A few days ago, I was a guest on a podcast and was asked how I define SUCCESS in leadership/ministry… the context had me thinking of my role with InBounds, and with many conversations I have had recently with church leaders, PLUS our planning for our young adult Training Camps.
TRUE LEADERSHIP/COACHING SUCCESS is only attainable through SUCCESSION! In the coaching world it would be called developing a coaching tree… this is where you have assistant coaches that sit the bench with you and thus end up trained to move into a head coaching chair… (maybe even the one you are sitting in when the time comes!)
I’m going to sound like a schoolteacher here for a moment but let’s look closely at these words:
SUCCESS: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose
…ION: suffix denoting action or result of something…
the idea of being the state of something…
SUCCESSION: the most popular view of this word is the action of inheriting a title or position… BUT there is another part of the definition… From Oxford Languages: a number of people or things sharing a specified characteristic and following one after the other.
So, my view of SUCCESS is not built on a game or even a season, but on a culture of SUCCESSION over time of developing other coaches to take the lead and develop other coaches… (In the work world it is a simple process of apprenticeship!)
I do believe my view of success in leadership is according to The Playbook (Biblically sound.)
1st and 2nd Timothy are pastoral epistles that he wrote to Timothy. He shares throughout his letters to Timothy what it looks like to have success as a church leader. First, we need to know the relationship between Paul and Timothy… it is one of apprenticeship… Timothy was a part of Paul’s coaching tree. In Acts 16 we see where Paul purposed for Timothy to join him on his journey… he intentionally put Timothy in his coaching tree! In his first letter to Timothy he called him a “true son in the faith” (1:2)
In the letters to Timothy Paul warns Timothy of tough times and describes what SUCCESSful leadership looks like in these tough times. And in 2 Timothy 2 he gives a very clear SUCCESSION template.
2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, COMMIT these to FAITHFUL men WHO WILL BE ABLE TO TEACH OTHERS ALSO.
COMMIT: The idea of entrusting it to someone…
literally to DEPOSIT THE KNOWLEDGE into someone…
FAITHFUL: this carries the idea of those that have
shown they can be relied upon… it is those that follow through with the
execution of plans given…
WHO WILL BE ABLE TO TEACH OTHERS ALSO: so the plans are then to reproduce in those that will reproduce!
Are you in leadership of some sort? If so, do you want SUCCESS? Then according to The Playbook, you need to identify and pour into your “Timothys”!
TRUE LEADERSHIP/COACHING SUCCESS is not confined to just a moment but is demonstrated in a movement… a SUCCESSION!
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