NOW is the time to infuse your program with new energy, train new leadership, or bring this powerful Prayer Chaplain Program to your ministry.  

 

How do we know the difference between a leader that is simply competent and one that is accomplished - has taken his or her skills to the next level?  "Compentent leaders can lead followers.  They can find, gather, recruit, and enlist them."  To be a truly great leader one must be able to lead other leaders - in addition to those above him - lead those who walk alongside him.

 

John Maxwell says, "To succeed as a 360-Degree Leader who leads peer-to-peer, you have to work at giving your colleagues reasons to respect and follow you.  How do you do that?  By helping your peers win.  If you can help them win, you will not only help the organization but will also help yourself."

 

As leaders of the Prayer Chaplain Program within your ministry who are your peers?  Who are the other volunteer or staff positions that lead programs, groups of people, etc.?  Who do you serve alongside?  These are the people with whom you want to build strong relationships and create influence.

 

John Maxwell gives us a great tool in his chapter on Lead-Across Principle #1 - The Leadership Loop.  This leadership loop begins with caring and ends with succeeding:

 

1.  Caring - Show people that you care about them by taking a real interest in them.  Many leaders become so task driven that they don't give people enough attention.

2.  Learning - Take the time to get to know your peers, their likes and dislikes, their best skills, etc. 

3.  Appreciating - "We tend to appreciate people who can do things we admire.  But if we only appreciate people like ourselves, we're missing so much."

4.  Contributing - Go out of your way to add value to your peers that helps their success.  Fill in their gaps and don't keep your best stuff to youself. 

5.  Verbalizing - Take the time to affirm to your peers what you value about them and what they're doing right.  "The word affirm comes from ad firmare, which means 'to make firm.'  So when you affirm people, you make firm within them the things you see about them."

6.  Leading - Having practiced the five previous steps, you are ready to start leading your peers.  "The things you've done up to now have served to build your relationship with them, give you credibility, and display that your motives are good.  With that kind of history, you will have earned the opportuniy to influence them."

7.  Succeeding - "Great leaders don't use people so that they can win.  They lead people so that they all can win together."  Helping others succeed breeds more success for you and the organization in which you serve.

 

"When Lou Holtz was coaching Notre Dame's football team, he was quoted as saying, 'Do what's right! Do the best you can and treat others the way you want to be treated, because they will ask three questions:  (1) Can I trust you? (2) Do you believe in this?  Are you committed to this - have a passion for this? 

(3) Do you care about me as a person?'  If the people around you can answer yes to all of those questions, then you have a very good chance of making an impact on thier lives."

 

 (Excerpts taken from The 360 Degree Leader by John C. Maxwell)