I am convinced that one of the simplest ways to develop leaders is to invite them to shadow another leader: to watch what they do, how they do it and to ask why they do it that way. I was going to write 'one of the easiest ways' but I am not sure 'easiest' is perhaps the right word!
Shadowing can be difficult for the leader as it means we are allowing someone else to watch how we do things, and that may mean that they see the reality of our own self leadership. Will they judge me for seeing that I tend to leave my youth meeting preparation to the last minute?
The reason it is one of the simplest ways is because we do need to do the stuff anyway so having someone alongside is quite practical. So the question for me is straightforward: what do I do in my leadership that I could ask a young person to join me in? This may mean leading a service, running a game, organising an outing. All these things require skills in leadership which we can simply pass on by inviting someone to prepare it with us. Then, on future occasions we can ask them to organise a bit more, and eventually perhaps they might start to run with these things without the need for us to help them. That's when it gets exciting because you can start leading someone else, or invest in that new initiative that you've always wanted to set up.
My experience is that by letting people shadow us, I raise my own leadership game as I want to model well and not teach the bad habits I've picked up. So letting someone shadow me shines a light on my own leadership habits and in turn helps me to grow.
Andy
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