Leadership Wisdom on Messages that Matter

The more you add to the messenger, the more you take away from the message. 

It’s common a business principle that you need to be able to look past the messenger in order to focus on the message. Not every high capacity leader is a high quality speaker, nor are they someone who can craft messages that matter. This doesn’t mean they don’t have a message that matters or that the message is to be overlooked, but it does mean we need to hone in on setting them up for the greatest possibility for success.

But what does that look like? 

The easiest way we can help you answer that is by taking a look at one of the greatest businesses in history and how they set their people up for success. At the end of this, our hope is that you will have some nuggets of truth you can hang your hat on and ways to improve your end-user delivery.

Let’s take a look at Apple. 

Steve Jobs had a gift. Tim Cook has a gift. They are not one in the same. While Steve Jobs could wax poetically on stage over any Apple product, Tim Cook struggles to rise to the Jobs’ expectation. And you know what? That’s ok. It’s ok because Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs. They have different skills and strengths. Tim is more adept in the board room than on stage, yet Apple still allows Tim Cook to experience great stage success. Watch any Keynote Tim Cook delivers and you will see an executive more comfortable leading behind the scenes succeed on stage and create an event to be remembered.

How does Apple set their people up for success? 

1. Their event focuses are always on their products.
2. Their hype machine is always on a product release.
3. Their method is their message: making life better for their end users.
4. Their stage is clean and clear with only the message, the messenger, and the audience.
5. Their conclusions always point the users to experience the product, not the speaker.
6. Their audience is allowed hand-on experience with the soon-to-be-released product.
7. Their speakers are never elevated above the product.

How can we put these principles in place for the church? 

If we can remember the why to the church experience, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we can implement a broad-stroke strategy that allows ZERO barriers between the message and the listeners. The way we do this is to set our communicators up for success and allow a clean and clear presentation between the message and audience. It should look like this:

1. Every service focuses on Jesus.
2. Marketing is focused on how Jesus is being presented in real-time.
3. The message focuses on how Jesus makes life complete.
4. There are no obstacles between your speakers and the audience.
5. Any conclusion points people to experience Jesus not the speaker.
6. Discipleship is used to allow the audience experience everyday, not just on weekends.
7. Speakers are never set above Jesus.

No matter the method, Jesus is the message.