Great Leaders Model A Style Of Continual Learning, Often Involving Those They Lead
In the first-generation Church of Jesus Christ, before the top leaders were Apostles, they were disciples of Jesus himself. They called Jesus Rabbi, Master, and Teacher. Consequently, they also chose for themselves individuals whom they would teach to do what they did, which was following what Jesus did. Jesus, the Greatest Leader to ever live, is a Teacher. Leaders today who are believers, disciples of Jesus Christ seeking to become more Christ-like, will also be teachers.
The better leader builds disciples who are leaders able to produce leaders, building a network of leadership that reaches every member of an organization, association, or cause. In that way, a leader is working with a small group of individuals, who work with other small groups of individuals, working with other small groups of individuals, until the last member of the affected body is in leadership seeking someone to lead. In the Church, that is the fringes of the vine branches found in the Vine, Jesus Christ. It is where the growth and fruitfulness occur while the structure holds them in place to produce for our King’s kingdom. Of course, the leader must produce also. But while the leader produces an abundant proportioned amount, it is nothing to compare with the amount produced by their team of leaders, who lead leaders, who lead leaders, seeking those to lead. If every leader is leading only ten people through the three levels just described, that production goes to 1,000+ fold on the average. Such is the value of leadership versus individual contribution.
While accountability, performance reviews, and stereotypical forms of modern management dictate the scene among today’s leaders, may I suggest to you there is a better way? Could it be these accepted forms of management are crippling the rapid advancement of industry and mission by their “guarantees” of success and duly disciplined lack of performance? Are those tools simply means whereby blame can be placed for the failures, and the successes can be calibrated by degree of accomplishment? Could it be these accepted norms of operations are an attempt to produce products by the masses without taking time to develop the leaders who can inspire them to reach greater heights? This is not to say accountability, performance reviews and management shouldn’t happen. It is to say, the best leaders do it through less regimented and more meaningful means than can be put on a piece of paper any uninspired, non-attached-in-relationship individual or team can follow. Please, please know, the laws of leadership are definite. They can be learned and applied by you and those you lead. But those laws are seldom if ever represented in the structures of typical performance reviews and accountability in modern management.
Since I am being critical here, I will admit I think there is a reason for this lack. I believe today’s appreciation has become more about the product than the process and more about the profit than the person. While the adage is “The end justifies the means”, it is immoral. *(See below for more). It is commonly understood, “The ends do not justify the means. Rather, the means dictate the ends.” Another reason today’s management tools are sometimes relied upon for leadership is leadership is intense, requires time, and calls for sacrifice by the leader. To avoid being a leader is to selfishly require others to learn what the leader has learned without the leader’s willingness to teach those following. The best leader is an even better follower. Time spent in developing one’s leadership produces more than regimented performance reviews has ever done. While that sacrifice of time and resources may seem enormous for another’s leadership development, it is really an investment that pays dividends beyond expectation.
In the accepted realms of religious society in the day of Jesus’ disciples, Jesus took a handful of less than gifted individuals, mostly those who had flunked out of the systems of higher education and had returned to trade schools to learn how to make a living, taught them outside the accepted norms of tradition, and instituted the Way of Life in Him that is carried on to this day and will endure into eternity. While those of that day insisting on tradition and regimentation became what Jesus described as, “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead…”, Jesus’ disciples turned the religious world upside down. At one point, as the new breed of leaders emerged, even though they had flunked out of the religious institution of the day, having followed the Greatest Leader to ever live, received acknowledgement from that establishment when those societally accepted leaders marveled at Jesus’ disciples’ boldness and “took note they had been with Jesus.”
The point being made here is not to be too critical of the status quo for accepted forms of modern management, for indeed, it produces a mediocrity of production accepted by the masses. Neither is it to call for rebelling against established management. It is to say one should model their leadership after a higher calling than the mediocrity of those who insist on application of safe traditional forms of management. Unfortunate as it is, oftentimes those tools secure those in leadership positions more than it improves the present for a better future. Yes, I am being critical here. I admit I am perplexed when we choose to embrace in Christian leadership norms that produce mediocrity more than excellence. As teaching leaders we pursue the celestial levels of production which our Master demonstrated and to which he has called his disciples to excel. There is an adage Albert Einstein is widely credited with saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Few if any would claim today the Church and its leaders are reaching the levels to which Christ called his disciples and Church to perform. But only the few will choose to abandon those norms in favor of reaching new heights through leadership development.
But enough of this criticism. It is almost a waste of time. The purpose of the above was to encourage you not to buy into norms that have demonstrated a failure to produce beyond the mediocrity of today’s culture, falling far short of the Master’s expectations. It is enough to work within the norms of the status quo and be great influencers for a better future for others. Learning from the mistakes of others is the cheapest price one can pay for any knowledge. Be thankful for others who make such mistakes, so you do not have to repeat them. As your influence grows you will make your contribution to a better future and better leaders for tomorrow.
It seems appropriate to give a certain nod to the adage, “those who do, do, and those who can’t, teach.” Perhaps that fits for some, but I doubt it. Truly, the teacher only teaches what he or she knows and invites others into the adventure of learning beyond present knowledge and wisdom. The adage is basically false and is most often used for comedy or by those who serve themselves rather than invest to develop those who come after them to become better at what they do than they can presently do. The Great Teacher proclaimed his disciples would do greater works. Becoming like our Master demands the same of us.
There is a unique style of teaching with great leaders. They are not teachers simply imparting information, skillsets for a craft, or bosses dictating assignments for the sake of the job at hand. To be sure, those things happen. But the best leaders are also on a quest with a chosen small set of sojourners with whom they want to share their knowledge, join in the quest for more knowledge, life experiences, and wisdom. Specifically, they want to share a grand vision of something better and challenge their associates to find loftier goals to achieving it. This usually involves sharing a deeper understanding of perspectives in leadership, knowing when to teach, what to teach and how to make it memorable. Most importantly, except for Jesus Christ, the best leaders know they have not yet truly mastered everything relevant for their realm of leadership and want to share their quest with those they are leading, so their disciples can reach higher levels than they could in their life. They want those they are leading to be able to not only reach new frontiers but to explore and develop those frontiers to find broadened frontiers for those they are leading. Even Jesus, as God the Son, displayed his humility stating he came not to do his own will but the will of God the Father who had sent him. We find Jesus continually seeking the Father’s input and sharing his experience with his disciples. The best leaders have a keen understanding of when, what, and how to teach.
When do the best leaders teach? Right where they are, in the moment of life and daily operations of whatever they are doing. It is important to note, leadership is not a mass-produced product. It requires shared experiences with individuals, one-on-one or in a small group. Indeed, great leadership will impact the masses of societies and processes. Yet, it is done through a small selected set of companions who are willing to receive the teacher’s knowledge and experience to this point and share in their teacher’s ever-increasing knowledge and experience. It is little wonder the wealth of development often comes from such a small sample of humanity for any given product, be it democracy in the Americas, to developments in the digital age in the Silicone Valley, to research centers for particular fields centered around a small group of committed people, to … . The requirement is someone with a dream, a vision, of something better and a small number of others willing to share that dream or vision, taking everything their leader has amassed and furthering it towards the ends only known through vision. Jesus, in modeling the when of teaching as a leader, illustrated his teaching with common everyday encounters as he and his disciples passed through their journey together.
One final point on when, the best leader may create the when if it doesn’t naturally arrive at the opportune moment. Jesus took his disciples into a region where no self-respecting Jew would pass. John understood later Jesus intention when he recorded in John chapter 4, he must needs go through Samaria. Of course, it was to share the good news of the Kingdom, but it was also to teach his disciples an important lesson.
If when a leader should teach is in the moment of opportunity during the regular course of life and experience, the next natural question is, what should the best leaders teach? When, what, and how are equally critical components of a leader’s teaching. But what is in the what of a leader’s teaching? Yes, it is a requirement to teach the skillset of the craft. Likewise, it is important to teach on a broad scale about things that might seem remotely related to the end-product desired. If one has somehow produced a fine product but has no context in which to appreciate that product, how does one know they have created the better product? Could it be the “fine product” is only the poorest solution available and if the context was understood there would be an insistence upon a more appropriate product? Broad-based knowledge is critical to becoming a better leader.
So, let’s explore together the what of what should be in a leader’s teaching besides the skillset of the craft which could be contained within some manuscript or training video. Which is more important, being emphatic or showing compassion? Which will most clearly represent the principles of the Master? Which is more important character development or plan execution? Which is more important profit or people? Which his more important compromising one for the other or determining the priority and insisting on their position in training, application, and execution? It is okay to set aside a principle or priority to accomplish a felt need? What would take this craft, trade, project, or association to the next level, to a better station than where it is right now?
Answers to the above questions and those like them are the what of what leaders should be teaching along with the norms expected of today’s management. It is sometimes in this area the teaching leader is still exploring and developing their own leadership and learn right along with their students.
I want to share with you two personal experiences when the leaders learned together. Once in a meeting of the Southwest District, SWD, Board in San Antonio in the fellowship hall of the Triple Trees Church of God (Seventh Day), the Executive Director or equivalent title, I forget the exact title at the time, from the Conference office had joined the meeting. Neither the District Superintendent nor any one of the Board Members knew exactly what should happen in a matter before them that required their attention. As the SWD Board discussed the topic, he exclaimed, “these men are self-educating”. Now, that can be a dangerous thing, if really no one knows what they are sharing and find themselves ill-advisedly traveling on a path to destruction. But he was saying, “these men are sharing the bits and pieces of knowledge they each possess so they can arrive at a conclusion better than any one of them could otherwise know to reach.” Learning from one another resulted in acquiring the information needed to make the best decision possible by that team.
In another setting, I was promoted promptly into a management position after working at a company for only a few weeks. It happened when the top management person was so severely injured, he could never work again and his staff, which had relied solely on his significant leadership, left the company because they did not know how to manage without him. Of necessity the owners promoted me into a position without adequate training and preparation. They were gracious to me allowing me to make many mistakes in the process of perfecting my craft in their service. Before that job, I had owned and operated my own enterprise from the age of 15 to 19 to pay for my education. Having just gotten married and with my wife and myself both still in school, I thought I needed to get a “real job” for security, not realizing how much less I would be bringing home to meet our needs. However, in that management position, not knowing so many of the essentials in the trade, without context for what was happening, and needing to perform at a level I had never before achieved, I really had no choice but to make the assignments to the employees without much instruction as to how to perform their tasks, many of the employees were the untrained replacements for those who had left the department. Then I would go with them on their assignments and evaluate how well what they did worked. If the employee was willing to tackle the task assigned, I never disciplined them for their performance. But, over time, we were able to put together the essentials of the skillset to master our craft. In the process, we discovered an improved process that changed the way the company did their business resulting in greater production and higher profits. The company was grateful, and we all prospered for many years. Now, more than 40 years later, the successors of that team are still modeling what that team put into practice and are continuing to improve the process and practices.
So, what do the best leaders teach their team other than the basics in the skillset of their craft? They find ways to share wisdom, priorities, character, vision, goals, and the diversity of individuals needs for motivation. The art of storytelling, parables, moral narratives are invaluable to the better leaders in accomplishing the what of their teaching. And, this practice is equally important in the how of the leader’s teaching.
How should the leader teach? In concise language, the how for the leader to teach is however it needs to be taught to make it memorable. Memory is a peculiar thing. Sometimes people think they do not remember something because they have too much on their mind. Such is not really the case. It is estimated we only use a fraction of our brains. It is believed the capacity to think and remember is much greater than the capacity we use. One of the reasons people struggle to remember something is they fail to build enough structure around the memory to make it memorable. Therefore, in teaching the leader can facilitate the team member’s ability to remember by packaging it in such a way the structure comes with the concept. Jesus used parables, object lessons, and shared experiences to the be Greatest Leader Teacher to ever live. Socrates used the sharp questions both to prompt his students learning experience and to discover knowledge and philosophy for himself. Do not be afraid to pose the difficult questions, even when you, as the leader, do not yet know the answer yourself. Learning to think critically and enjoy the revelation together with the team is monumental for the success of a teaching leader. The better leader will subject his team to situations regardless of successes and failures so they may learn to better lead the next generation. Even the failures need not be wasted, if something is learned from them that contributes to later successes.
If you have read this far, I know you are a committed disciple of learning leadership. I hope you are one of my team or a member of my team’s teams or of their teams. If you practice being a teaching leader and sharing the processes in building strong leadership teams through 10 individuals in your lifetime who follow your leadership perfectly also producing 10 leaders that produce 10 leaders for 7 generations of leaders, your leadership would impact about ten million people. Let’s look at that from another perspective. If you disciple one leader each year for ten years who does the same as you in developing leaders, unless you are already an older person or your life is cut short, you would be able to see the fruit that would exceed anyone’s expectation for a single person working through others. Neither model exists perfectly. The truth is leadership is a lifetime experience and every leader produces at a different level. Also, the truth is every teaching leader will impact many people over time. I want you to be that kind of a leader. I want to be that kind of a leader.
Someone will inevitably make the claim leadership as it is described above is merely another multilevel marketing scheme. I beg to differ, because the product is extremely different. In leadership the leader is teaching, sacrificing, and pouring their knowledge, experience, and wisdom into others so they can be an improved version of themselves, not just exercising a distribution system for some stable product. Leadership is dynamic. If you are wanting to be the greatest person who ever lived, leadership might not be for you. At least I hope you don’t reproduce yourself, if you are that person. If you are wanting to facilitate others to reach goals you can only see and never reach, welcome to leadership. You will get your disciples there as you share everything you know and are able to learn in their presence. Your leadership will not end with your last breath, as those you have taught continue the path you have helped them find. Being a leader, a teaching leader, especially for those you love, God, family, the Church, and sinners, is among the most fruitful and rewarding experiences among mankind.
*(“The ends justify the means.”, is a misquote that permeates into that immoral philosophy.
“A characteristic behavior in today’s society is the belief that the ends justifies the means. This means actions people take are justified regardless of how they go about achieving their desired end result. For example, some students I have taught justified lying on their resume because it could help them get a job.”
“In politics and government, lying and then justifying it through the ends vs. means philosophy of behavior is a favorite past time. You may recall that former Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, made a false statement to Congress when he responded to a question about whether the National Security Agency was collecting “any type of data at all” on millions of Americans by saying “No sir, and “not wittingly.” We all know that was a lie borne out of a belief the ends of collecting such data justified whatever means were necessary to get the data regardless if it tramples on our rights under the Fourth Amendment that protect us against unreasonable search and seizure.”
“The entire financial recession of 2008-2009 can be summed up as a group of investment bankers who sought to become millionaires by trading in subprime mortgages knowing the homeowner might never make the payments but not worrying about it since the bankers sold off those mortgages to third parties who then assumed the risk. This created a problem of moral hazard where the party that creates the achieved the desired end result by manipulating the means.”
“The statement that the ends justifies the means can be traced back to Niccolo Machiavelli. The closest he came to it was when he expressed his view in Chapter XVIII of The Prince:
“There is nothing more necessary to appear to have than this last quality (appearing to be religious), inasmuch as men judge generally more by the eye than by the hand, because it belongs to everybody to see you, to few to come in touch with you.”
“In this quote from Chapter 18 of The Prince about keeping faith, or being true to your word, Machiavelli is instructing a Prince on how to behave and how to keep up appearances. He says it’s very important to appear merciful, faithful, humane, upright, and religious. He also says that one must be prepared to act in a manner contrary to the appearance to keep up the appearance. This is because everyone can see what you appear to be, and only a few will get close enough to touch you and actually find out what happened.”
