'Leaders help people to grow into their full God-given potential. The imperative task of leadership is facilitating the growth of others'... a quote I read recently in Leading Across Cultures by James Pluddemann.
He goes onto say that the most basic task of leaders is to develop people for God's glory, focusing the gifts of others. Successful leaders enhance the gifts of people by involving them in the work.
While he talks much about the theory of leadership, strategy, vision and cross cultural styles of leadership, he comes back to the core - people and their development.
How easy it is to get caught up in tasks, strategy, meetings, schedules and other important aspects of running an organization, and to overlook what it takes to develop people. It takes time, resources and intentionality! It means believing in people, seeing their potential, walking alongside, taking risks and giving others opportunities to grow and develop.
If facilitating the growth of people is the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of leaders, how well are you and I doing?