This past Sunday a minister was sharing with me family weekend at his daughter’s college (High Point University in North Carolina) and how impressed he was with the school president Nido R. Quebin. This minister explained that Mr. Quebin treats each employee from the dean of one department to the maintenance staff with as much respect and gratitude for what they do for his campus. This made me think about Level 5 leaders in Jim Collins book Good to Great and I began to wonder, where am I on the chart? A level 5 leader is also known as an:
Executive – He/She is someone who “builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” Basically, a servant leader. I humbly admit, “I’m not there yet.” I would like to be a leader who builds enduring greatness, but according to Jim Collin’s chart I’m barely an Effective Leader (Level 4) someone who “catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards.” And I’m pushing myself there, sometimes I feel barely competent (Level 3).
I think if we as youth pastors are going to be Level 5 leaders we need to be servant leaders. And our obvious role model for this is Jesus Christ. But then again I’m not sure if you can achieve level 5 or if it just happens because you follow Christ’ model. It’s not like you can check things off a list and say, “I’m two tasks away from level 4.” It’s a gift given to us by God and the only way we are really going to get there is by allowing Him to take control and by following in the footsteps of His Son.
So how am I going to start being great?(even though I may never achieve the greatness of a level 5 leader) I’m going to start by saying “THANK YOU.” to my ministry team who serves alongside of me week in and week out, because I’m nothing without them. I wish I could give to them all that they have given me and to have them a part of my ministry is an embarrassment of riches. So I want to close out this post by thanking the greatest people in the world my ministry team…Thank you.
For the rest of you youth ministers, “How do you plan to achieve greatness today?”