The Five-Tooled Leader

This is the third post in a series called "Leadership in the Crucible", a profile of leaders trained for a special anointing.

In baseball, you hear the words to describe the one of a kind player "He is a five-tools player". What it means is that the player can hit for average, hit for power, can run the bases well and with speed, can field well and has a cannon for an arm. In Cleveland, Shin Shoo-Choo is this type of player. He can run, hit, and field. The fielding also means that he has a power arm. Since these are natural skills (generally you can't run fast unless you are born with it), there have been many who have the natural skills and instincts, but don't work hard to improve upon them. In the advanced caliber of professional baseball, you must continue to work hard to advance your skills or you will be left behind. There are many examples of five-tool players who languished in the minor leagues. They also may experience an injury that takes out one or more of the tools out of of play such as a hurt arm or leg. 

I think of Moses as a five-tool player. Acts 7:22 says he was "a man of power in words and deeds". Further, it tells us in the same verse that he was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians. In baseball vernacular, he honed his skills in the bests baseball academy. So he had the best natural skills and the best training. We expect to see him leading some cause that would harness these natural abilities. I would venture to think the Moses also thought that. He hadn't forgotten where he came from. In 7:23-25, we find him ready to take on the cause of leading the Israelites out of their oppression. In star-like fashion, we see him defending an Israelite against an Egyptian, and struck down the Egyptian man. A rescue was in the making. 

There is a problem for leaders when they expect to lead and a little problem occurs on the way to the leadership banquet. There are no followers. It is hard to be a leader with no followers. Acts 7:25 is a pivotal verse "and he (Moses) supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand" (emphasis mine). This was the start of a 40 year downhill spiral into the crucible for more leadership training. This time it would be not under the tutelage of Egyptians but far away in the wilderness.

The problem with "natural" ability is it tends to glorify us, not God. There was just a little too much Moses and not enough God. Every person that God uses has to realize that we are only useful to God when we come to the realization it is about Him through us and not our own natural abilities. For some of us, a wilderness experience might be brief, but for others of us, it is a long process, one that is full of pain. God does not do this to hurt us, but to make us better. Like the five-tool player, we have to be refined. I am very thankful for my wilderness experiences because it made me a better leader. It is also critical to see how God will refine us in a way to make the results attributable to him. In a small way we see an example of Tim Tebow who had to look downright awful at times to at the right time experience success in a way that seems almost supernatural. I don't know pretend to presume God in this small situation, but it sure appeared that way. 

The last issue is one of presumption. None of us should presume to be leaders. The best leaders I know don't set out to be leaders. I am on the leadership committee that appoints an award to leaders in the executive MBA at Case Western Reserve University. For the past five years we have interviewed candidates and most everyone that we talk to questions why they would be nominated. They found themselves to be leaders almost by default for doing what they found natural. Generally this was just helping people, what we call "servant-leadership". Those that presume leadership generally don't end up there. As someone once told me, "a true leader is one who turns around and sees people following him".