Leading People Through Growth

In Episode 11 of Kingdom Insight, Dr. L. K. Leonard teaches how leaders can guide people through growth and development with patience and consistency.

Leadership requires understanding that growth happens in stages. Some people need encouragement, some need accountability, and others simply need time to mature and develop.

In this episode, we explore how strong leaders create healthy environments where people can grow, develop, and thrive over time.

If you are a pastor or ministry leader developing others, this conversation will strengthen and encourage you.

📖 Scriptures Referenced

Mark 4:28
 1 Thessalonians 5:14
 Galatians 6:9
 Ephesians 4:15

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Kingdom Insight, episode 11, leading people through growth. Welcome to Kingdom Insight with Dr. L.K. Leonard, raising thanks back to God through clarity, structure, and spiritual authority. In episode 10, we talked about leading people, not just managing tasks. But once you begin leading people, you'll quickly discover something. Some people mature quickly, and some people need more time. Some people need more encouragement, more patience, and more development. And one of the greatest frustrations that leaders face and uh is expecting instant growth from people who are still developing. And a lot of us leaders will find ourselves caught up in that because we expect instant growth. And then we have to realize that they are still developing. And so today we want to talk about leading people through growth. Leading them through growth. I know you thought that they all they don't all grow the same. So we have to lead them through growth. And listen, the first thing we see is the growth process. In Mark chapter uh 4, verse 28, the earth produced by itself first the blade, then the ear. Listen to what it says. Growth happens in stages. And we so many times we get caught off guard, but we have to realize that growth uh happens in stages. Jesus teaches the healthy growth is progressive. He teaches us that the healthy growth, he said first it's gonna be the blade, then it's gonna be the ear, and then full grain. Uh, they came in stages. It all didn't happen at once. You didn't just plant the seed and then all of a sudden, boom, that the corn. No, it had to happen in a stage. And we we want instant growth. Soon as we plant the seed, we want the growth to happen, but we have to realize that people develop and they grow in stages. And so, as leaders, we have to watch the stages develop. But many leaders become frustrated because they expect finished fruit from people still in early stages. How can we expect a finished product? And when it's a it's like a person painting on a canvas and they start off with just the the background, the color. They don't have the picture as soon as they put the canvas on the stand. They have to wait and they have to go through processes and they have to go through stages. So you can't rush growth that God intended to develop over time. If we're gonna be good leaders, we must realize and we got to lead people through growth. We can't rush what God has um intended to develop over time, and we think we're better than God. We won't want it instantly, even God allows us to go through the growth process. The second thing is so we have to understand that growth is a process, it's not, it doesn't happen all of a sudden. The second thing is different people need different approaches, and that's what helped lead us out and helped lead us to understand and get to uh a great leaders realize that uh different people need different approaches. Listen, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 14, it among it says, ammonish the idle, encourage the faint heart, and help the weak. Paul shows us that leadership requires discernment. And if you are a leader, you have to have discernment. You have to know what to discern and who to discern. Because not everybody needs correction, pressure, or instruction. We can't pressure everybody to do um do it the way uh that we everybody else is doing. We can't press uh correct everybody else the way we correct everybody else, and we can't give the instruction. Everybody don't need that, some people need encouragement, and a lot of times leaders uh don't want to encourage people. Uh some need patience. We have to deal with them uh on a different level and take our time with them, and some need accountability, just like when God is developing each one of us and the different leaders that we have become. God had to, some of us he had to encourage, some of us he needed patience with, and some of us he need we needed more accountability than others. So strong leaders do not lead everybody the same, they lead people according to what they need, and that's what a strong leader uh learned. We want to be strong leaders, we have to lead people differently, we have to uh meet them at their needs, not trying to not a one-size-fit-all. And so we got to realize that growth is a process. We gotta realize that different people need different approaches, and now and the third thing is growth requires consistency. Galatians 6 and 9 says, let us not grow weary in doing well. Development takes repetition. So uh we have development takes repetition. We teaching it once is not enough, correcting people once is not enough, encouraging once is not enough. Leaders must remain consistent. And a lot of leaders uh we get frustrated and we get tired, we get um um upset and we get mad because we got to go over things. We gotta keep we gotta stay consistent, leaders, uh, because just teaching it one time and may not get it. Everybody in the room is not gonna get it, correcting them one time. You may have to correct them several times. You knew as your kids were growing, sometimes you had to correct your child. You had to be corrected more than once, and encouragement uh is not enough once is not enough. You can't encourage me, encourage me today and think I should be alright, but it takes consistency. And so leaders must remain consistent. People often grow slowly, but consistency keeps growth moving. Hear me. People often grow slowly, but consistency, when we're consistent, it keeps growth moving, it's not stagnant. So now we need it, we understand that growth is a process, and not everybody, and that we can't approach everybody the same, and we know we got to remain consistent. The fourth thing is healthy leaders create a healthy environment for growth. You have to create a healthy environment for people to grow in, a healthy environment, not a stressful uh environment, not an environment that people get agitated in and they want to leave. Uh, you you have to make sure it's healthy. Speak the truth in love, we are to grow. In Ephesians chapter 4 and 15 it says, speak the truth in love, we are to grow up. Growth environments require truth, they require love, they require accountability, and they require patience. Sometimes we want just the truth part, we want to tell everybody the truth that we feel is the truth, but we don't want to do it in love, and then we don't want to hold each other accountable, and we don't want nobody to hold us accountable, and we don't have patience while we're doing it. But we must have all of those things together in order to create a a healthy uh growth environment. We have to have truth, love, accountability, and patience. People grow best where they feel challenged, supported and developed. Uh, yes, some people can they grow if they they they uh grow better where they feel challenged, where they feel supported, and where they feel developed at. Do we feel do we make people feel supported? Do we make people feel developed? Do we make them feel challenged? Or are we just belittling them? Are we putting down on them? Are we just uh come going at them because we think we have arrived? People often grow stronger where leadership creates the accountability and encouragement. Both accountability and encouragement. Don't just hold me accountable and don't encourage me. So growth takes time. Don't become discouraged because people are still developing. You can't grow discouraged because they still develop it. Lead patiently, teach consistently, correct lovingly, encourage intentionally, because strong leaders understand that healthy growth is not instant, it is cultivated over time. This is kingdom insight, leadership, structure, and clarity.