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The Potential Around You
How to develop people of character, commitment, and clout.
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When I left that church, attendance dropped from three hundred to less than one hundred in just a few months. I realized I had failed. I had not prepared others to lead. I vowed, This will never happen again. Tell about a time you saw a leader develop. I think of Dan Reiland. While Dan was a member at Skyline, he felt called to ministry, and he went to seminary. He came back for a year of internship on our staff. Dan is smart, highly task-oriented, but also melancholic and non-relational. His first week on the job, he walked right past me and seven or eight other people in the lobby. He never said hello or acknowledged our presence. With his briefcase in hand, face forward, he headed for his office, work on his mind. I thought, He didn't even see us. So I followed him into his office and said, "Dan, you just passed by your work." "What do you mean?" "We were standing in the lobby, and you walked right by without speaking." "Man, I'd like to talk, but I've got work to do." "These people are our work, Dan," I said. "We're in the people business." What I love about Dan is that he saw a need to change, so he did. I began to teach people skills to him. After five years, this person who had few people skills became my executive pastor and did nothing but people development and oversight. He came with me to injoy, and he told me the other day that 140 people are coming to his house for Memorial Day. He has become the Pied Piper. Why is it that not every leader develops that well? It may have been my fault on many occasions. I liken it to an elevator ride, with the destination being the tenth floor. When we get to the third floor, some say, "This is my floor, I'm getting off." My tendency in the earlier years was to get off with them: "Let's take some stairs. We don't need to get on the elevator. Let's go just a little bit higher." My wife, Margaret, finally said, "John, you have to let others determine what level they want to live on." That wasn't easy for me, because I think growth is life. How do you approach a potential leader? I've always asked them to become my prayer partner for at least a year. That gives us time to get to know each other's hearts. In addition, our board members at Skyline were asked to mentor a potential leader, their replacement, during the last of their three years in office. On the front end of these relationships, we ask, "Are you willing to reproduce other leaders if I invest in developing you?" This perpetuates the culture of leadership development and weeds out people who probably wouldn't have developed anyway. How do you develop a person who has a heart for God but no leadership skills? Provide on-the-job training. If people have the character qualifications, they just need to learn how to maximize their efforts. We worry too much about position and titles. I teach: "Wherever you're working, whatever organization you serve, start adding value to people and begin to gain their respect. They will champion you." |             |
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