Leadership Lessons I've Learned, Number 3

3. Develop People and Your Team

I am addicted to progress. If you have been around me for any length of time, you've probably noticed this trait. It is something in me that can be both helpful and harmful. I love starting and launching new things, I hate maintaining old things, and I am more task/project focused than people focused.

One thing (of many) that I have learned in my first year as a Lead Pastor is making progress WHILE developing people and teams. Here's the catch for me: In most cases, it's easier just to do it myself or to spoon-feed answers and not teach or train others. If I am too progress or task focused, which is my natural bent, I am always going to use people as a means to my end. I am going to delegate tasks and answer questions for the purpose of task accomplishment. And believe me, we'll get the job done, but where does that leave the people who look at me as their leader?

Answer: it leaves them no better off than when we started the project or task. I could easily make the argument it leaves people worse than before the project. As a leader, one of my primary roles must be the development of our staff and leadership teams. I am responsible for their development. The bad news is I'm not smart enough to teach all that may need to be taught - good news is I do not necessarily need to be the person developing them all the time. As a leaders, though, I need to help the people around me identity opportunities to grow and develop and support their pursuit of learning. At times, I'll be the one teaching, but more often than not, these learning opportunities come from outside our staff and/or church.

In the end, teaching and training others does more to advance our mission than me using people to get a job done. For me, this is a classic urgent versus important paradigm. When I focus on the urgent, I get too task oriented and ignore the people around me. As a leader, it is MORE important for me to consistently help our staff learn and grow than to launch and lead new stuff on my own. Teaching others to lead and think like a leader pays much larger dividends for me, them, and our organization.

Maybe for you this is common sense, but for me, it is something I need to be reminded of often. How much time are you spending developing those around you?