God’s kind of team leader. Luke chapter 22 from verse 24. There was also a vying between them about which of them was considered to be the greatest.
And he said to them, the kings of the nations are in control over them, and the ones who carry authority over them are called by fancy titles. But you should not be like this. Instead, the eldest in your group should become as though he’s the youngest.
And the top leader should become like someone who is serving others. I can still remember very clearly what it was like when I was finally ordained to the ministry and put in charge of a church. That was the ultimate goal, wasn’t it? To become a pastor.
Now, finally, I’d arrived and reached that goal. I was it. After years and years of waiting, of being held back, of not being allowed to do anything, of always being the nobody.
Finally, I rose up. They’d recognized my potential. They saw what a great preacher I was.
They saw what a wonderful leader I was, and they decided to put me in the ministry. They ordained me, and they gave me a church to pastor. Because I didn’t know at that time there was a church.
Nobody else wanted a pastor, so they gave it to me. And so there I was. I was the top dog.
I had the authority. I called the shots. Oh, isn’t it wonderful to finally get to that place of being the leader, of being the boss? But I realized pretty soon that I really didn’t understand people, especially those people.
Yeah, I thought I understood people, but they were another part of the country. They were another kind of people. Didn’t understand these people.
They were strange. They were different. And some of them were just a little bit too strong in their natural leadership capability to my liking.
In fact, truth be told, quite a few of them were better leaders than I had ever been. I felt threatened. Yeah, I was the big leader, but I was faking it.
And yeah, with these guys who were the strong leaders, supposedly looking up to me now as being the top leader here to lead them and give them direction. And actually most of the time I was probably needing direction from them. It’s not a good position to be in.
And when you do that, you tend to swing the pendulum. You try to become this big, strong leader to show everybody how capable you are. And really what you’re trying to do as much as you can is to hide all of your weaknesses so nobody will see it.
Now you can get away with that behind the pulpit. But when you’re amongst the people and you’ve got to minister to them, and you’ve got to lead them and give them direction, you can’t hide it anymore. Sooner or later, they find out that you’re not who you claim to be.
You’re not who they thought you were, and you’re definitely not who they hoped you’d be. They begin to start making comments like, well, perhaps it was a mistake for you to come here. Perhaps you’re not the person we were looking for.
And perhaps they were right. That’s the worst part of it. But you know what? I came with this great knowledge, with this great teaching ability, with this great preaching ability.
You know what? They just didn’t appreciate who I was. They really didn’t. You know, it’s not easy to be a team leader.
It’s not easy to be in charge of a group of people and to lead them together as one, to make them into a team that flows together as one. It doesn’t come naturally. You see, you can be a great big strong leader.
You can be very capable. You can go out there and conquer the world by yourself. But the moment you put people in the picture, it complicates things.
I could have been the greatest preacher ever lived. I could have stood up there and wowed the crowds. And they all walked home saying, wow, what a preacher.
Well, one of the ladies in my church, she didn’t pull any punches. She told it to me like it was. She said, I don’t want this to go to your head, but when you stand up and preach, it’s the best preaching I’ve ever heard in my life.
She said, but if I have a problem, I want to go to somebody who’s lived a little bit longer. So I’m not coming to you. Well, she boosted my ego on the one hand and then whopped it with pain on the other hand.
It made me feel good. She told me what a great preacher I was. Well, I knew that.
I knew that. She told me what a useless leader I was. I didn’t know that.
I started buying all the books on leadership. I didn’t find out what a leader is supposed to be. And every book that I read had the same effect.
It told me loud, clearly, you’re not a leader. Message came clear. I tried to find somebody to tell me how to become a leader.
And really the only way you can become a leader is to learn to lead. To do what I’m not capable of doing. To be who I know I’m not.
It was good to get alone and just be the leader in my mind again. But the moment the people were there, I was falling apart. See, I was a great leader as long as there wasn’t a team.
You know why I’ve been there? Okay, now I’d like to speak tonight about God’s kind of team leader. Okay, what is the best leader? And what is the best manager? Oh, two different words there. And they’re not the same thing.
And this is the first place that you need to understand that because you’re a leader doesn’t mean you’re a manager. You need to understand the difference. The two should go together, but they’re not the same thing.
So what is firstly, the best leader? I said it before, a leader is somebody who has a following. A leader is the person who goes out in the front and has others following. In Bible terms, the shepherd is the leader.
The shepherd goes ahead and leads the way and the sheep follow after. So the best leader is firstly somebody who gives a model, an image for others to follow. Now such a person won’t necessarily be a very good manager, but they create an image that other people want to follow.
And you see this in the world. People are looking for somebody who looks better than them, for somebody who has greater capability than them, for somebody who has greater ability, stronger character. In fact, we’re all looking for somebody who has what we don’t.
So the best leader is somebody who is confident in themselves, who has the image of, I know who I am, and I know where I’m going, and I know how to get there. Now whether that be true or not, it’s the impression that is created. This guy’s really got it together.
He might just be a very good actor, but people will still follow him. He may actually be really rotten inside, doesn’t care one little bit about the team or about anybody else in this world. He has only one goal in mind, and that’s to be the great I am.
To have everybody notice me, to have everybody look up to me and say, wow, isn’t he awesome? That’s the kind of person that people follow. You say, well, you know what, I’m very humble. I don’t think I’m that great.
You know, I’ve got a lot of weaknesses. And yeah, I’m really trying, I’m striving to do my best in life. And you know, we haven’t got there yet, but we try and we wait on the Lord.
We do our best. Anybody want to follow? Nobody’s following. Why? I’m being real, ain’t I? I’m being real.
I’m being honest. I’m opening my heart and saying, guys, you know what, I don’t have the greatest ability, but you know, if you’ll just come with me, we’ll work it out together. Who’s following? Nobody.
I’m not a leader. I’m a nice guy. I’m a great team member.
And people say, that’s great. Come and let us dominate you a little bit. Make us feel good.
Better still, come and be one of my team members and I’ll be the leader. People like to be a leader with a team that’s useless and weak. Have you ever noticed the big senior pastor in the big churches? Senior pastor, Louis D. Kraus, and all the other assistant cronies who are too useless to be leaders.
So I’ll give them all titles and call them assistant pastors. So they feel good about themselves, but none of them is ever a threat to me because they’re too useless. You’ve got to have a confidence and an image before you can be a leader.
You might have to fake it until you make it. You might just have to, because you can only fake it for so long, people eventually get to know you better. So don’t ever think you can continue to fake it.
Because sooner or later, it’s going to catch up with you. And you won’t be able to carry on doing it. But you must present an image of confidence.
You must present a model that people look at you and say, I want to be like that. You know, all the Hollywood actors and actresses, they got such an image. Everybody wants to be like them.
But if you met them in real life, you’d find that a lot of them are just insecure, weak little nobodies. But behind the camera, in front of the camera and on the screen, they can portray and act and try to pretend to be what they really aren’t. You look at this person and you see strong leadership, strong capability.
And then they interview the actor afterwards. And you find out he’s a weak little womp. And she’s totally insecure.
See, now we follow the person on the screen. They create an image. And that’s the image that we want to follow.
And we hold that person up in the limelight. And we revere them and think they’re just the greatest. We want to be just like that.
See, now a leader has to have that charisma. A leader has to have that quality. Otherwise, nobody’s going to follow.
You want to be a leader? Then you better stand up bold and take that image. You say, well, you know what? That’s just following my need for recognition. Perhaps it is.
Perhaps your motivation is totally wrong. And I’m not saying that we should have that inner motivation. But until you come to the place where you can stand up with that boldness, where you can be bold enough to take recognition, and you can become a great leader.
I’m not dealing with the motives yet. I’m dealing with exactly what a leader should be doing. A leader should inspire other people to follow.
You don’t just stand up there as the big leader. And you say, well, that’s it. I don’t need any of you.
Off I go. You do it in such a way that you say, well, I’m going to accomplish this. I’m going to do great things.
Just watch me. And everybody’s watching. And as you move off into the distance to do it, they’re walking with to keep watching.
And as you move, they’re walking behind you to keep watching. You see, you inspire them. They want to be there.
They want to check out everything you do. They want to see how you accomplish things. Because in their hearts, they say, wow, I wish I was that confident.
Man, I wish I was that kind of person. I wish I could lead like that. I wish I could create that charisma and image.
I wish I was only 5 foot 5. Now you’re gonna have to be a very good leader to inspire people. They don’t notice your height. They don’t notice your overweight.
It’s gonna take more than physical characteristics. It’s gonna take more than being a beauty queen. Everybody says, wow, I want to be like that.
You might just be a stupid blonde bimbo. You smile sweetly with dirty teeth. That’s not leadership.
Maybe an image. Leadership is when people want to follow you because you know where you’re going. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are people gonna follow you? Because if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re not gonna go.
And if you don’t go, there’s nobody to follow. So a leader must not only know where they’re going, they must go. Go do it.
And inspire people to want to follow and do the same thing and to follow after you in your footsteps. And then a good leader encourages other people to follow. It doesn’t come with this arrogant attitude that says, I’d rather you didn’t follow because I want all the glory.
I don’t need you in my shadow. See, a true leader is that confident in themselves that they’re never threatened by others rising up in leadership. They’re not afraid that somebody else is going to steal their limelight.
You cannot lead if you’re worried about somebody else taking your position. Say, I’m doing great until he’s there. I just wish he would disappear.
Then I could be the supreme leader here and everybody will continue to follow and think that I’m the greatest. But every time I’m just getting it right, he stands up there and does something better. Can’t stand the way she just steals the attention of the people, just when I finally got them in the palm of my hand.
You’re not a leader. You’re not a leader. The early eastern shepherds used to mix their flocks together and a shepherd will stand up and he’ll make a little noise and he’d walk and only his sheep would follow.
Because they knew the voice of the shepherd. They knew who their shepherd was and they followed him. What kind of leader are you? Are you inspiring people to follow you? Are you encouraging people to follow you? Are you drawing them in and motivating them to follow you? You say, well, I’m a leader.
I know I am, but I don’t have a following. Then you’re not a leader. You just think you’re a leader.
You’re deceived. You’re daydreaming, man. Go look in the mirror.
I’m such a good leader. I can’t understand why nobody wants to follow. I mean, I just got it right.
Can’t you see? I look like Hercules. You’re not a leader. Give it up.
Become a team member. Find somebody who knows how to lead and let them inspire you and follow them. Well, that might be a good way to leadership.
Might be a good start and we’ll deal with that shortly. Okay, that’s the best leader. What about the best manager? You say, what’s the difference between a leader and a manager? The difference between a leader and a manager is that a leader inspires and goes ahead and people follow after him and follow his model and adapt the model that he’s given.
A manager has to get his hands dirty and to get involved with the people. Now, to be a manager, you need to start at the bottom. To be a leader, you could start at the top.
You can have it all together. You can have confidence in yourself and your own ability. You can be highly educated and highly trained.
You can have something that you’re capable of doing and you inspire other people to come and take that from you and to follow you. And that’s great. But you see, the shepherd and his sheep are not a team.
They’re not a team. The shepherd leads on and you know what? If the sheep don’t follow, it’s the sheep’s loss. It doesn’t affect the shepherd.
He’s made a decision. He knows where he’s going and off he goes. But it’s got to go beyond that.
And yes, the good shepherd. The good shepherd is one who stops to look and see how the sheep are doing. And if one of them stumbles to go and look after them and the good shepherd now can become a manager.
But he doesn’t have to. He doesn’t have to. What are the characteristics of a good manager? Firstly, a good manager has a clear picture for the team as a whole.
He doesn’t think I’m going to do this. And some people can follow me and do it also. He thinks we are going to do this.
And I need every one of you to help accomplish this thing. Because the goal that I have is something that I cannot do by myself. I need every single one of you.
And when we accomplish this goal, we will accomplish it together. We will get the trophy together. It’s great to stand up there and take the trophy because you are the best tennis player or squash player or whatever.
You get the trophy by yourself. You can go there and get the trophy because you won the race. And there’s something special when the trophy is given to the team.
And somebody goes up there to receive it not on behalf of himself, but on behalf of the team. Now there’s many good leaders in this world. But very few of them are very good managers.
Because they lead out, they accomplish, they’re capable and everybody wants to be like them and everybody follows them. But they’re not team players. The manager is a team player.
The manager will not take one step forward unless every member of the team is following behind it. Now the manager has a clear picture for each team member. It’s not me and my mob.
It’s not me and all these little cronies that follow me. I love to have the group with me. It makes me feel so good about myself.
I love to have all these people just hanging out of my coattails, dropping off every word, just sitting there with their mouths open waiting for me to slap some food in. They’ll try to look after a whole bunch of babies together. Terrifying thought.
Some people enjoy that. Enjoy being the big mom or the big dad. See, the idea of having a team is that you want to reproduce yourself in that team.
And so you’ve got a clear goal for each member of the team. And what is the clear goal? To keep each of them from knowing as much as you do so that they’re never a threat, right? To keep them just ignorant enough that they could never usurp your authority. To keep them just weak enough that you can always be the top guy.
See, that’s not a manager. A manager wants each team member to attain their highest potential. And he has to look at each one and assess what their potential is and know very clearly the goal that he has for each one and what he wants them to accomplish.
And the ultimate goal is to make every one of them into everything that he is. That’s ultimate management. Oh, you don’t force anybody to.
And most of the time, many of the people that you’re managing will never ever aspire to become what you are. They’ll just sit there. You’ve seen these people that work for a company for 20, 30 years.
And they started on the lowest salary scale and they worked their way up year by year, year by year. 30 years of service here I have. And the manager’s looking for somebody to stand in his place when he goes on vacation.
Who’s he looking for? Well, all faithful there he’s been with us through the years, done his job faithfully. We’ll appoint him to be acting manager in my absence. Instead, the manager goes and takes that young guy who’s only been there a couple of years.
And he says, when I go on vacation, I’m putting you in charge. And here’s this old toppy here. Been with the company for 30 years.
It’s not fair. I’ve been faithful. I’ve served the whole time.
How come they didn’t appoint me to be a manager? You know what? After 30 years, you should know at least as much as the manager, even more. But you didn’t, did you? You’ve never been a team player. You’ve been a backseat driver.
You’ve been sitting there in the back, not wanting to get too involved, just sticking close enough to catch the droppings. So now who’s at fault? Who’s at fault? The manager or the employee? I think a bit of both. For me, if I see somebody as part of my team who doesn’t aspire to rise up and become like me, I’m seriously thinking of replacing that team member with somebody else.
See, that’s a good manager. A good manager is never afraid to have every single person rise up to his level. A good manager is not afraid to encourage and to compliment someone else.
Do you know what? I was really impressed the way you handled that situation. I don’t think I could have done it better myself. I just want to encourage you, continue, continue to rise up and be filled with confidence and to do just like you see me do.
Continue to do it. You’re doing great. I’m really just so happy with your progress.
The person thinks, yeah, I come to think of it, I did it pretty good, eh? I handled that one quite well. You know what? I should try harder. I should get better.
You’re not afraid as a team leader to bring others up, to lift them up, to encourage them, to tell them all the good things. But the manager is also not afraid to confront and to correct. You know what you did there? I don’t think I’ve seen anybody mess up that bad.
You know, it really sucks. As a member of this team, you’re a disappointment to me. You know, I expected more of you.
And I know you’re capable of more. Now wake up, man. Get it together.
Stop groveling around. Stand up and be a man. Put your shoulders back and act like you’re a woman.
We don’t want to hear that. You know, the manager just says nice things to everybody all the time. You know what their motivation is going to be? Just to make him happy.
Just to perform for him. Just to put on a big act that’ll make him happy. It’ll be like the two sons.
The one said, sure, dad, I’ll go into the field and work. We’ll make dad happy. And I’d rather have the son that says, I don’t feel like it today.
Then afterwards, get in there and do it. Rather have that person who’s honest enough about their feelings, but is faithful enough to get in there and do what they don’t feel like doing. There’s a time to compliment somebody.
There’s a time to encourage them and lift them up. And there’s a time to play and give them a kick in the pants. We all need a kick in the butt sometime.
Every one of us. I never think that you don’t. A good manager will keep you on your toes.
He’ll keep you motivated and he’ll keep you on your toes that you keep getting it right. He will make sure that you don’t sit down happy with what you’ve accomplished and not grow anymore. He’ll keep you growing.
He’ll keep pulling and pushing. And here’s a very important quality. The manager is not afraid to step in and do the lowest job that any team member carries out.
He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. You see, we always think the manager is the guy who gives all the orders there and makes everybody else do the dirty work. A manager should never require any of his team members to do anything that he is not prepared or capable of doing himself.
And actually a good starting point is for him to say, let me show you how to do it. This is how I do it. Now go ahead and you do the way you saw I did it.
That is why the best manager in a company is the guy who started out as the mail boy or the janitor who worked his way up through all the departments and now knows, he knows what every single person does. And you know what? If somebody were to drop dead tomorrow, he could actually step in there and do the job if it was necessary. If one of your team members is removed or is absent, who fills their gap? You should be able to do it instantly.
And you shouldn’t be afraid to do it. You shouldn’t be too proud to do it. This is showing the team.
You’re showing them an image. So you want to be a team leader? Do you know and are you prepared to do what every single team member does from the lowest to the highest? Are you prepared to do their job? If you’re not, you’re not qualified to be a manager. And so now we have the leader who is strong, who’s got the image, who inspires and we have the manager who takes the people and puts them together and coordinates them.
We’ve got to balance these two. There’s a time to just lead out, inspire people to follow and there’s a time to take people in your hands like clay and mold them and make them into something. You need to be ready to move out on your own.
That’s true leadership. The Bible says Jesus set his face as a flint and off he went like Elijah. And he was going out and Elijah wanted to follow.
So where are you going? Don’t worry, it’s got nothing to do with you. I’m going. I’m going Europe.
You can stay behind. I’m going there. You can stay behind.
See, that’s true leadership. Get out there and people will follow and you need to expect to be followed. You must expect to be followed.
People will follow you if you know who you are. And then you must make decisions for others. You must take responsibility for the lives of those in your team.
You must hold yourself responsible for their condition. And when they fail, don’t look at them saying you useless team member. I’m sorry I ever brought you into this team.
Look at yourself and say, you know what? I really failed miserably with you. I really messed it up badly. Stop looking at yourself and saying, where did I miss it with him? Where did I miss it with her? She’s not shaping up.
What did I do wrong? Hold yourself responsible. That’s good management and good leadership. And then put the pieces together into one picture.
Each person together makes up a part of the picture. Each person is important. And so you look at the team and you say, this is what we will accomplish in order for us to accomplish this.
I need you to do this. I need you to do that. I need you to cover that.
I need you to do this. And don’t ever think your little part is important. It’s not important.
It’s very important because without that, we’re not able to accomplish the full goal. Every person is important in the team. See, that’s good management.
Good leadership is I don’t need any of you. And if you want to drag your feet, I’m going to go do by myself. See, that’s a leader.
He’s got it together. He knows the vision. He knows who he is.
And actually he’s able to do the job of everybody anyway. But as a good manager, he gives each one the opportunity to be part of the picture. And then be prepared to sacrifice everything for your team.
Be ready to fill in for any team member. Be ready to take time to help each team member individually. And then, then this is so important.
Be ready to stand back and give each team member a chance to practice being leader. After you’ve shown them how to do it, stand back. So okay, you guys know how it should be working now.
You’ve all got your part. I’m taking the next week off. I expect the team to continue to function the way I’ve showed you.
And if the team fails gloriously, then you have failed as a manager. Well, they will fail. They just mustn’t fail gloriously.
They will take it so far then that, okay, okay, I can handle a bit, but I can’t be you. I can’t replace you. That’s good.
Just don’t ever forget that. One of the best ways that you can take that striving and vying out of a team member is to say, okay, big mouth, you’re in charge for the next week. Let’s see how you handle me.
Let’s see how you, let’s see how capable you are being me. It’s a very humbling experience. Some of you know this.
And then always be ready to hand over the reins to somebody else to take your place. So does that mean I’ve got to retire? No, it means you’re moving up higher. Because there’s probably another team now that you’ve been leading and you’re bringing two teams together and you are now the manager and leader of two teams.
And each of those two teams must each now have somebody coming from amongst the members who will rise up and take the place that you held. If you want to grow, build up a team and then hand the team over to one of the team members. And you will have a fight on your hands like you’ve never seen.
Why’d you give it to her? I thought I was more capable. I’ve been here for 30 years. You want to see whether you did the team right? Try doing that.
And if they fail, go back to the drawing board. It’s not time to hand over the reins yet. It’s not time.
The team are not ready. The team haven’t identified who amongst them is the most capable right now stepping into your shoes. The team are still vying for authority and recognition for themselves.
They’re not seeing it as us. They’re not seeing that we need to get it together. They’re seeing it as, well, it’s time he just dies so I can take over.
And you fail as a team leader. God’s kind of leader is one who shows the way and then gets out of the way. There’s no place for personal recognition.
The most successful leader is somebody who’s gotten themself out of the way. Your whole vision is the team, not me, but us. When you can get yourself out of the way, then you can become God’s kind of team.