Four Leadership Failures That Will Help Move Your Leadership Development Forward

When you come across a young leader who shows great potential, it’s easy to see them for what they could be.  We imagine what a great communicator they’re going to be, we envision the influence they’re going to have with our team, we anticipate how they’re going to take on significant responsibility.

But the key phrase is “going to.”  While they show great leadership potential, they’re not there yet.

They’ll fail to communicate the right thing at the right time, they’ll fail to gain early credibility with your team, or they’ll fail to follow through with an assigned task.

The key phrase is “they will fail.”  I want you to think about something: It may be your failure to tolerate failure that’s causing the failure of your leadership development efforts.

Our response to these young leaders failures may be one of the greatest determining factors in their future leadership.    It has a dramatic impact on them when we take the messiness of their mistakes and use it to develop their leadership insight and ability.

But that only happens when we’re able to remove our negative emotional reaction to  their failure and see if for what it could and should be: A leadership development opportunity.

  • Failure may be a step backward toward an outcome, but it can be a step forward in personal development.
  • Failure may do short-term damage to their leadership credibility, but their response to failure can be the very thing that establishes a long-term credible authority.
  • Failure may briefly wound their leadership confidence, but coached proper, failure can inspire them to face the next risk with bold faith.
  • Failure may momentarily make them look foolish, but it will ultimately increase their leadership wisdom.

Remember leadership development is a slow, messy process.  While you may feel the pressure of needing leaders “overnight,” you can’t produce leaders “overnight,” no matter how much potential they have.  So wisely partner with time and failure to do their work in the development of your potential leaders.

How well are you helping your young leaders steward failure?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mac Lake

Mac Lake

Mac is a pioneering influence in the church planting movement. In 1997, he planted Carolina Forest Community Church (Myrtle Beach, South Carolina). In 2004, he began serving as Leadership Development Pastor at Seacoast Church (Charleston, South Carolina) where he served for over six years. In July 2010, Mac Lake joined with West Ridge Church to become the Visionary Architect for the LAUNCH Network. In 2015 Mac begin working with Will Mancini and Auxano to develop the Leadership Pipeline process. He joined Auxano full time in 2018. Mac and his wife, Cindy, live in Charleston, South Carolina and have three children, Brandon, Jordan and Brianna.

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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Amen!!
 
— Scott Michael Whitley
 

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