The Great Leadership Myth

Tim H. Swanson

I bet your goal is to be an excellent leader. You probably regularly think, read and pray about how to become a better leader. I imagine you try new things and look for innovative new ways to engage your team and get things done. At least, that's what I do. And I bought into a leadership myth without even realizing it. 

I rubbed the back of my neck while listening to the rest of the church staff discuss the use of video during our services.  We wanted to start using  video to do announcements and capture people’s stories to share with the church during our services. That meant that one of us would have to take responsibility for lining up interviewees, shooting and editing the video. I quickly realized two things. First, I felt like I was the person who should take on the responsibility. Second, I was biting my nails as I thought about all the extra work I was about to take on.

I went straight back to my office and purchased Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Audition, and a bunch of other media editing programs. My forethought was, “I’ll get this video stuff figured out and provide an important missing piece to our services.”

But in the back of my mind, I thought about my worship leader friends whose skill sets were more impressive than mine, like my friend Ed. He leads worship, creates loop tracks for his band, is a skilled video editor, and is one of the better drummers I know. Guys like him seem to have so much to offer. I really just lead my team to provide music for the church’s services each week. As I compared myself to Ed and other similar leaders, I kinda felt like a one trick pony.

That’s where I fell into a leadership trap. 

I bought into a dangerous myth that kills the effectiveness of lots of great leaders. It’s a myth that says you have to have a well rounded set of skills to be a good leader. I believed that, in order to be valuable, I had to have more to offer. The truth is, my outlook was just insecurity and pride.

When I started picking apart my skill set, I was led by my worries that I wasn’t good enough. Then I was prideful as I selected ways to supplement the skill set that God gave me. It was like I said, “Hey God, thanks for the leadership potential. I need more though. You just don’t get it. This world is pretty cut-throat. If I’m going to provide for my family, I’ll need more than your gifts.” Pretty godly right?

What I didn’t see, was the tremendous potential of the abilities God gave me. I was looking at my skillset through a very narrow scope. Then one day I sat down to read Next Generation Leader, by Andy Stanley. Within the first couple chapters, I read one of those eye opening statements. Stanley says, “only do what only you can do.” He means that, as leaders, we may not have a huge skill set. But there is one essential skill we do have - the ability to get others to do what they’re best at.

The leadership myth I bought into said that I needed to be able to do everything in order to be valuable to the church. In reality, as I tried to learn how to shoot and edit video, I was really doing myself and everyone else a disservice. I paid less and less attention to my team, who needed me, as I sat in my office trying to figure out a completely new skill set. And I was stealing the video making opportunity from a number of other guys in my church, who are really good at it.

Before long, I stopped trying to learn how to edit video. Thankfully, I turned things over to a few guys who are way better at it than I would probably ever be. That’s left me free to do more of what only I can do - cast vision, protect my team’s culture, and help people on the  team discover more of their potential.

When it comes to your team’s task, there is probably an endless list of what needs to be done. As the leader, your job isn’t to do everything. Your job is to get things done through other people. So here’s my question for you:

Question: What is your favorite part of your job?