when you can sit in the meeting and keep you mouth shut. It reinforces their leadership and communicates to everyone else that you trust them. My leaders make me look good because I make them look good.
If you follow this scripture you will be well on your way to leading leaders. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,” James 1:19 NIV
