How to Develop Leadership pt. 2

Develop Leaders Who Are Competent

According to Dr. Howard Hendricks, an important step to developing leaders is choosing the right people in the first place. This means choosing people who are committed and choosing people who are competent. Below are three characteristics of a competent person- someone who has the potential to be developed into a strong leader. Note that they do not have to be perfect in each of the below areas, but there does need to be evidence of potential.

Competent people, Dr. Hendricks shares:

Know Something

You cannot communicate out of a vacuum. You cannot impart what you do not possess. I don’t know about you, but it breaks my heart to talk to church elders who tell me that they don’t know schmatz about the Christian life. They don’t even know how to study the Bible. We settle for so little, men and women. I think some of us who are in leadership need to stop and get the picture. We need to stop playing games. If what we believe is true, if the Bible is the word of God, then we haven’t committed ourselves enough. If it is what we claim it to be, then people need to know the basics of the Christian life.

Feel Something

You cannot lead out of a vacuum and you cannot lead without a passion. I’ve got to ask myself, “How can I develop in an individual a passion for serving and sharing Jesus Chris?” It can’t be mine; it has to be his or her own passion. There must be ownership. Ownership is how you build passion.

Do Something

Third, you need someone who is doing something. This is someone who is behaving in a uniquely Christian way. Show me someone who knows something thoroughly, feels something deeply, and does something consistently and I will show you a competent person.  Now this is something that will take time for some people, but that’s okay. The question is, “Is this person moving in that direction?”

The product of your leadership development will be proportionate to the level of person you begin with. Be sure when picking out your leaders, that you look for signs of commitment and competence before demanding it of them in an official capacity.

Be sure to check back next month and see the next leadership development necessity, Develop People Who Are Communicative.  As mentioned above, this series is taken from a video/workbook resource called The Dynamics of Leadership by Howard Hendricks. To order the program in its entirety, be sure to visit our Hendricks Center Store.