Sheryll:
Two things really jump out at me on this:
1) We, as individuals, must never be satisfied with our level of leadership. We must continually be improving our skills. This can be done by reading books, attending seminars, online searches, connecting strategically with people who are better leaders than we are, watching people lead and learning both what to do and what not to do. I think we sometimes forget that the reason for being the best leader we can be is because lives hang in the balance every day. Our goal should always be to reach as many of those people as we can. In order to have continuing influence and connection with those who have developed their skills to the 10 level, we need to be a 10! Let’s go for it!
2) Don’t be intimidated by people who seem smarter. It is sometimes human nature to back away and even get jealous of those who may have skills we don’t think we have. Look for the best for your teams and allow them to use their gifts. Of course, we will always have people at lower levels of leadership skills and that’s perfectly okay. Our job is to put people where they are best suited to serve. But look for those who are 8, 9 or 10 levels and find out what their gifts are. Always encourage everyone on your team to develop their skills. Give them ideas for books to read, share leadership tips with them on a regular basis, celebrate with them when you catch them doing their job well, encourage them to attend ARC conferences with us, etc.
Excellence draws people!!! God loves people and wants to change their eternal destiny. That’s what this is all about. Let’s go for it! Never settle for what we are not-there is always more.
Tony:
This chapter highlights that great leaders are not born, they are made. No matter what level of leadership ability we see ourselves as having, we can always become stronger. It is so important to read, to listen to teaching, and to have mentors that continually move us forward. Hybels lets us know that when we settle for less than the best in our own leadership, we are negatively affecting the whole local church. With all the excellent materials available to us today there is no excuse for settling for less than an 8 to 10 level in our leadership. Maxwell says everything rises and falls on leadership. I don’t know if that is completely true, but I do know that when it comes to teams and those around us it is definitely true. CAML will only be its strongest and best when its leaders are focused on being the best and attracting the best. The best leader in the history of the world is Jesus and He lives inside of us. Be intentional about tapping into His leadership expertise.
Let’s hear your comments.
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"Excellence is a pursuit, not a destination" - this applies for leadership as well and I gather that's what Mr. Hybels is going for in this chapter. What I also got out of this was that we're not supposed to just place warm bodies in leadership positions and hope things will work out for good. We as leaders should always be growing and prayerfully consider the best place of leadership for those on our teams.
ReplyDeleteYAY - I BLOGGED.
The church (the organization Jesus started) deserves to be led by the best. Jesus’ great mission is worthy of great leaders (leaders willing to grow). The fact that Hybels communicates that it is never too late to improve one’s leadership skills is encouraging. Leaders should never give up on themselves or other leaders that are willing to grow. Chapter 8 challenged me to be more intentional about developing my leadership skills. Let’s step it up & inspire others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteThis makes perfect sense to me, the higher number you recruit the easier it is to develop a great leader. It also tells me that we can't become bogged down in our own leadership skills. So we need to do everything possible to become better leaders so we can produce great leaders. Maybe through this book we can all become a higher number.
ReplyDeletethis chapter not only inspires me to increase my leadership skills but it tells me that we should as leaders be trying just as hard to develop the skills of our fellow leaders, to invest as much in them as we do ourselfs. After all the more 10s we develop the more there are to recruit. Empowering ourselfs and others to lead in excellence, excepting only excellence (10s) as our model is one inportant tool we can all use to change the world!!
ReplyDeleteThe willingness to learn is something we as leaders must keep our eye on because sometimes the tendancy is to become complaisant and that will not help anyone grow including yourself. Submitting ourselves to learn more is a vital key to becoming a higher number leader and this will be influence your team. People will look to you as the leader and watch what you are doing/speaking/reading etc. As Jody mentioned in his comments this book will help all of us grow in our leadership skills.
ReplyDeleteWow, another great reason to read, listen and consistently sow into your laedership ability. It's all about influence. This principle reminds me of when Paul said "I am all things to all people". We as leaders always have the resposibility of developing those we lead, but some people already possess great leadership skills. This requires us to cast clear vision and to help them use those abilities to change the world. I think it's important to know the leadership level of those we lead, see their potential and help them reach higher.
ReplyDeleteMy way of thinking was really challenged by "HIRE TENS". This is what stood out to me the most:
ReplyDelete* The LONGEVITY of a dream can be determined by the leaders we recruit. So while we continue to grow in our own leadership, we should also seek to grow others in their leadership. Doing so strategically turns dreams into legacies.
I find it important to remember that the "TENs" we are looking to bring on board should be TALENT-PLUS people (citing Maxwell's book "Talent Is Never Enough"). Wouldn't it be great to have leaders who are 10's in their leadership and 10's in their talent?
However, we have seen talented people placed in leadership roles only to find that their ability to influence others was limited to their area of expertise. We have also seen good leaders who could have only been better had they possessed some skill comparable to those they lead. A 10 in talent does not equate to a 10 in leadership, nor vice versa. Still, sometimes the mission and resources demands you make a choice.
Final Thought: When looking for leaders to recruits and faced with a choice of 10's in TALENT or 10's in LEADERSHIP, I would probably lean towards the one who possessed leadership qualities. Why? Because real leaders will do what needs to be done to lead effectively. Including acquiring more skill.
The things that stood out most to me this chapter were that we need to make sure we get the right people in the right seats on the bus and that we should be continually investing in our own leadership. We need to look for high level leaders and place them in strategic "seats" in order to attract other high level leaders. I think a benefit of us continually investing in our leadership is that those around us are inspired to invest in themselves as well. That way, we are always growing ourselves and the teams' leadership ability.
ReplyDelete