Wisdom in Leadership #27 - Ready to Lead Article #3
You're just the leader
Leadership is a high calling. It's demanding and requires a difficult skill set. It's both art and science. Leaders need to commit themselves to learning constantly and continuously. But let's not overstate it. What makes leadership so important isn't that we need leaders. It's not that leaders are so great and important that we cannot survive and would be lost without them, but thankfully when we have the 'great ones everything will be okay. Sometimes that might be true, but it's not what makes leadership so important.
Leaders don't need to be great
What makes leaders and leadership so important and necessary is that leaders mobilize and equip others to play their part in growing the kingdom and to do great things in service to God and love for others.
Leaders are vital because they enable and draw out the servant-hearted greatness of others around them.
When we think of leaders we often think of great ones. Great preachers, great thinkers, great strategizers, great planners. And some leaders are those things. One leader might be the greatest preacher in the room.
Another leader will be the greatest thinker in the room. Some leaders will be the most insightful strategizers in the room. Some leaders will seem to be able to see into the future so they can plan accordingly. But here's the critical thing to grasp: you don't have to be any of those things to be a great leader.
People often find this so hard to grasp that it's worth saying it again: you don't have to be the greatest at any of those things in order to be a great leader. Great preachers can also be great leaders, but mediocre preachers can also be great leaders. Great thinkers can be great leaders, but so can mediocre thinkers. Being a great individual contributor has nothing to do with being a great leader, and often great individual contributors have the hardest time becoming great leaders.
When you lead a team you're not necessarily the greatest person in the room. You're not necessarily the smartest person in the room. Your idea won't necessarily be the best idea. You're just the leader.
Your job
Your job as the leader is to unleash the people God has given you so that they can be who God has saved them to be and to do the good works that God has prepared for them to do. Your job is to multiply what gets done by unleashing the people around you.
You don't need to come up with all the ideas or all the answers. Your job is to lead. Your job is to raise the question, or perhaps to create an environment where there is safety for others to raise the question. It's your job to help the group think through the question, brainstorm possible solutions, discuss those options, then decide on a course of action. Your job is to make sure people understand the problem and how this solution might address that problem. Your job is to make sure people understand their roles and responsibilities in making that solution happen. Your job is to keep people focused on the task and energized. And your job is also to ask the questions to determine whether or not the solution is actually solving the problem.
None of that requires you to be the smartest person in the room or to be the one who thinks up the perfect solution. You're just the leader. Your job is to make sure that underlying and invisible problems do get raised, that solutions are put forward, and that everyone agrees to go after one of those solutions. You don't need to have all the answers. What you need to be able to do is to get the best people for this particular problem in the room, draw the answers out of those people, help them to execute the solution, and then ask the question: Did it work? Your job is to harness the collective brilliance of the room, not to be the sole font of brilliance in the room.
Leadership is vitally important in that it facilitates ministry getting done, but it's not important because the leader is important and can do great things. Leaders are just the leaders. Leadership is important because leaders help the rest of God's people to become great by serving the world.