Who Supports Me?

So I finished the book and wanted to bring forward for you one of the last chapters because it’s made me think a lot in the last three days. In chapter 24 Maxwell asked us to think about those that support us. I think you could do some translations from work to family to life in general, but I’ll talk here mostly from the context of my role and the staff that I lead at the church.

What kinds of support people do I have working for me? When I went through all of these questions I was able to plug a lot of my staff into them. So I’ll give you the questions and then talk a little at the end.

Who supports me at work?

Time Relievers – These are the people that save me time.

Gift Complementors – These are the people who do things I am not gifted to do and make up for those areas I am lacking. I need a lot of these kind of people!

Team Players – These are the people who add value to me and my team. They continue contribute and see themselves as part of something greater than just their own role.

Creative Thinkers – These are the people who solve problems and give me options. I can never get enough of these people and so I am always facilitating brainstorming sessions. I have my special people that I really love having at the table.

Door closers – These are the people who complete assignments with excellence. When I delegate something or create a project that get’s handed over, they bat it out of the park every time.

People developers – These are the people who develop and raise up other leaders and producers. Check out my other post here on Trading Up where I talk a bit about addition vs. multiplication.

Servant Leaders – These are people who lead with the right attitude. I’ve got a whole host of these kinds of people here.

Mind Stretchers – These are the people who expand my thinking and my spirit. Sometimes they create tension for me, but it’s always creative tension and never negative tension. I have come to really love these people in my life.

Relational Networkers – These are the people who bring other people into my life who add value to me. I’m really lacking people in my life that do this for me. This is the one area that I need to so some further thinking about to determine how I can acquire these kinds of people in my life.

Spiritual Mentors – These are the people who encourage me in my faith walk. I think I also need more of these kinds of people. They are hard to find in person. I have a few authors that give me substance, but not so much that one on one mentor.

Unconditional Lovers – These are the people who know my weaknesses, yet love me unconditionally. I need people in my life that I know are "for" me. I have a few of these. I’m thankful.

I am so grateful for my staff and from reading this chapter I realized even more all the wonderful people I get to work with. I’m not so good at letting them know how much I appreciate them, and with this list I’m actually able to put some verbiage around how they bless me.

I’ve gone through each of these types and wrote down the names of some of the people on my staff in those areas where they bless me. Over the next month I’m going to make sure they know what I think about them and how I appreciate them. Call me on it a month down the road and see how I did.

On to another book ...

jp