Leadersmithing and Me
Eve Poole’s book, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership, discusses how Practice and Pressure are needed to forge healthy leaders. A key to leadership is knowing yourself and feeling resourced to accomplish the task.[1] Critical incidents shape the lives and outcomes of the leader. Practice templates help develop muscle memory for known situations and anxiety-inducing scenarios. Leaders don’t generally rise to the situation but live out of their character and what they’ve practiced. Ideally, templates will change and evolve as culture continues to change. Leadership for Poole is like an apprenticeship learned slowly by practicing alongside masters.[2]
Poole gives four areas of meta-learning: leadership muscle memory, self-regulation, reflective judgment, and learning to learn.[3] I’ve been fortunate to have people around me pour into these areas in my life. I want to compare my experience as a makeshift apprentice to Poole’s four areas of meta-learning and reflect on the four men who have imparted these to me.
Leadership Muscle Memory
When my wife and I got married, we would drive in the car, and I would practice preaching. Sarah would read a scripture to me, and I would make up a sermon on the spot. I didn’t realize I was templating. I was practicing speaking off the cuff on scriptures I had knowledge of but hadn’t studied. This practice served me well when I got to Cambodia.
Scott Sward was our team leader on the mission field. The roads of Cambodia are awful. We would have long hours driving small miles dodging tuk-tuks and water buffalo. Scott and I would travel to a small village to teach a Bible study and have lunch with a church. On the drive there, Scott knew about how I had practiced preaching with Sarah. He would give me scenarios he had experienced in Cambodia and ask how I would respond. I could template and practice my language and culture in a safe environment.
Self-Regulation
I learned more about self-regulation and controlling reactions and impulses through trusting and relying on my relationship with God in seminary. Dave Williams was my cohort leader for my master’s degree. I knew I needed self-regulation before I went to seminary, but I didn’t have all the skills that Dave exposed us to. He introduced us to books by Henri Nouwen and Pete Scazzero about living and ministering from the excess God gives us when we rest in him. He taught us not to let our work for God become more than our time with God can handle. Capacity as a leader comes from resting in God. I learned that our self-regulation becomes more manageable when we have a solid relationship with the father.
Reflective Judgment
Poole says, “Templating helps leaders to remain cool under fire, but you also need to be famous for your discernment.”[4] The first mentor I had was SSG Monroe. He was an infantry soldier, reclassifying to become an interrogator in my class. He was my squad leader for the course. He taught me the concept of the miniature. Poole points out that apprentices make a miniature to convince “both you and your masters that you are ready for bigger things.”[5] SSG Monroe used the Army method of crawl-walk-run as a miniature.
He would show us how to do something, and we would crawl through it slowly, with him demonstrating the knowledge for us. Then, we would walk through it – trying to do it at speed without messing up. He would correct and teach. Finally, he would apply a level of anxiety and stress through yelling and intensity. The run phase asks how you will handle this new knowledge under pressure. We learned how to ‘remain cool under fire’ – literally. Poole writes, “Learning under pressure…helps you to face it more confidently and to see it not so much as the absence of certainty, but as an opportunity for leadership.”[6]
Learning to Learn
Spencer Thury mentored me in college. I had just exited the Army and went to William Penn to work with Spencer. I met with him twice a week for three years until I graduated. He began every meeting with the same question: “What have you been reading?” He always wanted to know what scripture I was reading (that I wasn’t preaching or teaching from). Also, he had a list of classic devotions, leadership, and modern Christian self-help books that we would cycle through. He introduced me to Dallas Willard, Augustine, and Friedman.
He now pastors a church an hour north of me; we get together a few times a year and always ask, what have you been reading? He’s always interested in what I’m reading for class – he’s one of my biggest fans. In my free time, I keep the rhythm of reading classic devotionals, books on leadership, and modern works.
In hindsight, I would not be here without these men. A couple of weeks ago, Dr. Clark asked me how old I am – I’m 34. I often surprise people with how young I am. That’s partially my looks. I think it’s more that I’ve had wonderful mentors pour into me and give me experience and wisdom. I think the measure of a leader ought to be what the people they pour in to go on to do. I recognize I’m the product of God using these men to build me. I hope to see myself pour into others in this same way.
[1] Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership (New York: Bloomsbury Business, 2017), 181.
[2] Poole, 57-58.
[3] Poole, 12.
[4] Poole, 13.
[5] Poole, 58.
[6] Poole, 13
About the Author
Robert Radcliff
Hi! I'm Robert, and I'm seeking to understand who God is calling me to be in my community while helping others do the same. I enjoy reading, training for triathlons, and using exclamation points!8 responses to “Leadersmithing and Me”
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Robert,
Thanks for breaking down Poole’s 4 key points with personal stories. I look forward to hearing an improvised sermon when we are in Cape Town.
You started out your post with what is likely my favorite page in the book, page 181. Aside from the statement that most leaders wish that they would have known ten years ago that they “…can do it” my attention was continuously drawn back to this statement. “Remember, you don’t need to be smart, loving, and brave; you just need to FEEL as though you are.” Would you be willing to share your thoughts on her statement? When is doing those things simply living out of our character, and when is it hypocrisy?
Darren, that also stood out to me. I think it can go poorly when it’s not coupled with the humility to say, “I don’t have this, and I’m working on it.” If we pretend we have it, I think it goes poorly. I’m not particularly interested in faking it until I make it. There’s something inauthentic about faking it, and our world right now craves authenticity.
Last year, I had a congregational meeting that didn’t go well. Our former pastor was retiring, which shook up some of our older people. They were uncertain about me. That’s fine—I recognize that I’ve brought many changes to the church as we’ve grown. At that moment, I owned my mistakes and processed some of my own thoughts aloud with them.
When we lack wisdom, are unloving, and cowardly (the opposites of smart, loving, and brave) and we honestly own it as a defect, I think most people give grace in that moment. To have the humility to say, I don’t know this, but I’m willing to learn, calms nerves in tense times. Being calm and humble will turn down the heat. I do worry that fake it til you make it as it can be the opposite of humility.
I like how you started with the overview of Poole’s reading and then shared your experiences regarding the four areas of meta-learning from her book. In the Self-Regulation section, I appreciate how your mentor directed you to the books by Henri and Pete. These books helped you realize that we shouldn’t allow our work for God to overshadow our time with Him. With everything happening in your life, when do you find that precious time to spend with God?
Ivan, I love the question, “With everything happening in your life, when do you find that precious time to spend with God?” I fear that as leaders, we often run at the limits of letting our work for God become more than our time with God can handle (that’s a Pete quote). I have crafted a rule of life for myself to keep my time in check.
I do a training with people on a rule of life. Briefly, the word rule and ruler come from the root Latin word regula, and it connects to a trellis – a straight stick. I have people label the four quadrants of a paper as daily, weekly, monthly/quarterly, and yearly. Then, I asked them to fill in everything they usually do during those times. Here’s the kicker, I give them 3 highlighters and ask them to highlight what they do for themselves, what they do for God, and what they do for others. That gives people a colorful visual of how they spend their time.
Here’s my rhythm: each day, I begin with a Bible reading (that I’m not going to preach or teach out of (that’s only for me). At lunch, I take five minutes for a prayer of examen and ask God to show me if the things I did that morning led me closer to him or further. I do the same thing around bedtime. Then, weekly, I take Friday as my sabbath. I don’t do school, church, or housework on Fridays. The one question I try to ask every pastor is, what do you do for a sabbath? I believe that more than anything else, if a person is sabbathing well, they are ready for God’s ministry. Sabbath is how we take our hands off and recognize that God is in control.
Robert-
I appreciated your multi-step example of simulation, first in English preaching to your wife, then in Cambodian navigating a different context. As an old man, I want to wave the banner of “in a straight fight, experience wins.”[1] You’ve given a clear example where purpose and preparation gets the gloves up and the feet moving.
[1] Poole, 13.
Thanks, Rich! I believe nobody rises to a challenge—instead, what has been practiced emerges. That leads me to ask: What am I practicing? What stories am I telling myself when my mind wanders as I drive, am at the grocery store, or wherever? Those are the stories I’m practicing, and they will come out when I’m put into a situation.
Robert,
Again, You have provided a great example of a concise, meaningful, thoughtful, and relevant post.
I admire your ability to manage and balance your time, including a weekly sabbatical. We discussed this topic during one of our offline organizational zooms.
As you looked through the list of critical incidents, what did you capture as a “gap” or “area of opportunity” for your personal or professional development? Being a few years senior of 34 years and taking a moment of self-reflection, a few cards or critical incidents jumped off the page when I read them.
Mike, thanks for the encouragement! I need to work on the critical incident around the key board and stakeholder meetings. That part stood out to me, even after last semester’s NPO stakeholder meeting. That’s not something I’m very familiar with.