4 Stages of Leadership
Yesterday while I was at Christ Fellowship in Miami, I did a leadership talk for their staff team. At the end of my talk, we took some time for Q&A. One of the questions that was asked was about leadership growth. Having worked in churches of various sizes between 1,400 and over 10,000, they wanted to know how leaders change to grow with organizations. Here’s what I summarized with a little bit more detail. Some of this reflects my own experiences in the churches I’ve served. Some of it reflects the conversations with leaders in other churches.
Lead by example. This is the type of leadership that is required when a new ministry launches. During this season, the leader has to do most of the work themselves. That happens out of necessity because no one else is around. It also happens to establish a foundation for the future. “Leading by doing” gives the leader the opportunity to shape the mission, vision, values and strategy of the church. These folks may not necessarily be gifted as leaders but they are in a positional leadership role. They are the “leaders of tens.” Ministries with this style of leadership can grow to about 100 people.
Lead other people. During this season, the leader recruits other people to join the ministry team. Rather than doing all the work on their own, the leader begins to delegate tasks and responsibilities to other people. The leader still owns the responsibility for making things happen, they’re just including other people in the effort. These are the “leaders of fifties.” Ministries can grow to several hundred people with this style of leadership.
Lead other leaders. This is when a transition happens where leaders begin to empower other leaders. Instead of a hands-on role where they’re on top of all the tasks, they shift to a role where they’re really more concerned about leading, caring for and raising up other leaders. They don’t give up responsibility for the outcome, but they begin to release team building and decisions of execution to other people. These are the “leaders of hundreds.” Ministries can grow to several thousand people with this style of leadership.
Lead by vision. At some point, there are leaders who may continue to embrace functional leadership of specific areas of ministry, but their focus is really on the overall health of the church. Rather than a ministry-specific focus, they have a global perspective that encompasses every aspect of the organization. These folks are leading other leaders, but they also have influence that reaches beyond their direct reports. They are coming alongside the senior leader to champion the vision that God has given the church. These are the “leaders of thousands.” Ministries can grow to tens of thousands of people with this style of leadership.
First of all, do you agree with my summary of these different stages of leadership growth? What would you add or delete from my descriptions?
Secondly, where are you? Would would you need to do today to prepare for a step into a new leadership role tomorrow?
Great post! You are one practical dude. Thanks for all you do.
I agree. As a youth director, I mostly lead by example but do have a Jr. High Coordinator and summer interns to manage which may shift me into ‘lead other people’. I would love to be end up leading other leaders some day. Good stuff
In your experience, is this a sequence that leaders follow or is this simply a reflection of different types of leadership styles where people naturally gravitate and where they end up being most effective?
Great stuff, Tony! Making me ask questions, pray and think! Always a good combo.
My thoughts were going a little bit down the road that Casie was going.
Great post, great thoughts.
Because this is a short post and you aren’t going into all the details, what I’m about to say could be implied.
If you want to get to the final step (Leading from Vision), you have to walk in two (or more worlds) before getting to that place 100%–or even, there will be seasons of ministry where you go back to number one, while doing number 4.
Maybe, as I think out loud, you’ll always be doing 1, 2, or 3, but if you don’t do number four, the organization/church will be capped.
As I recently experienced Elevation and NewSpring Churches firsthand recently, this is something that I noticed. The organization knew how to lead out of vision. There may be times that any given leader will be doing 1, 2, or 3, but they also are always doing #4.
Interesting thoughts and timely post for me. Thanks.
Tony,
Great material . . . I would enjoy reading your thoughts concerning the practical stepping stones from one stage to another. What about my praying, thinking and practical doing do I need to change from stage to stage. What do the bridges very practically look like? I really enjoyed the info. but I am hungry for a little more . . . Blessings!
Another valuable post Tony! Insightful, practical, and useful!
Anyone else old enough to remember the “Peter Principle?” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle
Your post is very timely for me, because I’ve been formulating a similar concept in regards to small group leadership structure in the church. Thanks for your thoughts.
One thing I would add is that your concept of leaders of tens, fifties, and beyond come straight from scripture in Deuteronomy 1:15. Not that it’s necessarily essential to add credibility, but it re-emphasizes the point that different stages of leadership has been around for a long, long time.
Tony – thanks for the great post. Have shared it with our leaders. I think leaders have to be very aware of these phases/shifts in style in order to lead their churches or ministry areas through successive stages of both. If we don’t change our style, we won’t be the ones to take whatever it is we’re leading to the next phase.
My copy of Killing Cockroaches came from Amazon today – and I’ve signed up for the Aurora, IL event. Looking forward to it.
Bruce
Kind of circling some other comments so I’ll be brief: I’m wondering these are more dynamics of holistic leadership rather than stages, levels or points of destination. Can a leader at “stage 4″ ever stop doing “stage 1″? And though he/she may build a structure to better facilitate “stages 2 & 3″, he/she is still functioning in those realities somewhere in the organization. Just think we need to be careful when we systematize dynamic environments – people are dynamic (and leaders are people too).
for those who have asked, i don’t believe all people are gifted to be all of these capacities of leadership. some leadership skills can be learned. some of leadership capacity, though, is spiritual giftedness.
and, yes, chris i agree that stage 4 leaders can (and should) from time to time lead like stage 1; however, there are some stage 1 leaders who don’t have the giftedness to lead at stage 4.
what’s your reaction to those thoughts?
Tony, this is great. Describing leadership in these stages, especially in relation to the church, is a great way to evaluate and analyze your leadership development. It’s easy to get stalled out in one of these stages and not realize you might be inhibiting growth. I know there have been seasons where I’ve stalled out because I was comfortable leading at one stage and didn’t want to do the hard work of growing to the next stage.
I think every leader should evolve, beginning at stage one and learning both the deliverable and the more abstract lessons of generic leadership. As he matures, he moves up the leadership ladder as far as his gifts and talents will take him.
For instance, the every Admiral was once an Ensign, but not every Ensign becomes an Admiral.
In an emergency, the Admiral may be forced to do something ordinarily expected of an Ensign, but never stops being an Admiral and never should allow himself to be distracted from the overall strategy. And you will never see an Ensign being called on to replace an Admiral.
more good mind food for leadership