Almost a decade ago, a number of my friends asked me to share my experiences and lessons learned on leadership. This article was an attempt to respond to a need that in my experience is critical to the success of any organization that operates in teams led by committed followers of Jesus. It is hardly comprehensive; yet it seeks to stimulate thoughtful discussion and help those in positions of authority get it right.
I am choosing, on the basis of forty years experience, to focus on twelve key principles. These can also be effectively applied in any secular leadership context.
FIRST: Exercise your authority in the realization that it is essentially spiritual. And as you do, never mistake position for authority. Position is never a sufficient basis for your authority; it is simply the starting point (Matt. 21:23, 23:2). As a follower of Jesus called to serve His Kingdom, your authority ultimately derives from God’s authority and dominion (Rom. 13:1-2, 1 Pet. 2:13). Yes, you have a chain of command, and a very important Scriptural duty to comply with supervisory requests, directives and organizational policies, and do all you can to make the task of those to whom you are accountable a joy, not a burden (Heb. 13:17). But focusing on the ultimate source of your authority helps keep you as a leader from falling into the egregious pattern of the 1st century Pharisees, and models for those under your authority how they should treat and respond to you. If you are in a position of authority, pattern your leadership after Jesus and exercise your authority for the glory of God and His Kingdom (1 Cor. 10:31).
SECOND: Never compromise your integrity. Do as you say (Matt. 23:3), let your yes be yes and your no be no, consistently (Matt. 5:37). In all significant matters that come before you for decision, seek the Lord’s counsel and then deal courageously, in the fear of the Lord, without partiality or perversion of justice (2 Chron. 19:7,11). My earthly father taught me from my youth that no one could take my integrity away from me—but if I were not very careful, I could give it away. Once it is gone, it is gone. Your capacity to lead will have been diminished to the point that you may as well step aside and let someone else assume the leadership role. Integrity is much more than keeping your word. It embraces a unified wholeness that renders inadmissible any artificial boundary between what a leader does or says in private from what happens in public, or before a different audience. Whether the matter is large or small, do it with integrity. Diplomats may employ doublespeak or half-truth; you may not. Speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Live with a clear conscience (Acts 23:1).
THIRD: Always lead others with genuine sympathy (Matt. 23:4, Gal. 6:2, 1 John 3:17-18). When I was a young military officer, I learned that if you wanted to succeed, you always took care of your people’s needs before attending to your own. Even if they do something that breaks your heart, love them and take good care of them. Men and women will risk their lives for a leader who follows this principle. They will go the extra mile, endure the greatest hardship, and follow you to the most dangerous place when you have faithfully and consistently followed this principle. It is, after all, an application of the example and teachings of our Lord (Matt. 22:37-40, John 15:13). A corollary of this sympathy principle is to stay close enough to your people that you can sense when something is wrong (proximity). Establish a practice of walking through the work area of your people, visiting them wherever they are serving, and visiting their homes. You will gain a feel for when things are going well, and conversely, when there is a problem that you can nip in the bud by timely and loving intervention. If you cannot meet face to face, use the phone. You can learn a lot from changes in voice inflection and tone.
FOURTH: Empower your people! (John 14:12-14, Acts 1:8, Matt. 10:1).When I was serving the Lord in a strategic leadership role in Central Asia, I made my share of mistakes, but one thing I tried to do was deploy my people around our host country in different regions and tell them to think and act like strategy leaders for their region. I wanted them to get directly involved in mobilizing churches, recruiting new workers (for what would ideally become their sub-team). I knew my own leadership job was way too much for me alone. My main task was to inspire and motivate my people to be more than just followers—and above all else, to consciously refrain from doing anything to de-motivate or discourage them. It is very easy to view authority as a zero sum game, and shy away from meaningful delegation of authority.
Do not micro-manage or delegate a task in micro pieces (as in, “go tell A such and such, and then come back and tell me what he said, and then I will give you your next task”).
If you ask someone to write a letter or report for you, refrain from making mere editorial changes or major re-writes—or else the next time your subordinate will be less inclined towards getting it right the first time. If a re-write is necessary, tell the drafter what is desired and let him or her do the revisions.
Divide the labor in such a way that you equip any of your team members to take over for you should you become hors de combat. If you are a leader, you are a trainer—whether you realize it or not.
Don’t be afraid of letting your people make mistakes. It is how they learn. Support them when they take reasonable risks but things turn out badly. Insist they do not make the same mistake twice.
Never discipline or correct anyone in public! Gently tell the subordinate who challenges your authority in a public setting that it would be better to discuss the matter in private later.
Avoid the tendency to avoid addressing performance issues; in my experience, it is much easier to firmly address morals and direct disobedience or insubordination issues than it is when someone simply fails to do what they were sent to do. Never accept mediocre performance. The Lord deserves and expects our best, and your best. You are his agent to make sure your subordinates do their best.
When senior leadership visits your area and wants to receive a briefing on the work of the team, let your people tell their own story. Build them up, and let senior leadership better appreciate their potential for future roles in the organization. They already know you!
FIFTH: Humility should be the hallmark of your leadership (Matt. 20:25-28). This does not mean you are weak or someone in the lineage of Mr. Peepers. [If you are too young to remember him, he was a milk-toast type of guy played on television by the actor Wally Cox—I am showing my age!] I once heard a powerful sermon delivered by a 300 plus pound senior pastor who had once played linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys. He described Biblical “meekness” (Matt. 5:5) as awesome power under positive control (he used the analogy of a large and powerful dog that was trained to respond absolutely and unconditionally to the verbal commands of his master). It might not have been the best analogy, but it made a significant impression on me. In our humanity, it is often very hard to consistently model the Christ-like role of humble servant. In fact, like many things we are called to do as followers of Jesus, I am convinced we cannot do this in our own power. Only through a daily, even hourly infusion of the Holy Spirit can we ever hope to live and work in this humble mode.
As a leader, I would sometimes take advantage of natural opportunities to help my people perform the most menial tasks. It really made an impression on them. They saw me in a different light, and there was nothing they would not do for me to get the mission accomplished.
Many of the teachings of Jesus emphasize the power of surprise. When the response of a follower of Jesus is exactly the opposite of what the world expects in the attendant circumstances, people take notice. They see the hand of God at work. I believe that is at least part of the spiritual reality which underlies the teaching about turning the other cheek, or repeatedly forgiving one’s transgressors. At some point even the most cynical and hardened person will stop and question what has happened.
SIXTH: Expect and insist, in a loving and Christ-like way, upon obedience to requests you make to subordinates. This is the discipline principle. I once heard a senior leader say that if he sent out an email asking twelve of his key subordinates to provide certain information by return email by a specific deadline, that he would normally expect less than a 50% rate of compliance. Listen to me carefully. You cannot be a disciple without discipline. Do not make so many requests that your people are overly distracted from their primary ministry, but when you do make a request, never be satisfied with less than full compliance. There may be cause for an extension, but never an excuse for failure to respond. Once you create the expectation that you are content with less than full compliance, you have created a major problem. Again, drawing on my military experience, I was once in a gymnasium and observed a sign on the outside of the door of a racquetball court that read “Protective eyewear required.” When I observed that the players on the court were not wearing such eyewear and the management was aware of this failure to comply, and not enforcing the rule, I told the manager either take down the sign or enforce it. It is very easy to develop a culture of non-compliance. If you do not believe me, observe the speeds at which most cars and trucks drive on the interstate highways in the US. If you deign to drive the speed limit, even in the far right lane, you are at risk of being pushed off the road or being the victim of road rage.
SEVENTH: Exercise your authority with prudence. Whenever I assumed a new leadership role, I accepted the fact that I had a limited amount of capital when it came to effective authority. Whenever I exercised my authority, I was putting at least part of that capital on the line. If I made a major decision that turned out to have been wrong, my residual effective authority was less than before I made that decision. That does not mean every decision was burdened with a kind of paranoia; on the contrary, I was confident in my decisions, especially when I had followed the practice of seeking God’s wisdom and also getting input from the key people who had the most background information or who had the most at stake. Especially in matters of discipline or corrective action, this prudence principle is critical. Do not jump to the point of decision. Take the time to get all the facts, take a fresh look at relevant policies, consult your supervisor, and then take measured action. One day your action may be reviewed by your organization’s senior leadership and even its managing board of directors. Ask yourself the question: is the action I propose to take within my authority, or is there some policy or procedure that requires me to get others on board. Asking this question after the fact is too little too late.
EIGHTH: Do not try to win a popularity contest. You will have to make decisions that displease or disappoint some of the people who are accountable to you. That is simply a part of the job of being the leader. You cannot approve everyone’s budget as submitted. Sometimes, you will need to remove someone from a position, deny a requested leave or travel request, intervene in some matter that your subordinate feels is private and out of bounds for you (for example, to deal with parents who fail to control or discipline their children, to the point of causing problems on the team or risking the compromising of our witness). At some point, you may have the gut wrenching experience of having to deal with allegations of serious misconduct on the part of one of your people. You must remain objective! If you allow yourself to become the advocate for your subordinate, you are making a major mistake. Another key point: as important as it is to make wise and reasoned decisions on matters within your authority, it is equally important to make them in a timely manner. Long delays will not make the problem go away. They will discourage and de-motivate your subordinates, who rely on you to bite the bullet and deal with the matter. You are a Biblical steward as to the mission of your team or grouping, as well as to the men and women that have been placed under your supervisory authority. That means your duty runs much higher than just to your people.
NINTH: Keep your people informed, and insist that they keep you informed! Whether you do this by periodic staff meetings or by recurring email updates, take the time to let your subordinates have a sense of what is happening or coming down the pike on matters that could impact morale and ministry, and try to give them a flavor as to why this is happening. Let your subordinates know your own thinking. Encourage them. Information is power, and hoarding information can quickly backfire. Yes, sometimes there are sensitive matters that must be kept close hold. And security constraints can outweigh sharing some information with anyone not directly involved. But think in terms of regular downloads of information, with attendant opportunity for your people to provide input or feedback. Input is far better than feedback. Jesus spent a great deal of time informing His disciples about His mission and their roles. His strategy was to inspire a small group of followers with His spirit and vision, and build their lives into an intensive fellowship of affection, worship and work. Obviously, every leader can only invest that amount of time in a limited number of people. That is why every organizational component and every leader needs to think about span of control. If more than five or six people report directly to you, you need to think about creating a smaller cadre of direct reports even if that means another layer in the supervisory chain. Jesus worked with 12, but we should go with no more than 6.
TENTH: Draw upon the storehouse of information you secure from your own people to make regular updates to those to whom you are accountable, honoring the chain of command. Experience has shown that regular uploads of significant information about the work of the group you serve as leader will enhance the overall level of comfort and confidence of the persons to whom you are accountable. Recurring reports create a very real sense of continuing contact by your own superiors with you and the members of your team. Your judgments and requests for resources are more likely to be affirmed. Your superiors are less likely to doubt or question your operations, and they in turn will telegraph in multiple ways that same level of confidence to their higher ups. Do not be afraid to seek the counsel of your superiors on very significant matters—but don’t overdo it. You are rightly expected to lead and make hard decisions within your own authority.
ELEVENTH: Adopt a practice of formal evaluation of your people. Make sure that you have a system of regular one on one sessions with all your direct reports, in which you take stock of their individual performance (with reference to previously established goals and expectations), provide feedback, identify necessary improvement areas and specific plans for effecting change, and explore any assistance you might be able to provide in order to optimize mission accomplishment and employee morale/effectiveness. Again, this is a part of how you exercise your stewardship obligations as to your most precious resource. Be sure to document all such sessions in a transparent, positive way. When it comes time to provide a formal evaluation, you do not want or need surprises.
This is a truth you should reduce to memory: Good morale is often a function of the extent of the gap between expectations and reality. I once had an officer who worked for me who I knew would not be promoted, so instead of recommending his promotion and leading him to false hopes, I worked to make him the most satisfied officer of his grade in the outfit. He was much happier, and his performance was much better. His family was healthier and happier.
Formal evaluations should first focus on what is going well, and be used as a positive reinforcement tool. Lastly, never allow a problem employee to be transferred to another team or region. If you cannot find a way to motivate and inspire the worker to the point of effectiveness and healthy collaboration as part of a team, you should not expect another leader to do so.
TWELFTH: Every good leader takes the time to intentionally engage in the development of future leaders. Leadership development is an element of stewardship of the people that have been entrusted to your supervision. You need to be on the lookout for those who appear to have the aptitude and spiritual maturity to assume leadership duties in the future. Call it training or a form of discipleship--it is very important to any organization. Unfortunately, it is often ignored. It need not be that formal. It should be done in ways that minimize the appearance of favoritism. Some of the best examples of this have been so subtle that the beneficiary hardly realizes what is happening. Finally, the same effort can be directed to all members of a small team, simply by delegation of responsibility and effective training.
Conclusions
Leadership is a challenge as well as a privilege. You can’t be a leader unless you are following someone. The way you treat the ones to whom you are accountable will impact the way your subordinates treat you. Having Jesus as our ultimate leader and commander in chief means we lead according to His principles. How we do something can be just as important as what we do, in terms of glorifying God and winning a lost world for Jesus and the Kingdom. I have at times drawn from my military experience in preparing this article, and that can be taken the wrong way. But never forget we are in an intense spiritual battle, and strong leadership is just as important if not MORE important in this battle than in wars fought by armies or insurgents. The eternal destiny of millions of souls hangs in the balance. Let Jesus lead through you and in you, and may you find increasing satisfaction in being a leader in the army of the Lord, for His glory and honor.
Some leaders tend to focus more time and energy upon those above them in the line of authority than upon those under their authority. That is a major mistake. You need to focus the great majority of your time and energy on your own people, of course with a continuing focus on Jesus. If you do that, and respond in a timely manner to those to whom you are accountable—keeping them informed as to significant activities and events within your group, you will have struck the right balance. This concept of balance has not been addressed as a principle in this article, but an effective leader needs balance in all things—including family time, personal devotions, physical exercise, attention to administrative details versus strategy issues, and keeping the enterprise focused and on target. Finally, remember you cannot operate on a sustained basis in overdrive. Be sure to schedule time for recharging your batteries. Leave enough “headroom” so that when there is a temporary need for surge operations, you and your people have the necessary reserve to keep up the pace.
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