Are You Bearing Fruit?

The Ripple Effect of Leadership

The purpose of the 7 Daily Nuggets is to teach us what we need to know to live a prosperous life; the things that we may not have learned or are not currently learning in church, school, home or at work. Let’s apply what we learn here and share these nuggets with others. We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give. Be a giver in a world of takers.

Great leaders bear fruit. The fruit of the lives of leaders may only be visible to those who live after us. Leaders understand that we live in a generation that wants to see the results of our work immediately. Leaders trust that their lives will bear fruit.

Leaders invest their time in developing others to become leaders by priming the pumps of others. Leaders love their people and take the necessary time to develop them.

How does a leader go about developing other leaders?

1.    Love people. Get to know the people you are developing. Put friendship in high gear. Turn strangers into friends. Be great at asking questions. Answer questions with questions.

2.    Uplift people. There is no place for a downer in leadership. Pick people up from where they are and take them to higher grounds. Help them see the possibilities instead of being blinded by their problems.

  

3.    Teach humanity. The human touch is a potent antidote to the negative world we live in today. Think Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.  

4.    Stay close to people. Christ stayed close to His disciples. Be an encourager to people during their highs and lows. Take advantage of the teaching moments as they occur. Infuse moments of truth into those around you.

  

5.    Focus on their strengths. Leverage people’s strengths before helping them deal with their weaknesses. It is a lot easier to work on weaknesses after getting results from leveraging their strengths. Man’s greatest ability is to discover ability in others.

6.    Have high expectations. Others will tend to rise to our expectations. Consistency suffers when something in people’s lives needs fixing.

7.    Be upfront and coach them. Model the sacrifice you expect from people. Think of Christ dying on the cross. He modeled the way for His follower to expect hardship ahead. Don’t make problems bigger. Maximize the positive and minimize the problems. Cheer for people 90% and coach and correct 10% of the time.

Be blessed and be a blessing to others.

Carlos Fontana, President of Phalanx

Co-author of the book Follow to Lead (The 7 Principles to Being a Great Follower)

Author of the book PRICELESS (Sixty-Six Simple Stories of Reflection, Love, and Legacy)