An Introduction to the Leadership Framework

Editor's Notes

• #2: In Mark 16:15, Jesus sends us to the world with an imperative: “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” In Matthew 28:18-20, He says, “Go, therefore, into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus Himself has given us our charge.   That one famous night while studying Greek, God gave Bill Bright a vision for reaching the world. In 1951, he and Vonette stepped out in faith and obedience, launching Campus Crusade for Christ. We share that same calling---to help fulfill the Great Commission in this generation, now sixty plus years later. Times have changed.   When Steve Douglass took the reins from Bill, he had a special word from the Lord. “Movements Everywhere, so that everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus.” That has become our vision. What does that mean for us?
• #3: We must develop leaders. That is part of our stewardship of the people God has entrusted to us - to help them become the best they can be. Likewise, our mission demands an increasing base of leadership to go beyond current reality. Our desire is each staff member, disciple, or participant in our mission grows into Christ-like maturity and increasing ability to minister and multiply.
• #4: There are many theories and definitions of leadership that have evolved over time. In this Leadership Framework, we are not talking about interpersonal or small group leadership. That is important, and we will often lead in those ways. What we mean here however, is leadership in the context of holding a leadership position in a complex and changing organizational environment.
• #5: Developing leaders for our organization must be viewed as… essential, not optional; crucial, not peripheral to our success; and typical, not exceptional. Until that is our experience throughout the ministry, we will not be generating the number or quality of leaders our mission requires.
• #6: Organizational leader development is the first step to accomplish the development of all our staff. Organizational leaders hold the key to the type of environment in which others serve. For that reason, we choose to focus on organizational leaders who then have the responsibility to develop all those under their stewardship.
• #7: We need a common understanding of leadership to develop leaders in a global context. In light of the need for organizational leaders who will develop others to fulfill our vision, we need a common way to view leadership and its development. We are a diverse movement. As we grow toward more and more cooperation beyond individual ministries and/or geographical lines, we need a common way to address development concerns.
• #8: A common framework for leadership benefits us in several ways: Gives a way to evaluate how am I leading and “where are the gaps in my leadership?” Enables me to develop others by both diagnosing problem areas and prescribing steps for growth or improvement. Gives us the means to discuss organizational realities in common language.
• #9: Origin of the Leadership Framework   Our Leadership Framework was developed from a study of a number of highly effective leaders within Campus Crusade for Christ. While it may and will be used for leader development purposes, it is a Leadership Framework, combining the requirements of both spiritual and strategic leadership, in light of our calling. This framework identifies what is critical for us as leaders in Campus Crusade for Christ.   We openly acknowledge that most leaders do not share the same level of experience or expertise in each of these categories. Each leader has a God-given gifting, along with different experience and maturity. However, when people step into organizational leadership, we are saying they are responsible to ensure that these roles and responsibilities are fulfilled, because they are critical to our leadership.
• #10: Overview of the Leadership Framework There are four main categories of our Leadership Framework- four R’s: Relationships of a leader – the foundation of our leadership Roles of a Leader – ways leaders think and act Responsibilities of a leader – essential influence skills Results of a leader – how we will measure progress  The "Relationships of a leader" is the foundational category. Your relationship with God is central to your life and leadership. Your personal character and qualities and your relationships with others form the base from which you lead. Without strength in these areas, leadership is not sustainable.  The Roles describe how you think and what you do as a leader. There are four roles: Direction Setter, Spokesperson, Coach and Change Agent. There are four Responsibilities or influence skills: vision-casting, strategy formulation, aligning, and motivating. No matter which role you are operating from at any given time, the four responsibilities are skills needed for each role.   For example, a leader as Spokesperson must paint a picture of where we are going (vision-casting) and have a plan to invite people to participate with us. A leader in the Coach role will need to cast vision, have a strategy, align, and motivate people to be encouraged and equipped to live out the mission.   The Results establish the categories for evaluating our effectiveness. As our vision is Movements Everywhere, Local Movement Indicators represent essential faith actions and fruit that we are looking for to measure our progress toward our vision. At other levels of the organization, there are different measures according to the stewardship of that level of the organization.  
• #19: How do the responsibilities affect the roles of a leader?   Picture the leader team who are great at casting vision, but not strategy formulation. They assume that people will figure it out. Or picture the team who cast vision and formulate strategy, but do not invite people to be a part. Or if we go back to the example of ministry partner development, what happens once people are on our team and never hear back from us?
• #20: What is the relationship between stewardship and vision?   If we took the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, and developed it relative to our movement, we might hear the Master give to Bill Bright a task - to help fulfill the Great Commission. In a sense, he is the first steward of our vision. Sixty years later, there are hundreds, even thousands of leaders who are stewards of this same vision. In addition, God has given to us an incredible array of resources- thousands of staff, hundreds of thousands of disciples, millions of dollars, strategies, tools, materials, technologies, even properties. As stewards of all these things, we are called to wisely invest each one with a view toward increasing the capacity for the fulfillment of that God-given vision.