“Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught many people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch” (Acts 11:25–26).
When asked about the secret of his success, John Maxwell often points to three factors:
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The goodness of God.
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Collaboration with outstanding people.
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Focusing his ministry on his strengths.
This is not unique to Maxwell. No one achieves exceptional success through personal ability alone. Such success is the result of a complex interplay between providential grace, the help of others, and one’s own gifts.
Those who do not believe in divine providence may say, “I was just lucky.” Yet anyone who has lived long enough knows that there are elements in life that lie completely beyond human control. One person was forced to close a thriving business because of the IMF crisis, while another used the same crisis as a stepping stone to success. The times we live in and the environments we face are ultimately outside our control, and there are moments when we have no choice but to entrust them to God’s providence.
Collaboration with outstanding people, however, rests squarely on the leader. It requires relational skill grounded in character and integrity. Behind the great revival that took place in the church at Antioch (Acts 11:26) stood Barnabas’s leadership. He went in search of Saul—who had briefly shone and then faded into obscurity—and intentionally brought him back to form a team. Without relational skills, this would not have been possible. Yet this was more than mere technique. More important than skill was Barnabas’s character—his deep respect for others and his desire to draw out the best in them.
Scripture describes Barnabas this way: “He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (Acts 11:24a). His fullness of the Spirit and faith made him genuinely good at heart. His given name was Joseph, but the apostles called him Barnabas, meaning “son of encouragement” (often translated as “son of consolation”). He was a man overflowing with warmth and affirmation toward others.
When relational skills are developed on a foundation of good character, exceptional people naturally gather around a leader. A Chinese proverb says, “Behind every great person stand other great people.” History bears this out. No work of lasting significance has ever been accomplished by a single leader alone. Great achievements are possible only through teamwork.
Legendary baseball player Reggie Jackson once said that a great coach must help players see they are far better than they believe. That ability flows from how a coach sees players and the game. Eyes that cannot foster teamwork see others’ weaknesses more clearly than their potential—and such eyes can never entrust responsibility to others.
Just yesterday, a longtime colleague sent me this email:
“For over twenty years, managing physicians in hospitals and leading multiple programs and departments, I have learned that I can accomplish nothing on my own unless I delegate my weaknesses, my workload, and the tasks that cause me stress. As a department head, I must entrust my responsibilities to the abilities and skills of others if I am to lead effectively, serve as an evangelist, and live a balanced life.”
A perfectionist can never truly delegate. Maintaining a team becomes impossible. Perfectionists focus on compensating for their weaknesses to pursue flawlessness. Effective leaders, however, leverage others’ strengths to cover their own limitations while maximizing their own strengths. A leader who tries to control everything and do everything well can never become exceptional. Leaders who achieve extraordinary results focus on just one or two core strengths.
Maxwell himself says that by focusing only on what he does best, his work has narrowed over time, and now he does only a few things. Billy Graham once shared this reflection:
“As a young preacher in my early twenties, I believed every sermon needed to cover everything from Genesis to Revelation. I preached seventy or eighty different evangelistic messages in those years. Over time, however, I began to focus on the sermons I preached best, and now I have only four sermons. My staff has heard the same sermons for the past twenty years. I don’t know how they endured hearing the same messages for so long.”
If those sermons had been poorly delivered, enduring them for twenty years would have been unbearable. But sermons preached from one’s greatest strength never grow tiresome. Leaders must learn to bring their strengths fully to life.
Barnabas—the “son of encouragement,” who never withheld warmth or affirmation—used his strengths to recognize and raise up people who might otherwise have been forgotten. He established Paul and embraced even Mark’s weaknesses, whom Paul had once refused to work with, and helped him grow. Through the leaders Barnabas nurtured, the New Testament world was shaped, and foundational writings such as the Pauline Epistles and the Gospel of Mark came into being.
If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. Those who go alone are solo performers, not leaders. Leadership assumes distance—it is about going far. Without teamwork, going far is impossible.
Maxwell achieved remarkable success through the goodness of God, collaboration with outstanding people, and a ministry focused on his strengths. To become an exceptional team leader, one must entrust what cannot be controlled to God’s providence, intentionally develop one’s character and capabilities, and then focus on one’s strengths. If you have not done so until now, do not be discouraged. You can begin growing as a leader today. The real problem lies with those who lack the will and vision to become leaders.