John Maxwell: “You Can't Lead People If You Need People.”

John Maxwell shares a powerful leadership lesson on influence, stewardship, and letting go of approval. In this candid message, he explains why leaders must develop others instead of depending on them, and why true success is found in growth and succession. This episode will challenge you to lead with humility, build future leaders, and embrace the journey of growth. Source: Developing the Leader Within You - 1998 VHSHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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  You can't lead people if you need people.

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  A codependent relationship seldom goes forward.

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  Welcome back to the Quote of the Day Show. I am your host, Shawn Croxton, it's seancroxton.com. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We've got John C. Maxwell on the show to wrap up our week. Today's QOD is this: You can't lead people if you need people. This is my favorite quote of the week by far. He's going to talk about two needs that keep a leader from leading. He's going to talk about how a leader's job is to prepare the organization, to prepare the team for the next leader. And he's also going to kind of make a controversial point toward the end. He's going to talk about being okay with moving up to the next level and never going back, not even for a visit. John C. Maxwell is coming up.

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  Number seven. The seventh reflection of a leader is, you can't lead people if you need people.

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  A codependent relationship seldom goes forward.

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  And there are two needs that keep a leader from leading, two needs that leaders have that keep them from leading. One is the need for everyone's approval.

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  In other words, the need for people coming around saying, attaboy, good job, you're doing it. And second, the need for everyone's support. You know, a lot of pastors say, well, not everybody's jumping in and helping with a project. And the key word, by the way, is everyone's. Everyone's approval, everyone's support. That's the key. The codependent relationship is not in the few people that aren't working out well. It's when you, when you've got to have them all on board, when you've got to have all their approval, when you've got to have everybody saying good things about you. The significance of learning this lesson that you can't lead people if you need people is, I am a steward of others for a period of time. My responsibility is to develop them and prepare them for the next leader. If I could teach you anything about developing an organization, this is what I'd want to teach you.

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  You're only a steward of that organization for a period of time, and your commitment should be, and your responsibility should be, to develop them and prepare them for another leader. Now, this is why all the turmoil. When you asked the question earlier in a Q and A, this is why all the turmoil of change in leadership. The reason there's turmoil is that most leaders don't draw people to the better themselves. They draw people to themselves.

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  Oh, my friends,

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  nothing is more destructive than a leader with a big ego.

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  It's only a matter of time till you destroy yourself and the people in your organization. It's only a matter of time.

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  Is it gonna happen this month? I don't know, but it's gonna happen. I promise it's gonna happen.

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  If I could get you to see your leadership position as a position that you hold for a period of time, of which your goal is to raise up leaders, of which maybe somebody that you're raising up will take your place.

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  One of your goals should be to be replaced. Cheryl will tell you this. Again, being a staff member so many years, when I hired a staff member, one of my first admonitions was for them to work themselves out of a job. I said, "Work your way out of a job, Cheryl, work." In fact, here's the way this works. If you work your way out of a job, I'll give you another one.

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  You just go into a department and develop that department and raise up leaders until you're not needed and they've got their own leadership. You back out of there, I'll give you another job. I learned a long time ago, when a person can work themselves out of a job, they deserve another one.

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  Now, I also told them, "If you can't work your way out of a job, I'll take away the one you got."

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  Your goal is not to be irreplaceable.

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  First of all,

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  you are irreplaceable.

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  God loves you incredibly and created you for a mission and a job, but in that irreplaceable mission that he gave you, he gave it to you for a period of time, then he wants you to move on. That's the way life is, moving on. Life is moving on. Life is a journey. I'm doing a book that'll come out next year called The Success Journey.

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  And when we were working on the book, the publisher wanted to call it The Journey to Success. I said, "No, no, no, no, that's not the book at all. It's not The Journey to Success. It's not some destination out there, and if you work hard, one day, somewhere under the rainbow, you arrive." No.

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  The journey is the success.

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  It's not something you're going to be, it's something that you are. If you're growing and developing right now, you are success.

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  And in this process, your job and my job should be to be replaced. Raise up people to replace you. Listen, youth pastors, raise up people until they can run the youth group by their own. I can promise you, if you can raise up leaders, you'll get another job.

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  What I also found is that the staff that could do the job well, they always had opportunities to do other jobs. And the staff that couldn't do the job well, they always wanted to know when they were going to get another pay raise. And how much longer could they stay? And could they have an indefinite tenure? And a package?

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  Hello? Just a thought.

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  The lesson I learned is that taking people to higher... Or, I'm sorry, the lesson I learned is if you love people deeply... Watch this, you love people deeply, but you hold on to them lightly.

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  Oh.

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  Do you see this?

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  You love them deeply, you hold on to them lightly.

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  After sixteen years in one city where I was pastor of a large church, I go to another city, leave all those relationships. Loved every one of them, loved every moment, thanked God for them.

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  Let's move on. Now, the good news is, I think I had the ability to make some new friends.

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  And I'm gonna go roll up my sleeves and develop some new relationships. That's gonna be fun. Every once in a while, I run into a pastor who resigned the church, but wants to keep going back and seeing the people. Hey, hey! Make up your mind. Get a life.

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  Oh, you say, "No, I need to go back and do that funeral." No, you don't. If you go back, you ought to be shot. Somebody could do your funeral for free.

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  If you drop dead tomorrow, somebody else will be able to carry on.

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  The reason you're going back is your ego won't let you let go.

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  Now, if you're gonna resign the church, it's just a thought, and then I'll move on. It's making some of you very nervous.

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  If you're gonna resign a church, leave it.

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  Somebody said, "You think you can live in the same city and resign your church?" Of course I can't. When I said goodbye, it was goodbye.

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  I don't need those people for my relationships in life to make it one more day. Now, if I'm gonna not let go of the relationships, then I ought to stay with the church.

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  You see, what we wanna do is, we wanna resign the church so we don't have the pressures of the ministry, but we wanna keep the friendship so we can have all the cream of it.

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  Just a thought.

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  Don't take me so serious out there.

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  Some of your paranoia is just growing right now. Relax, mellow out.

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  Hey, and leave that church.

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  Keep your cotton-picking hands off of it.

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  That was John C. Maxwell wrapping up the week. His website is maxwellleadership.com. You can watch today's entire talk on YouTube. It's called "Developing the Leader Within You 1998 VHS." My friend, thank you so much for tuning in this week. Follow me on Instagram @SeanCroxton. I'll see you on Monday. Have a great weekend. Peace.