When every decision needs you

A ministry can grow while the leader’s capacity stays the same. More work needs attention. More responsibility needs to be carried. But if the way forward continues to depend on one person’s time, energy and attention, the growth eventually reaches that person’s limit. Working harder can take you further. It cannot make one person unlimited.

So ask a practical question about the people you are developing: can they decide without you? In the Multiply or Die masterclass, this is where many leadership transitions stall. A person may have been given responsibility while the authority to make decisions remains with the original leader.

A title is the easiest part to transfer. It means very little on its own. Responsibility can be transferred in stages. But eventually authority has to become real. If the person carries the title and the task but cannot decide, part of the leadership has still not been handed over.

The masterclass also asks us to look carefully at what we mean by a leader. Someone can be dependable at completing assigned work. That is valuable. Leadership development looks for more: someone who asks before being asked, moves outcomes, adjusts a plan when it is not working and can teach others to carry the work.

That last part matters to multiplication. If a person can do the work but cannot pass it on, the work still depends on that person’s capacity. When they can teach someone else, responsibility begins to move beyond the person currently carrying it. Developing leaders includes developing their ability to develop others.

How do you help that happen? The teaching begins with position: bring the person close. The examples are ordinary ones, your car and your table. Development needs proximity. You are making room for the person near you, rather than assuming that a title on its own will provide everything they need.

Then authorise them. Give real responsibility, with real consequences and real decisions. The responsibility can move in stages; the masterclass says that explicitly. But the stages need to lead somewhere. There has to be a point at which the person is actually deciding, rather than carrying a responsibility whose decisions still belong to you.

And invest in them. Correct. Encourage. Share your failures. Those instructions hold together the honest and the hopeful parts of development. The person needs correction, and the person needs encouragement. Sharing what you have learned through your own failures belongs in that investment too, without pretending you have always got everything right.

Then comes the part a leader can find difficult: deploy. Let go, trust the process and pray. Development is moving towards someone being able to carry responsibility. Keeping that person permanently beside you, without ever allowing the responsibility to move, leaves the process unfinished.

There are other parts of transition that take longer. Relationship is one of them. The masterclass notes that people may still call the previous leader when there is a crisis. A new title does not instantly transfer every relationship. That helps explain why handing over leadership involves more than announcing who is now in charge.

Vision matters too. Whose future does the organisation follow? A transition can include changes in title and responsibility while the question of future direction remains unsettled. The teaching puts vision among the most important things to consider, because leadership is carrying people towards a future as well as organising the work in front of them.

Look at one person you are developing. Have you brought them close? Have you given them responsibility they can actually carry? Are you correcting and encouraging them? Are you preparing to let them go and do the work? These questions come from the teaching’s development process. They turn a general desire to raise leaders into something you can examine.

And return to the question of authority. Can they decide without you? If the answer is still no, consider the next stage of responsibility that needs to move. Your own commitment may be strong. Your capacity will still have a limit. Developing someone else means allowing real leadership to move beyond you.