I will forever marvel at Jesus mastery of leadership development.  His every word and every movement was filled with great intentionality.  As I was reflecting recently on Mark 1:16-18 I was fascinated by his purposeful wording as he recruited Peter and Andrew into a discipling relationship, ”Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

When he said, “Come follow me.” he was inviting them into a relationship, into community, a place where they would be challenged, encouraged and grow like never before.  It was a teacher-student relationship that would provide friendship and camaraderie. They viewed him as a great teacher and they understood he was inviting them to be students.

But that wasn’t all he was inviting them to. When he said, “Come follow me”, in the very same breath he said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” They knew enough about Jesus at that point that they would understand he was inviting them not only into relationship but into mission as well.  He was calling them to give up their lives, to serve God’s purpose, to care, to love and to sacrifice for others. It wasn’t just a call to be a student; it was a call to be a servant as well.

Too often leadership development is simply an invitation into a program rather than an invitation into relationship.  Too often the objective is to dispense information rather than life transformation.  Too often the focus is on sit and soak rather than serve and be stretched.

How would it potentially change your leadership development approach if you invited trainees into relationship AND mission?

Church Planting and Leadership Development are two of my favorite subjects.  And now in my new role at the Launch Network I get to bring those two passions together!  I’m excited to announce that we’re gearing up for Fall sessions at The West Ridge School of Church Planting and I want to warn you, we’re breaking the mold of traditional church planter training.

We believe leadership development should be a highly relational process.  So through this six month training experience you will build relationships with other pre-launch planters, receive coaching from seasoned ministry experts and be mentored by experienced church planters who have proven success.  These highly  interactive sessions will challenge your thinking, strengthen your leadership confidence and help you refine an effective strategy for a successful launch.  We want to walk with you, pray with you, challenge you and help you refine the work that God is doing in your life.

Over these six months you will have the opportunity to hear from and interact with expert practitioners like:

• Brain Bloye, founding pastor of West Ridge Church.  Under Brian’s leadership West Ridge has grown to more than 4200 attenders in 13 years and has planted nearly 50 churches in the past 6 years.
• Tony Morgan, strategist, coach, writer, speaker and consultant who equips leaders and churches to impact their communities for Christ.  Tony has written several books including Simply Strategic Growth.
• Jim Akins, Church Planting guru, veteran church planter, coach and Director of West Ridge School of Church Planting.
• I will also be attending each session to provide on site coaching and teach sessions on How to Build a Leadership Development Culture and Designing Your Small Group System.

And you have the opportunity to hear from successful church planters like JR Lee, Mike Lukaszwski and others who are still in the trenches of the early years of planting. Sessions will be held one Saturday a month for six months.  Planters are encouraged to bring their wives and as many of their launch team members as possible.  For more information please drop me an email at macl@launchchurches.com or maclakeonline@gmail.com

Many leaders don’t feel comfortable or confident when it comes to giving performance feedback. You may not believe this but you’re probably better at it than you think. There are four types of feedback and chances are you’re good at one if not more. The odds of improving your ability to give feedback improve dramatically when you understand all four types.

1. ENCOURAGEMENT – Often we don’t think of encouragement as being a form of feedback but it’s probably the easiest and most powerful. A recent survey by Leadership IQ  showed that 67% of employees say they get too little positive feedback from their boss.   Yet this type of feedback should be very easy for leaders to give.  Think about it, most of what employees do is done correctly.  This means that most of our feedback should be positive praise.   We’ve all heard that very practical leadership principle that says: What gets praised gets repeated.  
2. REDIRECTION – In most cases employees are really giving their best effort. So when they fall short of a goal or a deadline typically it’s a matter of lack of skill or knowledge, rather than defiance.  In this case a simple redirection can make a huge difference in their performance. When you give redirection you let the employee know what they are doing right and ask them to make specific adjustments that will help them be more effective on that particular task or goal.  I’ve found when you discuss poor performance with someone most of the time they are aware of it, they just aren’t sure how to correct their performance.  Providing redirection is one of the leaders biggest opportunities for coaching employees toward improved performance.
3. STRETCH – Sometimes our employees are doing such a great job we can simply empower them and let them go. But it’s important that we still give some form of feedback. This is where Stretch feedback is very useful. Before giving Stretch feedback consider the employees potential, future contribution to the organization, dreams and ambitions. Then at the appropriate time share a stretch challenge that you would like them to reach toward. Your objective is to find something that’s just beyond their current competencies. Something that will stretch them in new ways, make them think outside the box, yet still fit within their gift mix. This form of feedback is powerful because it communicates your confidence in the individual. 
4. REPRIMAND – Sometimes an employee is not getting the job done even though they have the competence. You may find their commitment level is lagging. After giving them redirection feedback if they still do not respond then it’s time for the most difficult form of feedback, a reprimand. In a reprimand make sure you do it immediately, be specific about the errant behavior , let them know how you feel about that behavior (disappointed, angry, frustrated), reaffirm the fact that you value them and make clear what you expect in their future performance. 

Which form of feedback do you need to improve in as a leader?

Starting a mentoring relationship is exciting but can soon turn awkward if you don’t get it started the right way.  Here area few ground rules to get off to a good start.

• Confidentiality- Part of mentoring is sharing the fears, sins and scars of your soul. Some lessons of life are born out of deep pain. I will share things with a protege privately that I won’t share publicly. So it’s important that you establish a relationship of trust by committing to mutual confidentiality.
• Have a Clear Time frame – Most of the time when two people enter into a mentoring relationship they neglect discussing a time frame for the relationship.  So from the very start discuss not only the frequency of your meeting but agree to have a start date and an end date for the mentoring relationship.  The end date doesn’t mean you have to stop the relationship but it provides a natural point to discuss if you will continue on or conclude the mentoring relationship.
• Two way learning conversations – I always like to make it clear up front that our mentoring relationship is a two way learning relationship not a “teacher – learner” relationship.  Any time I am mentoring someone I realize I have a lot I can learn from them as well, regardless of their age or their lack of experience. So as you start the relationship let them know it’s a mutual learning experience. 
• Agree upon a Specific Process or Plan - Most mentoring fails because they don’t have a process or plan to follow.  The first meeting or two goes well as they get to know each other but after that neither really knows where to go from there.  So from the beginning discuss what the mentoring time will look like and what development needs you will focus on.
• Grant Permission to give honest feedback- Generally we are drawn to mentor people that we like and want to be around.  But this strong relational connection can create a hesitation to share the tough honest feedback that is needed in the development process.  So establish a ground rule of tough-honest feedback right up front.  I heard Bill Hybels share one time that he would ask a staff member, “Give me the last 10%”  We can have a tendency to be 90% honest, but it’s that last 10% that can make the biggest difference in someones development. 
• Periodic evaluation of the mentor relationship – Not all mentoring relationships work.  And that is okay.  That’s why it’s important to evaluate the relationship on occasion to make sure you’re not wasting each others time.  Here are 3 evaluation questions you can ask to help you determine the effectiveness of the relationship:
  • Are you benefiting from our time together? In what ways?
  • Do you want to continue?
  • What do you want to do differently? What would you like to focus on in this next season of our mentoring?

What are you looking for out of your leadership development efforts?  Increased competency, employee efficiency, improved attitudes, greater self-confidence… all of these are good outcomes.   But there’s a by-product of leadership development that we often overlook…loyalty. 

People want to grow and develop.  In 1999 Gallup released the book First Break All the Rules which shared their results of interviewing 10 million employees and managers across 114 countries.  In this study they discovered one of the top things employees are looking for is the opportunity to be developed.  When we invest in the development of those we lead it increases not only their competence, but their sense of engagement with the organization as well.  Knowing you care enough to invest in them increases their sense of loyalty to you and the organization.  

In today’s economy leadership development dollars tend to be one of the first things that are cut out of the budget.  But make sure you count the true cost before you cut those dollars.  Spending $79 to send someone to a local conference, paying $22.95 to give them a book or paying $16.73 for them to take an expert to lunch is an investment that will not only build them as a leader but will build their loyalty  to your organization.

Leadership Development increases the number of influencers in your organization. 

• Well developed leaders take initiative.  We need more of that.
• Well developed leaders spread positive attitude .  We need more of that.
• Well developed leaders model the life and leadership of Christ.  We need more of that.
• Well developed leaders own the vision. We need more of that.
• Well developed leaders operate in their strengths.  We need more of that.
• Well developed leaders enlist and empower others.  We need more of that.
• We developed leaders reproduce themselves.  We need more of that.

More influencers equals more impact.  We need more of that.

How close are you to those you’re developing? 

It’s easy to look at those under our leadership development efforts as a project rather than a person.  Sometimes leaders feel like training or mentoring others is a burdensome responsibility rather than a privileged relationship. When this is the case the leader fails to fully engage himself in the development process. Development efforts are hurried, made a low priority or given half-hearted effort. But leadership development has its fullest impact when it’s highly relational. Don’t misunderstand, you can develop a leader without being relational, but it won’t have maximum impact.

Paul starts his second letter to Timothy by saying , “To Timothy, my dearly beloved son” (2 Timothy 1:2).  The words “beloved son” reveals the depth of their relationship. Paul wasn’t his father but the dynamics of their relationship made it feel that way. I’ll admit that getting close to those you train is dangerous. You can be easily hurt, let down or taken for granted. I had a professor in seminary who was very aloof. When I asked someone why, they told me that years earlier he had gotten close to a student he was mentoring and the student somehow betrayed him. So consciously or unconsciously he decided to keep a distance between himself and those he trained.

If you are training masses of people obviously you won’t be close to all of them, but each of us should have one or two people that we’re giving ourselves fully too. When you are engaged in leadership development on an emotional level it does several things…

• It gives your trainee a greater level of confidence. They know and sense that you believe in them. You’re not just saying words, but you’re conveying with your eyes and spirit that you believe they have what it takes to lead. Your confidence in them give them confidence in God’s work in their life.
• It gives you as the trainer greater credibility. Because you take the time to listen, relate and be vulnerable yourself, the level of trust grows exponentially.  As trust and credibility increase so does your influence in their life.
• It heightens their level of commitment.When Paul sent Timothy to the church in Philippi, he said, “I have sent unto you my beloved son Timothy because I don’t have anyone else who is like-minded as I am, who really has you at his heart” (Philippians 2:19-20).  Because Paul loved the people at Philippi deeply so did Timothy.

What are other benefits of emotionally engaged mentoring?

As a 48 year old leader I get excited about the next generation of leaders coming up behind me. I love their optimism, enthusiasm, creativity, innovative spirit and hunger to learn. Unfortunately many organizations make young leaders sit on the bench until “their day” comes. But high capacity leaders won’t sit around and wait to lead very long. If you want the young sharp leaders to stick around your organization tomorrow then you must invest in them today. Let me suggest three investments that help gain the loyalty and longevity of young leaders.

• Time - Create standing appointments with them on your schedule.  In order to help maximize their potential you have to get to know their heart, calling and gifting and this takes time.  The investment of your time also communicates that you have a strong belief in their potential. 
• Training – Ensure that young leaders are getting training opportunties.  Expose them to industry leaders and best practices in their field.  Send them to high quality training and feed them a continual flow of books and resources that will grow their leadership capacity. 
• Truth – Let them know where they stand, make them aware of their strengths as well as their weaknesses. Give them honest feedback and evaluation. Help them learn from their mistakes and failures by listening and coaching them.

Today’s Leadership Challenge: Spend time today evaluating your organizations investment in young leaders.  What changes need to take place?

It seems that everyone is struggling with the challenge of developing leaders and in the process they’re desperately looking for “what works”.  So the questions abound:  What’s the best curriculum, best delivery system or best tool for leadership development?  Despite the fact leadership development is getting more and more attention  few are making progress with this challenge.  So what’s the magic bullet?

While there is nothing wrong with those questions, we’re still overlooking the core ingredient for leadership development.  The magic bullet is YOU.  You can develop a leader with lousy curriculum.  You can train someone without a fancy tool.  And the best delivery system will always be a leader passing on what he has learned to a potential leader.

Here is a question I get a lot:  What’s the difference between discipleship and leadership development?  Good question.  Fundamentally the process is the same, but the focus is different.

Discipleship I learn to live like Jesus
Leadership development I learn to lead like Jesus

Discipleship is primarily about character
Leadership development is primarily about competencies

Discipleship is about leading self
Leadership development is about leading others

Discipleship is about cultivating intimacy with God
Leadership development is about cultivating influence with people.

What other distinctions would you add to this list?