7 Qualifying Questions For Potential Leadership

The effectiveness of a minister is directly related to the quality of leaders
around him.Tony Morgan presents 7 qualifying questions that should be
considered when examining potential leaders.

1.Do they have the leadership gift?
This is the key question that shapes everything else. If they aren’t a leader,
they shouldn’t be on this team. You also need to consider leadership capacity.
We know from Scripture that there are leaders of tens, fifties, hundreds and
thousands.


2.Are they a big-picture thinker?
In other words, this person always prioritizes the church’shealth over what’s
happening in their specific ministry area. They are more concerned with
alignment to the overall goals rather than defending their turf. They won’t let
their passion fora specific ministry get in the way of making decisions that help
the entire church take a step forward.


3.Is this person a strategic thinker?
You need people who can think beyond the daily details. There are places for managers on your team. You need people who can take the game plan and makeit happen. Your senior team, though, isn’t the place for managers. Find people whothink about the future and then canstrategically propose how to get from here to there.

4.Can they build teams?
In ministry, this is primarily about building and equipping teams of volunteers. As thechurch grows, you also need people who can develop staff teams. These are the folks who have demonstrated they can identify and empower other leaders. If their instinct is, “I need to do this myself,” you have the wrong person.


5.Do they share the vision and values of your organization?
This is no team for someone who perceives they need to provide checks and balances.Maybe they pride themselves on being the “devil’s advocate” in your organization.Thedevil already has an advocate — you don’t need one on your senior leadership team. Every leader at this level needs to be 100 percent on board with the church’s vision and values.


6.Does this person help us reflect the diversity of our ministry?
Sometimes we falsely assume every leader is wired up just like us. That’s absolutely not true. Leadership comes in a variety of shapes and sizes based on someone’s gift mix, background, personality and experiences. Consider using the “Leading From Your Strengths” profile to help you identify how different strengths are the foundation for different leaders.


7.Is this person a lifelong learner?
Ideally, you’ll identify people who will grow with your organization. It does no good to have someone who has all the answers, because tomorrow the questions will be different. You need people who embrace leadership development for themselves and their teams.


By the way, especially for smaller or newer churches, you don’t necessarily need to be paid staff to be on the senior leadership team. For lay people, though, they still need to be fully engaged in ministry and serving in a leadership capacity.

If a volunteer leader can’t invest the time to do that, you may need to move them into more of an advisory capacity or just pull them in on specific projects.

http://tonymorganlive.com/2011/10/24/who-should-be-on-the-team/?