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6 Questions to Help Empower Emerging Leaders

Do you want to empower the people around you to be all that God meant for them to be?  If you are responsible for the care and development of leaders – staff or volunteers, use these six questions as a basic agenda for any one-on-one coaching conversation and you will see amazing growth in their leadership.

1) “How are you?”

Remember at the heart of effecting coaching is a relational investment.  We should begin every coaching conversation by checking in to see how the person we are coaching is really doing.

2) “What are you celebrating?”

Moving from “How are you?” to “What are you celebrating?” keeps the tone of your relationship life-giving.  It’s tempting to quickly focus on what’s not working or what is broken.  This question keeps the conversation focused on where the emerging leader is feeling successful.

3) “What challenges are you facing?”

The previous questions are very relational, but if it helps any, remember that when it comes to coaching, the relationship really is the task.  This question gives your leader an opportunity to talk openly about the things that aren’t going very well in his group or team.

4) “How will you go about those challenges?”

Once a leader has disclosed some areas where he or she may be experiencing some challenges with his life or group, it is tempting to quickly move into “fix-it” mode and try to solve the problem for him.  The best way you can serve a leader is to help him tap into the wisdom and insight God has already given him to deal with whatever situation they are facing.  It is your job, as the coach, to draw those answers or solutions out of the leader.

5) “How can I help you?”

This is an important question, but if you never get to this question because the leader has already come up with an action plan as you walked through the previous questions, considers yourself an extremely effective coach.  One of the ways you can best serve a leader is to help them through a tough situation, so if your help is needed be willing to give yourself as an investment in the leader.

6) “How can I pray for you?”

The best way to wrap up a coaching conversation is to ask the leader how you can be praying for him.  After the leader has had a chance to express some areas where he is in need of prayer, take a few moments to pray for the leader and reassure him that you will be praying for him regularly.

*This article was adapted from its original format as seen on http://www.daveferguson.typepad.com/ which was an excerpt from the book, Exponential.

5 Steps to developing leaders

If we want to build God’s Kingdom, then we need to develop leaders in an effort to multiply our ability to reach and build people.  By following these 5 steps you will have a clear process for helping develop leaders.

1. I do…you watch…we talk
2. I do…you help…we talk
3. You do…I help…we talk
4. You do…I watch…we talk
5. You do…someone else watches

Please take the time to leave a comment and tell us how these 5 Steps have helped you on your journey to develop leaders.

Posted on http://jasoncurlee.com/ as taught by Dave and Jon Ferguson at the Exponential Conference.

Establish

David DeGarmo

A few weeks ago in a video blog that I posted, I mentioned the 4 E’s in the process of discipleship. In case you don’t remember, they were: Engage, Establish, Equip, and Empower. These four words describe different phases in the life and development of a disciple or Christ-follower. The better we understand these concepts, the easier it will be for us to make disciples by helping others grow in their relationship with God. Two weeks ago, we talked about the first of the 4 E’s, Engage. If you missed that article, I want to encourage you to go back and read it after you have finished this article.

Let’s take a look at the second of these key phrases, the word Establish. The dictionary defines establish as: to place or settle in a secure position or condition; to install or, to make firm or secure. You will notice that the root word of establish is “stable.” This implies that when we come into a relationship with Jesus our lives need to be stabilized. We all come to the Lord with varying degrees of instability in our lives and circumstances. It is vital to the growth and development of every Christian that we allow our lives to be stabilized by being rebuilt upon the solid Rock of the person of Christ and the truths of His Word.

Practically speaking, we establish people in the faith by helping them to build their lives upon:

1. Jesus: The foundational building stone of every Christian’s life is their person relationship with Jesus. That relationship must be cultivated and developed through a strong devotional life, trusting Him in every situation, and learning to obey His teachings.

This (Jesus) is the ’stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Acts 4:11 (Parenthesis added)

1. The Bible: The truth that is contained in God’s Word must become the standard and absolute authority for every area of our lives. Jesus demonstrated this principle clearly in His temptation when He said,

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4

1. Prayer: Prayer is our communication with God and our lifeline. We are instructed throughout Scripture to pray as a lifestyle, not as a special event.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing… 1Thessalonians 5:16-17

1. Fellowship: Christianity is a team sport; no one is intended to live it alone. Relationship with other believers is a critical component of our lives.

Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common. Acts 2:44

As we serve others by helping them to be established in these truths, their lives will be stabilized and will be able to mature into the fruitful Christian that God has designed them to be. We will also give them the tools necessary to help others also, but more about that when we talk about the next “E”…

Leaders Are Learners

by Gary J. Borgstede

Very early in my career, I learned a significant leadership principle that has helped me grow tremendously as a leader.  And not only was this leadership principle significant, it was also simple: a person learns 95 percent of what they teach. By learning this leadership principle at a Stephen Covey leadership seminar, I was encouraged to begin teaching others the same things I was learning as a new emerging leader.  Plus, as I began to teach others what I was learning myself, I discovered God’s calling on my life to develop business leaders in the Kingdom of God.

John Maxwell teaches that the moment we stop learning, we stop leading; therefore, it is essential that we become life-long effective learners if we desire to be life-long effective leaders.  Additionally, the Bible states in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” making clear the dire consequences of being poor learners in the kingdom of God.

On my personal leadership development journey, I have also learned from Pastor Steve Robinson and Dr. Mike Murdock that we can choose to learn in two additional ways: 1) revelation (mentors) and 2) tribulation (mistakes).

Learning by way of revelation and mentors involves reading the Word of God and other leadership material as well as finding great mentors willing to share what they know and who have the courage to risk our approval by telling us the truth about ourselves.  On the other hand, learning by tribulation and mistakes is a much more painful way to learn and grow as a leader; but nonetheless, if we take leadership responsibility for our failures and embrace our mistakes as an opportunity to learn and grow, we can learn some of our greatest leadership lessons from our failures.

To help leaders become practical and effective life-long learners, let me encourage you to do the following:

1. Teach what you learn as a leader to help others become better leaders as well. Leadership Development: You will retain the leadership lessons you teach and become a better leader yourself.
2. Maintain a teachable spirit through reading and selecting qualified leadership mentors to help you learn and grow through revelation. Leadership Development: You will become a disciplined learner well-qualified to mentor and lead others yourself.
3. Embrace mistakes and failures as an investment in your life education. Leadership Development: You will become a well-tested steadfast leader capable of leading others with the sufficiency of God’s grace and mercy upon yourself.

By applying these three simple leadership practices in our own growth and development, we will be better engaged as life-long learners and better equipped as life-long leaders. Thanks and have a blessed day!

Engage

Doug Armand

In one of our recent articles, we discussed the Four E’s of discipleship: Engage, Establish, Equip, and Empower.  Today we are going to take a few moments to look at what it means to Engage as part of the discipleship process.

As leaders, we engage others by engaging the lost with the goal of introducing them to Christ and engaging believers for the purpose of connecting them with the people, opportunities, and resources that will help them accomplish God’s purpose for their lives.

Let’s take a look at 3 key things we can do to engage the Lost:

1) Listen: We can learn a lot about where people are by listening to them.

It may be that, in the course of listening, we recognize an entry point for

The gospel.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Galatians 6:2

2)     Serve: Everyone needs someone else’s help at some point in their lives.  Looking for practical ways to serve others can open doors for the gospel.

3)     Share: Sharing your own story of what Jesus did in your life is, perhaps, the most effective way to make the gospel real to people.  Take the time and be intentional about sharing your story with others.

As leaders, the second group of people we must engage is Believers. Many people make a decision for Christ but are never engaged by someone who can help them begin to walk with Him on a daily basis.

Let’s look at 3 different ways to engage believers in order to bring about spiritual growth:

1) Introduce yourself: Look for people you don’t know at church.  Make

conversation with them by asking about their lives and then be willing to listen.

2)     Join a SERVE team: There are many people in the church whose only involvement in the church is in some type of service ministry (i.e. parking attendant, usher, coffee team, children workers, etc.).  As you meet people who are serving, take a minute to find out if someone is engaging them.  If not, invite them to your small group and get them into your world and help them begin to grow in their relationship with Jesus.

3)     Be a Connector: As you meet people, keep in mind other relational connections that may benefit these people.  Many times the best thing we can do for someone is to connect them with someone with “like” passions or similar life experience.  The goal is to provide additional  relationships which can help establish spiritual growth.

As a leader, focus on Engaging others so we can continue to Reach People and Build Lives.