MONSTERS
While every leader would love to have a team of champions, most do not because of the humbling task it is to lead those types of people.
A leader will swing between the selfish desire to have their team tight and right beside them, while simultaneously desiring to release each one into a full and healthy expression of their potential.
The truth is great leaders have teams full of people who are smarter and more capable than they are.
So you have to ask, “Why would someone of that calibre want to follow me?” Unless you are narcissistic, you will admit that this is a confronting and challenging question.
“What reasons am I giving them to run alongside me?”
To have people on team who exceed your abilities means that you have to create space for them. You have to welcome their diversity, their insight and their ideas. A great leader will create a platform, a profile, and a spotlight then share it willingly with those who are greater, while maintaining personal confidence as the leader of the team.
the sign of a true leader is if they can celebrate someone greater than themselves.
When I have giants on my team, I know they will push me. Their capacity will stretch mine. Their mindsets will challenge mine. They will set a new bar for standard and norm within the whole team. When this stretch is created a void appears that draws the rest upwards. I expect my team to be the best they can be, and I know that this causes us all to grow together.
It is easier to lead people just like myself. It is easier to fall into my defaults and run with people who “get me”… And… wait for it… It suits me to have a team who stroke my ego and agree with my every move. But seriously, how gross does that end up being?! And what legacy is that going to leave behind?
Nope! Not me! I want to grow myself and I want to create champions.
I want to be surrounded with mighty men and women who choose to join arms with me rather than blindly toe the line.
I’m not condoning obnoxious behaviour among team members. No matter how talented a person may very well be, no single person should behave as though they are “God’s gift”. Furthermore, a well decorated soldier always honours authority, so any person who disrespectfully usurps that authority is quite simply a rookie, no matter how many certificates hang on the wall.
I am however saying that the most influential people are probably waiting in the wings, observing and quietly supporting the cause. They are often not approached or invited for reasons such as intimidation, pride, erroneous assumptions about their time or willingness and a gamut of other things.
They are spiritual monsters, with hearts of gold and swift hands.
But they remain outside the team because the leader doesn’t know how to lead them.
This has practical ramifications, because these types of people have their own personal callings. They are living full lives and making an impact in the world. Here in lies the tension. I’ve found that often they may not be “too busy” or disinterested, they may just be waiting on a vision big enough to include them, and a leader confident enough to draw them in while maintaining an open and releasing hand.
Life is always better lived with an open and releasing hand than a closed and controlling fist.
A great leader will seek out giants, as well as committing to create them; and creating giants is a whole other thing altogether. To see the raw potential in someone and lead them boldly into their own greatness is a miraculous work in itself.
It sounds noble and inspiring, but what happens when they arrive? What happens when their wings are strong enough and they are ready to soar into the wide blue yonder? When your humanity wants to take credit for who they have become and you want to clip their wings so they’ll stay beside you?
Can you, in that moment, be the one who flicks on the neon sign that has their name up in lights?
Can you celebrate their greatness, or does intimidation close your fist?
It takes a remarkable stoic heart to create champions and release them into their calling. David attracted some of the rawest crew imaginable when he was exiled (by a King who couldn’t lead or celebrate great men). These guys were thugs and criminals who rallied around a quiet but strong David in the wilderness. He was not after position or title; he just invested heart and soul into the motley crew around him. They were later listed and named in 2 Samuel 23 as “David’s Mighty Men”.
These guys were recorded for their many plights in defending God’s people. They went from being social outcasts to heroes. Their names recorded and their deeds celebrated.
A team of giant-slayers must be trained, believed in and released.
David could conquer his quota, but the synergistic affects of 30 other giant-slaying warriors were exactly what the nation needed and David knew that.
The best leader will want to be outdone by those they are training. It was our own Jesus who said that we would do even greater things than He did (John 14:12) after He was gone.
The big picture is greater than the role we each individually play.
A great leader will not rest till they see their team members meet their potential, and will remind each one that the cause is what unites their individual callings.
If you are leading a team, can I politely ask you:
Are you the biggest person in your world?
Who are you attracting and who are you developing?
If you are waiting in the shadows can I ask you as someone who would appreciate it myself:
Are you giving your expertise to the Cause?
Is there someone you should meet with to offer your support?
