The Rewards of Leadership

In every significant event, there has been a bold leader, an object or purpose, and an adversary.

Leadership is most often the means God chooses to fulfill his purpose. When God wants something done, he turns to an individual—Moses, Paul, Luther, Wilberforce, Moody, Mother Teresa—name them. Great things rarely get done by consensus. According to the organizational axiom, “Power is always personal.”

Interestingly, the persons God picks as leaders aren’t always the ones we would have picked. His leaders would not always have been elected. In a democracy, I doubt the apostle Paul would have made it. Leaders must be willing to be lonely.

Albert Schweitzer, for instance, gave up a prosperous musical, medical, and academic career in an affluent society to obey the verse of Scripture “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” He went to the Congo and spent the rest of his life developing a hospital at Lambaréné. Norman Cousins tells the story of visiting him, and as the canoe neared shore, Schweitzer waded out to meet him. Then he grabbed Cousins’s luggage and started carrying it up the hill. Cousins, much younger than Schweitzer, protested that he could carry his own bag.

Schweitzer turned and said, “Young man, in Lambaréné I am the leader, and I hope I will not find you difficult.”

Schweitzer, no doubt, faced days of loneliness. But leaders are sustained by knowing that they are part of something greater than themselves.

God works through leaders who accept the responsibility. Often leading is hard work, but it also awards some profound benefits. I often say, “If the president and the janitor drew the same pay, I’d still want to be the president.” What are some of these substantial benefits of being a leader?

Personal Development

One of the high points of the last couple of years for me was meeting with Ray Stedman and about fifteen top preachers in the United States to discuss how to encourage effective expository preaching.

During one lunch, I was moved most deeply. Stephen Olford said, “My brothers, I am weary of celebrity religion. I have had my share of recognition, but if when I die my family doesn’t say, ‘There was something of the Spirit of the Lord in that man,’ I have failed.” A solid, spontaneous amen rose around that table.

These leaders had developed the process that turns knowledge into wisdom. I realized again that the greatest leaders do not try to impress, but their commitment to the Lord and their leadership positions combines to develop maturity. Leadership requires maturity; it also helps to produce it. This is a reward of leadership.

For those who have the talent to lead, leadership is a great self-fulfillment. I don’t know of anything more frustrating than for such a person not to have the opportunity to lead. Can you imagine the frustration of a Rubenstein if he never touched a Steinway?

Leaders come to the satisfaction, if they’ve used their talents well, of knowing they have run the race, finished the course, and become what they ought to have become. They will be commended by the Lord as much for their character as their specific accomplishments.

Developing Persons

Beyond self-fulfillment, leadership offers a chance to see others fulfilled. Leaders help people see what they ought to be and accomplish what they ought to accomplish. This is why vision is so important. Leaders have that ability to see what others can’t see and to believe, before others believe, that it can be accomplished.

Many people differ in their evaluation of my friend Robert Schuller—but you have to admit he has supreme vision. You have to marvel that a young man preaching in a drive-in theater with a portable organ played by his wife could envision the Crystal Cathedral and raise it into reality. Without his leadership, it would never have happened. He gave people that great sense of accomplishment, of fulfillment, being part of something significant. Like baseball player Bobby Richardson once said, “When you put on those Yankee pinstripes, you play better.” In a sense, that’s what leadership does. It helps people accomplish what they would not have accomplished otherwise.

I will always be indebted to Maxey Jarman. He was my leader for the forty-three years I worked for him and with him. I’ll never lose the feeling of accomplishment, the valuable experiences, the lessons I learned from him. I am a better man, better equipped to help others, for the years I spent with him. That’s a normal feeling followers have toward a capable leader. I hope I’ve passed that experience on to those responsible to me.

Productive, Not Happy

I wrote myself a note the other day criticizing my compulsion to be productive. At my age, why can’t I just be happy with who I am, with no concern about my productivity?

As I was writing how much better it is to be happy than productive, however, I realized that’s impossible for a leader. Happiness and productivity are concomitant for a leader.

The more I thought about it, I saw that a desire to be happy and content with yourself is basically selfish. Perhaps not an evil selfishness, but certainly self-oriented. A desire to be productive, however, is not selfish. It is a desire to do something of value in which others share.

To me, much of the reward of leadership is simply the sense of being productive, producing something through others and for others that would not have been produced if the effort had not been expended.

By the time I finished my note, I had concluded, “Leaders would rather be productive than happy.” (Sometimes writing, like preaching, most affects the one doing it.)

Ironically, productivity is not the same as doing. Leaders are often most productive when they are not doing. Sometimes their most significant work is instilling vision and excitement in others, having thoughts worth passing on—which often happens best in seemingly casual settings.

Whenever I teach a class, for instance, I feel it’s my responsibility to communicate my availability to help people. I seldom say it directly, but the message gets across. I might slip in a comment such as “I had a wonderful time last week. Somebody called me, and we chatted for an hour over the phone about a decision he had to make.” Or, “I talked with a confused woman today who needed my ancient experience.” Well, those are invitations. Or perhaps I’ll mention a particular issue and say, “I’d love to explore this topic in depth with you sometime.”

Recently a doctor and his wife called and said, “Were you serious when you said you were willing to talk about this?”

“Yes I was,” I said. So they invited Mary Alice and me to their home for dinner.

When we got there, we were delighted to meet three other couples they’d asked to join the conversation. They all had notebooks and pencils, and we had a serious, productive discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Like the blessing of a teacher who comes across a genuine student, leaders sometimes find other individuals who share their passion. You don’t find many people like that, but when you do, it is a rich reward.

A Vicarious Thrill

Some leaders are visible and receive acclaim for their work. Often, however, leaders find their best reward within. Few leaders can stay motivated unless they’ve learned to appreciate the vicarious thrill of seeing others succeed.

Conversely, some of the greatest leaders I’ve known have also had friends who vicariously shared their accomplishment—those quiet people who pray fervently with Billy Graham. I heard about one man who came to see Mark Hatfield when he was governor of Oregon. The man said, “Governor, I haven’t anything to ask. I simply want to pray with you.” He got down beside the desk and prayed with the governor.

A worthy goal for an aging leader is to learn to give up the power, the day-to-day responsibility, and become a shepherd of shepherds. The point is not to usurp positions but to mentor younger people and simply say, “I’m available.” The task is not to impose advice (because advice imposed is not advice but an order), but to suggest options and help clarify the other person’s thinking.

I thoroughly enjoy working with younger people. I love to throw these young tigers some meat and watch them tear into it. I would imagine any leader must have that same sense of enjoying watching others develop and do well.

“God’s Person in God’s Place”

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, leaders are rewarded by knowing they are where God wants them … with a task great or small.

Mother Teresa leads in a quiet way. She is not overcome that she is making hardly a dent in the problem of poverty and suffering in India. She simply remains faithful. The hundreds she touches can’t compare to the thousands who are dying, but she isn’t discouraged. Her one candle is better than total darkness. She is fulfilling her calling.

Many years ago, my friend Torrey Johnson sent me his picture, inscribed with a message. I never felt I could hang it on my wall, but I occasionally get it out of the closet to read the inscription:

“To God’s man in God’s place.”

On rare occasions I’ve had the feeling I was God’s man in God’s place. That’s the greatest reward of leadership. Not that I have accomplished so much as a leader, but that what I have accomplished has sometimes been worthy and blessed by God.