Leadership 101: Three Tips for Finding Leaders

I have gotten to work with some great leaders such as Presidents Clyde Cook and Barry Corey from Biola University, Berkeley law professor Phillip E. Johnson, and fine deans like Doris Warren, Matt Boyleston, and Chris Hammons of HBU. I have a chance to watch the genius of Provost Robert Stacey of The Saint Constantine School every day. My Dad was a leader with integrity and he was just the same at home as he was when building a successful church.

I also have seen some bad leadership, really pitiful leadership.

Eventually everyone can tell a bad leader from a good one. How do you pick good leaders? I was honored to start the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University and find the leaders who are now taking Torrey “further up and further in:” leaders like Fred Sanders, Director Paul Spears, Jamie Campbell, Greg Peters, and Melissa Schubert.

How do you find good leaders and avoid bad choices? Without a vision the people perish and with a bad leader the vision will perish.

First, have a hiring committee that has real power.

I remember picking a committee to hire a faculty member at the Torrey Honors Institute. I did not like the person they picked and pushed back. They considered my objections, but came back to me with the same choice. I did not like it. Finally, Fred Sanders (gently) said something like this: “You picked the committee. We did the work. Do you trust us or do you want rubber stamps?”

Ouch.

Fred was right and the committee was right. The person we hired as a result of their work turned out to be a great leader.

I have never seen an exception: an organization that rubber stamps one person’s decisions will fail. This is also true of the “hidden leader” in a church community (often a donor) who demands that everyone pick his or her choice. You cannot follow the Holy Spirit if you are following a tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood.

Second, you cannot teach talent.

I like people and believe in them, but the biggest mistakes I have made is believing you can make a person what God did not make them to be. That is a weird form of pride masquerading as charity. Our dear best friends Randall and Kate Gremillion have talent and whatever the circumstances they end up in good shape because their basic talent carries them forward. You cannot give people talent, you can only train what God gave.

When asked how you could know if you were called to preach, my grandfather replied: “You can preach.” That’s right.

I have hired less credentialed, but brighter people and have never regretted the choice. You can get the new hire college, but you cannot buy brains.

Third, integrity is non-optional.

You can have great talent, but if you have bad character, then you are in trouble. We serve a God of second (and third!) chances and I am thankful for that personally, but the Biblical pattern is not to move from a failure of integrity into an immediate lateral move. When pastors like Mark Driscoll take a few months off and then end up back in leadership without any repentance, mostly justifying their mistreatment of parishioners, there is a problem.

Too often Christian leadership is an old boy/girl’s network where integrity is less important than the smooth patter or the right connections.

A good man or woman isn’t hard to find, but it is impossible to find if you are dipping into the pool of grifters and grafters that dominate the Christian Media Complex.

Loyalty is the missing virtue in many would be leaders.

If he or she is all about people, hire him or her. If the potential leader cares about “vision” or “programs” more than people, they are the Christian version of Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge put money over people. We get it: that is bad. What we often miss is that putting the “cause” or the “institutions” over people may be worse, since it is harder to see the evil.

Here is a decent rule of thumb: how many deputies did your future leader have in his or her last job? Good old Andy (Andy Griffith Show) could get the job done with Barney. He was loyal to Barney and Barney was loyal to him. As a result, the town of Mayberry got good service. Even lesser talent with integrity and loyalty is better than a man with talent and not loyalty.

Good leaders are out there: empower a group to find loyal people of integrity with vision.