How to Succeed in New Surroundings

by John C. Maxwell | Uncategorized

School is back in session. Over the past few weeks, millions of children have grabbed their backpacks and lunchboxes, boarded the bus, arrived at school, and walked into a classroom full of new faces. During the first day of school, a student’s mind buzzes with questions:

• Who will be my friends?
• Does my teacher seem nice?
• Are classes going to be fun?

In asking the questions, each student, in his or her own way, attempts to figure out how to succeed (academically and socially) in new surroundings.

Similar questions run through a leader’s mind when stepping into a new environment. The new teacher entering the classroom, the incoming sports coach taking over a team, and the freshly promoted manager arriving to the office—each hopes to excel in a new role and wonders about the best way to start off well.

The teacher prepares a lesson plan, the coach plans innovative drills and designs a playbook, and the manager fine-tunes ideas to streamline operations and boost sales. Focusing on what they will do as new leaders is surely wise and necessary, but it’s insufficient and secondary. A new leader’s primary objective ought to be building trust with the people they will lead.

Trust: The Foundation of Leadership
Trust is an attitude that allows people to rely on, and place confidence in, other people. By establishing trust, leaders introduce a degree of stability and certainty into the chaos of life. Trust acts as emotional glue, holding together leaders and followers. “Do my people trust me?” is the central question of leadership, and leaders must continually monitor the level of trust that exists on their team. In the words of Warren Bennis, “[Trust] cannot be acquired, but must be earned. It is given by coworkers and followers, and without it, the leader can’t function.”

Prerequisite to Earning Trust: Self-Confidence
A leader must possess a measure self-confidence to inspire the trust of co-workers. The leader who wavers indecisively and emanates self-doubt has no chance to win the devoted backing of followers. Knowing oneself, one’s gifts and faults alike, is the starting point for connecting with others. Leaders who are comfortable in their identity, and secure in their abilities, put others at ease and invite their trust.

Building Trust

1) Show Respect
People are drawn to those who make them feel valuable. Leaders win trust when they expect the best from their people and treat them as worthy of respect. In a sense, followers are like mirrors: they reflect back the level of trust that’s shown to them.

2) Be Dependable
People trust what has proved to be reliable over time. They take note of a leader’s readiness to sacrifice for their benefit and of his or her willingness to work hard on their behalf. Once they’re convinced that the leader is on their side, fighting for them, people naturally extend trust.

3) Speak Truthfully
Being truthful involves the twin components of consistency and honesty. A leader demonstrates consistency by making words and action compatible. Perhaps nothing evaporates trust faster than when leaders break promises. As Charles Horton Cooley observed, “If we divine a discrepancy between a man’s words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.”

Honest leaders speak in a sincere, forthright manner. They mean what they say, and they refuse to shy away from the truth—even when it’s uncomfortable. Leaders help people get past the discomfort of painful truths and help them move toward decisions that improve their situation and bring growth. In the long run, people trust and appreciate straight-talkers more than sweet-talkers.

This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell’s
free monthly e-newsletter: Leadership Wired available at www.INJOY.com

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.

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