Passing It On: Growing Your Future Leaders (17 page)

Is love for the people at your job keeping you from mentoring? Jesus did not love us so much to the point that He wanted to
stay with us. He said, “It is better that I go away so that you can do greater works.”

Sometimes you love your staff or your children so much that you hinder their growth by not giving them time to be alone. This
is also true in marriage. I think spouses need to be apart for periods to regain themselves. Married people are often with
each other so much that they lose touch with themselves. Partners need time apart to build self-confidence and maintain their
own identities.

The process of mentoring requires that the mentor and the mentee spend time together. This is because mentoring is not just
a matter of instructing
and teaching, but more importantly, it also calls for observing. However, the effectiveness of mentoring is tested by the
absence of the mentor. In essence, mentors need to give the mentees their space to prove their own progress and development.

Jesus did not love the job to the point that He wanted to remain on earth in His body forever. He knew that this life and
this body were temporary. He was not afraid of losing His investment. He turned over everything He had, all His authority
and powers, to the disciples—all the work He had done in salvation and redemption. He said, “You go now and take it to the
world.” Jesus turned over the investment to them. He had mentored them, protecting His investment. His legacy was safe. Jesus
told Peter, “I’m teaching you this so you can teach it to others.” He transferred the investment so that others could be the
beneficiary and could benefit others. He had planted the seed.

The greatest leader of all time expressed this principle of succession thinking in very simple words:

John 17:20
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message.”

He was thinking about the future.

As leaders today, we have to do the same—mentoring to plant the seeds for the future. Everything changes, and no one lives
forever. If we do not plant the seeds of leadership, nurture them, and cultivate them until new leaders reach maturity, we
cannot reap a legacy of success that outlives us. We need new seeds, new growth.

During the past thirty years, I have had the privilege of building an organization that has become a national and international
success with hundreds of full-time and volunteer workers. I was always conscious of the transitional nature of life; therefore,
at the earliest stages of our organization’s development, I intentionally instituted not just a career-path process but also
a mentoring environment. I sought out young, talented, highly motivated individuals who held the prospect of securing the
future of my vision. I began immediately to draw them into my circle of influence. Their response to this invitation determined
the level of my commitment to mentoring them. I was very conscious that I was growing older every day, and I refused to live
under the self-deception that I was indispensable. I wanted to make sure, as all leaders should, that the beautiful, successful,
fruitful dream we have cultivated bears seeds. The future is in the seed.

Lack of confidence is the primary reason for failure to mentor.

Mentoring protects organizations from becoming seedless fruit.

T
HE ORGAN PLAYED
softly as scores of people filed into the church. From my vantage point, I could see the casket positioned up front as many
family members and friends lined up to view the remains of the beloved departed one. The man who died had once been a famous
athlete. Most of the mourners were well-known sports heroes. Next to the altar stood a larger-than-life photo of the man they
revered, shown in a running pose, depicting his athleticism in the profession of track and field.

Finally, I decided to pay my respects along with the friend I had accompanied to the solemn event. As we joined the dwindling
line of viewers, I caught my first glimpse of the lifeless body of this great patron who had won so many gold medals for his
country. Suddenly, I was standing face to face with the reality of death as I saw the motionless frame of what was once a
human powerhouse.

My eyes soon focused on the instrument in his hand. On closer inspection, I was shocked to see the dead man’s hand tightly
gripping a silver-colored baton, the kind used in relay races. I was amused at first and then stood there almost transfixed
in a daydream as I contemplated an amazing paradox, experiencing a revelation.

Returning to my seat, I lost track of the proceedings as my mind was deep in thought and mystified by what I saw. It was a
lesson I will carry to my
grave. What was that lesson? The image of that dead hand holding tightly to the rod will always be a reminder that batons
were never made to be kept. This picture was one of the greatest leadership lessons I have ever learned. It reminded me that
many leaders would rather die gripping the baton of their legacy in their hands than to pass it on to the next generation
of leaders.

“The greatest accomplishment of leadership is not attaining it, it is releasing it.”

It is important to understand that leadership is a relay, not a sprint or a marathon. Leadership is about passing on knowledge,
experiences, wisdom, and achievements to the next generation. Remember, in a relay the whole team wins!

In many endeavors, we have people who are eighty years old who are still trying to be in charge. Talented young lions are
waiting to do something great for the organization, but some old lion is blocking them, declaring, “The Lord says, ‘The race
is not to the swift but to those who endure’ (Ecc. 9:11). I’m going to die here.”

That is the attitude of a marathon runner. Leadership is more like a relay than a marathon.

What is a relay? A marathon only has one winner. When you run a marathon, a thousand people could start the race. Only one
wins. That runner gets all the glory. A relay is different. One runner starts for each team. Each person runs only a leg of
the race. The team shares the glory.

Endurance is valued in the marathon. A victory in that event rewards individual performance and persistence. The prize goes
to the one who crosses the finish line first after a grueling, long race that pits individuals against each other. In a relay,
each runner runs his leg of the race and hands off the baton swiftly and securely before the next runner can start. Only when
the last team member crosses the finish line is a victory declared. The team has won.

We see a dramatic variation of this every four years when runners of many nationalities carry the Olympic torch around the
world to the next venue for the games. Each runner covers the assigned distance, passing it from one to another, until that
last bearer enters the host country’s arena during the opening ceremonies and lights the fire that serves as a symbol of the
games.

This is a good model for leadership succession. You have to know when
you have finished your leg in this company, in this church, in this organization, or in this government. You are not supposed
to die holding the baton. You do not have to stay on the marathon course at eighty.

We have learned that in life or business we should press on until the end. That is one idea of leadership that is misguided.
It is why people do not mentor. “Be faithful,” they say. “Stay till the end.” That is not good advice as a leader.

Leadership is about successful transition. You have the baton now, and some people want to take that baton home in their pockets.
They write their names on it. “That isn’t yours. This is mine.” They actually put in their will: “This baton should be in
my casket.”

Who in your organization has an arm extended, hand open waiting for the baton? Can you think of someone? They are begging
you: “Your leg is finished. You have run out of ideas. You have run out of creativity. You have run out of steam. You are
living on old experiences, unable and unwilling to accept change. Let me run with the baton for a while.” Still, the marathon
runner prefers to stay on, even if he has to limp to or collapse at the finish line.

You can ask the people in your company who look as if they have been around for a while, “How long have you been working here?”

“Fifty-two years.”

“Right here?”

“Yes.”

“Doing the same thing?”

“Oh yes. I’m an expert.”

They are proud of that. They are marathoners.

We have people who prefer to stay on and clog up the system. Many of us are guilty of it. I have to keep protecting myself
from it. It is so easy to be caught up in it, but leadership is a relay. Can you imagine a relay in which one person just
would not pass the baton? Everybody is looking. The next designated runner is thinking, “Where is he? He is supposed to be
here, but he passed by still holding the baton.”

That runner is like the person who will not mentor anyone, pick a successor, and hand off the enterprise to the next generation.

Jesus Christ is the greatest relay runner of all time. He was thirty-three when He transferred the baton. God wants us to
pass it on. This book is
about the transfer, learning how to recognize where you are in the race, learning how to appreciate the value of getting rid
of the baton, and learning that you do not have to die to celebrate the win.

In life, business, government, church, family, or any organization, we can only run the distance of our one limited life and
then pass the baton. We must hope the next generation is capable of going the distance to the next handoff, perhaps running
faster, or better, or just differently than we did.

The most difficult thing about being a leader is giving up leadership, leaving it to someone else. The greatest act of leadership
is not attaining it. It is releasing leadership. I would estimate that ninety percent of all leaders fail in this area. They
fail to effectively transfer, give up, and release leadership. They have no idea how to pass the baton and most do not want
to.

Most of the leaders you know probably died with the baton in their grasp, and the next generation had to pry it out of their
cold, dead hand
. That is true in politics and business. It is true in the church, community organizations, and the family.

That is why the relay race is an excellent metaphor for mentorship and succession. In a relay race, the one who starts out
is aware that he will not finish. Most leaders of any significant organization or business who have a vision do not start
out thinking, “I am not the one who will finish this.” This is a hard thing to accept because we pride ourselves on finishing
things, and we expect to get the credit. Perhaps it would be a better perspective for the leader not to think so much in terms
of finishing the entire course, but to think of running your leg of the race well. The goal is to complete your lap in the
eternal stretch of time.

What I like about a relay race is that each runner is already in place, so the approaching runner knows when he should hand
off. I think many times in leadership we run past the other runner. That guarantees the loss of the race. Our whole team will
lose. Many leaders go beyond their time. They refuse to hand over. They refuse to release to the next leader, and they forget
that life is not a mad dash to the finish line. It is a sprint to the next runner or leader. We must not think that we alone
should finish the race. We should finish our
leg of it and pass to the next generation. Instead, we often drop the baton at the hand-off point.

The relay race underscores two other ideas. The race represents the broader vision. Our responsibility is a portion of that
race. The runner who receives the baton has been designated ahead of time. That team member can start running to get up to
speed before receiving the baton from his predecessor. The next runner does not start from a standstill.

We could define succession as effectively identifying the next runner and successfully handing off the baton to that leader.
If there is no one to carry on, all is lost. If one runner drops the baton, the team can be disqualified. To prevent this,
it is the leader’s obligation to mentor and prepare the next bearer of the baton—training, grooming, and counseling until
that runner is up to speed and can carry on.

Fifteen years ago, I ordained my replacement. I mentored him, laid hands on him in public, and told the church, “That is your
pastor. I am gone.” He runs the church. That is why I can travel the world preaching and teaching.

When I go home, I can tell them, “Hello, I am back.”

Some of them will say, “Oh, we did not know you were out of town.” That is good.

True leaders provide opportunities for others to find their gift. Let an associate preach some Sundays. Let someone else chair
the meeting or teach the class while you listen. Create opportunities for your understudy to go on stage. Give someone else
the solo.

For me, nothing is more exciting in my church than to sit on the front row and let another pastor preach. I take notes. That
gives credibility to others. It gives them confidence, and it gives other people confidence in that person.

Transfer the torch. Secure leadership does not see the development and success of followers as a threat. True leaders rejoice
when their followers become greater. I like the way John put it.

3 John 3–4
It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk
in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

We rejoice when our children can do things for themselves. We keep track of “firsts.” When they first sit up, walk, tie their
shoes, read a book, or drive the car by themselves, we are delighted. We should rejoice when others do not need us for everything
we used to do for them. The transfer of our skills, knowledge, and gifts is proceeding on schedule.