Have a Proper Backup

"I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed when others say I'll never be enough. And greater is the One living inside of me than he who is living in the world. There'll be days I lose the battle; grace says that it doesn't matter, 'cause the cross already won the war. He's greater! He's greater! I am learning to run freely, understanding just how He sees me, and it makes me love Him more and more!" Those lyrics are from MercyMe's "Greater." No matter what you are going through or who you may be up against, remember, God is greater!

Luke 10:1 says, "After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go." (NIV)

Maxwell uses a sports illustration to describe the point of having more than one person available for a particular area, departments, etc. "Any team that wants to excel must have good substitutes as well as starters," he says. And that concept is true for other areas.

For your team to be as successful as it can be, you need to have backup. You may have someone in charge of a particular area. But what happens when that person is unavailable? Is that department or project area out of order until he or she returns? That should not be the case. While he or she may be the head person in charge, there should be at least one other trained well enough to step up in his or her absence.

Being an IT major, I am going to use a technology example. If a company has a critical area in their network, they will probably have a backup should that node go down. If they don't they should. It comes down to fault tolerance. A problem in that area should not halt its operations or those of other departments. There should be a backup that can be used until the main unit is up and running again.

Maxwell asks, "How well do you fill up your 'bench'?"

I myself could use some work in that area. I should cross-train more than I have in the past.

How do you measure yourself in that area? How fault tolerant is your team?

Pray this prayer: Father, please help me to be a better leader. Grow me and help me to enhance my current skills and gain new ones. Help me to have a properly trained and structured team so that operations run smoothly, even in the event of a problem. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.

God bless you!