CHAPTER
9
WHOSE
LADDER ARE YOU HOLDING?
Every
true disciple of Jesus Christ holds somebody's ladder. That's God's plan. We
need each other and we fulfill God's plan when we hold others' ladders.
Effective
leaders understand that they are holding someone's ladder, whether it's the
business partner's ladder, that of another church pastor, or a denominational
leader. God has called all of us to hold ladders for others.
Effective
leaders recognise two facts:
1.
In leadership we will always need ladder holders.
2.
In leadership we will also hold someone else's ladder. We are meant to support,
assist, and help others in their climb upward.
Ladder
holders must be strong, attentive, faithful, firm, and loyal. It is obvious
that we need to be the kind of people we want others to become. If you want to
develop superior ladders holders, we need to become superior ladder holders
ourselves.
God
always intended for service to be a street where we travel both ways. It is the
law of reciprocity and it teaches us that what we give will come back to us.
That's absolutely true; however, the problem is that we can
only give what we have. We can only pass on what we possess. If we aren't good
ladder holders, how can we expect to have good ladder holders helping us?
QUESTIONS
FOR US TO PONDER
Do
I possess those five essential qualities of good ladder holders?
Do
I intentionally hold someone else's ladder?
Am
I a dependable ladder holder? When was the last time I walked past a visionary
leader and said "I really like his vision and like where he's going. I
want to work alongside him and assist him by holding his ladder"?
When
was the last time I asked, "What leader can I help?"
What
does it say about us if we always seek someone to hold our ladder, but we are
unwilling to hold another person's ladder?
When
was the last time I attended a leadership conference when I wasn't a speaker?
When
did I go to a conference just to hear somebody else?
When
was the last time I read a book and thought, I really like this, and then
corresponded with the author?
When
was the last time I saw somebody else's advertisement in a magazine and said,
"I want to serve that person"?
It's
the principle, which is also in the Bible, that we reap what we sow. If we sow
holding ladders, we reap those who will hold our ladders. We receive by giving.
The
realisation that no one openly and intentionally mentored me has caused me to
become more intentional to mentor others. I'm an accidental leader, but I don't
want to be an accidental mentor.
Here
are some large and final questions:
Whose
ladder are you holding right now?
Who
is climbing upward and trusting you to be there at the bottom, bracing the
ladder for him or her?
Who
is climbing high because you stepped out of the way and said, "Let me
support you"?
Who
will look back one day and say, "I rose forty-five feet in the air because
you held my ladder"?
We
have opportunities to be somebody's ladder holder. Because no one has done it
for us, it may be difficult to intentionally commit ourselves to holding
ladders, but it's not impossible.
We
can commit ourselves to learning how to hold the ladders so others can climb
high and some of them may even soar above us.
No
matter how high we go we should be holding someone else's ladder - that's God's
plan.
As
leaders, we when we start upward, our most important decision is to choose the
right ladder holders; as ladder holders, our most important decision is to
select which ladders we hold.
When
we accomplish great things on our own ladder, we remember what we've done. When
we intentionally hold others' ladders and they accomplish great things, they
remember us. Their achievements become our legacy.
Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand
No comments:
Post a Comment