TEST

The tension: We have big aspirations for growth. We want to launch more locations and reach more people. But each location requires a very niche kind of leader (a Campus Pastor), and they don't grow on trees. We don't want to throttle our growth plan, so we feel tempted to lower the bar to find a leader who can keep us moving forward.

Hiring & Developing

• Internal is Better

• The CP position carries an extremely high premium for 'culture.' You need someone who you can trust to model and multiply the values of the house somewhere else. That means it's almost always better to raise up campus pastors from within the church (volunteers or staff) than to hire them from the outside. But if you do hire them from the outside, park them in a developmental role for at least a year before you give them keys to the car.

• On hiring -- Traditional interviewing processes are valuable and necessary. They help weed out 80% of the wrong people. But you don't truly know someone until you've seen how they respond to pressure, failure and feedback. These things can't be replicated in the sterile environment of a formal interview.

• Build a Bench

• If ongoing growth is the goal, you must be constantly building a pipeline of leaders that are 1, 2 and 3 years out from 'ready.' A good guide is to have 3 'prospects' that are being developed for every one opportunity you'll need to staff, because some will inevitably not work out like you hoped, or simply won't be a good fit for the particular opportunity. If we want to launch 2 campuses in the next 2 years, we need six CP prospects that we're developing now.

• Development

• Apprenticeship is the most effective form of development and it's the exact example that Jesus gave us in the way he led the twelve. So, find your best CP or Executive leader and plug in your future-CP as their apprentice for a season. The day-to-day exposure to the realities of leadership will serve them better than any combination of classes or books.

• "Apprentice" doesn't mean "shadow" or "observer." It should be an active role that carries real weight and experiences real hardship. Joshua was Moses' apprentice in the wilderness. He walked with Moses and watched Moses. But Moses also sent him on difficult assignments (e.g. spying the Promised Land).

• The key is proximity to the kind of leadership you want to replicate. If you outsource leadership development six layers deep into the organization, you can expect a result that is six degrees removed (i.e. worse) than the kind of leadership you actually want.

• Take this as an adage and let it haunt you all the time: The leaders you'll need in a future season are the people you're "too busy" to invest in today.

• Pay Them

• The salary you pay them should reflect your expectation of them. You can't expect much but pay little.

Traits to Look For

• These are different from the skills or competencies they'll need to be successful in the role--these are the indicators that tell you if they have the basic raw material to carry the mantle. Some of the traits I look for:

• Character - Do they do what they say they're going to do? How do they treat people that can't promote them? Is there any history of red flags or concerns? Would you trust them with your kids? Or with your savings account? What does your gut tell you when you interact with them? It's probably right.

• Homefront (Finances and Family)

• Finances: how someone manages their personal finances is one of the most underrated indicators of their maturity and trustworthiness. If they overspent on a nice car, or if they always have new shoes and credit card debt, this is an almost bulletproof guarantee that they will make poor decisions in a leadership role. A person's purchasing habits reveals what they value and how they steward.

• A CP's spouse is one of the leading determinants in their longevity and success in the role. If the spouse is highly engaged and adds value, they'll likely perform better, have a good attitude, and last a long time. If the spouse is uninvolved or distant from the ministry, the ceiling is low for that leader and so will be their tenure.

• Communication Potential - They don't need to be an excellent preacher right away. But do they have a baseline of confidence and clarity when communicating to others?

• Influence - Leaders necessitate followers. Influence is not a particular personality type, but they must have a requisite level of presence or gravity that makes others want to follow them.

• Teachability - Do they ask for feedback? Do they respond well when they receive it? If they're already set in their ways, they probably won't handle the next level well.

• Resilience - Have they pushed through hard things and responded well to setbacks?

• Proven Results - Have they grown what they've been given thus far?

Competencies to Train

• Now, get clear on the skills they'll need to master in order to thrive as a CP. Here's a few I work off of:

• Communication

• The key to being an effective communicator as a CP is clarity and movement. Can they clearly articulate the things that are most important (values, information, etc)? Can they move people to take action (sign up, give, invite, attend a meeting, etc)?

• Giving a welcome during church or preaching a sermon is probably only 20% of the total communication that a CP will be doing. So make sure to train the other areas too (leading a meeting, giving a volunteer teaching, writing a good email, effective 1 on 1's, influencing up, etc)

• Strategic Thinking

• The ability to see down the path, identify the objective, and formulate an effective plan to achieve it.

• Management (Team Leadership)

• This includes hiring, leadership development, 1 on 1's, navigating conflict, team goal-setting, giving feedback, etc.

• Pastoral Leadership

• Biblical knowledge, pastoral care, weddings and funerals, responding to crisis situations, handling controversial cultural issues with a biblical worldview.

Front Lines vs Corner Office

• Over time, growing organizations tend to drift towards consolidating their best leadership talent in bureaucratic positions. They pull their best leaders off of the front lines, where the mission-battle is actually happening, to manage and oversee. Some of this is necessary for scale, but the inevitable result is that we end up settling for lesser talent in the positions that have the most direct impact on the mission (e.g. Campus Pastors). Resist and delay this drift as long as you can. Keep your best ammo closest to the fight.

Resources:

• Talent War (book)

• The Gospels (pay close attention to the way the relationship between Jesus and his disciples)