Passing It On: Growing Your Future Leaders (12 page)

Eventually the child will mature and gradually outgrow the need to depend on the mother for everything. The fruit will ripen
and drop away from the tree. Every living thing reaches a stage of independence. Independence is maturity itself. For the
mentor, it is the second-greatest evidence of success. Independence involves being able to function apart from the host, but
it does not mean abandoning the host. It means that you focus on maturing. Independence requires communicating back to the
mentor or the host how successful they were in helping to develop you. Independence is not walking off saying, “I don’t need
you anymore.” Independence is telling the host, “Thank you. You successfully developed me to where I am now—mature enough
to express my individual identity, to manifest my uniqueness, and to show my distinct value to you my host/mentor and the
world.”

Interdependence is the ultimate measure of success. At this stage, the mentored one is now required to mentor. The new mentor
contributes back to the ongoing development of the species, of the organization, and of the succeeding generation. Independence
is leadership fulfilling the promise of succession. Interdependence is reproducing after your kind. It is giving back something
better to what produced you. Every succeeding generation of leaders will be better than the proceeding generations. Interdependence
is the perpetuation of future leaders. At this stage, the leader can say:

•  I am obligated to mentor.

•  I am responsible for reporting back to my mentor.

•  
I am going to mentor.

The ultimate goal is not independence but interdependence—not just separating from the host or parent but also giving back
to and accepting help from others. Generations are interdependent. Leaders help assure that the next generation is ready to
step up to the plate.

I have heard leaders say that they could not take a vacation because their enterprise would fall apart while they were away.
If that is the case, they should be fired! The ultimate measure of true leadership is your ability to leave. You can always
tell a poor manager, an ineffective supervisor, or a weak leader by what happens when they are out of the office. Every time
the poor manager leaves the office, the staff has a coffee break and water-fountain party. Remember those times when you could
not wait for the manager to leave so you could sit around with everyone else and talk for two to three hours? When the manager
comes back, everybody runs back to his or her desks. That is a sign of a poor leader.

What happens in your organization when you leave? Could you stay away for more than two weeks for a great vacation? Why do
you need to call every hour when you are away? Because you are not a leader. If the staff keeps calling you while you are
on vacation to ask you questions or get directions, then you are a weak leader. You should be able to go on vacation and say,
“I am not going to call you. Do not call me every day. I will not be checking my BlackBerry. Do not text me. Just do what
you know how to do. Whatever comes up, just remember what I have taught you.”

What happens in your absence will be the measure of your greatness. Your ability to leave is the measure of your leadership.
People ask me, “How do you get to travel two hundred thousand miles every year, all over the world, and still have an organization
that is so massive and yet runs by itself?” I tell them it is because I spent the first ten years focusing on developing people
in my organization to take responsibility and to fulfill their leadership potential. In other words, I intentionally created
the environment where the need for my direct supervision decreased.

Have you started planning your departure? No? Maybe you are thinking something like this: “Man, you must be crazy! This is
my job, and no one is going to take it. I worked hard to get to this position. God gave me this job, and I am protecting my
territory. My plan is to retire from this job and collect my pension.”

If this is your perspective, then you will never achieve the legacy of leadership you deserve. You are not exhibiting the
character and nature of a true leader. True leaders do not plan to live on pension, but on purpose. They are more interested
in contributing to humanity than in seeking gain from humanity.

The ultimate goal of true leadership is not to maintain followers but to maintain leaders. Your goal is to produce leaders.

True leadership is measured by the diminishing dependency of your followers
. You can tell how effective you are as a leader by how much less people seem to need you. They have grown to the independence
level.

Your greatest contribution is to outlive yourself
. The only way to outlive yourself is to reproduce yourself. That is why Jesus Christ is still alive today. He lives through
the millions of “little Christs”—or Christians—in the world.

Insecure leaders need people to need them. That dependence props up the weak leader. An insecure leader to me is a paradox.
The two words do not go together. They contradict each other, but some people parade around as leaders. If you are insecure
and you have a title, you are dangerous because you will always want to protect and defend yourself. People like that would
kill their opposition. They do not just fight against competitors. They destroy their rivals. Insecurity breeds contempt for
those who threaten the leader’s position. That is a defect. It is a failure.

One of the greatest failings of leaders is fear. The greatest fear of leadership is the success of the followers. Have you
ever heard this? “You can be good, but don’t ever be better than me.” The moment the followers begin to outshine the leader,
the leader finds reasons to send them on vacation, to relocate them in another part of the organization, fire them, or put
them on involuntary early retirement—anything to get rid of them.

In other words, we become insecure when people around us start succeeding. Some of us feel threatened when no one comes to
us for help. How sad. When the people around you are more successful than you have been, it
is a compliment to your leadership. Always remember this: If you hold a man down, you have to stay down with him to keep him
there. Fear of success of others is a great failing of leaders. It is a sign that they are weak leaders. It takes courage
to mentor your successor. Diminishing dependency is the measure of effective leadership. It is like a parent bringing up children.
If your son is fifty years old and still asks you to cook for him on a daily basis, you need to be fired as a parent. You
failed. Your child should be cooking for you sometimes and be teaching his children to cook.

If you are a very successful pastor, for example, you will find the line of people coming up for your prayer call gets shorter
and shorter until no one comes forward to the altar for prayer. Now, that frightens a pastor.

One pastor said to me, “Dr. Munroe, something is wrong in my church. Years ago, when I called people to come up for healing
and consolation, they filled the altar. No one comes anymore.”

I said, “What are you depressed about?”

He said, “Well, maybe I’m doing something wrong.”

I said, “No, that’s a sign that it’s working. They do not need you to pray anymore. They are praying for themselves. If you
say everybody who is poor come forward, and no one comes forward, that means everybody is rich. You should be rejoicing as
a pastor.”

You have done your job well. Whatever you have been training them to do, they have been doing, and their prayers have been
answered. They have an effective prayer life, and their needs have been met. Everyone has been saved. Everyone has been healed.
They have fewer needs to bring to the altar. They need you less.

The ultimate measure of true leadership is the ability to leave. Can you take what you are building and give it to someone
else? If you understand that it is not yours and that you are just a steward, then it is easy to leave. If you think it is
yours or your family’s property, you will not want to leave it.

If you find it difficult to take time to rejuvenate yourself and enjoy the things you worked so hard to achieve, you may be
exhibiting signs of failed leadership. If you are insecure about your own leadership position as a pastor, manager, or supervisor,
then you might not be the leader you should be. If you are afraid to leave your pulpit for a vacation because you think your
youth pastor might take over the church, you are a failure. Perhaps this sense of insecurity could be evidence that you have
not focused your efforts on
mentoring and producing potential leaders who could carry on in your absence.

Leaders who show these signs of insecurity have not helped the next generation of leaders to move from a state of dependence
to a state of independence and finally to a stage of interdependence. I spend a lot of time away from my organization. My
greatest joy is when they do not miss me when I am gone. When I return, they often do not know that I am back. I do get a
little nervous though. From time to time, I have to tell the staff, “Hey, I am back. Hi, y’all! Hey, you remember me?” Still,
it is a joy when things keep going in my absence.

If your vision dies with you, you have failed.

Every leader is temporary.

Measure leadership by the diminishing dependency of followers.

Interdependence is the ultimate measure of success.

“I
KNOW THAT
you are inexperienced—green, wet behind the ears. I know that you have not been with me for more than a couple of weeks,
but let me tell you what I am going to do. I am going to send you out two by two. I want you to go out. I am going to give
you authority. I am going to authorize you to do some things. You are not mature yet. You are not experienced yet, but I am
going to trust you with a little bit of power.”

That is essentially what Jesus told His followers in Luke 9 and 10. The Scriptures say that they cast out demons, healed the
sick, raised the dead, and cleansed the lepers. When they came back to Him, they could not wait to report what had happened.
They said something like this: “Master, you would not believe that demons trembled when we showed up and the sick were healed.
We really showed them. Boy, were they sorry to see us.”

Luke 10:17
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Jesus rejoiced in their success.

Since the greatest responsibility of leadership is to reproduce leaders, it is vital to explore fully why leaders should focus
on developing leadership under their care. Many pitfalls await us on the way to establishing an effective

succession plan that will assure a solid legacy of success. Succession succeeds when the successor lands in the position with
proper preparation. He or she is prepared because the former leader was an effective mentor, delegator, trainer, or role model.

Now consider the pastor who goes on vacation and leaves the assistant in charge for a couple of Sundays. When he gets back,
all the members are talking about how well the assistant preached. “He was better than the pastor!” If the pastor overhears
the conversation, what should he do? He should leave again and find excuses to let the assistant preach more regularly.

“Leadership reproduces leadership.”

Let us say that you leave your assistant manager in charge and go on vacation for a month. When you get back, all the employees
say the productivity was up and sales are through the roof. “Best profits we have ever had!” What would you do with that assistant?
If you are smart, you will go back on vacation.

True leaders do not let the success of their followers threaten them or make them jealous. They expect success. They welcome
it. They train people to make sure that day will come. They mentor.

“No one helped me, so I am not helping anybody.” That is often the attitude we have. “I got here by my own hard work. I’m
a self-made man. I did it the hard way—pulled myself up by my bootstraps. Let them get there the best way they can.” If those
are your words, you are replicating the selfish habits of the leaders who were in your life.

Leaders must learn how to transfer power. They should not be afraid to let go of any authority. Leaders cannot remain snared
in a trap of not wanting to make necessary choices. Do not postpone decisions about succession out of concern that this will
create antagonism, jealousy, or hatred within the staff, congregation, constituency, or family. Transition is not hazardous
to your survival and legacy. It is a greater hazard, however, not to have an effective transfer of power. To transfer power
intentionally and in a timely, well-thought-out fashion risks creating discomfort in the organization for a short time, but
failure to transfer power effectively is like throwing a pack of meat to hungry dogs and hoping one of them emerges as a leader
before they all kill each other and become prey for other animals.

We must assure that leaders—be it in government, religion, corporate,
civic, or family life—arrive at positions of authority and power with the benefit of intentional, objective, strategic training
and mentorship. It is incredible how many leaders came into their positions because they won some type of battle, not because
somebody handed them a baton. Often we consider gaining our leadership position a victory over someone else. “I won the election.
I won the senate race. I won the bishop’s title.” We act as if we achieved something at the expense of others. This is not
leadership. This is conquering human souls. Leadership is supposed to be power passed from one person to another.