Effective Leadership

In my years of being a manager I have come to realize that the best resource I had was the people that worked with me or for me. Once I came in to the ministry I realized that people became a more valuable assets since now I was dealing with mostly volunteers. My dilemma was, how to maximize their potential. I found out that the best way to maximize their potential and abilities was through delegation. The bottom line is that over the years I found out that I cannot do the work alone. The Bible talks about leaders that tried to do the work alone and were headed to failure, one example is that of Moses. He learned the hard way about doing the job alone. In Exodus 18, we're told about how Moses did everything in ministry by himself, and it caused problems on the job. It was tough on the people, Moses, and his family. Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, gave him wise advice and counsel. Simply put...he told Moses to delegate or die.

In reading about the subject of delegating I came across an article by Jim Wideman were he talks about 15 delegating tips that can help us in becoming more effective leaders. I agree with them and I will share some of them here in hopes that it may help, here they are:

1. Identify what you need to be doing. There's a right way and a wrong way to delegate ministry to others. Delegation isn't finding someone who's willing and then dumping part of your ministry responsibilities on him. There are some projects that are easier to delegate than others. There are other projects that you should never delegate -- and still others that if you do delegate, proceed with caution.

2. Identify things others can do, and let them do those things. Once you delegate jobs, ensure that the responsible people are properly trained and coached. Next, identify areas where you could use a capable worker. Don't just assign a task; empower a person to do the task well.

3. Qualify all workers. Jethro gave Moses requirements for workers in Exodus 18:21: "But select capable men from all the people." A major rule of delegation is to qualify who you delegate responsibility to. Are they capable and able? If not, then help them become capable and able.

4. Define exactly what you want done. Everyone needs a job description. Especially volunteers! Give them checklists to show what you want them to do and to show you what was done.

5. Train and teach those you recruit. You must model to others how you want it done. Classes are good, but hands-on training is better.

Well that's good enough for now, I will share more in other post. Read Article Here.

Source: Group, Jim Wideman