In his book The Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich explains that being a human capital developer is an essential role for any leader. Ulrich posits that while personal integrity is the foundational characteristic, there are four other essential pillars of leadership: strategist, executor, talent manager, and human capital developer.
After applying Ulrich’s framework in various leadership sessions, I consistently found that leaders ranked themselves lowest in the area of human capital development. I reached out to Ulrich—who has researched thousands of leaders and was named the HR executive of the decade—to ask which trait is least common. He graciously responded, confirming that being a human capital developer is the trait leaders struggle most to display. To bridge this gap, effective leaders must focus on developing a leadership pipeline in church and consistently spotting young church leaders.
While I strive to excel as a strategist and executor, the role of human capital developer is most explicitly connected to the mission of the church. Our primary calling is to develop people and make disciples who make disciples. In a ministry context, this role is synonymous with being an “equipper.” According to Scripture, a pastor is not called to merely perform the work of ministry, but to develop and empower others for the work of ministry.
What does it take to have a ministry or a church that develops leaders? Kevin Peck and I spent several years talking about this and we put our thoughts down in the book Designed to Lead. Kevin is one of the best human capital developers I know, and I learned a ton from him in writing alongside him. Here is what we believe it takes to be a good human capital developer.
1. Conviction
Conviction is a God-initiated passion that fuels a leader and church. Without a conviction to develop and deploy others, leadership development will rarely happen and when it does it will be accidental. If a leader has a true conviction for equipping, the leader cannot fathom his or her role without developing others.
2. Culture
Culture is the shared values of a group of people. In a ministry that develops leaders there is agreement and alignment around the importance of doing so. There is a biblical understanding that all believers are priests and gifted by the Spirit, and there is commitment to give ministry responsibilities to people and develop them.
3. Constructs
Constructs are tools that help operationalize culture and help systemize the important practices so they can be executed broadly. Having a conviction for leadership development without tools to systemize the practices often results in frustration. A leadership pipeline is a tool that helps leaders think about leadership development, about how people throughout the ministry and organization will be developed in different roles. A tool such as Ministry Grid is another example of a construct—a systematic way to provide training to people.
You need all three to develop leaders: conviction, culture and constructs. Without shared conviction constructs will be met with apathy. While a culture of leadership development will insist on constructs to sustain the culture, constructs can also help build the culture.
This article originally appeared on EricGeiger.com and is reposted here by permission.