If you want to unlock the full potential of your organization and build a strong foundation for growth, then you must prioritize leadership development.
But where do you start?
Here are four thoughts and a free resource you can take advantage of today!
First, you have to do the work of creating a culture of leadership development. Reshaping the culture requires changing the way you talk about development. Leadership development is less about a program and more about the person. If you strive to grow great people, you will grow a great organization. But you’ll never have an authentic leadership development culture if you merely do leadership development to place people in roles to make your ministry machine run. (Check out the free download at the end of this blog to assess your leadership culture)
The second is structure. There’s not doubt you want to scale your organization. So you work hard to market, promote and draw people in for growth. But growth will reach a cap if you still need to build a healthy structure where people feel known, cared for, and developed. Creating a structure with healthy ratios is the key to scaling.
Third purposeful content is essential to the success of your leadership development efforts. You can help your leaders grow and develop the skills they need to thrive in their specific roles by providing targeted and relevant training and resources. But most organizations fall short of this type of intentionality. They may provide development, but the aim is limited to understanding the organization’s mission, values, and operational systems rather than the specific leadership skills needed to thrive in leadership roles.
Finally, it’s essential to focus on multiplying people – not just developing individual leaders but empowering key leaders to pass on what they have learned to others. By following this approach, you can create a culture of leadership development that will have a lasting impact on your organization. I am fond of telling church staff, “Your job isn’t to develop leaders; your job is to develop developers.” So many leaders have the ability to reproduce themselves but they are not being asked or empowered to do so.
I’ve written a book designed to equip you to build an intentional leadership development strategy, titled “The Multiplication Effect” and you can order it here. This book delves into the critical elements of a successful leadership development program, including a defined culture, intentional structure, systematic approach, purposeful content, and a focus on multiplying leaders.
I also have a FREE resource that you can download right now to asses how strong YOUR foundation of Leadership Development is. Download it here to see how you score.
Don’t wait, take whatever next step is best for you and start building a solid foundation of leadership in your organization!
