There's something about great teams that consistently win. There's a reason why Tom Brady led a massive comeback to defeat the Atlanta Falcons in Superbowl LI. There's a reason why he has 5 Superbowl rings and Coach Bill Belichick has seven.
Usually, the common thread is great leadership. Great leaders know how to recruit, how to train, how to assign roles, and how to empower for success. Jim Collins, in his book Good to Great, talks about not only getting the "right players on the bus," but also getting them into the "right seats on the bus."
We've all seen the teams with superstar players who just can't get it together. And if you've been around long enough, you experienced pastors, coaches, supervisors, or other managers who were too insecure, lacked the skills, or didn't have the drive to develop a great team around them.
There's one more point about King Jehoshaphat's leadership that I want to point out as we talk about great leaders. In 2 Chronicles 19:5, Jehoshaphat went out and appointed judges to govern the people of Judah. In verse 8, he did the same thing in Jerusalem. In verses 6-7 and 9-10, he gave clear direction as to how they should judge. In verse 11, he further created structure and clarity by establishing specific leaders over specific teams, a "chain of command" if you will.
A leader must build a team if the organization is going to thrive. Part of building the team is training and equipping team members to make good decisions. He gave them specific direction as to how he expected them to lead and judge the people, and then released them to perform.
In other words,
- Jehoshaphat enlisted a qualified TEAM.
Great leaders understand that enlisting the help of great team members helps the organization to be successful and makes them look good. So many are afraid of being outshined or overthrown that they sabotage the efforts.
- He established the VISION.
Vision comes through the leader who then helps the team en-vision the future. It's been said that when a leader doesn't have a clear vision that either the organization will falter or another leader will rise with vision, which is in effect di-vision.
- He equipped with CLARITY.
In his leadership podcast, Craig Groeschel points out the importance of clarity and trust when empowering others. He says,
"Clarity without trust produces fear and inaction. When you have clarity but no trust, you're looking over shoulders and causing fear. You hold onto the things others could be doing instead. Fear can paralyze the people you're trying to lead."
- He empowered with TRUST.
Groeschel continues, "Trust without clarity produces work without direction. Your team members might be bought in, but they don't know what to do. They'll start doing things that might not be important or right. If you want to frustrate someone, give them freedom without direction.
In which of these four areas do you feel the most competent? In which areas do you need to find resources for development or work to improve?
