Day Twenty-Eight

LEADERSHIP

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Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

—JOHN C. MAXWELL

You don’t need to be recognized by your company as a partner, owner, CEO, or manager to be a leader. Leadership does not come with a title; it comes with a stewardship of your influence.

Leadership is all about how we use this thing called influence, and how we are influencing each other. It is really black and white. We are either leading people toward their purpose or away from it. We are either empowering people or disempowering them. We are either helping people fulfill what they have been called to do or promoting lifestyles of complacency. If we cannot be trusted to lead people into their destinies, their identities, and their callings, then we are not stewarding our influence well and will never become positioned for new levels of leadership.

Remember, leadership is not about being in charge of other people or managing people. You manage things but lead people. It not about exercising authority over everybody else while we recline comfortably “at the top.” Those who idealize such a false paradigm of leadership, by definition, are not qualified for it. When it comes to stepping into new levels of influence, we must understand how God’s structure of promotion works.

Who are the people God desires to promote to places of influence? Those who steward what they have already been given. These people do not despise the days of small beginnings, but they work hard, starting from the bottom, and use every opportunity as a chance to grow and develop. (See Zechariah 4:9,10.) They know how to obey in the little things, paying attention to all of the details. They are not consumed with romantic notions of being the one in charge, but instead are preoccupied with the great challenge of developing the people around them. In short, God promotes those who do their best to promote others. If you make others shine, God will make you shine.

Increase is given to givers. It might not make sense within our natural framework, but that’s okay—we are to be Kingdom-minded. In this context, Jesus invites us to give and it shall be given to us. (See Luke 6:38.) It would appear that in Jesus’s paradigm, the key to increase is giving away what we have. In other words, Jesus is looking for those who invest what they currently have in order to evaluate who qualifies for more.

Are you increasing your influence by investing in others? God is looking to invest in those who use what they have to invest in others, because He knows such people can be trusted with more.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

How would you personally define leadership? What metaphors can you use in your description?

Why do you think the issue of stewarding your influence is so important to Jesus? How does stewardship actually position you for increase?

Can you think of some practical ways that you can steward your current level of influence?

ACTION STEPS

The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.

—KEN BLANCHARD

I want you to consider where you are—right now. What is your job? What measure of influence have you currently been entrusted with? Just because you don’t have a special title does not mean you are without influence. No matter what you do or where you work, you have influence. No matter who you are, you influence someone.

Ask yourself, “How am I currently using my position of influence?”