How a Young Leader Develops as a Leader

This is a guest post by Tyler Crosson. Tyler is student pastor where I serve. He’s an excellent communicator and has a passionate heart for Jesus and for ministry. He knows God is preparing him for a more lead role in a church, and it’s been fun to watch him in this journey. Part of our development time together led to me asking Tyler to write this post. I am a young leader. The kind that desires to not only improve my own leadership capacity, but one day grow into a great leader in a great position. I recognize that I have a long way to go in developing my own leadership skills, and I recognize that I have plenty to learn about leadership in general. There are many excellent resources out on the topic of leadership, and I definitely try to be the kind of leader that is a reader. There are books, articles and blogs; the one you’re reading is the best. (Ron is my boss, so I figure a little plug for him serves us both!) If you’re anything like me, the vastness of it all seems a little overwhelming and a little impersonal. One day, through a discussion about leadership with Ron, I stumbled into what has served as a gold mine of wisdom and has changed the way I pursue learning about leadership. I wish I could call it a secret, but I’m willing to guess that this method is also staring you in the face. Want to know what the “secret” is? Here it is: leaders. Yep, leaders. All over my city, and I’m guessing leaders are all over your area, too. Good leaders. Some are even great leaders! I decided to tap into this gold mine of leadership wisdom that is in action right here in my community. People that are busy making the community I’m invested in better every day. Here’s what I did: I asked if I could meet with some of these leaders. Earth shattering, huh? Yeah, not really. I just began to seek out people that I (and others I trusted) appreciated as leaders, and I asked for an hour of their valuable time. I let them know that I respected their leadership and I simply wanted an opportunity to ask them a few questions about their leadership in an effort to learn for myself. I take seven questions into the meeting (which seems fitting, since Ron is a seven points kind of guy), and I have yet to struggle to quickly fill an hour of time in discussion.

Here are my questions:

1. What are some of the biggest learning curves you have had as a leader? 2. If you were me, planning for a lead role one day, what words of caution would you give me? 3. What are some words of challenge or encouragement you would give to a young leader? 4. What’s the biggest stress you deal with as a leader? 5. How do you navigate change? 6. How do you handle criticism? 7. Who do you think I should meet with next? (This one keeps the gold mine available.) I ask those in no particular order. Rarely do I even get through all the questions, and I have yet to find someone that wasn’t willing to share. In fact, what I’ve found so far is that the leaders I’ve spoken with genuinely want to see young leaders in their community succeed, too. And remember how reading books seemed impersonal? Well it would be hard for these meetings to be less personal. They are face to face! I get to hear their successes and their failures. I’m grateful they are willing to allow me to grow with them, even through their mistakes. I’ve learned to not fear failure because of how much you can grow from it. Every one of them has reminded me of the priority of leading my family first. Many encourage me to network well, which is awesome because that is taking place at every meeting! I’ve been reminded of the importance of listening and developing trust and relationships in order to move people along a vision. They have taught me the importance of being a lifelong learner and seeker, and are helpful in providing more resources or leaders to seek. I honor them by communicating my appreciation for their time, their work and effort in our community, and their wisdom. In turn, they seem to genuinely want to invest in me. And invest in me they do (some even bought my lunch … bonus!). The wisdom they share is valuable. If I’m being honest, this is a strategy I will probably try to use the rest of my life. Wherever I end up, there will be leaders. I’m guessing there are leaders where you are, too! That’s my secret. I hope it serves your journey in leadership, too. What question would you ask a leader if you sat down with them? Or what piece of leadership advice would you offer to a young leader?