How to Empower Your Top Leaders

INTRODUCTION

Dale Galloway said:

“Some leaders want to make followers, but I want to make them leaders. Not only do I want to make them leaders, but I want to make them leaders of leaders. And then leaders of leaders of leaders.”

The key to the success of an organization is in the potential of its leaders.

I.   This statement shows an understanding of a strong principle:

A.     The whole character of your ministry will be determined not by you but by the leadership you choose.

B.     What kind of Leaders are you raising up within your ministry?

C.     Are you equipping Leaders who will add to your ministry?

D.     Are you releasing them to truly make a difference in your ministry, or are you simply collecting Followers and making Money and posting numbers?

2 Timothy 2:2

² And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

II. PROPOSITION

As a Leader, your NUMBER ONE TASK IS TO:

·         RECOGNIZE the potential of your leaders.

·         Help them to REALIZE that potential.

·         Enable their RELEASE into that potential.

•         RESOURCE them in their potential.

Acts 18:26

²⁶ So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

III. FIVE KEYS TO EMPOWER YOUR LEADERS

But first:

•         Use this list to evaluate YOURSELF. Ask: “Am I doing all I can to EMPOWER MY PEOPLE?”

Then:

•         Use it as a GUIDE. To help you to create an environment for LEADERS to grow in your ministry.

Remember:

•         Studies in creativity suggest that the biggest single variable of whether or not people will be creative is whether or not they feel they HAVE PERMISSION.

A.      Key Number One: Value PROCESS more than EVENTS.

Acts 2:46-47

⁴⁶ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

1.      Understand that people cannot become leaders OVERNIGHT.

2.      “Only MUSHROOMS grow overnight.”  And they are often poisoned.

                        Many overnight leaders are poison,

3.      Leaders develop DAILY, not in a DAY.

· It is your job to PROVIDE GROWTH STEPS to RISING LEADERS for your people into self-development and GROWTH.

· Mark the GOALS and the PATHS clearly.

· MENTOR them as they progress from goal to goal.

· REWARD their progress with appropriate PRAISE and RECOGNITION.

B.    Key Number Two: Give your BEST to your BEST.

Matthew 17:1

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

“Spend 80% of your time and creative energy on 20% of your people.”

C.   Key Number Three: Understand your leaders and MEET THEIR NEEDS.

Mark 6:30, 31

³⁰ Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. ³¹ And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.

1.   All leaders have FIVE basic needs.

You can learn these by studying the person in your ORGANIZATION.

a.    They need SUCCESS OPPORTUNITY.

•   A real leader wants not POSITION, but POSSIBILITY.

•   A real leader wants not a full BARN but an empty FIELD and SEED for

 PLOWING, PLANTING, WATERING, and HARVESTING.

•   “The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he

BECOMES by it.”

b.      They need CLEAR EXPECTATIONS.

c.       They need REGULAR EVALUATIONS.

Real leaders WANT evaluation because they know that:

·   “We need not be TOMORROW what we are TODAY if we use our God-given POTENTIAL.”

·   “The POTENTIAL within us is LIMITLESS and largely UNTAPPED.”

d.      They need CONCERNED COACHING.

·         Real leaders don’t need to be NAGGED.

·         They are low MAINTENANCE and highly MOTIVATED

people.

e.       They need APPROPRIATE PRAISE.

·            “PRAISE is a spoonful of SUGAR that makes everything else taste good.”

·            Be GENEROUS, but SINCERE in your PRAISE.

2.Your most IMPORTANT job is to meet the NEEDS of your leaders.

D.   Key Number Four: EVALUATE their progress.

1.   In order to develop and empower a leader you must:

a.       Explain his opportunities for ADVANCEMENT.

b.      Lay out a clear PATH for his personal growth.

c.       Develop a fair means of regular ACCOUNTABILITY.

d.      Create a procedure to EVALUATE progress at least twice per year.

2. This evaluation must be:

a.       REGULAR: Not OFTEN, but REGULAR.

b.      FAIR: Performance-based.

c.       TRUE: Don’t pull any PUNCHES.

d.      BE KIND: Begin with the POSITIVE.

e.       HOPEFUL: If there is no hope for EFFECTIVENESS in the

relationship, then...

•         “You cannot operate out of SOUL; you must operate out of  

SPIRIT.”

•         “Many resist CHANGE, perhaps even fear it—but the best

 know that CHANGE brings opportunities, and they SEIZE them.”

E.    Key Number Five: PROMOTE when it is deserved.

1.      Franklin Roosevelt said:

“I discovered at an early age that most of the difference between AVERAGE   people and GREAT people can be explained in three words: AND THEN SOME.”

a.           Know who is going the SECOND MILE.

b.          Know who is INCARNATING your SPIRIT.                                   

c.     Know who is INFLUENCING others rightly.

d.    Know who is providing ANSWERS and not creating PROBLEMS.          

e.    REWARD the leaders in your ministry who are making a REAL DIFFERENCE.

If you don’t reward them, they will find someone else who will.

2.      Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without HELPING HIMSELF.”

CONCLUSION:

How TRUE that is!

FIVE KEYS TO EMPOWER YOUR LEADERS:

1.      Value PROCESS more than EVENTS.

2.      Give your BEST to your BEST.

3.      Understand and meet your leaders’ NEEDS.

4.       EVALUATE their progress.

5.       PROMOTE when it is deserved.