How to Motivate Emerging Leaders to Grow
Healthy Leaders | Issue 65
Welcome back to Healthy Leaders! In this issue, we get motivated.
Hello friends,
In our last issue, we looked at key characteristics of thinking and acting that will help us identify high-potential emerging leaders.
Let’s say that you’ve found the right ones. Now what?
The first thing to look for when you are building leaders is opportunities to do it. It won’t happen in the classroom or the library. It will happen on the job, on the road, at home, and in the thick of suffering. It will happen throughout a life lived with the leaders you are building — just like it did when Jesus built His disciples. He looked for challenging assignments to give them, offered them opportunities, and gave them room to try and fail and try again.
But making use of the opportunities that present themselves is one side of the coin. How do we motivate the leaders we have identified to actually take those opportunities?
Here’s Malcolm with more:
It’s important at this stage, as we are seeking to motivate your emerging leaders toward growth, that we recognize the danger of zealous human ambition, and it’s power especially over gifted leaders.
Thomas Merton said this of such ambition:
We must be on our guard against a kind of blind and immature zeal — the zeal of the enthusiast or the zealot — which represents precisely a frantic compensation for the deeply personal qualities which are lacking to us. The zealot is man who “loses himself” in his cause in such a way that he can no longer “find himself” at all. Yet paradoxically this “loss” of himself is not the salutary self-forgetfulness commanded by Christ. It is rather an immersion in his own willfulness conceived of as the will of an abstract, non-personal force: the force of a project or program. (Seasons of Celebration)
A leader’s calling to lead must be tested, whatever their passion, gifting or abilities. It must be observed by and submitted to their community.
“It is only as the leader is genuinely accountable to his community and allows them to help mold and clarify his calling that he is assured of purity of vision. The calling of the leader must be birthed in Christ, purified in community and built upon fire-tested character.” (Malcolm Webber, from Healthy Leaders)
As you think about the emerging leaders that God has given you to build, please remember several important things.
1. Potential is not performance.
“Potential” is, by definition, “what you’re not … yet.”
If the emerging leader is already performing at a high level of thinking and acting, he or she doesn’t need any training, but should be put in charge of everything right now!
You must look for indicators of leadership calling — not perfection.
2. Potential is not willingness.
Someone may have a clear and profound calling as a leader but not be willing to embrace the cost of leadership. Pray for them that God will open their heart to His calling.
3. Potential is not readiness.
Someone may have both the calling and the willingness to be a leader, but is not currently ready to do it. There can be a variety of reasons for this. Don’t give up on them. Keep them involved at whatever level is currently possible and wait for a better time to call them to a higher commitment.
4. It will never be perfect!
Our goal is not perfection. Life and people are very complicated and messy. Remember that one of those that Jesus called did not work out well! This model gives us a clear path but it does not guarantee 100% success. Be willing to take a risk and then be prepared to adapt as you go.
What about you?
As you reflect on what we’ve talked about here, what is God saying to you now?
For those of you who are established leaders, considering who you are building now or identifying who you should build: what can you do to motivate your emerging leaders?
For those of you who are young leaders, seeking to follow the call that God has laid on your life: are you serving and submitting to your leaders and your community?
And if you aren’t building a leader yet… what’s stopping you?
We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Model Brief: LeaderID
Video Course: Transformational Thinking
For more resources, visit our website.
As always, we’re so grateful to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for helping us create these videos and for providing top-notch leader development online training. Check out what they’re doing!