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Leveraging Influence

How Tim Elmore grows leaders from the inside out.
Tom Neven | Outcomes, Apr/May 2008

Say leader and some may picture Gen. George Patton, standing in front of that huge American flag, barking at the troops. Or maybe it's Donald Trump, readily firing interns who fail to measure up to his standards.

Not Tim Elmore. The founder of Atlanta-based Growing Leaders, Inc. (GrowingLeaders.com) believes anyone can be a leader. "We all have a gift, a passion to be Jesus in a certain situation. Leadership is not about a position, title, or badge. If it were, only a small fraction of us could be leaders."

For Elmore, leadership is using one's God-given influence for a worthwhile cause—wherever you happen to be. A person can be in the middle of an organization and still leverage his influence. "Leadership is a disposition, not a position," Elmore says. "It's a way of looking at life."

Elmore caught the leadership bug when he went to work for John Maxwell after graduating from Oral Roberts University in 1983. Elmore always loved mentoring others in school and church settings, and after learning the art of leadership under Maxwell, he wondered why he couldn't merge the two.

"I thought, 'How do we get these timeless principles to the next generation when they're 17 and not when they're 47 and have already ruined two marriages and three businesses?'"

Turns out he had a few things to learn first. "During my first job evaluation, John went over the good things I was doing," Elmore recalls. "He was very affirming, and I was taking notes. Then he said, 'Here are a few things you need to work on.'"

'Off-Platform Charisma'

One of his chief criticisms was that Elmore was not the same on the platform as he was off. "He said, 'When you're on the platform, you're on,'" Elmore says. "He told me that when I stepped off the platform, I turned off. I needed what he called off-platform charisma."

Elmore watched Maxwell's off-platform behavior, as he interacted with crowds. "He listened to them, loved them," Elmore says. "I learned that leadership is not moments when you think you're on; it's found in those moments when you think you're not on."

But leadership is definitely not about dominating a room. "Charisma is not just being loud," Elmore notes. "There's such a thing as quiet charisma. I never ask a young leader to be something he's not. Be who you truly are inside. If we learn to value people and relationships, then we can have even quiet charisma."

A perfect example of this, he says, is Mother Teresa: "She was never boisterous and never called attention to herself, but she exuded quiet charisma."