Ignore This, and You’ll Lose Your Best Leaders
Exodus 18 shows us that leadership must be cultivated, not hoped for. Here’s how to build a culture that develops leaders before it’s too late.
Your next great leader might already be working for you.
They’re not in the spotlight. They’re not asking for a title. But they’re already influencing through competency and character. They’re solving problems no one else noticed. They’re stepping up when no one else volunteers. They’re elevating others without seeking attention.
And yet, most organizations overlook them.
Why? Because too often, leadership development is treated like a lottery.
Leaders are “discovered” late and promoted for technical ability, and then left to figure out influence. The result is a leadership pipeline that feels thin and fragile.
The real issue isn’t a lack of talent. It’s a lack of intentionality. Most organizations wait for leadership to emerge instead of building the systems that multiply it.
The Cost of Passive Leadership Development
The leaders you need tomorrow are already in the room today. The question is whether you’ll notice them in time.
Every year, organizations lose high-potential people to competitors or burnout, not because those people lacked capacity, but because no one identified and developed them early enough. It’s not enough to hope leaders rise up. Leaders must be cultivated.
And that’s exactly today’s principle Exodus gives us. Let’s take a look:
“But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.”
—Exodus 18:21 NIV
Moses was overwhelmed. He was trying to lead an entire nation by himself, and it was unsustainable. Jethro, his father-in-law, stepped in with advice that still holds true: build a system for identifying, appointing, and multiplying leaders at every level.
Exodus 18:21 reminds us that leadership is not a lottery. It is a deliberate process. Leaders are to be selected, trained, and trusted based on their faithfulness, character, and alignment with values.
The people of Israel were in the wilderness. Every dispute, every issue, every concern was being brought to Moses. The leader of a nation had turned himself into a bottleneck.
Jethro’s wisdom was clear: don’t wait until leaders are obvious. Identify them early.
Look for those who are capable, trustworthy, and aligned with the right values. Then give them responsibility appropriate to their capacity: thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.
This was more than delegation. It was succession. It was building a culture where leadership was distributed instead of hoarded.
That same principle applies today. If you don’t intentionally raise leaders at multiple levels, you will always feel stretched thin. But if you build systems that multiply leaders, you’ll create depth that sustains growth long-term.
Three Mistakes That Keep Leaders Hidden
Even though the principle is clear, most organizations still get this wrong. The problem isn’t that potential leaders don’t exist, it’s that most leaders make the same predictable mistakes that keep them hidden.
These mistakes show up in boardrooms, nonprofits, churches, and growing companies alike. And if you don’t correct them, you’ll always struggle to find the leaders your future depends on.
Mistake One: Recognizing Too Late
Most leaders aren’t spotted until they’re already seasoned — or already gone. By then, the best ones may have been recruited elsewhere, or worse, they’ve developed bad habits from years of leading without guidance.
Faithful leaders reveal themselves in small assignments.
They carry weight without fanfare. If you wait for the obvious, you’ll always be late.
The leaders you need tomorrow are proving themselves in hidden places today.
Mistake Two: Mistaking Knowledge for Leadership
Organizations send people to conferences, hand them books, and call it leadership training. But knowledge doesn’t make leaders. Responsibility does.
Real leaders are shaped by ownership. If you want to grow them, you must let them carry weight before they have a title.
Mistake Three: Building Leaders Without Culture
Even when organizations identify talent, they often develop individuals instead of creating a leadership culture. So when a good leader leaves, the impact leaves with them.
Leadership that isn’t embedded in culture becomes fragile. Leadership that is woven into systems becomes sustainable.
The Framework Exodus Points Us Toward
Jethro’s words in Exodus 18 lays out a blueprint for how leadership is multiplied: identify the right people > give them responsibility appropriate to their capacity > and make sure the culture reinforces their development.
Here’s how that looks in practice today.
Step 1: Early Identification
Stop waiting for leaders to prove themselves in big moments. Look for faithfulness in small ones. Who shows up prepared? Who finishes what they start? Who maintains integrity when no one is watching?
These are your future leaders.
Step 2: Progressive Responsibility
Leadership development should feel like climbing steps, not jumping cliffs. Give people assignments that stretch them but don’t crush them.
Small project > team assignment > department oversight.
Each level builds confidence and skill.
Step 3: Consistent Feedback
Reflection is what turns experience into wisdom.
Without feedback, people only repeat mistakes. Build regular check-ins where the focus is on growth, not just performance.
Ask: What worked? Where did you struggle? What support do you need?
Step 4: Cultural Alignment
Skills can be trained. Values must be proven.
Pressure will reveal whether someone embodies your mission. Do not give influence to people who don’t carry your values.
Step 5: Succession Planning
Every leader should be developing a replacement.
If leadership ends with them, it dies with them. If it multiplies through them, it sustains the organization.
How to Build a Leadership Factory
This isn’t theory. You can begin building a leadership culture this quarter by applying Exodus 18 in practical ways.
1. Start With One Person
Don’t overhaul everything at once. Identify one person in your organization who consistently shows initiative and integrity but lacks a title.
Give them a project that stretches their current role and pair them with a mentor who can provide feedback.
In six months, you’ll see growth. In a year, you’ll see influence.
2. Create Levels of Leadership
Jethro suggested officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. That’s progressive responsibility. Design a pathway in your organization that allows leaders to develop at scale.
Team leaders manage small tasks or projects.
Coordinators manage teams or operations.
Directors shape people and strategy.
Make the pathway visible so people know how they can grow.
3. Build Rhythms of Feedback
Leadership isn’t forged in one-off experiences. It’s shaped by reflection. Emerging leaders need consistent rhythms of feedback — not just annual reviews.
Set aside monthly conversations that focus less on performance metrics and more on development. Ask questions that stretch them, such as:
“What part of this role has challenged you most?”
“What’s one thing you wish you had more clarity on?”
“Where do you feel yourself growing?”
“What can I do to help support you to keep growing?”
The key here is frequency. When feedback is predictable, growth becomes normal.
4. Anchor Development in Culture
Here’s the mistake a lot of organizations make: they elevate skills without testing values. That’s dangerous.
A person’s competence may impress, but their character will determine whether they multiply culture or undermine it.
Before you give someone more influence, ask yourself:
Do they embody our values when things get hard?
Do they elevate others, or do they step on them?
Would I want the rest of the team to imitate their behavior?
If the answer is no, slow down. A wrong promotion can do more damage than no promotion.
5. Make Multiplication an Expectation
The healthiest leadership cultures don’t just develop individuals, they multiply. Every leader should be measured not just by the results they produce, but by the leaders they are raising.
You don’t need to turn this into a formal program at first.
Just start with a question: “Who are you developing right now?” Ask it often enough that it becomes part of your culture.
Over time, succession will stop being an afterthought. It will become the natural byproduct of how leaders think about their role.
Stop Waiting, Start Building
Your best leaders are already in the building. They’re waiting for someone to notice them, stretch them, and give them a pathway.
Stop playing the leadership lottery. Start building a leadership factory.
Because the organizations that thrive won’t be the ones that simply attract talent. They’ll be the ones that systematically develop it.
The question isn’t whether you have potential leaders. You do. The question is whether you’ll notice them before someone else does.
Grow people this week, Leader.
—Jared
P.S. I always love hearing from our community and celebrating your wins. Have a win you want to share that’s directly from what you’ve received from Examined? Send me a message and let me know!