After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. ~Luke 5:27-28
In his book The One Minute Manager®, Ken Blanchard says, “There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you are interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to something, you accept no excuses.” Don’t equip people who are merely interested. Equip the ones who are committed.
Commitment is the one quality above all others that enables a potential leader to become a successful leader. Without commitment, there can be no success. Football coach Lou Holtz pointed out, “The Kamikaze pilot who was able to fly fifty missions was involved-but never committed.”
To determine whether your people are committed, first you must make sure they know what it will cost them to become a leader. That means that you must be sure not to undersell the job. Let them know what it’s going to take to do it. Only then will they know what they are committing to. If they won’t commit, don’t go any further in the equipping process. Don’t waste your time.