All leaders know that nagging feeling. It keeps them up at night, gives them indigestion. It creates anxiety, stress and even anger. What is it from? Having the wrong person in a leadership role. Sometimes it might be a mismatch of skill, it may be that the person isn’t capable of leading a ministry or team at the size that it is (many planters run into this when they have someone who can lead a team when the church has 50 people but that person isn’t the right leader when the church is 250), or it might be a character issue that has caused your stress. But how do you know? How do you know past a feeling that someone shouldn’t be in the leadership role they’re in?
Jim Collins in Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t said,
Two key questions can help. First, if it were a hiring decision (rather than a “should this person get off the bus?” decision), would you hire the person again? Second, if the person came to tell you that he or she is leaving to pursue an exciting new opportunity, would you feel terribly disappointed or secretly relieved?
But how do you know ahead of time? All of us have led people who shouldn’t be leading, weren’t bought in or weren’t capable of leading in the role they are in.
In his helpful book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown said,
If the answer isn’t a definite yes then it should be a no.
While McKeown was applying that to opportunities, I think it is incredibly applicable to hiring someone, raising up a volunteer leader or putting someone into a new leadership role.
If you have a gut feeling they shouldn’t be there, wait. If a trusted leader tells you to wait, listen up.
If someone seems over anxious to lead something, wait. If someone seems to be hiding something or something doesn’t add up about them, wait.
There is no harm in waiting.
I know. I hear you church planter and pastor. You need someone. Who is doing it if you don’t put someone into place?
Possibly you. Possibly no one. You may need to wait on a ministry or miss a vision opportunity because you don’t have the people you need.
There have been times Revolution has missed opportunities or we’ve not grown or we haven’t done a ministry because we didn’t have a leader. This is hard and sometimes people leave because of it and you lose momentum or people.
Those are never easy, but they are all easier than having to remove the wrong person.
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