The Secret Weapon of Extraordinary Teams

You’re a great leader.

You wouldn’t be in your role if you hadn’t developed your leadership skills along the way.

You probably also have a pretty amazing team.

And I bet you have some really great ideas for how to develop your team and grow their leadership.

But, if you’re like most leaders, you’ve hit a wall.

You just don’t have the time you would like to focus on leadership development.  You see so much potential but feel like you’re always scrambling to purposefully develop your team.

You try to cover leadership in weekly staff meetings but more pressing issues always edge it out.

You frequently discuss adding some training… you’d even love to teach it… but it never actually makes it on your already over-committed calendar.

I GET IT !!

The most frustrating thing for me when I worked full-time on a ministry staff was that we never had enough time for the leadership training that I felt we needed.

The second most frustrating thing for me was that when I would bring in someone to teach leadership to our staff, they were saying things that I knew and could have said myself!  Seriously, I paid this person all this money to say the thing that I could have said?!

Honestly, that frustration kept me from giving my staff the training that they needed.

After a few times around that block, I finally realized that bringing in an outside voice for leadership development from time to time was one of the best gifts that I could give me and my team. In fact, I learned to see outside leadership help as my secret weapon!

Outside voices are valuable because:

• They have the time to devote to preparation.  No matter how much I wanted to, the nature of my other responsibilities always left me scrambling to prepare.
• They can say what you would have said but your staff actually hear them! Face it, your staff becomes numb to your voice (and you grow deaf to theirs too, btw). You can strategically use an outsider to say the things that you want your team to hear.
• They bring fresh insight and perspective.  After one day with your team, an outsider can give you a valuable perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of your staff culture. This is GOLD for you as the leader!

When I wrote The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership I wrote it in response to the angst that I felt as a leader who was passionate about developing other leaders on my team.  While there are a million leadership lessons that we need to be teaching our staff all the time, I wanted to write something that would provide the foundation for leadership development. I wanted a resource that would create a common language for our team as well as highlight the areas that I believe are critical for every leader to develop.

Embedded in The Great Commandment, we find four dimensions that provide a framework for growth and development for every leader:

1. Heart – relational leadership
2. Soul – spiritual leadership
3. Mind – strategic leadership
4. Strength – visionary leadership
5.  

I truly believe that as each of us learn to lead with a greater awareness of these four dimensions we are equipped to become extraordinary leaders… and collectively, an extraordinary team.

Jenni Catron is a writer, speaker, and leadership coach who consults churches and non-profits to help them lead from their extraordinary best. She speaks at conferences and churches nationwide, seeking to help others develop their leadership gifts and lead confidently. As Founder and CEO of The 4Sight Group, she consults with individuals and teams on leadership and organizational health.

Jenni is the author of several books, including Clout: Discover and Unleash Your God-Given Influence and The 4 Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership.