Your leadership toolbox

Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One Minute Manager, came home one day from elementary school thrilled; he had just been elected president of his seventh-grade class. His father, a retired admiral, said, “Son, it’s great that you are the president of the seventh grade. But now that you have the leadership position, don’t ever use it.” His dad continued, “Great leaders are followed because people respect them and like them, not because they have power.”¹

Is leadership about wielding power and authority, or is it more about building relationships and through them accomplishing a mission? Some people use positional authority; that is, they use the authority of their position to make people do things their way. Both biblical and modern leadership literature, however, strongly support interpersonal relational aspects of leading people.² More relational and interpersonal leadership can increase respect and cooperation, making possible the ultimate realization of a mission.

How do you move away from positional leadership to a more relational, interpersonal style? Effective leaders need different tools or styles to apply to different situations.

We’re suggesting four tools that leaders can use in facing difficult challenges. These tools have been shown to help leaders effectively mobilize people to move forward.³ The four tools are sharing a clear vision, coaching, working together, and affirming.

Becoming a servant

Relational leadership finds its base and power source in servanthood. Before we pick up leadership tools, we must first become servants. At first glance, servanthood and leadership may seem to be opposites. However, Jesus Christ demonstrated true servant leadership by His actions as He served others. His words to His emerging leadership core were, “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” (Luke 22:26, NIV). Jesus demonstrated servanthood in His incarnation, “but made himself nothing, taking the very nature [form] of a servant” (Phil. 2:7, NIV). And those who would be followers of Jesus Christ heed His word to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3, NIV).

Jesus’ constant practice of servant leadership led Him to pick up the basin and towel and serve His disciples. Modern studies confirm this approach. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, records his surprising findings about great companies and their top leaders. Collins found that leaders at the highest level, which he coined Level 5 Leaders, combine a deep sense of humility with unyielding determination.⁴ The attitude of humility continues as one of the hallmarks of great servant leaders.

Though few church leaders dispute the value of servant leadership, few practice it. Why? Apparently it is easier to talk about than to practice.

Sometimes people see leadership as just having and wielding authority, not as serving and carrying out a mission. Once they move into a position of power, they forget about service. But Jesus descended into greatness. He stepped down from His position in heaven, humbled Himself, and became the servant of all humanity.

Authentic servant leadership comes from our hearts. If we use servanthood as a slick manipulation tool, those served can eventually see through us and resent it. By spending time in quiet reflection, we can gain insight into our motivations, intentions, and the effects of our service. We can pray over these matters of the heart and ask the Spirit for the gift of servanthood so we can authentically live the paradox of servant leadership.

If you want to see servanthood spread across your congregation, you must model servanthood as a leader. Leadership must demonstrate the value of service. People need to hear, and even more to see, service as a core value. The more authority leaders have, the more they need to demonstrate service. People are pleasantly surprised with ademonstration of servant leadership. And in the Western world’s postmodern times, genuine service can counteract the general mood of distrust.

To help your leadership team become more service oriented, consider encouraging them to take a spiritual gifts inventory such as the one available at The Center for Creative Ministry.⁵ They can then seek feedback from each other and from trusted friends who know them well. They can try using these gifts and see what results occur. Are people edified and blessed?

As time goes by, you can encourage people on your team to see the needs right before their eyes. They will soon start seeing for themselves places where they can serve. With the demonstration of the value of servanthood, more people want to become involved. The pastor cannot do it all, but with the heart of a servant he can model servanthood and encourage a culture of servanthood, thereby inspiring others to do the same. This can be a relief to pastors who may be trying to do it all themselves!

Four tools for servant leaders

Once we have the heart of a servant, we can reach for the tools we need to apply to different leadership situations.

The first leadership tool: sharing a clear vision. Why is vision so deeply moving to people? Truth be told, we’re all dreamers. And a clear vision releases the dreamer in us. Sharing a vision tells the congregation that we’re not staying here, but rather we are moving forward with purpose and intent.

Remember the classical biblical statement, “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Prov. 29:18, KJV)? Conversely, we could say, “Where there is vision, people thrive.” A first step in becoming a vision-driven congregation includes drafting a simple and concise vision statement. God shared a vision with Moses: “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exod. 3:10, NIV). Consider the simple vision God gave to Gideon: “ ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand’ ” (Judges 6:14, NIV). Notice that these vision statements are short, concise, and action-oriented.

The vision-driven church repeatedly communicates its vision. John Kotter, a leading authority on leadership, suggests that most visions are drastically under-communicated.6 Remember, you’re not the only one communicating vision. We are bombarded daily with attractive television, radio, and Internet visions. Wise leaders choose a simple vision statement and constantly keep it before their people.

Recently, while Dr. Schaller was consulting on leadership development for a major airlines, a director boldly said, “Of course our team’s vision is clear and everyone understands it!” It so happened, however, that three of his managers sat at his table. They looked at him and at one another with a puzzled look and said, “The vision may be clear in your head, but we don’t have a clue what you’re talking about!” Managers in other organizations, as well as church leaders, confirm that this response is typical.

Is your vision statement clear? Does your church understand it? Is the vision so simple and memorable that everyone can spell it out? Does the vision evoke energy and passion in you and others? Maybe it’s time to dream again!

The second leadership tool: becoming a coach. The importance of coaching is well-accepted outside the church community. For example, the sports world grasps the importance of coaching. From baseball to soccer, sports players are coached. Even children in peewee baseball receive coaching to develop their talent.

Although personal coaching is a new concept to twenty-first century churches, the New Testament church includes many examples of effective coaching. Consider Barnabas, the son of encouragement. Barnabas who came alongside the infant Christian Paul. He personally coached him to become extremely useful to God and God’s purposes.

What is personal coaching? First, as a coach, you come alongside a person to help by asking a few questions and listening carefully. Second, as a coach, you come alongside another person and inquire about their next steps of action.⁷

As a coach, you develop a relationship of trust that helps the person being coached feel free to discuss personal and ministry issues. You always remember that the agenda of the other person is of primary importance. Coaching isn’t about the coach; it’s about developing the person you are coaching. You listen and sparsely give input. For many pastors, this can be difficult, for pastors often listen and give suggestions and solutions. This creates dependency. However, the creation of accountability includes coaches drawing input from other people through the questions they ask.

While coaching someone else, you should ask them what they want to accomplish in their ministry. Then you can ask them what they think are the one or two next steps they can take toward their goal.

Every coach can also benefit from having a personal coach. Receiving coaching is extremely beneficial. Some of the benefits include setting aside time to reflect on and discuss ministry issues, gain perspective, and form practical action steps. This helps the coach to, in turn, more effectively coach others.

The third leadership tool: working together with people. When people work together, they co-labor together as a team. Working together allows you to gain the insights and perspectives of others, but only if they feel it’s safe to share them. Such dialogue will increase if you welcome, affirm, and guard the input of others.

For people to feel they can speak freely, a situation must be created that fosters true listening, respect, and suspension of judgmental behavior.⁸

When you invite people who are working together to give their input, their level of commitment generally increases. The more they work together, the more they have a stake in the mission or issue, and the likelihood of them following through increases. People’s resistance to new ideas often decreases as they contribute to the process because they are a part of it.

The advantage of working together includes tapping the collective brainpower of the group. You listen to multiple viewpoints and perspectives instead of just your own. Solomon said, “Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22, NASB).

To successfully work together, a pastor might need to release more control and seek the viewpoints of others. The leader may need to become more vulnerable and humbly say, “I don’t have all the answers, and I need, and our group needs, everyone’s input.”

For a group to work together, it must respect each member’s viewpoints and encourage everyone to share. Someone must facilitate meetings so the group can hear both the dominant and the less dominant members.

With good leadership, people are more motivated to buy into joint decisions, the quality of decisions significantly rises, and people leave meetings with a greater desire to contribute. Might working together make your leadership team more effective?

The fourth leadership tool: affirmation. Affirmation calls out the best in other people by highlighting the positive. Affirmation can be defined as catching people making a contribution and giving them positive feedback.

Yes, to some degree it’s a risk on a leader’s part to step out and express appreciation. People can misunderstand or reject affirmation, especially if they are not used to receiving it. But the risk is certainly worth it when you consider what appreciation can do in people’s lives. Affirming feedback signals people that they’re on the right track. Affirmation and its twin, encouragement, are the two arms that lift up people. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:25, NIV). Clearly, the need for gathering to encourage each other will only increase as the Advent draws near.

When you see something you admire in someone else, express appreciation! You can write your appreciation on a card and mail it. You might gather a small group together and ask them to spend a couple of minutes telling one member of the group what they appreciate about him or her. Then do the same for another member. Or, why not have people stand before the congregation so you can affirm the person or group, and then have the congregation say in unison, “We commend your service.” Why not give a small gift to express your appreciation? Leaders can greatly leverage their influence by learning to express positive and uplifting affirmation.

While working in college as a hospital orderly, I witnessed an encouraging leader and the effect he had on people. A nurse was struggling, trying to perform a procedure on a patient. Finally the patient’s doctor entered the room—full of nurses and staff. The tension was high. What I saw next as I stood by the door left a mark on my life. The doctor quickly performed the procedure and then turned and personally expressed appreciation to every person packed into the room. Before leaving, he even thanked me—an orderly—at the door. Then the doctor disappeared down the hall and was gone. I saw the mood of the whole room change; people were uplifted by the simple expression of appreciation. It was a defining moment for me, for I saw firsthand the impact that words of encouragement have on people.

Applying skills to specific situations

You need each of these four leadership tools at different times. It doesn’t work well to pick one or two favorites and ignore the others. With all four tools in your toolbox, you can apply the appropriate one for each situation. Through experience and awareness, you develop the judgment to determine what tools you should use in each situation.

In the twenty-first century an urgent cry for spiritual leadership exists. You can answer that cry by using these four leadership tools. Remember, great leaders are followed, not because of the position they hold, but because people respect them. By building relationships and trust, you can help your group move forward and realize its ultimate mission.