The 4th Difference between Leaders who develop Leaders and leaders who only want followers is Ability.
A leader can only give what he already has. It is harder to lead leaders than it is to lead followers. If leaders are rated on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best every leader will be somewhere on that scale. A leader who is ranked at 6 will not be able to attract 7s-10s. They will just not follow. A leader who is a 6 will attract other 6s and below. The lower down the scale we get the less influence we can have. Leadership is essentially influence. So the more people we want to influence, the better leaders we want to attract the more we have to work on ourselves...to improve our abilities. That is our goal and why we are working through this course together.
The 5th Difference is... Attitude.
Can I call Leaders who develop leaders LLs and Leaders who develop followers LFs for ease. LFs want to be recognised while LLs want to be replaced.
Leaders who want to be great leaders (LLs) know that they must develop other leaders and that when it is all done, the people will look at all that has been achieved and they will feel like they have achieved it and they will say "We have done this". The great leader will be satisfied with that...more than happy...his temporal reward is in the success alone but further he will rest in the knowledge that his rewards will come from the Eternal God and will never be taken away.
There are good leaders but they desire followers...and they want the credit for themselves...they want to be recognised and for people to say "We couldn't have done it without you." Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount they can have that...but that will be all the reward they get. It may seem wonderful at the time but memories are short and people are fickle, the adoration that is given so easily is just as quickly withdrawn.
The 6th Difference...Priorities.
LLs and LFs spend their time differently. LLs fill their own calendar, they set their own agenda, they do the things that are important to achieve the goal. They are always in control. On the other hand LFs react to every emergency, real or imagined and allow everyone else to control their time and their agenda. They often leave important tasks undone because they spent so much time fighting fires. They never grasp how unimportant some things really are.
The 7th Difference...Their Growth Philosophy
LLs grow from the inside out and their is no limit to their potential. They understand that what happens in the inner man will determine what happens in the physical. They work continually on self improvement, and on developing and equipping their trusted aids in the same way. They are never afraid that someone they are training will be better than them: on the contrary, that's what they are hoping to achieve with every protege.
LFs are growing from the outside in, they are always working on new programs, or events but never on people.
The 8th Difference...Expectations
Great Leaders (LLs) have great expectations of themselves and of other people. They ask for commitment and they are not afraid to lose those who are not committed. When we ask for commitment we lose the winers and keep the winners. It is better to have a hard core of committed, positive people with a winning mentality than ten times as many lukewarm, fair weather followers who are not committed. LFs have high expectations of themselves but low expectations of their followers and they are not often disappointed.
9th Difference... Style
LLs style changes, the input they give is tailored to the individual needs of those they are developing. They recognise everyone has a different personality and learns in different ways.
LFs lead everyone the same way. They feel we are all equal, everyone deserves the same time, the same opportunities. John asks did Jesus give everyone the same time...no he didn't. He taught the multitudes at times... he spent most of his time with the 12 but even then he took the three, James, John and Peter aside for special tuition and perhaps John got more of Jesus's time than all the others. Jesus spent 80% of his time with the 12 and as much as 90% of His time with his three main men. After the ascension when the church began to grow who were the three responsible for the great majority of the early converts and the leading of the church. I am sure you know it was Peter, James and John.
10th Difference...Impact
LFs have an impact only on the people they can personally touch. They may be very charismatic but if they can't transfer their passion and their knowledge to others they end up with only followers and are limited by what they can personally do. LLs have an impact far beyond themselves. I suppose if you could squeeze Jesus into our scale of 1-10 He would have to be a 10. We just looked at the influence His big 3 had after He returned to Heaven. We see the ongoing results of His leadership today some 20 centuries later. That is IMPACT!