Teamwork: the ‘Glue’ for Leadership

Mick Daly (Elder, Purpose Leader: Leader Development)
September 2007

"We are committed to working together, each part a sum of the whole, all contributors to the final outcome, and that outcome is success."

The words on this poster remind me that we are each part of the Body of Christ: “in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5) “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” (1 Cor. 12:13) 

The ‘final outcome is success’; for us as Christians that will include the ‘Wedding Feast of the Lamb’ (Christ) with his bride, us, the church. Mick Bennett spoke on this on Sunday night August 5^th. Also, we will share in the full “Joy of the Lord” (my talk on Sunday night August 12^th). That’s something to look forward to!

In June I wrote that Trust is the key ingredient for Leadership. Without it people may give us some of their time, but they will never give us their hearts. Trust and Teamwork go hand in hand. What does Trust-Teamwork look like in this world, and in the context of Leadership?

The poster depicts one hiker helping another up. That’s part of it: a team, of 2 in this case, making light of a climb that would be much harder, perhaps impossible, to complete alone.

Here’s another example: Mary came home from kindergarten one day and told her mother that her friend Ian had been chosen to be the leader that day. “So what does the leader in kindergarten do?” Mom asked. Her daughter explained that “they lead us to the cafeteria, to the library, and wherever else the class  is gonna go”– and added that Ian was a great leader. Curious her mother asked how a five-year-old could be a great leader. Mary replied “He doesn’t make us follow him. He just tells us where we’re going and then we all go there together.”

When my young friend Taylor (son of Brian & Sandra Gaddis) asked me to sponsor him in the ‘Youth For Christ’ run, I gave him a vision and challenged him to run 5 miles in the hour allowed. He challenged me to join him! So I paced him and we actually completed the 5 miles with 10 minutes to spare (great running Taylor!) That evening he called me and reminded me that in my Leadership class that he attended in February, I had painted a picture of a leader pacing a friend in a marathon: “you said the leader didn’t run ahead, or even alongside, but ran just behind the other runner’s shoulder.” Then Taylor said “do you realize that today you did exactly that? You ran the whole way just behind my shoulder?!“ He was right, yet I hadn’t done that consciously.

I tell that story only to illustrate that leadership traits, characteristics, qualities and practices are best employed effortlessly and unconsciously. Once learned they become part of you: automatic, hard-wired, programmed, part of your DNA. You can be 5 years old or 60; it doesn’t matter, as long as leadership is “from the middle” in a servant-hearted spirit of Trust, with Teamwork as a guiding principle.

Ultimately we are part of God’s team and Jesus is our team leader: “For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.“ (1 Corinthians 3:9)

Every team needs a shared goal or vision. “Then I said to them, ‘You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.’ I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me. They replied, ‘Let us start rebuilding.’ So they began this good work.” (Nehemiah 2:17-18). Nehemiah had a vision; he shared it with enthusiasm, inspiring Jerusalem’s leaders to rebuild the walls. He took the time to confirm that his vision was from God, and to make sure his vision was clear and compelling. The spark of his vision and the power of the Holy Spirit ignited the people he gathered around him and built a Team based on mutual, God-empowered trust. Then they all worked together with Nehemiah leading from the middle to accomplish the vision.

Recently both Nicki Cannon and Sonya Waters had an idea which grew into a vision, confirmed it in conversation with others, then built teams to implement “A Day of Prayer and Fasting” on July 29^th and “The Big Give-away” on August 10^th. We believe these were not ‘one time deals’, so watch this space!

When God plants an idea in your mind to accomplish something for Him, do what Nicki and Sonya did: share it with others and trust the Holy Spirit to impress them with similar, related ideas, then build a team for God’s purpose. Don’t regard yourself as the only one through whom God is working.  Often God uses one person to express the vision, others to turn it into reality, then he takes it where he wants it to go. When you encourage, inspire and lead others, you put Teamwork into action to accomplish God’s purpose.