BiblicalLeadership.com writer profile: Bob Tiede

Bob Tiede Nov. 1, 2020

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1. Tell us a little about you personally (family, church, hobbies).

Sherry and I just marked our 50th anniversary! We have been blessed with 4 children—all of them now married—and 7 incredible grandchildren. Most of them live in the Dallas area, as do we. My blog (LeadingWithQuestions.com) is really my hobby—along with photography.

2. Describe what kind of work you do, and what you've done in the past.

Sherry and I just marked 49 years on the staff of Cru. Our first 8 years were with Cru Campus (Campus Crusade). The next 24 years I had the privilege of directing the Josh McDowell Ministry. For the past 17 years I've served on both the global and U.S. leadership development teams with the mission of developing the next generation of leaders for Cru. My role is to serve leaders outside of Cru in any way I can, primarily through my blog and free eBooks. Inside, my role is to recruit outstanding Christian leaders from business, education, government, military and non-profits to coach Cru leaders. We currently have 103 of these coaches.

3. What was your first-ever leadership role?

Soon after coming to Christ my freshman year at the University of South Dakota I became the Student Leader for Cru at USD. My first Cru leadership role was becoming the Campus Director first at Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado and then the Campus Director at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington.

4. How has God grown you as a leader over the years?

God has placed a variety of significant leaders in my life who opened doors for me—first to be a Cru campus director, then the area administrator for the northwest, and then in '79, the national director for Cru, which itself opened the door to Josh McDowell. Learning from Josh over the next 24 years was indeed another life-changing experience. My gift to Josh at the end of our time together was a little booklet called "62 Things I Learned From Josh" (which you can download here).

5. What's the hardest leadership lesson you've ever learned?

It was actually one of my greatest failures. In January 1992, I led the Josh McDowell Ministry's Operation Carelift to take clothes and food to needy military families in Russia. To prepare for the arrival of 400 American volunteers, we sent two teams of about ten volunteers each to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Most of these volunteers had never been to Russia.

For two weeks prior, I wrote detailed job description for each team leader and member. I flew to New York to spend 24 hours with them before heading overseas. As Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit!"

All the planning I had done was a disaster! Looking back, why would I think I could write detailed job descriptions to do something that neither I or anyone on the team had ever done? The Team in St. Petersburg was led by a retired Army colonel who fell back on his military training and the concept of "Commander's Intent." He knew what the ultimate goal was and he led his team to figure out how to reach that goal.

When we arrived in Moscow with about 250 of our 400 volunteers, we realized no distribution sites had been set up! Thank God that accompanying us were some incredible experienced leaders. They called a day of prayer and while the volunteers prayed, they lined up distribution sites for the next day. For the entire two weeks of the mission, they stayed one day ahead of the volunteers to set up these sites. Most of the volunteers never realized how close we came to disaster!

And of course there were many lessons learned:

• Commander's intent is a valuable concept—don't tell people how to do something, tell them the objective and let them figure it out!
• Don't ever think you can draft a job description for a high-risk assignment you've never done yourself!
• When failure is inevitable, pray and ask God for miracles. God honored that opening day of prayer to save the mission!
• Thank God when He sends you resources (and people) you didn't know you'd need. The experienced Cru leaders who volunteered to join this mission trip, thinking they would simply be participants, agreed to lead when they were so desperately needed!

6. What advice would you give to Christian leaders?

Follow the example of Jesus in the Gospels, where he asked 339 questions to connect, communicate and create lasting change in the lives of so many people. You can increase your own effectiveness by moving from being a leader who leads by telling, to becoming a leader who leads with questions.

7. Most meaningful Scripture:

Here is one I pray daily: "Man plans his way, but God directs his footsteps" (Proverbs 16:9). My prayer every day is that I would have eyes to see those that God places in my path!

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Bob Tiede helps leaders everywhere move from telling to asking. He has been on the staff of Cru for 48 years and on the U.S. Leadership Development Team for 16 years. His blog, LeadingWithQuestions.com is followed by leaders in over 190 countries. Bob has written three eBooks available for free download, Great Leaders ASK Questions, 339 Questions Jesus Asked and Now That's a Great Question. Learn More »

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