Leadership Journal

Every pastor knows the feeling. You need to be at the hospital, in the study, and at home-at the same time. If I could just clone myself, we think. While that's not yet an option, it is possible to multiply our effectiveness by finding and equipping others to take on leadership roles that we currently shoulder alone.

As a pastor for twenty-six years, John Maxwell has felt the frustration and joy of developing leaders. Last year, he resigned from Skyline Wesleyan Church in Lemon Grove, California, to develop leaders full-time through his institute, injoy, Inc. Maxwell's books include Developing the Leader within You and Developing the Leaders around You; he also publishes a monthly tape series called INJOYLife Club.

Leadership assistant editor Ed Rowell and photographer Bill Youngblood spent an afternoon with Maxwell to learn more about the art of developing leaders.

What makes developing leaders so hard?

Maxwell: It's tough from the start, because people willing to be developed are pretty scarce. When you do find them, they're usually already overcommitted in other arenas of life.

On top of that, it's tough to build a team with leaders. You can't herd cats, and you can't herd leaders. They are strong-willed and usually have their own agenda.

Then, if all this weren't enough, strong leaders are hard to keep. They will be continually enticed with other opportunities that appear to be more exciting and meaningful.

How do you handle the pain of losing good leaders?

Investing in people is like investing in stocks. High risk can bring a huge return or a huge loss. The greatest leaders will help you the most but can also hurt you the most.

The best leader on my staff once took a hundred people and started a new church just a few blocks away. The way he did it crushed me.

Another staff member was accused of a moral failure. He told me he was innocent, and I defended him. I found out three months later that he had in fact committed sexual sin.

These weren't leaders left from some previous administration. I had identified their potential and poured my life into them.

For months, I told myself, I'm never going to let staff get close to me again. They'll never hurt me or lie to me again.

Then one day I realized, John, this is the dumbest thing you've ever done. When we embrace people and pour our lives into them, they'll sometimes hurt us. But the future of our ministry and our churches depends on developing others to lead.

When did you realize the importance of developing leaders?

In my first church. When I went to Hilliham, Indiana, you could count the people on one hand. Over several years, I worked night and day, and the church grew to over three hundred. I really thought I had done something, not realizing that my self-reliance would break me.

When I left that church, attendance dropped from three hundred to less than one hundred in just a few months. I realized I had failed. I had not prepared others to lead. ...