Three Great Expectations For A Leader

Individuals and organizations have all sorts of expectations for their leaders: good ones, bad ones, ugly ones. Our overriding concern with our expectations for our leaders should not be what we want or what they want. It should be for what works and what works should be defined in terms of the organization’s mission.

If the organization’s mission is to make money for the stockholders while giving the employees a livable wage and a fulfilling career, that’s what works.

If the organization’s mission is to glorify God by making unbelievers into devoted followers of Jesus then that’s what works.

That means that a leader is somebody who guides the organization to missional success. He helps it to work. In the words of church revitalization leader Harry Reeder (From Embers To a Flame, p. 151) “A leader influences others to effectively achieve a defined mission together.”

If that’s what works, then what are the “best practice” expectations for a leader?

1. Expect your leader to dream.

There are all kinds of theories about the “vision thing.” Everybody knows that organizations are greatly helped by being united and motivated by a common vision, a dream of what their group could be in the not-too-distant future.

Where we disagree is where and how to conjure up or pray down that dream. Must it come from God or can it come from a leader’s heart? Do we find it in the common aspirations of a group or is it the property of an individual?

In the Bible, dreams are usually delivered by our benevolent, future-creating God into the hearts of consecrated (set apart) individuals, like Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus or Paul.

I believe that wherever we land on this subject, Christian organizations of all kinds are wise to allow and expect their leaders to be dreamers. Encourage them to ponder playfully and pray slowly about this all-important gift from God: His dream for His ministry.

Of course they should gather information zealously from every quarter before, during and after they dream.

But ultimately, the organizations that are most apt to achieve that illusive “missional success” are those which expect their leaders to dream.

2. Expect your leader to design.

I believe that the leader with a God-given dream needs to be encouraged to design the ministry that can make that dream a reality.

This is challenging for everyone involved:

Visionary leaders are not always well-equipped for turning their dreams into designs, processes, strategies, for mission fulfillment. They may need to turn to others for help, and that’s okay.

Staff members are stretched and stressed by dreamers who cannot or will not turn their dreams into designs, or keep doing so again and again, never landing on a design to which they are committed.

Followers struggle with allowing their leaders to unplug long-standing processes and “tinker” with a system which they view as not in need of fixing because it isn’t broken.

But organizations which want to “win” at their game, to fulfill their missions, are wise to expect their leaders to do whatever is necessary to achieve a working design for success.

3. Expect your leader to direct.

It takes courage and faith to make the leader the supervisor over everything, making all ministry leaders accountable to him or her.

This doesn’t mean that we have to make this individual a dictator; it simply means that we insist that a single coach gives direction to the team, tying otherwise disparate individuals and groups into one working, winning unit.

Don’t expect the impossible from your leader, but do expect him or her to dream, to design and to direct your organization.