Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wednesday's Wisdom: Developing the Leaders Around You

Last fall, Kristen and I were introduced to the materials of John C. Maxwell in an unusual way. We were at the Texas Home School Coalition Leadership Conference. On the beautiful campgrounds was a quaint prayer chapel drawing the spirit for some quiet times. The little white chapel with gazing windows and a steeple was nestled next to a pretty pond with gardens and a gazebo. Each of us got to spend some time there.

Within one of the corner rooms quietly lay a Maxwell Leadership Bible. We were both so excited to see the wealth of wisdom and knowledge in this green leather-bound book. We had just finished writing our book, One By One, and realized how Maxwell confirmed to us the viability of our experiences and writings. We then discovered Maxwell has so many resources for leaders and their success. Literally, there is a gold mine of truth within his books.

Today I would like to share a passage from one of Maxwell's books, Developing the Leaders Around You. We are asked at times how to help someone become a leader or take over a position, etc. This excerpt gives real-life steps to success in developing the leaders around you.

Easing people into delegation is important . . . if you want them to succeed.
Delegate according to the following steps:

  1. ask them to be fact finders only...
  2. ask them to make suggestions...
  3. ask them to implement one of their recommendations, but only after you give your approval...
  4. ask them to take action on their own, but to report the results immediately...
  5. give complete authority. This is the final step--what you've been working toward.

That little white chapel that weekend awakened a whole new appreciation within me and Kristen about what it means to lead homeschoolers every day and what an important job it is! You can find our recommendations to help you as a leader, including many John Maxwell books, available here.

May you have a lot of volunteers to develop into leaders,
Denise
http://www.homeschoolgroupleader.com/

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Very well stated and true. Thank you for reminding us of those tips to use in helping us find other leaders within our support group.

Beth said...

Thanks for the resource. I think sometimes we as leaders are too quick to jump to #3, or even #5, because we are just so desperate for HELP! And then we lose them because they are overwhelmed.