Leadership: The Potential in People

“Value people, believe in them, and love them unconditionally. Do those things every day, and you will be successful.” – Melvin Maxwell

I recently picked up another book to read while traveling back home from Las Vegas and when I opened the pages I knew that it was going to be one that I wanted to share with you. I love to read a good book on a long flight. I am always drawn to books on leadership… well the truth is that I am drawn to all kinds of books but it makes it easier to add them to my excessive book collection when I can use the excuse that I am studying leadership for my graduate degree.

I want to be sure that I do not take any of the credit for what I am writing to you in this blog because most of what I am going to share with you comes from John Maxwell and what he shares in High Road Leadership. You can be sure and click the link there and get yourself a copy if you would like.

Leadership has easily become the center of the calling that God has placed on my life. I believe that everyone walks in some level of leadership throughout their life but that not everyone is effective in doing so. There are certainly no shortage of books on leadership, in fact you can find thousands of them with one simple search on your phone, but there is also not a shortage on Bibles but somehow so many seem to lack the foundational principles found within it. Grabbing a book on leadership does not make you a leader, in fact I would add that I do not believe leadership is possible without the willingness to follow.

My heart for ministry and the desire that I have to see the growth in others is found right at the center of discipleship. I love great worship music and enjoy teaching the Bible as often as I get the chance and I certainly will grab my notebook for a dynamic sermon on a Sunday morning, but nothing captivates me like discipleship. Leadership and discipleship go hand in hand and should not be separated nor should they be confused as being the same thing. I could compare them to being peanut butter and jelly – they are great being separate from one another and can be used in many different ways, but when you put them together, it takes it to another level of goodness! (I love a good PB&J)

I want to take just a moment and share with you what it means to take the high road in leadership. We are always given the choice as to which road we are going to take in life, and often times the easier road is the one that is most traveled but the high road is the one that is most effective.

Today I decided to open my book again and begin to take notes on what John Maxwell shares in his book Highroad Leadership and I could not help but get stuck on the second chapter – Value All People. I thought it would be fitting to share this with you right after the busy holiday season since that is the time of the year when people are at their peak of being challenged by other people. I think that it became the common response after coming out of the stores from shopping this year that the people are peopling this time of year.

John Maxwell begins this chapter by inviting us into a conversation that took place with his father and the wisdom that was shared that night around their dinner table. When John asked his father to give him the best advice he could for the start of his new career in ministry – his father responded “value people, believe in them, and love them unconditionally. Do those things every day, and you will be successful.” Hmm… What a challenge we have here!

Leadership will challenge you in all of your ways!

One of the many things that makes John Maxwell effective in his leadership style is the way in which he approaches one of the most difficult challenges in life – people! The way that conversation happened around the table that night changed his outlook in all areas of his life and that is what I hope happens in your life and mine.

Religion has corrupted the way in which we approach people. The ways of religion has taught that we should approach people by pointing out all that they should not do and cannot do in this life but relationship with God invites us into freedom by pointing to what we can do. Pointing to everything that is not allowed or should not be done produces a culture within the body of believers that requires a mask and that is when we begin hatching hypocrites. There are no masks required in God’s Kingdom! We are called to live at a level of authentic freedom that almost feels foreign to us because of the way that our shame becomes dismantled by the power of His love and forgiveness.

The way in which we express our experience with God to others is the key for seeing the value in people. Did you ever consider that it is only important for you to love people regardless if they love you or not in order to be effective? That seems to give us an uneasy feeling because we want to love others based on their merit to earn it but Christ did not require such and neither should we.

How Do We Value Everyone?

It is really easy for us to value those we interact with on a daily basis in our life. We value our children and those that we are in relationship with but is it possible to value someone that you do not know? Can you find the same value in the stranger that you do a friend? The answer is yes, and the way to do that is by finding authentic value in their creator. God created us all in His image, and therefore it should not be an option to question the value of another individual. The way that Jesus loved unconditionally in every interaction He had with the stranger is our example.

The reason that leadership is so important if we are going to be effective in sharing the good news of Christ with others is because naturally we believe that if we help those who are at the lowest point in life then their needs will be met and that will change their life but the issue with this mindset is that if we focus on only changing the life of the bottom 10% then there will be no way for influence to flow. Influence filters down – it does not filter up. The reason that true leadership is essential in changing the world is because once a leader has been reached and they begin to value what God’s Word says then they are motivated to reach the remaining 90%.

We have often times neglected to pour into leaders in a way that will effectively lead to them pouring into others to the point that lives are changed on a larger scale through the power of influential leadership. It is not to say that we overlook those who need and desire help – not at all! We are called into helping others no doubt, but what we cannot do is neglect the importance of having effective leaders that have truly started walking the high road of leadership by living it out in their daily life so that others are influenced to do the same.

All People Have Potential

When you start to see the value that other people have to offer then you can start to believe that they actually have potential. It is heartbreaking to think about how many people live this life and never understand what they are really capable of. The real problem however is that they were surrounded by people who never understood it either.

I need you to say this out loud – I CAN BELIEVE IN OTHER PEOPLE!

I know you are going to build up a defense response as soon as you start to think on those words but no matter if you approve of them or not – it is the way we were called to live according to God’s Word. He did not ask you for your opinion, He asked for your obedience.

The high road in leadership beckons us to believe in people and acknowledge that we are surrounded by potential. When you start to see the potential in something, you are naturally drawn to cultivate that potential into reality. How many times have you recognized the potential in someone and all of a sudden you were putting that belief into action?

1. Express Your Belief in Others
2. Equip Them
3. Challenge Them

“Most people rise to the level of others’ expectations of them.” (Maxwell) “In life, you don’t rise to what you believe is possible, you rise to what you believe that you are worthy of” (J. Lima).

It is not the easiest thing for us to believe that we are called to live without limits but the truth is that we are. There are so many people in our world today that place limits on themselves and naturally we begin to do the same because that is what our culture teaches. We have to become convinced based on God’s Word that NOTHING is impossible for us and therefore NOTHING is impossible for our neighbor either. When we begin to believe in other people then we start to unlock empowerment for them to walk at a level that they did not believe they were worthy of at one point in their life.

When we start to express our belief in those around us we can begin to equip them. Maxwell says that the greatest expression of belief in another people is equipping them. I am reminded in just how much Jesus believed in us that He chose to equip us with the power of His Holy Spirit. Equipping is belief in action. This is where true discipleship starts to take place. We also must remember that we cannot equip and pour out what we do not have ourselves, this is why we must continue to grow and develop in our personal lives as we unlock our own potential.

We are limitless in all that we are able to be in this life. That ambitious statement comes with a challenge to where we are at currently. None of us have a lid on our capacity in what we are able to do and it might be really easy for us to say that about our kids that are perfect in our eyes but can we say the same thing about the stranger that we just met? In leadership we are supposed to challenge those around us to leave where they are and grow into another level of life with potential unlocked that they did not know they had. If you are not challenging those around you to take the high road – then are you enabling them to remain on the low one? Do you even believe they can walk the high road?

Love Unconditionally

Well – if you have made it this far without stopping them you are probably a close friend of mine and want to see what I have to say or you have no idea who I am but something I have wrote here has challenged you to the point that you want to finish it out and just as Maxwell does in his chapter, I am going to end with the most difficult challenge for all of us when it comes to seeing value in everyone – extending unconditional love.

We have normalized conditional love – or if love is a difficult word to understand in this case – we can use acceptance. The first thing that we must understand is that love is a choice. Love is the mindset in which you choose to live or not. Do you live with an open mind that everyone has the potential to offer something into your life? Love teaches – so this is when leadership has to learn to follow.

The Word of God gives us the most simple and yet most complex understanding of what true love is – and that is God, for God is love. People are capable of liking each other and certainly even loving each other but the real game changer happens when we are compelled to love unconditionally. Most of the time we place conditions on love without even realizing it. We accept those around us when they meet certain criteria or check the boxes that make us feel safe. Somehow we have associated love with safety but I would challenge that unconditional love is an adventure that is full of risk but also overflowing with reward.

Christ loved us so much that He came to our world – a place that hated Him and despised Him in every way possible, that does not illustrate love as being safe in any way to me. Unconditional love removes all of the walls that we have built up to protect ourselves because of the hurt that love has given us in the past. Extending unconditional acceptance to those that know only how to reject seems near about impossible. Now we are able to see why our limits have to be unlocked and our potential has to be recognized because without it – we will continue to remain in the same place we have put ourselves.

The best way to begin loving other people unconditionally is to recognize their value and believe in their potential. Is that still a challenge? Shift your attention to their creator and it takes it out of your judgement zone and puts it into His.

Unconditional life is a gift and what is unique about this gift is that it is one that people do not realize they need until they actually receive it. The truth is that we have all received it and it is by far the greatest gift we have ever been given. Unconditional love says that regardless of what they say or they do not say or what they do or do not do; you keep accepting them and caring about them with no strings attached. OOF THAT CHALLENGES US!

Your mindset will be tested with unconditional love and living in such a way that you recognize the potential in God’s greatest creation – people. There will be days that you are set back and start to put conditions in place again, but you recommit yourself time and time again because that is what love does – it pursues us over and over again! Loving people unconditionally is what creates an atmosphere that cultivates potential and limitless living. Loving people is the high road in leadership that is most often not traveled and most commonly avoided. Unconditional love is the very essence of the greatest leader of all time – Christ and it is His life that invites us into the classroom of discipleship.

The single definition of leadership is others. This is not about you! This is about the way in which you are here for everyone else who simply has not recognized who they were created to be. Stop thinking of yourself as less than a leader – you have so much leading to do and it starts by stepping onto the high road.

With Love,
Coenology