Leadership development never takes place in a vacuum.
It’s not a program or event-based.
Leadership development always starts with a leader.
Always.
A leadership culture is an environment where leadership development thrives best. Creating that culture requires deliberate effort and long-term dedication. A leadership culture contains the elements of:
- Championing leadership.
- Teaching leadership.
- Practicing leadership.
- Coaching leadership.
- Rewarding leadership.
But let me say it again, leadership development always begins with a leader. Someone who will show the way and start. So, don’t worry about trying to build a leadership culture overnight, it takes years for that to truly become part of your culture. You don’t need all the elements at once, and it’s important to get started.
Candidly, you need to build the plane while you fly it.
Start with these two concepts.
- Simplicity
- Consistency
Simplicity. If you don’t keep it simple, you’ll quit. There are far too many requirements in ministry that must happen. From writing the sermon to recruiting leaders for the nursery. There are no options for these things. So, when you are under pressure to cut something, you cut the things that don’t bite back. You cut the things you don’t have to do, like leadership development. Keep it simple, so you’ll stay with it even under pressure.
Consistency. If you don’t remain consistent, you’ll quit, because you won’t get the results you want. We focus on a 7-day turn-around that measures the results every Sunday. This keeps us unaccustomed to the long play. You can’t microwave leadership development; it’s more of a crockpot kind of process. It takes a long time to see results. Development is different than equipping. I wrote about their differences in the previous post. (You can read it here.) With equipping you can see immediate results, but development takes time.
So let me offer the place to start.
It’s a simple plan for leadership development that works.
I want to encourage you by saying I’ve practiced this for 29 years, and have shared it with thousands of pastors. You can trust this process.
The Process:
These three components make up the mechanics of a simple and organic plan.
1) Get a group.
Invite a small number of sharpies to join in a group with you. This is a hand-picked, invite only group. This is not something you announce from the stage or put in the bulletin. Gather 5, 7, 9 — whatever seems like the right number to you. You can invite current leaders, potential leaders, staff, or volunteers, but select from among the best God has given you. I have always led both volunteer and staff groups.
Plan to meet once a month for 1.5 hours. The group should last about 5-6 months but can go a little longer. It’s important that the group does not continue to meet indefinitely unless it’s a staff group. (You can have some of the same people jump in a different group in the future.) And of course, have some good coffee and snacks!!
2) Pick a book.
You don’t need to write a leadership lesson for each time you meet. Remember, keep it simple. Authors invest hundreds of hours into writing their books. And there are so many great books on leadership for you to choose from. Pick one. If you don’t know where to start, I recommend John Maxwell’s The 5 Levels of Leadership.
You can vary the plan as you like, but here’s the basic idea. Your group would cover one “level” of Maxwell’s book each month. That is your content. The group finishes in 5 months! Again, that doesn’t mean they can’t ever be in another group sometime. But don’t let the groups get stale by getting comfortable. This is not a traditional discipleship group; it’s a leadership development group. You could reconvene the same group, for example, the next year if that makes sense. A person might be in one group, or might be in three or four over time. There are so many options, keep it flexible, not a program to march through.
3) Ask two questions.
The two questions are:
- What are you learning?
- How are you applying what you are learning?
You will be tempted to write more questions, and that’s OK, but let me caution you just one more time. Keep it simple.
It will amaze you how deep and rich the conversation will be with those two questions. It’s important to consistently direct the conversation toward (spiritual) leadership in the home, at work, and in the community. Church leadership will come up on its own naturally.
The Power:
These three components deliver the “power” that allows the process to become transformative in nature and truly produce life change.
1) A catalytic leader.
Leadership development always starts with a leader. This is the person who can read the room and is less concerned with getting through the material than cultivating the spark in the huddle that allows the conversation to go where it needs to go, so it lands with impact.
2) A hungry group.
The people in the group must want to be there. This is absolutely essential. They don’t have to be there; they get to be there. They are hungry to learn, missing a meeting is not an option, and they are always prepared.
3) The presence of the Holy Spirit.
This is the big difference maker. You intentionally invite the presence of God’s Spirit in such a way that everyone understands this is not just leadership, but spiritual leadership and the Holy Spirit is bringing wisdom and power for personal growth as a leader.
In 29 years, I’ve never seen this not work. Let me be more clear. If you have all three of these “power” elements in play, I personally have never seen it fail to produce incredible results. If, however, you remove just one of these three, it won’t work.
I wish I had time to tell you hundreds of stories of the changed lives I’ve seen over the years, in hundreds of churches using this process for both staff and volunteers.
Next to the favor of God, everything rises and falls on leadership, and this process will help you raise up more and better leaders!
Thanks Dan, your blogs are all keepers. This is a life long keeper of the flame of passion.
I appreciate your encouragement Joe!
Dan, as usual this is a great one. The simplicity of it is what makes it work. I can tell that several of the pastors we work with have had great success using your model. Thanks again for all you do! You are a blessing! Bill
Hey Bill, good to hear from you and simplicity is the key. Got the brochure you sent about Chase Oaks, glad to see they are doing well!
It’s a good blog and the simplicity makes it doable. However, do you have any help for those of us who cannot seem to find 4 or 5 people who are “hungry to be there” and grow?
Hey Andy, It’s up to you to encourage and inspire 4 or 5 people to join you. Start by letting them know you care, spend time over coffee. Tell them the potential you see in them, but you must be sincere. Let them know how it helps their family life and life at work… it’s not all about the church. Give that a go. If you have to start with just 3, then start with three. It’s better to have a group that’s a little smaller than idea than it is to have the wrong people in the group.
WOW! this may be just what I’ve been looking for. For those who are like me, and creativity is not a strength, I am always looking for something that someone a lot smarter than me has already done; simple is good.
Simple and good works! Go for it Eddie!
I like your comment below about “it’s not all about church.” I already forwarded this post to a couple of people in senior level management at my company because I believe doing something like this in the work place can transform your entire company from the inside out; also thinking about starting a group with my cycling buddies; and of course it is easily applicable to Men’s Ministry.
Leadership is real but need natural zeal where learning as well education remain as the best tools. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c2d97479f5e69f1d5039d4c80fb46762a21b412018513c6f067f4d9892c50e0.jpg
Hey John, thanks for your comments. Zeal is important with both the leader and those in the group!
I need you to pray for our children, mothers, elders, young men and women who are now facing a lots of challenges due to weaker national leaderships of South Sudan. Let your young leaders visit them, encourage them and share with the power of the holistic LEADERSHIPS; in refugees camps in Uganda’s, Congo’s and Kenyan’s forests and to God be the glory…
THANKS…
Thank you for all the great practical info!!
You are most welcome Holly, it was great to see you, Shannon and the team on Sunday! What a great crew you are part of!!
Thanks for the power of a plan laid out with such simple clarity!
I’ve found (after we’ve built some trust) I can combine the two questions into “Share an example of one principle from the chapter that you applied (or wish you had applied) since we last met” (I know it’s a long question but I’m still working on the simplicity thing). Even better is an upcoming situation that they’re facing in which they should apply the principle.
They usually lean toward a general application but I’ve found it’s helpful to bring them back to a real experience (of course we change the names to protect the guilty).
That’s a great approach Roy! Helping them connect to a real experience is so helpful!
I started using this process several years ago after hearing you discuss it during a 12 Stone Leadership Intensive I was in. The problem I face is with your comment that the leaders have to want to be there. I am in a smaller setting and the pool of potential leaders is thus smaller. The ones that I see potential I will invite with enthusiasm but they often respond with an attitude that I will do it for you but this is just one more thing for me. Then as we enter into the process that attitude seeps out in the way of not reading the material, missing a meeting, or just a lack of interest. Any suggestions on how to break through that? It’s frustrating because I see their potential but moving from potential to probability seems to be monumental step.