Leading Leaders

It’s one thing to lead followers and another thing to lead leaders.

How do I get people to follow me who would rather be the leader, and why should I try to get people to follow me who don’t really want to follow?

Followers are great at getting things done, but you will reach more people if you focus your time and energy on leading leaders.

There are risks in trying to lead leaders, but if you try to do it all by yourself, then you are guaranteed to fail. If you want to grow as a leader, you have to increase your influence with other leaders.

Here are three important steps in leading leaders.

1. Be quick to hear.

Create environments where you take time to listen to your leaders. You can do this one-on-one, but I like to do it as a group.

2. Be slow to speak.

If you want to lead leaders, then you will have to do more listening and less talking. If you put someone in charge of a meeting, never jump in the middle of it. You can probably communicate it better, but that doesn’t mean that you should.

It is really empowering to a leader when you can sit in the meeting and keep your mouth shut. It reinforces their leadership and communicates to everyone else that you trust them.

3. Be slow to wrath.

Your leaders will do things that provoke your anger. You may need to talk to them, but wait until you calm down.

Nobody likes to be yelled at, especially volunteers. Sometimes one angry outburst can destroy a relationship.

If you follow this scripture, you will be well on your way to leading leaders: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to

“Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” (James 1:19 NIV).