What I Wish Someone Told Me About Leadership
Leadership Is Leading Others to Lead
Hi. You know what people say about leadership, right? Exactly. We’ve all heard different things about it, but everyone has heard something about leadership. Leading sports teams. Leading families. Leading departments or companies. Whatever. I’ve been told a few things about it myself: Leadership is influence. Leadership is guiding people toward a shared goal. It is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to get where they ought to be. In church settings I’ve learned that we should lead like Jesus, like a good shepherd. But I’ve also heard that we should delegate like Moses. Don’t get me wrong. Every one of these is good and helpful. I’m not dismissing any of it when I take this opportunity to bring some more to the table. This is just a little about what I wish someone had drilled into me a long time ago.
It isn’t about accomplishing tasks. It’s about developing people.
If leadership were easy everyone would do it. Well, about that. It’s not exactly difficult to be the boss of a few helpers. “OK, you, please do this. And you, please do that. And then we need to do that other thing.” All you need to know is what tasks need to be done. There’s a place for leading helpers who are only there to serve in the moment. But that’s entirely task driven, and this isn’t about leading tasks. It’s about leading people who will then lead people.
This is where things get a little tricky for me. I mean, I’m not sure how to put it. Maybe it’s my own thick skull, but I’ve had the impression from many leaders—who would agree that leadership is about leading people who will then lead other people—that leadership is about leading other people to do our things, our way, who will then perpetuate that for generations. That, my friends, is not leadership. It’s programming robots. I guess the question is, do we want people to do something or become something?
Yes, we lead people by developing skills, whether it’s working on cars or teaching a Sunday School class. And of course we want people to accomplish something with those skills. But times change, jobs change, tasks change, ministries change, and churches change. Leaders won’t be lost when things change because they became leaders of people, not just leaders of skill sets.
Things change.
In many ways, church ministry looks different than when I was in school. Some church people (and some church leaders) seem to do what they can to keep things looking the same—styles, methods, songs, Bible translations, dress codes, and so on. If we lived in a culture with one church per town, they might, might, get away with that. And in that world, they could get away with repeating the same tasks in the same ways, over and over again, until Jesus returns. But we do not live in that world.
Further, as things change and the skills needed to do those things change, other people (and often younger people) will come along who are better at those new skills. But, I think, leaders won’t sweat it because they develop their leadership skills and reach. That is, they learned to lead themselves, to lead others, to lead leaders, and to lead organizations. And, they help others learn it, too. Am I there yet? Not even close! But at least I can see it out here.
Near the end of his life, Paul told Timothy, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2). He was thinking in terms of four generations of leaders: Paul, Timothy, the men Timothy would lead, and the ones they would lead. You can’t do that simply by a checklist of tasks and skills. You do that by preparing people to lead others in their own times.
Taking responsibility for more…
So this is what I’m working on, what I wish I worked through sooner. Leading helpers is easy (easier). Turning helpers into leaders is hard. Sometimes, probably most of the time, I’m not even thinking about it. But I need to be challenged to do it because this is the impact we have that lasts in the future, not our tasks and systems, but our people.
Exit question: How do leadership and mentoring relate to each other?