Have you learned and developed leadership skills? (69-1)

Some individuals have greater natural leadership gifts than others but all the skills of leadership can be learned and developed. If you think it will happen overnight – think again! Effective leaders need time to develop. Read about the life of Joseph from Genesis 37:1-50:22.

Joseph was the son of Jacob’s old age. He was intelligent, favored by his father and had God’s hand on him. Joseph had a lot of natural leadership gifts but he didn’t have experience, people skills, discipline, humility or good timing.

Early in his life Joseph did not know how to skillfully work with others. He lacked experience, wisdom and humility. When God gave Joseph a dream revealing that he would someday lead his family, Joseph communicated the vision so poorly that it caused his brothers to hate him and his father to rebuke him. Yet 23 years after Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery to remove his influence from their family, God had developed Joseph into a leader that did not take revenge on his brothers but was able to forgive them and tell them that what they had meant for evil God had meant for good to save the lives of many people.

According to John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Joseph’s life illustrates The Law of Process. Joseph went through four phases to become God’s leader:

• Phase One: I don’t know what I don’t know. Every leader starts out without all the facts and experience is a great teacher.
• Phase Two: I know what I don’t know. Every leader will have an incident that will get their attention and impress on them how much they have to learn as a leader.
• Phase Three: I know and grow and it starts to show. When a leader has paid the price with study, work and experience, the preparation pays off and a leader will begin to see success.
• Phase Four: I simply go because of what I know. A leader’s skills become obvious to others because a leader is truly effective in their leadership skills.

Like Joseph, effective leaders develop their skills during good times and tough situations. Time alone will not make a good leader. Effective leaders are those that develop their leadership skills over time and in every situation.

What phase of leadership did your momentary self-diagnosis put you in as you read through them? Is there something intentional you can do in order to move to the next phase?