Leadership Thought: Teaching Leadership Lessons at the Staff Level

Dear Friends,

Most of my day yesterday was spent in New York city  at the Hospital for Special Surgery where I was having preoperative testing for a hip replacement that was scheduled for October 22nd.

Thirty years ago I had a hip replacement on the same hip, but because I had heart stent surgery performed in  June, the doctor felt it was prudent to push back another surgery for at least six months, so the surgery will now be scheduled for late November or early December which means I will have  to continue limping around  in this old body for a couple more months.

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me during time, and please continue to pray as I wait for my new scheduled surgery.

As one who has always been interested in developing leaders, I would frequently do leadership training with my staff. Equipping leaders is a key part of every leader’s responsibility, so I am always looking for ways to teach leadership principles at staff meetings. I have found that leadership is often best learned together when the leader and all of the team members sit around a table teaching and learning from one another.

The good leader recognizes that he/she doesn't know all of the answers to every leadership issue, but together with your team, those answers can often be discovered through informal around the table  discussions.

I know  that everything gets better when people get together, for as leadership expert John Maxwell reminds us, "one is always too small a number to achieve greatness." It is amazing what transpires when a group of people get together to learn about leadership. Yes, two heads are always better than one.

One productive way I have found to teach leadership is by providing a list of leadership principles and then providing opportunities for members to discuss them, while sharing their own personal examples of how those principles have been experienced and lived out in their own personal lives. In so doing, everyone is engaged, and every team member has the opportunity to not only become a learner but also a leader. 

Here a just a few leadership principles that lend might lend themselves to informative learning discussions .

“Relationships are forged, not formed. They require time and  common experience.”

“We can do anything, but we can’t do everything.”

“If you want to go up, there must be things that you are willing to give up

“Never take a journey along; always take someone with you.”

“Pass credit when the sweat is still on their brow.”

These are just a few of the possible statements that you could discuss, but you can come up with your own list that addresses the leadership principles you wish to instill in the hearts and minds of your people.

Yours in faith and friendship,

Tom