The Greatest Leader: When good isn’t good enough
If the late Steve Jobs had asked you to be his apprentice full-time — knowing that you’d eventually be at the top of the computer industry — would you do it?
If Drew Brees offered to train you to be the best quarterback of all-time, would you drop everything you are doing and go?
If _________, the absolute best at _________, asked you to follow them so that you could eventually take their place, would you go without hesitation?
A few people might say, “Nah, that’s not for me. I’m fine being just mediocre.” But there’s something within most of us that causes us to want to be the best of the best.
READ Luke 5:1-11
So Jesus is preaching to this growing crowd, which gets so large that He has to climb into a boat and push off so that everyone can hear Him. After He finishes, He looks over at Simon (who He had nicknamed Peter partly because of his stubbornness), and tells him to toss out his fishing net.
You can almost hear the whimpers and sighs in the boat. Peter — being his stubborn self — starts to make excuses, but catches himself and tells Jesus that since He told him to, he will. With one toss, the net is so full of fish that it almost sinks their boat and the second one!
Peter fell to his knees in a pile of fish in the boat and asked Jesus to leave because he was too much of a sinner to be around Him. It’s Jesus’ reply that we need to catch. He told Peter not to be afraid; from now on he’ll be fishing for people.
After they paddled back to shore, Peter and his fishing buddies left everything and followed Jesus.
#SeeWhatIDidThere
If you’re like me, you may have heard this story a thousand times and completely missed the subtle lesson here. We see the application: They were fishermen, and now Jesus calls them to be fishers OF men. “Yeah, I remember that from sunday school”, you’re thinking. But let’s look a bit deeper.
First of all, Jesus is a Rabbi, which means He recites scripture and preaches. Basically. Forgive me if you’re a theologian and I just butchered that completely. But in essence, that’s what they did. The thing is it was such a respected position that everyone wanted to be a rabbi. It was like winning a lottery to become a rabbi’s apprentice!
Second, these fishermen were fishing because they weren’t chosen to be a rabbi’s apprentice. So they became employees of Zebedee’s Fishing Charter. It was hard work. Apparently after a whole night of fishing, they would occasionally have nothing to show for it.
They had just seen Jesus the Rabbi preaching to a crazy-large crowd. Then, after telling them to throw out their nets, they catch a crazy-large amount of fish. THAT JUST HAPPENED. These guys were dumb-founded.
But before they had time to pick up their jaws, the most-amazing thing happened: Jesus told them they’d soon be fishing for people! I don’t want you to miss this. First they catch 2 boatloads of fish. Then this miracle-causing rabbi tells them they’ll be fishing for people. Fish. People. Lots of them. A whole mess of people. I still can’t get over this!
This rabbi (whom they didn’t know was the Messiah at the time) basically just said, “You see what I did there? Now imagine the amount of people who will be following you!” He just told them that they’d be the best of the best. They can be apprentices of the best rabbi they’d ever laid eyes on.
Sooo… how does this apply to teamwork?
I’m so glad you asked. If you want your team to be the best of the best, here are a few things to try:
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Don’t worry about picking the best.
Jesus picked a bunch of smelly teenage fishermen. He saw potential in them when others didn’t. If you’re just starting out with a new team, look at their potential — not their flaws and weaknesses.
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Stand behind your word.
Jesus didn’t exactly tell the guys that if they threw the net out they’d have enough fish to hold a fish-fry for the whole village. But I think He did imply that they would at least have results. If you want to build trust in your team, don’t have them doing things in vain. If you tell them to do it, you better know that it will produce results, or else it’s just a waste of everyone’s time. If it doesn’t, then be ready to own up to it.
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Be willing to do the dirty work with them.
Jesus didn’t tell Peter to take Him back to the shore to catch the fish; He was still in the boat, up to His knees in fish when He told them to follow Him. I imagine He was pulling up the net just as hard as everyone else.
Your team may never be the best of the best, because there can only truly be one of those at a time in whatever sphere you are working in. I believe as long as we take these cues from the Greatest Leader, we’ll be well on our way to greatness. Leave the dead fish and torn nets behind and lead your team to something life-changing!
By the way, you know those young fishermen? If you finish the Book, you find out they really did become fishers of people. The world has never been the same.
What are some of the ways you encourage your team to greatness? Please share in the comments section below!
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