Why is it that when it comes to leadership development, we give training to those leaders who have the most experience, or to the hi flyers and performers in our congregations and church organisations ? By their very character and performance these people are natural leaders and need this training the least.
Many church leaders choose only the best to lead their teams. This is great, but what about the rest?
As Church Leaders we make assumptions about people all the time. It is how we evaluate them, nurture and train them. It is part of what we do.
Here are some assumptions that we make when developing leaders:
1. Success is always the result of Effort. People succeed because they have a strong work ethic and therefore by this thinking people who don’t succeed do not work hard.
Here’s the thing. Sometimes rather than give the leadership development training to those that always succeed, why not offer it to everybody. It may just be the thing that helps ‘the rest’ to step up.
2. Past and Present Performance will always Predict future Performance. It is natural to always want to award those that succeed.
The problem here is that the hi flyer and high performer is successful at the level they are now, but may not perform to the high standards and complexity needed in another role. Rather there is a need to look at a person’s attributes other than their enthusiasm and passion for what they do. A better indicator would be to look to a person’s intellectual and emotional aptitude and their ability to learn new things.
3. Only Motivated leaders benefit from leadership development training. Only those deemed ready for training are selected.
In other words those that would benefit the most out of Leadership Training, those with the greatest need are often not chosen. One way of including ‘the rest’ and not just the best, is to choose both types of people.
Results based trainers at Harvard Business School found when analysing this, that those who were the best and ready for leadership development training saw only moderate growth in their abilities and performance. But those who were deemed not ready but in need of training, saw their abilities increase to be on a par with those that were ready and their personal performance levels increase by nearly two thirds.
What can we learn from this?
Churches can succeed develop and grow when they not only promote the enthusiastic and passionate high performers but those who would otherwise be considered ‘the average rest’
By broadening your leadership development training to include everyone, you protect yourselves against future resignations and those who will leave you to go to what they think is a greener pasture.
You never know you may find a diamond in the rough.