I approach leadership development with two components: “internal” and “other.” In the internal, I’m defining what that leadership journey looks like, and in the other it is someone else—it’s an other who I am trusting with my leadership growth, be it a person who has seen something in me that I’ve yet to see, or it could be an organization that has developed an awesome leadership development program that really seems to speak to where I’m at. I am entrusting upon someone else that responsibility to take my hand and lead me down a pathway and model that for me. I believe both components are necessary.

This material was originally recorded as part of the Renovations Project. It has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Leadership development from outside influences

Part of leadership development is what I call an outside component. This is my view of people who are a part of the journey—perhaps someone in a pastoral role or it could be an organization—but this is something that is structured and determined by someone else.

Let me share a little bit about my own leadership journey, and how that has transpired throughout the years. I grew up in the church, and I do feel like the church was a huge leadership incubator for me. It was the place where I had the opportunity to not only grow and experiment and have different kinds of platforms, but it was also a place of leadership development. I think sometimes we fail to acknowledge the role of the church in this, because we talk about it more from the perspective of spiritual growth or spiritual maturity, but you don’t have spiritual growth unless your characteristics, personality, skills, and abilities are being groomed in the process of that. So, I do always point back to the church as the primary place that started me off on the leadership development journey. 

Related: What God has strengthened me to do

I grew up in a primarily Puerto Rican community, so I went to a Latino church, and there was a lot of this family interaction. You weren’t necessarily blood related, but you were family, not just a family in Christ. We looked out for each other, in part because we had people migrating and leaving their families in their native countries. And so, this was part of that development and of that journey. When I grew up and moved into the real world beyond that safe, sacred circle, the realization was that that family orientation or that leaning towards this leadership development in a more family oriented way, that that wasn’t necessarily what leadership development meant in other aspects of my life.

So, it took a process of recognizing that, as I was growing up, leadership development flowed naturally; it was more of a natural flow, happening in the ins and outs of interactions, and not so much an established process that was in place. That looked different within academic circles and that looked different within non-profit sectors. However, the different models—the different way that leadership development was designed—were a huge influence on my life. I don’t know that I would have called it leadership development at that point; I’m not sure I would have been that articulate or would have even recognized that that’s what was happening, but in retrospect, I really look back and say, wow, I’ve been blessed beyond measure to have had the kind of people who were a part of the journey. So, I do feel like people play an important role, and not just superiors, because I think sometimes we think about leadership development from a top down model, but not just superiors. That’s just one element of it. 

I think it grew me, and self-leadership is a part of that, so it forced me to grow myself as well. I feel that that’s still part of the truth today—there’s this constant give-and-take of growing, but that growing happens, initiated by who I am as a person as well as grown by those who God has surrounded me as they see qualities and characteristics that need to be pruned or have the opportunity to be perfected in the process of it. Leadership development is a journey. 

Related: How mentoring and leadership development build God’s church

Family environments offer early forms of leadership development

Allow me to elaborate a little bit more on this family concept when it comes to leadership development. When I think about it, I’m thinking even in terms of those families who migrate to a new country and don’t have their blood family. That’s what the church is, right? That’s where we bridge the gaps of being that for one another; we stand with each other, and we lock arms with each other to be the family of God to each other. And so, while I was blessed, and I do think my parents saw some qualities and some characteristics in me, my sisters did, and they fanned those flames.

There’s also the family of God, which is not blood related, but there are these people who are committed, whether it’s through dedication or baptism or whatever it is that the tradition believes. There’s a commitment that comes from the church that says, yes, we’re going to be a part of this individual’s life. We’re going to be a part of that journey that helps to grow this child in the ways of the Lord.

And so, leadership development happens within those family spaces. I think that’s actually the first space that is designated for us to begin to acknowledge the leadership capacity in others, and for us to begin to operate within the leadership capacities that we have been given.

Related: Experimenting on the margins—a journey in adaptive leadership

What do we really mean by “leadership development”?

I think it’s important to understand what I am referencing as leadership development. There’s a quote by Ralph Nader that says that leadership development is not about developing more followers; it’s really about developing the leaders—finding that gold, those characteristics, and those abilities. And so, I believe everyone’s a leader. They’re leaders in different capacities and in different spaces, but they’re leaders. It could be a leader in the home, or it could be a leader in the White House; it could be a leader within a community, or it could be a leader within an academic setting. There’s a leadership capacity within everyone. And so, it’s not just about developing people who are going to follow others. Rather, leadership is primarily about finding those characteristics that we have within ourselves that allow us to be able to take the lead and to do that.

Leadership used to be thought of from a traits and characteristics perspective—if you can check off these boxes, then you are a leader. Throughout the years, it’s progressed to be thought of in terms of behaviors and situations, and there’s different elements that go into it. And so, we’re at a place where we recognize that it’s not just one thing, it’s not single minded, it’s not just one approach. Really, if we’re going to talk about leadership development, we have to talk about it from the perspective that it’s really an opportunity followed by another opportunity, followed by another opportunity. Leadership is a model, but it is this model, and it is that model too. There’s not one particular way that leadership development takes place. Sometimes it happens naturally, and sometimes it happens purposefully. When we talk about leadership development, I believe that we’re talking about the readiness and the confidence that leaders need to gain in order to be able to occupy those spaces that are before them. 

And so, we all accomplish and we all grow comfortable in particular areas, but leadership development is about moving further, about really trusting God, and looking at those footsteps that have been traced before us and having the courage to step into them. But sometimes you need just a push and sometimes you need more training, sometimes you need to identify leadership capacities, and sometimes you just need to be under the mentorship or the coaching of someone who can help you and model those ways for you. And so, all of that encompasses what I believe is leadership development. 

Internal components to leadership development

When I talk about leadership development, I refer to it as having an internal component. That internal component has to do with me—my self-confidence, my readiness, my self-leadership, for example. There are things I have to do that I have to recognize, and I have to examine myself. I have to ask God to search my heart and bring to the surface whatever needs to be addressed. That’s my internal responsibility for my leadership and one way I can be a good steward of the leadership that I exhibit.

This material was originally recorded as part of the Renovations Project. It has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

We often don’t understand the importance of knowing what our personal leadership style is, or what are some leadership theories that inform the way that we lead. I think it’s important for us to just know who we are as leaders because that’s the starting point. It’s important to recognize the leadership journey: not “This is the leader who I’ve always been and who I will continue to be,” but “This is the leader that I am now.” Or: “This is the leader that I am now, and this is where I am headed.”

A leadership journey is multi-directional

In order for me to know how I’m going to grow my own leadership capacity, I have to know where I am as a leader. People miss this all the time—good leaders and not-so-good leaders. They miss this all the time, and they chase after leadership development programs without having a real sense of what they’re growing or how they’re trying to grow. I think that we all know we’re not the same leader across the board. The way I lead at home is different from the way I lead at the church, and that’s different from the way that I lead in the academy. There are different cultural and organizational components that are important. For example, when I am teaching and addressing Latina and Latino students, it’s different from how I lead at home. I can’t wear that academic hat home, and so I lead my family in a different way. If we don’t reflect upon that, then we don’t know where we’re heading, and we are left to aim and wander toward a target we may not hit. 

I also think that there are things that God is calling us to that are higher, that are greater, that move us to a place from glory to glory. And so, because I believe that, then I also know that whatever is my floor now was my roof before I went up that staircase, but there’s something at that next level, and I have to go up that next staircase in order for me to be able to move to that next level. And so, that means if I don’t have the skills or the competencies to move up, then I’m needing to grow in some areas. I think that’s my responsibility. I think that I have to lead myself in such a way that I consider the different components of who I am as a leader, in order to project myself and be able to then grow in whatever way is necessary to move forward to whatever God is calling me to do. That move forward doesn’t necessarily mean I’m always moving to a higher position or I’m getting better pay; a move forward might simply be going deeper. 

For some, a next level could mean another role in ministry, but for others, it could simply mean just going deeper—being more of who you’re supposed to be. I tell myself that nobody knows me like God, and that there are things that God has yet to reveal to me about myself that I can’t even be trusted with yet because I’m not at that place. And so, this informs a lot of the way that I evaluate this internal aspect of who I am as a leader. I want God to reveal who I am, and I want to know more of who I am. I feel that this internal aspect just leads me down this pathway of spending time with myself as a leader and trying to get a sense of who I am and where I’m going.

In self-reflection, I can come to a place of understanding and peace with God, that this is the direction that I should go, and in the process of it, I’m inviting others to be a part of that journey, and I’m trusting others to lead me down that pathway so that I can be who God created me to be. 

Leadership is an opportunity to give

Leadership is something you give away. Leadership is not anything that you hold on to and that you strangle. It’s not yours to keep forever. Good leaders are able to transition out of spaces, and whatever they created lives on and on and on, because not only did they create structures or programs that have a life that does not revolve around that leader or that designer, but they’ve left the people in place to carry on the legacy, to carry on the spirit. And while it may take a life of its own, it will always point back to those foundational moments and those spaces in time where someone birthed it, someone gave it life, or someone took it to the next level. And so, one of the main elements of leadership is succession—thinking through and being able to think about it from the perspective of a good leader: “I want whatever I have placed my hands upon to outlive me. So who do I leave it to? Who do I leave in charge? Who do I hope to bring up to a place and a space where they can take this to the next level?”

Related: Why releasing a young leader is both hard and good

When we’re talking about internal components of leadership, there’s a framing of giving that is an important element. To say: “I have such confidence in who I am as a leader, I have such confidence in the work that I have done, that that space doesn’t identify who I am. That was just an opportunity for me to be creative, for me to be able to build, for me to give myself away. But I also know that there’s other spaces and other places where I can also do the same.” And so, it is imperative when we occupy a position of leadership, that we also think about the next leader. When I get hired for something, I am always thinking about who’s going to replace me, in the next five or ten (or more). Then look for the people who have the capacity to take whatever you have done and go to the next level. And so, I have the confidence to do that. I don’t feel intimidated, I don’t feel like I’m at a loss, I don’t feel like, wow, somebody else is going to do something better than I did. Instead, I’m like, yes, I found someone who can take this to the next level and do better than I did. That’s a marker of a great leader.

There’s a beauty in this giving. The beauty is that great leaders are able to see in others those kinds of capacities that they may not be able to identify just yet. There’s a trust element there, for a leader to be able to say, “You’re not there, but you will be. And not only will you be, you’ll go farther than I ever did, and whatever I can do to pave that way, I will do it.” So, leadership succession is not always something that we talk about or plan intentionally, but it is so important, and it really speaks to what kind of leaders we are—and the kind of leadership we can develop in others.