Logan Leadership

Novice mountain bikers grab the handle bars tightly. They believe it will give them more control over the bike. What it actually gives them is a rough ride—there’s no room for the bounce. A looser grip on the handle bars allows room for the bike to bounce without jarring your body. And counter-intuitively, a loose grip gives you more effective control, not less. If you trust the bike, it’ll tend to go in the right direction.

• Specifically identify what tasks need to be delegated
• Choose people who seem like they might become good at those tasks
• Say clearly what needs to be done
• Give them the “what” but let them develop “how” they will accomplish the task
• Suggest any helpful resources they might need
• Clarify who now has the responsibility
• Turn failures into learning experiences
• Check in along the way to make sure they understand the tasks
• Give praise along the way

Delegation means sharing the work. We can give some of our tasks to other people. Delegating spreads the workload more evenly and also helps other people develop their skills. As people get better at their new tasks, we can also allow them to make more of the decisions on their own, but we also still meet to talk it through.

Why delegate?

• To allow the you to focus on what only you can do
• To share the work more evenly
• To help another person learn to do new things

When to delegate:

In much of the Hispanic world there’s a concept known as the “Del Vio”—the strong man. The Del Vio is the man who is in charge, the man who calls the shots. (And yes, it’s almost always a man.)  We have a good dose of the Del Vio in non-hispanic parts of the United States as well—and in the church.

Yet if we look to the reality of the scriptures, we recognize that even if we were to be that strong man, we will not live forever. We must empower others to take up the cause of Christ after we are gone.

A significant dimension of my continuing education is reflecting on my conversations and experiences. What did I learn? What principles did I discover, affirm or deepen? What common threads do I see? How does this connect with other situations? What patterns can I discern?

On plane coming back from a week of volunteer work in an impoverished community of Mexico City, I did a stream of consciousness data dump to begin the process of capturing what I’d been learning. Then later I talked it through with a friend to solidify and consolidate my learnings. I’ve found that being intentional about mining my experiences for nuggets of wisdom provides new ideas and new areas for development.

*Multiply disciples
*Launch new groups and teams
*Develop new leaders

Communities of believers are organisms that must keep growing or we die. That can mean passing on the faith to a friend or onto the next generation. It can mean giving someone an assignment that stretches them to grow beyond their comfort zone and take on some leadership responsibilities. It can mean starting a ministry that serves the homeless or the sick. But in all cases, it’s about moving and growing and doing something… never remaining static.