Leaders Aren’t Born — They’re Built

Transcript

Welcome And Share The Podcast

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Christian business common steps with your post hair company. Christian business common steps.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Hey, great job, Kelly, and welcome everyone to Christian Business Concepts. Uh, you know, where we really every week we apply biblical principles to build thriving businesses and strong leaders. You know, I pray that as you listen today to this podcast, that you'll be encouraged, enlightened, and empowered to find true godly success. That's our desire, and that's our hope here at CBC. Now, please help us grow the CBC community by sharing this podcast with four to five other people and by creating a post on your LinkedIn or Facebook pages or both that gives the link to this podcast. Uh, we're reaching thousands and thousands of business owners, business leaders, people who run organizations, and others who are just investing in themselves. So great job, everyone. Thank you for helping us to grow the CBC family.

Impact Academy And Free Course

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Uh also I'd like to share my brand new Impact Academy where you can find all kinds of courses, leadership courses, business courses, all kinds of courses there. Uh, these are courses that are just power-packed, full of great information from AI to self-leadership to sales. I'm sure you'll find a course that you'll want to sink your teeth into. I'm I'm pretty confident of that. And the first one's on me. Uh and uh that first course that is free that you can go to the Impact Academy and you can get is called Getting to Know Your Leadership Style. Uh, that's a course that you can uh take that doesn't cost anything. Uh and if you want to know more and you want to explore these courses and take the free course, just go to impactacademy.haroldmilby trainer dot com. And that will take you right to the Impact Academy. Just uh sign up as a student on the lack uh uh uh uh uh Impact Academy, log in and create that. You'll be able to scan the courses. Uh it will share prices with you. They're either $47, $37, or $27, depending upon the course. Uh but the first one, like I said, is on me. It's free, and that is getting to know your leadership style. So anyway, just wanted to share that with you that it is up and operating. This is something that had that I have had a vision for for years, and so I'm really excited about telling you about Impact Academy, and I'll tell you more about it as time goes on. All

Listener Shout Out And Gratitude

SPEAKER_01 2:57

right. Now, before we move on to today's topic, let me give a big shout out again to the country of Namibia. Uh, Namibia, once again, you guys are just on fire. It just seems like there's more and more people downloading this podcast. It seems like on a weekly basis. I'm so humbled at your responses. Uh, I'm just really taken aback by it. But thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you. And thanks to all of you who listen to this podcast, whether it's your first time or whether you listen to this podcast every week. We thank you. We appreciate it. Keep it up.

The Myth Leaders Are Born

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Now, today we're confronting a myth that quietly damages churches, uh, companies, and organizations. Uh, doesn't matter what it is, and and that is this uh the myth that some people are just born leaders and others are not. And first of all, let me say this that that belief is not biblical. It's not biblical at all. It's not historical, and it's really not practical. Leadership is not a personality type. Leadership is stewardship, and stewardship can be taught. You know, Paul told Timothy, he said in 2 Timothy 2 and 2, he said, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others. So, so notice there's like this four-generation thing going on here. You got Paul, and then Paul raises up Timothy. Timothy says to raise up faithful men, and then those men are to raise up others. So you have this progression of leadership that's being taught down through different generations or different levels. And when we see this biblically, we see this is leadership multiplication and action. That's what it is. And you can train people to be leaders, you can teach them to be leaders. Uh John Maxwell used to always jokingly say, you know, people would ask him about um about leaders, and he would say, are leaders, people would ask him, are leaders born? You know, are people just born leaders? Well, John would always say, Well, absolutely, they are born. All of us are born. And so he kind of threw it back as a little bit of a funny there, but the key is that he recognized and has taught for years that leadership can be taught. And so today we're going to talk about the biblical proof that leaders can be trained, uh, the psychology behind why people resist leadership, and whether there's any shortcuts that may exist, and how to choose who to mentor to be a leader. Uh, that choice is important, the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external leaders, of finding internal or external leaders. Uh and then I've got a powerful acronym to help you build leaders that we'll get into. And then how to overcome the fear of investing in somebody who might leave. So be sure to go to the resources tab on our website, which is www.christianbusinessconcepts.org. Uh, but if you go to the website, go to the resources tab, open that up, you'll be able to scroll down and find uh a worksheet or workbook to go along with today's podcast. That'll help you actually create the the um momentum in your life to make changes and to really just add so much more value than just listening alone. Uh so I encourage you to go there. It's free, it doesn't cost anything. You just go to the resources tab and find it, download it, you can use it, right? All

Biblical Models For Training Leaders

SPEAKER_01 7:16

right. So let's talk about leaders in scripture, leaders and them being developed. And the first example that I'll throw out there is Moses and how he trained up Joshua to become a great leader. Joshua was not a born leader. He was not born a national leader. Actually, he was Moses' assistant. You know, Exodus 24, 13 says Moses rose up and his minister Joshua. So Joshua's there in that time. He was ministering to Moses. You know, Joshua watched, Joshua served, Joshua learned. So the way that that worked was that's called proximity. In other words, that was leadership through proximity, leadership through being close to the one who was mentoring you, which in this case was Moses. And the Bible says, when Moses died, God said, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now, therefore arise. That's what he said in Joshua 1 and 2. So Joshua was ready, not because God said, Now, therefore arise, but Joshua was ready because he had been trained by Moses. Uh he probably learned a lot of things he shouldn't do, and he learned a lot of things he should do from watching Elijah. So that's leadership through proximity. But now, if you look at Elijah and then Elisha, uh Elisha was the one who poured water on Elijah's hands. Um the one thing to really always realize is that servanthood always precedes authority. Before you ever have authority, you're going to have servanthood. Elisha received a double portion of what Elijah had, not because he was gifted, but because he was faithful. But Elijah trained Elisha to be a leader. And then you look at the greatest of all, which is Jesus and his relationship with the um with the disciples. You know, uh Peter was very impulsive. Uh Thomas doubted, James and John wanted to call down fire. In fact, they were nicknamed the Sons of Thunder. That ought to tell you something. Um these were hardly what you would consider to be natural executives. They weren't. Yet after three years of intentional development by Jesus, they changed the world. Think about that. They changed the world that we live in. Jesus did not recruit Finnish leaders, he trained fishermen, he trained tax collectors, he trained physician, a physician. That was Luke. So Jesus developed these men into leaders. We see that with Paul and Timothy. Uh you know, the Bible goes on and explains throughout Scripture that Timothy was young and he was very timid. Paul told him, he said, Let no man despise thy youth. That was in 1 Timothy 4 12. Um 2 Timothy 12 and 7, he says, God has not given us the spirit of fear. That word fear is the word timidity. So you can read it this way: God has not given us the spirit of timidity, but of love, power, and a sound mind. And we can see how there's this progression of growth that can take place in a person's life, especially if he's being mentored. So Timothy had to kind of grow into leadership. And he did. He he really did.

Why People Resist Leadership Roles

SPEAKER_01 11:04

Um, you know, why why is it? What where's the psychology? What's the psychology behind people who just kind of shy away from leadership? They don't they don't want to be a leader, they don't want you to consider them a leader, but yet there's so many things in them that you see that they would be a very good leader. But the first one is fear of exposure. You know, leadership magnifies weakness. It does. You know, psychologists call this the imposter syndrome. So biblically, uh, you know, it's like um Moses said in Exodus chapter 3, verse 11, when God was calling him, he said, Who am I? You know, who am I? What can I do? Um so again, this was imposter syndrome because he was afraid of that leadership mantle. Uh and again, leadership will magnify your weaknesses. It's going to find them out, and people will see them. That doesn't mean you're not going to be a good leader. Uh, because then a good leader knows and understands that he's not perfect and that he does have uh certain things in his life, certain weaknesses that are gonna get exposed. But it doesn't change the fact that they can be a great leader. Uh another was Gideon. You know, when the Lord called Gideon, Gideon said, Why are you choosing me? You know, I'm I'm the I am the very least in my family. My my family is the least tribe in the children of Israel. And so he had this imposter syndrome again about who he thinks he is. And so he even though, you know, he he feared um responsibility, that there it and let's be honest, I mean, leadership carries weight. It's heavy. I mean, the mantle of leadership, it's it's it's a heavy burden to bear. But it's something that's needed, it's something that's important. And I'm talking about more than authority. Um, it's more about accountability. You know, the higher, the higher you go in leadership, the less choices you will have. That is the way leadership works. That's the way it works every day. At the end of the day, you're the guy with less choices than the people that you employ or the people that work for you. You know, uh now the third one is the fear of rejection. The fear of rejection. Leadership invites criticism. That it's like you got a target on your back. And the brain, our brain is wired to avoid social rejection. That's just the way our brains are wired. Um, you know, uh Proverbs 29, 25 says, the fear of man bringeth a snare. It's a trap. It's a snare. And the fear of man is what brings that upon us. So we have to beware of that, that fear of rejection. The next is a what I consider to be a comfort preference. In other words, when you begin to grow, and if you're going to be a leader, you're going to have to be willing to grow. It requires a certain amount of discomfort. It's just, you know, it's just going to happen. Um, Dr. Carol Dwick's uh research on growth mindset shows people avoid roles where failure is possible. People need to understand that leadership is going to require a certain amount of risk. It's just going to require you can't you can't get away from it. It's part of what leadership is. And so that's important.

No Shortcuts, Only Real Accelerators

SPEAKER_01 14:53

So are there any shortcuts to leadership? Well, you know, I have to say this. The short answer is no. You know, now there are some what I would consider to be some accelerators, but there's no shortcuts. You know, Jesus trained disciples for three years. Moses trained Joshua for decades. And uh John Maxwell says that leadership develops daily, but not in a day. So you can accelerate your development through a few things, but it develops over time daily as you make a commitment every day. That's how leadership grows, you know. Uh so what can you do to accelerate uh to accelerate uh your development as a leader? Well, first of all, exposure to decision making. You you can't learn to make good decisions without making bad ones. So that means then that you need the opportunity to be exposed with decision making. You've got to start making decisions on your own. Um you can also accelerate this leadership uh training, if we'll call it that, is through responsibility with accountability. It's not just knowing what to do, but it's also being accountable, being accountable to somebody else, being accountable to others, being accountable to your board. There's so many ways that you can be accountable, but that is just important. Responsibility with accountability. Uh and then constructive feedback. You need constructive feedback that's so important if you're going to develop as a leader. You want people to give you good, honest, constructive feedback. Uh we're not talking about something somebody feels or thinks. We're talking about facts. We're talking about things we know. Uh crisis management opportunities. You know, to be given an opportunity to manage a crisis situation can be one of the best teachers you can ever have. And then, of course, there's formal training, you know, there's that. But the thing to understand is you cannot microwave maturity. Developing leaders is is more of a crock pot, if I can say it that way. It's not a microwave. It's not something you could do quick and easy and powerful, and then you pop out on the other side as a leader. It takes time. You you have to learn, you have to grow. Uh, and so that's why that's that's so important. You know, Luke 16 and 10 says, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. So small faithfulness a lot of times precedes large authority. Uh, and that's important to understand.

Who To Mentor And Why

SPEAKER_01 17:46

So, so who should you look for? Who should you mentor? Because not everyone wants leadership. Not everybody wants to be a leader, not everybody wants to put the price in to pay to be a leader. Uh Jesus chose only twelve out of many people. Out of many people, but he chose twelve. Uh David, when the King David was in the cave of Abdullah, uh 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 15 mention uh that there were three men that came from the cave of Abdullah, and David trained them to be warriors and leaders. Uh so what you want to look for is you want to look first of all for faithfulness. Uh, you know, 2 Timothy 2 and 2, where he's talking to Timothy, he said, choose out faithful men. Faithful. That's a big deal. So we need to look and uh transfer a lot of what we explain to people and explain to them that you're looking for somebody who's faithful. The second thing you're looking for is teachability. You know, Proverbs 9 and 9 says, give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Why? Because they're teachable. They're teachable. So you want to look for people that are teachable. Uh next, you want to look for somebody that's got some emotional stability. Uh, you know, the Bible says that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. He said that in uh James chapter one and verse eight. Uh and so you want some emotional stability. The next thing you need is you want initiative. Uh this is where they move without constant prompting. Uh, but they need to be constantly working on what that is, what it entails, how can they make it better? Uh, but that's important, initiative. So they they can really move without um without constant prompting. So you've got emotional stability and then initiative. Uh so those are two very, very important. And then number five is integrity. You know, skill can be taught. Character, on the other hand, has to be there. Has to be there. Warren Buffett said in looking for people to hire, you look for integrity, intelligence, and energy. Now think about that for a minute. The most richest man in the United States, maybe uh now, I think he still is. Um, but he says um in looking for people to hire, you look for integrity, intelligence, and energy. And and if you remove integrity, uh it then the other two are gonna hurt. It that's just the way it that's just the way it happens.

Internal Promotions Vs Outside Hires

SPEAKER_01 20:38

Um you know, there's internal when when you're looking to um, you know, bringing in a leader or having a leader for a department or whatever, you've got a couple ways to do that. Number one is through an internal promotion process that you've developed. Um, you're not looking for anything complicated. That's not what you're looking for. Um, but but you but you are and that you need to understand that you can look for people that are inside the company and you can look for people who are outside the company. And sometimes, depending upon what you're looking for, uh it it may bounce around from one to the other depending upon what the need is. But if you're looking for rising leaders from within the organization, um I can tell you that you you have some limitations, and some of those disadvantages are you have a very limited perspective because that's all you've looked at, and that's all you're looking at is people within the organization. Uh possible favoritism, which creates tension, uh, that's another one. And uh another disadvantage is skill gaps. They're not going to have all the skills that you want. And you're gonna have time and you're not gonna have time to wait for 'em. Now the advantages. Are that there's there's already with this person a cultural alignment. They are standing right there in front of you. Uh and so there's already a cultural alignment there. There's loyalty there. There's there's what I would consider to be institutional knowledge because they've already been there, right? So there's there's a lower onboarding time. Uh you also get morale boost uh for the team when they see somebody else within the team that gets promoted. Um you know, now the the the this uh another disadvantage I think I forgot to mention or maybe I did is skill gaps. They don't have all the skills that are needed. Um now when you recruit from the outside, when you pull people in from the outside of the organization, you get people that's got a fresh perspective, they bring in new ideas, um they have a a lot of times have a specialized expertise, uh, and they're faster at changing things when they first come in. Now, the diff disadvantages of that is that you have a culture clash because now you've got these people who come from a different culture. A lot of times there's this deficit of trust because they haven't learned yet who the people are that can be trusted. Um there's a higher cost. It's going to cost you more to bring somebody in rather than find the person that's already here and mentor them and raise them up as a leader. And that also means that that integration of that leader and what he brings to the table, uh it could take a little longer. You know, uh Apple brought Steve Jobs back from the outside so that he could transform the company again. Uh, you know, so I think that's in important.

The BUILDERS Leadership Acronym

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Now, if you're gonna build a leader, if you're gonna train up a leader, then I want you to use the acronym BUIDERS B-U-I-L-D-E-R-S, builders. So the first is the B, that's believe in them. Jesus saw Peter as a rock before he ever acted like one, before Peter ever acted like one. You know, Jesus already saw him as a rock according to Matthew chapter 16. So he was speaking future identity, you know, into Peter's life. Um the you is understand their strengths. So Romans 12, 6 says, having then gifts differing from one another. So we have all have these different gifts. So um what we want is to develop strengths, but we don't want to clone personalities. That's not really what we're after. We we want to develop those strengths. Okay. So understand their strengths, then instruct consistently. You know, the Bible says in 22 and 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he's old, he'll not, you know, he he will return to that. So I think it's important. It's important that we understand that we have to be very, very consistent in how we're instructing um those that we feel like we're mentoring. Uh so that's important. Uh and then you've got to let them know the L. Let them lead small. So you want to delegate authority gradually. You just don't want to just throw it out there. And I'm not talking saying it's got to take years. In some cases, maybe it does, but in most cases, in a few months uh of being in close proximity to you. You know, David led sheep before he led soldiers, and that's just the way it was. Um and so it's very, very important that we look at leading them through small tasks that we let them do. Uh the D is debrief and develop. Debrief and develop. So act uh uh after action reviews, you know, Jesus consistently corrected the disciples. There was this feedback wheel loop, whatever you want to call it. They were constantly getting feedback because feedback really uh uh it helps to build uh your awareness of the things going on around. Uh the E in builders is in power with authority. Jesus gave us authority. Um, authority will build ownership. Um and that's that's kind of easy to see in a lot of the biblical examples, but authority builds ownership. It's so important. Uh the R is release responsibility. So eventually you step back. Jesus said, Greater works than these shall you do. So he was speaking in the future. He was telling them to get you know to get ready. And then the S, the final S is support publicly. So you want to inform them before other people, uh, because confidence grows as you affirm people. It's just it's just a rule, it just works.

How New Leaders Gain Confidence

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Um, how do you build confidence in a new leader? Let's just take a little bit of time and talk about that. Uh, because confidence grows number one through preparation. So confidence breeds confidence. So you have this preparation. So confidence grows through preparation, number two, through repetition. See, neural pathways in your brain strengthen through experience. And so you want to go through preparation, uh, and then you want to make sure you have repetition. Once you do that, you have affirmation. See, Paul constantly encouraged Timothy. It was kind of a controlled risk, but Paul believed that he had heard from the Lord. And so once and again, we we have that we have that ability to, and we should take advantage of it to affirm people, uh, but do it uh publicly. Do it uh publicly. I think that's super, super important. Um you know, the other thing uh besides repetition is affirmation, we talked about that, but controlled risk. Give challenges that are just a little bit beyond their comfort zone, just a little bit. And then spiritual identity, remind them that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Remind them of that. Remind them of who they are in Christ. And be sure to know that confidence is not ego. That's not ego. Confidence is really just clarity, is what it is.

When Developed Leaders Leave

SPEAKER_01 29:03

So what if you raise somebody up and they want to leave? Well, that happens. You invest, they grow, they leave. But here's the greater fear. What if you don't train them and then they just stay? So you've got untrained leaders, and untrained leaders can damage the culture of your organization. See, Jesus trusted and he trained Judas, and yet Judas left anyway and betrayed Christ. See, the eleven changed the world. That's what happened to them. So leadership development is obedience to the law of multiplication. The kingdom mindset says develop them anyway. See, Galatians 6 9 says, be not weary in well doing. If they leave well trained, your culture becomes known for excellence. That attracts more excellence. Um additional insights that let me let me share with you about is leadership is stewardship, not ownership. That's a big difference. Psalms 78 and 72 says that he fed them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hand. Um I think that's pretty important to understand. Integrity plus skill. Integrity plus skill. So you can develop both of those, but you need to both, uh, you need to um uh to train on both of those, integrity and skill. All right. So you need to ask yourself, you need to ask yourself, um, who am I developing? Who who developed me? And am I hoarding leadership if I'm not am I not letting go? Am I not raising up other leaders because I don't want them to take anything away from me that I'm doing? Uh are you multiplying leadership? Are you doing that? So healthy organizations, they multiply leaders. It's just what they do. It's in their DNA. That's what they do. And unhealthy leaders, they centralize power. They try to centralize it and rally the wagons around themselves. So remember that leadership is not about being needed, it's about making yourself less needed, really. Uh so be sure to commit to building leaders because when you train one leader, you multiply impact beyond your lifetime.

Final Challenge, Prayer, Closing

SPEAKER_01 31:38

You know, 2 Timothy 4.7 says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. So one day you're going to pass that baton. And the only question is going to be: will somebody be ready to receive it when you're ready to pass it on? Lord, help us today. Lord, help us understand that leadership can be taught. Lord, help us to understand that. Help us to understand that completely. Help us to utilize the information and the principles that you've shared with us today. Uh, Lord, I ask you to help us to apply it and begin to develop leaders within our organizations that are leaders, that want to be leaders. And Lord, we thank you for this in the name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Well, looks like that's all the time we have for today. It looks like we went over a little bit. So until next time, remember that Jesus is Lord and He wants you blessed.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Thank you for tuning in to Mr. Christian Business Comments Podcast. Go to Christian business coming up. Come on, come on, come on, come on, podcast.