Jossy Chacko is the Founder and President of Empart, Inc. He has wrestled with his faith, dreams, and experiences and, during Session 3 of the Global Leadership Summit, shared the truth he has found in the Parable of the Talents.
At the end of the parable, Jesus concludes that everyone has been trusted with something. The next question, though, is can you be trusted with more? Are you burying your talents or putting them to optimal use? Maintaining is not God’s plan and mission. Faithfulness is multiplying what you have been given; God expects us to enlarge whatever he has trusted us with. This DNA of multiplication has been put into us from creation and our legacy will be determined by what we have done with what has been entrusted to us.
3 Principles to Expand Your Leadership Reach:
Enlarge Your Vision
Are your conversations in our meetings around maintaining or multiplication? We must be willing to take risks. Our vision should reflect the size and scale of our God. It should keep us awake at night and energized by day. There, of course, will be people that will tell you what can’t be done but don’t let popularity determine your vision. Listen to the vision God has placed in your heart. A vision statement on a wall is not going to change things. You need to have a “living” vision. By the way, if your vision is to simply keep what you have, you are thinking too small and will miss most opportunities.
Empower Your People
The master gave his team the money to multiply. Then he left. Take wise chances and give people opportunities. Don’t let past hurts stop you from continuing to hand off opportunities to your team. Future leaders are all around, the current leadership just needs to find and empower them. Your reach as a leader will be determined by your ability to empower those around you. If you can’t take a long vacation without the mission moving forward, you are likely not empowering your team.
Most entrepreneurs get stuck in the details of what they launched rather than continuing to expand the vision and team. First, develop character in your team. Then, empowerment them to continue and own the vision. This empowerment must be through relationship alongside team members, creating shared ownership of your win(s) and controlling predetermined outcomes rather than people.
Embrace Risk
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without risk, it is impossible to please God. Our society is often focused on eliminating risk and creating an environment of maintaining, but as Christ-followers, we should be taking the biggest risks. God has not given us a spirit of fear. Give the fear back to the enemy and go after the vision God has for you.
Paradigm Shift #1: See risk as a friend to be loved rather than an enemy to be feared. We often stop taking risks when we have more to lose, but vision should always be hinged to the door of risk. Don’t let your business card say lazy and unfaithful.
Paradigm Shift #2: See comfort and safety as your enemies. You can’t let that mindset creep into your leadership. Think of all the blessings in life that might be missed because you are not stepping out in faith.
Paradigm Shift #3: Increase your pain threshold. You cannot expand your leadership reach without enlarging your pain threshold.
Moving Forward:
- Make a list of all your dreams and visions.
- Set a date of when you’re going to take action.
- Name the person that will hold you accountable.
And don’t have regrets when you enter eternity.