Does Leadership Skip a Generation?

My take aways from Andy Stanley’s book “Next Generation Leader”:

Five essentials.  Five powerful truths that are very simple and yet impacting.  All C’s just like a Pastor would write them.  Competence, courage, clarity, coaching and character and not much missing at all really.  I found myself drawn into the material at the beginning.  I know that my dad trained me to be a leader.  His entire life spoke dramatically to a strong work ethic and character.  Stanley is just a great thinker and this material is strategic.

I think the best way to work through this material is principle by principle.

Many of my experiences as a leader have come from learning this principle of less is more.  Youth Pastors are typically notorious for being lone rangers.  I am not sure if it is because youth ministry is such a thankless job or that they are hideous at delegation.  No matter the case there are deadlines to be met.  I learned several years into my ministry that I should do only what I can do.  On top of that, I learned that what I dread, even that what I am poor at is somebody’s dream job.  What drains me, empowers another.  That was tough to swallow.  I learned not to live with a sense of guilt by delegating what I dreaded doing.  Instead I would explain it as the most important aspect of the ministry because it was completing our team.  I can see  how it is selfishness not to allow someone to do what they only can do.  The next step is courage to remedy it.

Courage is needed to delegate and do the right thing vs. doing things right.  But courage is much more important when it comes to organizational change.  I think it was Maxwell who said, “Growth is optional, change is inevitable!”  If change is going to happen then the key is to take the leadership of that change and make it strategic.  I like what Stanley says, “A leader is someone who has the courage to say publicly what everyone is thinking privately.”  It is the courage of David.  Not bubbles in a wind storm but clear thinking or attainable goal setting.  “We haven’t done it that way before” is a disease that will take a courageous leader to address.  There are some incredible opportunities that will be missed if the leader doesn’t conquer his fear.  I love the fact that money always follows vision.  However, it is easy for Stanley to say this being from Metro Atlanta where money abounds.  But still I agree with the premise.

Courage can abound in the life of the leader but certainty may not live in a parallel universe.  I struggle with teams or organizations that have to know exactly the steps to take before they move forward.  In the Christian life many often think, I have to grow to such a point before I can share the gospel.  This mentality will always cause an organization to remain status quo at best.  The real issue is no one has all knowledge so the fact is, even if a team is careful to do things right, circumstances might change exposing that the plans are in fact inadequate.  Paralysis sets in because having to have the right path limits creativity and flexibility and if success doesn’t happen discouragement sets in.  I have often described my movements in organizational leadership as equivalent to being in a dark room looking for the light switch.  If Stanley is promoting a maverick style of moving forward then I would raise caveats.  I think it is imperative to have all in your organization if not on the same line of a page at least on the same page and moving in the same direction.  And when leadership communicates, they do so with an aura of confidence with humility.  Not a lying pride that says they are totally in control when they are obviously not.

If pride is evident then coaching is going to be difficult to swallow or even find.  Most coaches would probably avoid a prideful person.  But the wisdom of a coach is absolutely necessary to a leader who thinks that they are in a good spot because they consider their abilities better than others around them.  My high school basketball coach was always on my back.  I asked him why even though I was the starting point guard.  He said, “Because I know you can do better than what you are doing and I care about making you better.”  That is what a coach does.  I love it and I need it.  I love the simple job description of a coach.  I have communicated it as more of a literal connection to what coaches do.  They don’t play.  That means if they are trying to do what those on their team should be doing under their leadership then the team will be harmed.  Coaches solve problems as they arise.  They don’t need to have a huge meeting, I call it coaching from door to door the door of the Church to the door of the car.  Respecting a teammates time is critical today.  Additional jobs of the coach are to cast vision, keep the team on the same page and recruit.  Recruitment is an all year long activity.  Any coach who doesn’t take this seriously is harming the future vitality of his team.

Competent, clear and courageous coaches will lack leadership credibility without having commensurate character.  I liked how most of what Stanley presented in this section was from secular surveys vs. religious surveys.  Character counts because character is what makes a leader respected.  A leader can move forward and make things happen out of natural ability but character makes his leadership last and believable.  Character is what proven leaders master.  They have understood that what was amazing at first becomes expected soon and they are OK with the extra challenge of moving forward.  They are not leading for the accolades for themselves but they want God to be honored and their team moved forward.  Stanley issues a sobering statement, “Your talent and giftedness as a leader have the potential to take you further than your character can sustain you.” That sure sobers me up.  I love what Robertson McQuilkin said in a pamphlet, “Lord let me get home before it gets dark.”  There is a dark side to leadership and Gary McIntosh and Samuel Rima have written a great book spotlighting this need to overcome our dark side.  We may be great leaders but we will be spiritually unfit to lead if we don’t have character.