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Thursday, April 25, 2019

SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 9

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


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