Go make leaders!
Preface: This is part of my 10 part series, where I deal with one principle per story. The entire series is based on my book titled, “10 Pragmatic Leadership Principles from the Bible”.
I am who I am today because of the exemplary leaders I had the opportunity to work with. I have learned valuable lessons that I strive hard to reciprocate in challenging situations. There have been circumstances when I thought to myself, “What would my particular leader do?” It has inadvertently opened a lot of avenues and the inspiration to tackle the crisis.
One notable lesson was a discussion with one of my bosses when we planned to expand the team. My boss told me their strategy was to hire people smarter than them. By employing smart people, the team wins, which in turn a success for the leader. It’s a win-win situation. I had always followed this principle in my hiring strategy.
“Leaders do not look at their team members’ smartness as a threat, instead they use it for their success”
There is not a better exemplar in the Bible than Jesus himself, who excelled in this quality. He was an impeccable leader — very pragmatic, forthright, efficient, and miraculous. In fact, he did not have the need for a team to support him since Jesus had complete backing from God the Father himself. The Father-Son duo was already almighty and powerful enough, and yet Jesus chose to build a team. He meticulously gathered a team who were called the ‘disciples of Jesus’. The heart of Jesus’ mission on earth was to go and make disciples. According to Jesus, it is the duty of every disciple to make more disciples, which results in producing more leaders. What a noble goal!
There is an old Indian saying that goes something like this — a teacher usually does not teach everything they know to their students. They purposefully do this, so the students never outsmart them, or in other words, the leader always stays a step higher than the rest. But Jesus, on the other hand, had a precisely opposite approach to this. He insisted on creating more leaders. In his parting words as recorded in Mathew often regarded as the “Great Commission”, Jesus says,
Mathew 28:19–20 — 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus instructed his disciples to make more leaders, so we generate more and more leaders. There are so many reasons why a leader should focus on making more leaders.
1. The concept of a ‘co-pilot
Leadership is a gratifying experience, especially if the leader has a history of accomplishments. The path of a leader’s success is a rather rough one and comes to succeed with things built brick by brick. They know the pain they had to endure to get to the state they are in. All of the hard work and struggle was not only to savor the success but also to make sure the hard-earned triumph is sustained and passed on. There is no point in building a successful team only to leave it to incompetent hands who might destroy all the effort. I have witnessed this on many occasions where competent leaders had to leave for situations beyond their control, which resulted in incapable people taking over and ruining the entire purpose.
“It is a failure of leadership if the team crumbles after the leader exits”
This simply means the leader, though successful in building the team, has not invested in building successful leaders. Leaders should always have a succession plan in mind, and appropriate successors identified and nurtured so that there is enough backup to sail the ship in the event of a leadership crisis. This is exactly the reason why we have a vice president, co-pilot, and second in commands. They are capable people who can not only substitute a leader in their absence but can also succeed and carry forward the legacy.
In the Bible, Jesus chose 12 disciples to build his team, and in that, had a second-in-command leadership team with his close associates — Peter, James, and John. These second-in-commands had their own load of weaknesses and were not capable as Jesus himself, but Jesus took the time to nurture them along to become adept leaders. The results are so evident that after Jesus’ ascension, the leadership team took the good news to every corner of the world, primarily through developing more leaders. The growth of Christianity through the centuries could be accredited to this one quality of making disciples, which can be legitimately translated to making more leaders.
2. Identify leaders and spread your load
A leader is forever on the lookout for effective leaders. When I interview people for an open position in my team, I usually evaluate the person’s caliber to lead, even though leadership may not be a requirement for that particular role.
“You do not have to be in a position of leadership to lead. A leader is a leader at all times”
There is an interesting anecdote in Moses’s life that taught him why he would need to develop more leaders. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, went over to meet Moses in the wilderness, where he served as a judge to the people of Israel. Jethro observed that when Moses sat to judge, there was a long line of people waiting to talk to him from morning till evening. Both Moses and the people waiting were stressed as a result of this. Witnessing this, Jethro took Moses and gave him a little father-in-law to son-in-law advice.
Exodus 18:17–2217 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people — men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain — and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.
In a nutshell, Jethro advised Moses to pick other capable leaders to assist him and spread the load, so the people and Moses himself do not have to go through long days. Moses, like any obedient son-in-law, took the advice of his father-in-law and divided his work with the chosen leaders. He also strategized in such a way that the leaders brought only difficult cases to him, whereas they were able to handle and solve the rest in their capacity.
Jesus excelled in this. He went out and found the most inappropriate and incapable team members in whom he saw hope. He did not succeed completely in his choice, but the ones who made it, made it big. He patiently nurtured each of them to work on their incapabilities until they became strong and courageous leaders.
3. Do not scorn their shortcomings
I have observed a common perception among everyone that leaders are superhumans, which I wish was true. They are thought of as people with immunity to anxiety, shortcomings, etc. Well, we all beg to differ, don’t we? Leaders are normal humans with extraordinary responsibilities that require a lot of caliber to hold oneself accountable and deliver. A leader evolves by learning from mistakes. They hone themselves based on the advice and even criticism thrown at them. When Jesus chose his bunch, he knew he had work to do. They were all over the place, but that did not dither Jesus from patiently molding them into finer vessels.
In one of the teams I led, there was a very committed person I had the confidence that they can work without much hand-holding since they rose up to situations and handled crises gracefully. Though a budding leader, this person lacked on the communication front. They usually spoke in a manner that did not strike a chord with the others in the team. The team knew I always had this person as a potential successor but was equally concerned about their lack of communication. This is one of the scenarios when a leader should rise up to nurture, handhold, and help them progress.
I routinely mentored this person to strengthen their articulation skills. I added communication as an objective to their yearly performance tracker. I approved a budget for a communication seminar for the team to learn from the industry experts. In some time, there was a visible improvement, and my confidence in that person increased considerably. This was a leader in the making.
“Identify and nurture leaders. Foresee a future leader in them”
Simon Peter, nicknamed the “antsy” one, was a handful for Jesus. Their first encounter was when Jesus saw Peter and his brother Andrew fishing. When Jesus said, “Come, follow me”, they both immediately left their nets and followed Jesus.
Mathew 4:18–20 — 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
Peter was not perfect at first, and yet his leader did not scorn him; instead, he worked on him to make a better leader out of him. Here is an account of his shortcomings and how apostle Peter, who started off poorly, evolved into a great leader.
a. Impulsive Peter — Known for his impulsiveness, Peter once tried to get smart with Jesus by rebuking him for speaking to the disciples about his death. He for once thought he had matured sufficiently to advise Jesus what to talk and what not to. But Jesus had a specific intention in mind and Peter was interfering because of his impulsiveness.
Mark 8:31–33 — 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Jesus rebuked him by saying, “Get behind me, Satan!” since he interrupted the hearty one-to-one conversation with the disciples. Peter, like everyone, was confused and in disagreement with Jesus’ prediction of his death. While the rest decided not to speak but listen, Peter couldn’t control and thus fell victim to Jesus’ admonishment.
b. Peter the betrayer — Infamously known for his failure to stick up to his conscience, Peter betrayed Jesus, not once but three times just as Jesus predicted. He was scared for his life and feared he would also be arrested and crucified if he admitted his allegiance to Jesus.
Luke 22:60 — Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.
c. Peter the ear-chopper — At the garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was being arrested, Peter drew his sword and severed the ear of the high priest’s servant, Malchus. He did not even think how his action was going to rescue everyone from the prevailing situation. What good is it going to serve by injuring the high priest’s servant? He wasn’t mature enough to comprehend a better solution. In spite of being around Jesus and incessantly listening to his message of love and compassion, when faced with a crisis, his immediate reaction was violence.
John 18:10 — Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)
d. Peter the discriminator — In the vision of the reptiles from heaven, God gave a revelation about his appreciation of his love for all humanity irrespective of race and color. Peter, who led the initiative of establishing the first Church, even after the filling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, displayed hypocrisy concerning the non-Jews. Peter had to go through this experience to discern that even the Gentiles are part of God’s grand plan. Paul in his letter to the Galatians, despised Peter for his discriminatory attitude.
Galatians 2:12 — When he (Peter) first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision.
God taught Peter to not resent anyone based on their origins but to love all of them unconditionally. Peter, after his experience with Cornelius, seemed to have understood the non-partisan love of God.
Acts 11:17 — So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?
Peter did not seem like a person worthy of Jesus’ calling, yet Jesus chose him, nurtured, and made a better leader out of him. Leaders, follow Christ’s model in molding a leader.
4. Trust and wait
This is possibly the most difficult and time-consuming of all. If you choose to train and nurture, the fruits aren’t going to be evident instantly. Patience is key. The longer the wait, the better the outcome is. It costs time to mold a seasoned leader.
Jesus tried his best during his three years with the disciples, and yet they weren’t completely ready when he left them. One betrayed, another disowned, another doubted, and the rest hid in fear. It took another 50 days for the holy spirit to empower them to take on the world.
Here are a few examples in the Bible about leaders chosen with a purpose and molded into a finer vessel.
Moses chose Joshua to lead after him.
Numbers 27:18 — So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him.
Paul chose Silas
Acts 15:40 — but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.
“As leaders, let us groom the leaders of the future”
Excerpt from: 10 Pragmatic Leadership Principles from the Bible available on Amazon
