My Personal History of Leadership Development

I feel I still have more to learn than I have learned, but I have had a lot of leadership experience in my life. I think it’s healthy to reflect on some of the experiences we have had and people who have influenced us in our leadership ability.

Here are a few of those experiences and people that quickly come to my mind:

When I was in high school I served as student body president of a large, new school. My principal gave me freedom to do things most students never get to do. We wrote the student government constitution, organized clubs, hosted assemblies, and had a load of fun doing so. (I saw my principal recently and thanked him again for his influence. He taught me to release responsibility to people early and be willing to take a risk on others.)

I worked full-time all the way through college. As a sophomore, I became a retail department manager of a large store. Most days I was in over my head, but one of my colleagues was an older, mature, retired businessman. Although he technically “worked” for me, he taught me more about leading people than I could learn in college. (I learned to listen to those with more wisdom than me.)

I remained in retail after college, completed a management-training program for Belk Stores Services, and then served in several positions over a few year period. When my family began to grow, I decided to look for better working hours and so I became an independent insurance agent for Farmers Insurance Group. I was extremely successful in this venture and learned the principles of building something from nothing, marketing, and managing cash flow. (Funny how much those skills are needed in church planting!)

An opportunity to buy a small manufacturing company came available, and I convinced my wife to join me. We closed out successful careers to chase a dream. If it could go wrong, it did, and we sold within 5 years to the first serious buyer to come along. Through that negative experience, however, I learned huge principles of taking risks, leading under pressure, managing stress, to not run when things are difficult, and ways to overcome obstacles. (Failure sometimes teaches us our biggest lessons.)

When God called me into ministry, He had me begin with nothing, then quickly sent me to an old, historic church seeking to rebuild. That rebuilding experience led to my first church planting type environment and it was there God instilled in me a passion for church growth and ultimately the desire for church planting. I left this church to become involved my first church plant and, a few years later, God called me to plant a church in my hometown. After this church was successfully growing (beyond anything we ever imagined), we felt called to another historic, established church for a revitalization opportunity. It has been my most challenging assignment in leadership, but is proving to be one of the most rewarding.

God is still allowing the experiences and people in my life to shape my leadership potential. I think the key is to press into our experience — good or bad — and allow it to make us better.

Where did you learn leadership? Who are the people and what are the experiences that have shaped the leader you are today?