As I’ve watched leaders communicate, what I have found is that they really teach effectively. Wrapping up our last lesson, below are the remaining eight tips that will help you to teach your people more effectively as their leader
8. Teach from the heart.
The best teaching isn’t formulaic, it’s personal. The things you can share from your own heart will mean so much more to your people than anything out of an ordinary textbook.9. Repeat the process.
If you want your employees to remember the new mission statement or the marketing strategy, give it to them more than once.10. Good teachers ask good questions.
Effective teachers understand that learning is about exploring the unknown and that such exploration begins with questions. Not questions that are simply lectures in disguise—questions that actually seek thoughtful answers from your people.11. Stop passing out information and start teaching people how to think.
I’ve identified several ways that people who are successful think. Basically, what all successful people have in common is that they think in like patterns.12. Stop talking; start listening.
Effective learning is a two-way street. It’s a dialogue, not a monologue.13. Let your students teach each other.
Great teachers understand that their students have the ability to communicate and teach each other, many times more effectively than they can. Peers relate to one another much more than students do to teachers.14. Avoid using the same approach for everyone.
Good teachers believe that every student can learn, but they understand that students learn differently. Some are visual, some grasp the abstract, and some learn best by reading. Engage them in as many ways as you can.15. Never stop teaching.
Effective teaching is about the quality of the relationship between the teacher and the student, and it doesn’t end when class is over. It is an ongoing process.
Great teachers are always passionate about what they’re doing, how they’re imparting, what they’re learning, and that they want to pass it on to others as quickly as they possibly can.
The goal of a great teacher is to impact his or her people by learning how to communicate effectively. Even if your message and vision are good, their ability to receive it is solely based upon your ability to communicate it effectively.
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John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.
