Every pastor knows the feeling. You need to be at the hospital, in the study, and at home-at the same time. If I could just clone myself, we think. While that’s not yet an option, it is possible to multiply our effectiveness by finding and equipping others to take on leadership roles that we currently shoulder alone.
As a pastor for twenty-six years, John Maxwell has felt the frustration and joy of developing leaders. Last year, he resigned from Skyline Wesleyan Church in Lemon Grove, California, to develop leaders full-time through his institute, injoy, Inc. Maxwell’s books include Developing the Leader within You and Developing the Leaders around You; he also publishes a monthly tape series called INJOY Life Club.
Leadership assistant editor Ed Rowell and photographer Bill Youngblood spent an afternoon with Maxwell to learn more about the art of developing leaders.
What makes developing leaders so hard?
Maxwell: It’s tough from the start, because people willing to be developed are pretty scarce. When you do find them, they’re usually already overcommitted in other arenas of life.
On top of that, it’s tough to build a team with leaders. You can’t herd cats, and you can’t herd leaders. They are strong-willed and usually have their own agenda.
Then, if all this weren’t enough, strong leaders are hard to keep. They will be continually enticed with other opportunities that appear to be more exciting and meaningful.
How do you handle the pain of losing good leaders?
Investing in people is like investing in stocks. High risk can bring a huge return or a huge loss. The greatest leaders will help you the most but can also hurt you the most.
The best leader on my staff once took a hundred people and started a new church just a few blocks away. The way he did it crushed me.
Another staff member was accused of a moral failure. He told me he was innocent, and I defended him. I found out three months later that he had in fact committed sexual sin.
These weren’t leaders left from some previous administration. I had identified their potential and poured my life into them.
For months, I told myself, I’m never going to let staff get close to me again. They’ll never hurt me or lie to me again.
Then one day I realized, John, this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done. When we embrace people and pour our lives into them, they’ll sometimes hurt us. But the future of our ministry and our churches depends on developing others to lead.
When did you realize the importance of developing leaders?
In my first church. When I went to Hilliham, Indiana, you could count the people on one hand. Over several years, I worked night and day, and the church grew to over three hundred. I really thought I had done something, not realizing that my self-reliance would break me.
When I left that church, attendance dropped from three hundred to less than one hundred in just a few months. I realized I had failed. I had not prepared others to lead. I vowed, This will never happen again.
Tell about a time you saw a leader develop.
I think of Dan Reiland. While Dan was a member at Skyline, he felt called to ministry, and he went to seminary. He came back for a year of internship on our staff. Dan is smart, highly task-oriented, but also melancholic and non-relational.
His first week on the job, he walked right past me and seven or eight other people in the lobby. He never said hello or acknowledged our presence. With his briefcase in hand, face forward, he headed for his office, work on his mind. I thought, He didn’t even see us.
So I followed him into his office and said, “Dan, you just passed by your work.”
“What do you mean?”
“We were standing in the lobby, and you walked right by without speaking.”
“Man, I’d like to talk, but I’ve got work to do.”
“These people are our work, Dan,” I said. “We’re in the people business.”
What I love about Dan is that he saw a need to change, so he did. I began to teach people skills to him. After five years, this person who had few people skills became my executive pastor and did nothing but people development and oversight. He came with me to injoy, and he told me the other day that 140 people are coming to his house for Memorial Day. He has become the Pied Piper.
Why is it that not every leader develops that well?
It may have been my fault on many occasions. I liken it to an elevator ride, with the destination being the tenth floor. When we get to the third floor, some say, “This is my floor, I’m getting off.”
My tendency in the earlier years was to get off with them: “Let’s take some stairs. We don’t need to get on the elevator. Let’s go just a little bit higher.”
My wife, Margaret, finally said, “John, you have to let others determine what level they want to live on.” That wasn’t easy for me, because I think growth is life.
How do you approach a potential leader?
I’ve always asked them to become my prayer partner for at least a year. That gives us time to get to know each other’s hearts.
In addition, our board members at Skyline were asked to mentor a potential leader, their replacement, during the last of their three years in office.
On the front end of these relationships, we ask, “Are you willing to reproduce other leaders if I invest in developing you?” This perpetuates the culture of leadership development and weeds out people who probably wouldn’t have developed anyway.
How do you develop a person who has a heart for God but no leadership skills?
Provide on-the-job training. If people have the character qualifications, they just need to learn how to maximize their efforts. We worry too much about position and titles. I teach: “Wherever you’re working, whatever organization you serve, start adding value to people and begin to gain their respect. They will champion you.”
When you understand that leadership is influence instead of position, that changes everything. You don’t strive to be a leader; you strive to add value to people, and they’ll let you be the leader.
What do you do with the person who has great influence but little spiritual depth?
A gifted business leader once told me, “Monday through Saturday I’m challenged to the limit. I’m taking risks, I’m making deep commitments in my business. But when I go to church, I’m never challenged or asked to make deep commitments. I’m never asked to take a risk.”
That grieves me. Most churches have some wonderful leaders who are nominal spiritually because they’ve never been challenged. Yet it’s easier to bring people around spiritually than it is to raise them up in leadership.
People like that, though, must be developed on the side. They can’t be put immediately into leadership in the church; you never compromise the spiritual integrity of the congregation. I’d pour my life into such a leader by praying with him, teaching him to pray Scripture, getting him involved in some accountability group.
I also love to use a great leader as my adviser. I’ve asked business people, “You’re good at finances, so would you advise me?” As we relate, they get a heart for the things I have a heart for. Then, as they begin to show spiritual leadership, I put them over some project with a specific deadline-maybe looking for land for the church or planning a men’s retreat. Then I watch how they interact.
At what point would you ask that person to serve on a board or committee?
With many leaders, I never got them on boards and committees. They can’t operate within the confines of that kind of structure. That’s not their world.
What prevents pastors and high-octane lay leaders from connecting with each other?
The pastor looks at the leader and thinks, He’s got a company and a big budget. I have this little church and one part-time secretary. But the business person looks at the pastor’s world and thinks, He’s been to seminary. He knows Greek and Hebrew. I could never achieve that level of spirituality, that godly focus. So intimidation goes both ways.
Can a pastor who doesn’t feel like a strong leader develop others to be leaders?
Yes, if the pastor is secure in turning over leadership to others, and if the pastor is willing to develop also. Any pastor who recognizes the importance of leadership can develop his or her skills. I’d suggest pulling together the gifted leaders in your church and letting them recruit and develop potential leaders. But that requires tremendous security within the pastor.
How do you foster loyalty from the congregation’s leaders?
I prefer to talk about respect instead of loyalty, because you won’t be loyal to a person if you don’t respect her or him.
In my dad’s day, the pastor got loyalty because he was the pastor. These days, people will not be loyal to anyone unless they respect the person and know the leader respects them.
People give loyalty when they can say, “I’m a better person because of that leader.” As a leader, I’m always asking, How can I add value to the person I lead? I advise pastors not to go to a new church and ask, “Who’s going to help me?” Instead, look around, find out who the leaders are, and ask, “How can I add value to them?”
How, specifically, do you add value to someone’s life?
Part of it comes from asking people to be part of a great vision. Having a cause worth dying for is the greatest reason to live. That is enhanced when you treat people as your greatest asset. We all believe that when we meet people; it’s a little tougher to believe after we’ve worked with them a while and seen their weaknesses.
Adding value comes from listening to people. If I know their heart, then I know exactly where to add value. I develop the part of themselves they want to see developed, not what I happen to need at the time. This prevents me from using people.
Or I ask, “What is their unique contribution?” Then I equip people according to their gifts and desires.
Our new marketing manager for injoy is a young man named Kevin. Kevin brings some excellent skills from the business world. For the next several months, he’s traveling with me and getting to know my heart while I get to know his. I’m putting all the leadership material I can find in front of him, and he’s digesting it as quickly as I can provide it.
How can a pastor in a new church assess the existing leadership?
I don’t have a right to make changes in leadership until I’ve given the present leaders my best shot. I’ve had many people I would have written off after the first month who later became tremendous assets.
I urge pastors to give themselves six months to assess their leadership’s potential for personal growth. You play the hand you’ve been dealt. You’ll find some people have a lot of potential, some have little. With the first group, you pour yourself into them. With the other people, you figure out where their influence lies and identify other ways they could minister.
In my first church, one man was highly critical of me. I went to him and said, “I’m sorry if I’ve done something wrong.” I thought we’d hug and everything would be fine. I hugged him, but he didn’t hug me.
I didn’t confront him or initiate any kind of change, and the next week he was after me again. He was not the kind of person I needed on my leadership team.
How do you know how much power to give to various leaders?
The real question is, Am I ready to give up power? The only people who can empower others are people who can easily give up power. And I can give up power easily only when I realize there is an unlimited supply available to me.
If this is the only paper clip I think I’m ever going to have, I’m not going to give it to you; I need it. But if I know we’ve got 10,000 paper clips in the supply closet, I’m going to say, “Want a paper clip? Have a whole box.”
Are most strong leaders driven?
I don’t think so. There was a time when I was driven. I was too impatient, too goal-oriented. Today, I would say I’m a passionate leader. I think there’s a world of difference.
Drivenness is trying to prove something to someone, seeking approval for something. Drivenness focuses on the goal; passion savors the journey as much as the destination. Drivenness usually depends on the attention of others; passion has a spiritual nature to it. Driven people burn out. Passionate people never do.
Even passionate leaders tire, though. How do you deal with the inevitable fatigue of ministry?
For years I didn’t.
You just ignored it?
I used to think it was the price you paid for working for God. I no longer believe the most spiritual people build the biggest churches or work the hardest. Fatigue is no indication of spiritual maturity. My motivation for admitting and dealing with fatigue comes from knowing how vulnerable it makes me to sin and error.
In a relatively short period of time, several of this country’s most visible pastors stepped out of pastoral ministry: Ogilvie, Swindoll, Galloway, John Maxwell. Why did you leave Skyline?
Not long after I came to Skyline, I was in Jackson, Mississippi, leading a conference, and a guy said, “We wish you’d give us ongoing leadership training.”
I said, “Well, if I did a tape each month on leadership, how many of you would join the club?”
Thirty-seven people raised their hands. I wrote down their names and said, “Okay, I’ll go home and teach my staff. We’ll put it on tape. I’ll send it to you.”
That’s how the INJOY Life Club started. Dick Peterson, an IBM executive and member of our church, said, “I’ve got a heart for pastors. I’ll help.” He put a tape duplicator in his garage and a computer in his bedroom, and this thing just exploded.
About five years ago, one of my trustees sat down and said, “John, you’re going to have to make a choice.”
I said, “No I don’t. I love both the church and INJOY. I’ve got to do both.”
He said, “We support you, but we believe there’s going to be a time when you will have to choose.”
Four years later, I finished a conference in Cincinnati where over a thousand kids came forward to answer the call of full-time ministry. I sat down at the end of that service and thought, This is life. This is what I was born to do.
Going back to my hotel that night, I finally said, I can no longer do both.
I walked into the house when I got home and said, “Margaret, I can’t do both.”
She said, “Do you realize in the twenty-five years we’ve been married, I’ve never heard you say ‘I can’t do this’?”
I began to cry. “But, Margaret, I can’t do this. I have too much on me. I’m not good enough, fast enough, big enough, or smart enough.” For the rest of my life, I’ll be focused on multiplying leaders.
How has your philosophy of developing leaders changed over the years?
I used to think I could lead anybody. But I found out there are some people I can’t lead. Some people are unleadable.
I thought leadership meant I always came out on top. I had to win every issue. That’s a narrow view of leadership.
And I used to think anybody could be a leader if he really got committed. That’s pretty naive. There are a lot of people who don’t want to be a leader.
What is the role of prayer in developing leaders?
Everywhere I’ve served, I’ve prayed for God to send me leaders to build his church. For fourteen years, at least once every month or so, I’d meet someone visiting Skyline for the first time. We’d introduce ourselves. Then God would speak to me and say, John, there’s one. That was the most humbling thing in life because I didn’t do one thing to bring that person in.
After I resigned, I was with about seventy-five church leaders one night for a farewell dinner. I got up and said, “All my life I’ve prayed for leaders. Let me tell how God answered those prayers with you.”
Then I went around the room, telling each one about the time I met them, when God revealed, “There’s one.”
By the time I was done, we were all bawling. Someone said, “How could you remember meeting everyone in a church this size?”
I replied, “I don’t remember meeting every person. I remember meeting you because you were one of those people I prayed God would lead into my life.”
If you pray for leaders; if you have a heart to develop, lead, and empower people; if you’ve got a God-given vision, God will give according to your heart’s desires.
1996 by Christianity Today/LEADERSHIP, journal.
Last Updated: October 7, 1996
