There’s a popular concept going around the church and it’s this: Everyone is a leader. Along with that, everyone is their own replicator. If everyone’s a leader, everyone is supposed to spend much of their time replicating themselves. Essentially, we should keep promoting ourselves in higher and higher leadership roles as other people take over our previous roles.
Many people aren’t going to like this statement I’m about to make: Not everyone is a leader. And more than that, some people should never grow beyond their current role.
There’s a concept in business called the Peter Principle. The premise of the principle is that if someone in business is doing well, they get promoted. They keep getting promoted until they stop doing a good job. So inevitably what happens, is the people who are stuck in their jobs are the people who got promoted beyond their ability. Eventually, everyone sucks at their job because they got promoted out of their competence.
So, let’s say you’re an amazing graphic designer. Church leadership would tell you that you need to train someone else to become the designer, and you need to start becoming an art director. Then a creative director. But that pulls you away from what you’re good at: graphic design. And you might suck at leadership. Some people are natural leaders, and some aren’t.
The principle I like about replicating yourself in church leadership is this: We should invest in others. We should invest time and effort into relationships and developing other people. But that doesn’t mean you find someone to replace yourself. That doesn’t even mean you become the coach while you let other people do your job.
Michael Phelps would be wasted as a coach. That doesn’t mean he can’t invest in other people. But when it’s all on the line and someone needs to swim amazingly, Michael Phelps swims.
Be sure you do what you’re best at, regardless of what nice ideas float around in church leadership. Not everything you hear—even if eloquently stated—is true.
Now go ahead. Tear me apart in the comments. I’ll enjoy the ensuing conversations. Let’s just keep it respectful. 😉
I’m not going to tear you down but lift you up here because coming from a church that did this exact thing you couldn’t have said this any better. Preach on…
I think it depends on the context of leadership and whether you mean leadership in the “being in charge of others” sense, or in the “influence” sense. When it comes to the first one, you’re right on. Not everyone should be supervising other people. However, almost everyone influences someone else, or at least has some responsibility for them. For instance, every father and mother are leaders.
I know in this post you’re talking about the first kind of leadership. Good thoughts. 🙂
Thought provoking!