In my last post, I told you why you need to develop an inner circle of leadership in your company. If you have not read that post, stop now and go back and do so. You really need to be committed to doing this if it is going to be effective.
Now that you know why you SHOULD develop an inner circle of leadership around you, let’s address some common objections to doing so.
It Is Not Fair!
One of the first objections that arises at this point is, “But it is not fair to everyone!” The idea here is that those you choose for this inner circle will have unfair advantages and opportunities over the rest of your group. Folks, as Andy Stanley put it in his session at Catalyst recently, “Fair ended in the Garden of Eden!”
It is not your responsibility to give everyone in your organization equal and fair opportunities with your time and energy. Jesus did not pass around a sign-up list to those in the crowd, giving everyone an opportunity to be in His small group of twelve disciples. Nor did He give those twelve equal opportunity to be in His inner circle of three.
Instead, it appears that each time He intentionally chose those with more potential than the rest. Just like the master in the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), you should give of your time and energy “to each according to his ability.”
I Don’t Have Anyone Qualified For An Inner Circle
What if you feel you really do not have anyone qualified to be in your inner circle? Well, there are several ways I could answer this.
First I will assume you have enough people from which to choose, but you do not see any clear stand-outs. In this case, remember you are looking for those with the most upward potential. You may have to start very small and do a lot of developing. You may have your standards too high or you may need to relook at your hiring process! Regardless, it will be worth it.
What if you truly do not have anyone with even a remote hint of potential for this type of group? What if you are such a small company that an inner circle would have to include all of your employees to be considered a group? In these cases, I would advise two things. First, find someone else to mentor you and help you develop as you grow your organization. Second, keep this inner circle in mind as you hire. Do not hire people that could not eventually be considered for this opportunity.
But I Am Not An Expert!
Another argument may be that you do not yet feel like an expert yourself. You do not feel worthy or qualified to gather an inner circle around you for furthering their development. Good point. You are not. Unfortunately, you will never be qualified! If you wait until you are, it will never happen!
To again quote Andy Stanley, he said “It is not your responsibility to ‘fill their cup’, only to empty yours!” You are not an expert, and as long as you keep learning, you never will be! But you do not have to know everything there is to know about your job or role in order to teach them what you do know. Empty your “cup” of all you know – that is your only responsibility here.
Lack of Time
You may object to developing an inner circle by saying you do not have the time to pour into them. This could be a legitimate short-term argument because some leaders truly do not have the time right now to spare for something like this. However this argument virtually ignores the long term necessity and benefits of doing so.
Instead of accepting your current situation, you need to take immediate action to work towards creating this time in your schedule through delegation and elimination of less-critical tasks. By replacing these less-critical tasks with leadership development of an inner circle, you will actually free up more time in the long run than you can imagine!
Do you already have an inner circle? Is it working?
If not, are you now convinced to start working on it?
What is your next action step? Have you prayed about it?
(Originally posted 10/18/11)
