As we’re developing leaders and using our handy IRTDMN tool, it’s sometimes easy to identify, recruit, train, deploy, and…abandon. We have good intentions, but sometimes the monitor step seems easy to drop. Monitoring is an integral part of leadership development process and says to some someone that you value and care for them.
In monitoring deployed leaders, here are a few things we want to keep in mind:
Monitor For the Right Reason
Finding leaders in the kingdom of God cannot be about hiring smart to make you look good. When we’re recruiting at any level, we’re recruiting to help that person be successful along their journey. It isn’t just about getting someone to do a task. It’s about helping them find what God is calling them to. It’s about everyone getting to play in the kingdom. We monitor because we want people to do well and because we want them to know they have support in their journey.
Make it Personal
IRTDMN is not just checking boxes on a to-do list and then moving on. Monitoring is personal. It’s not just seeing if they are able to successfully do the job that we’ve deployed them to do. Sure, that’s part of it. But it’s also personal involvement in the lives of people we’re leading. It’s a highly relational investment into their lives. You should ask questions like, how can I continue to invest in this leader? How can I help them be healthy and on the path towards what God has for them?
Find a Gap in Training
Practically, monitoring does allow you to find any gaps in the training. You may find that the person is doing a task or job that they were never trained for. It’s a good time to reflect to see how the training they received matches their day to day reality. Or you may find that something in their training didn’t make sense to them or just didn’t stick. We want to make adjustments instead of letting people struggle. Are there areas that they haven’t been successful in and need more training? We need to be humble and to acknowledge that the training that we offered might not have been good enough.
As a movement, we’re highly committed to multiplication. We work hard to multiply leaders and churches. Sometimes it’s easy to get so many people in the leadership pipeline that you realize that you have too many people to check in on. You may need to back up to go forward. If we are not able to monitor all of the people we’re raising up, we need to slow down in order to do healthy leadership development.
At the end of the day, this isn’t about the people working for the well-being of the church. The church commits to the well-being of the people. If we are missing out on the opportunity in monitoring, we may miss out on the chance to encourage and disciple someone for their own well-being, the very purpose the church serves.
In your next meeting with someone you’re monitoring, you may want to ask questions like:
- How are you? How is your soul?
- How’s your family/spouse/kids?
- How are you adjusting to this new level of leadership?
- Did you feel that you received adequate training for what you’re actually doing?
- Do you have healthy boundaries? What does a normal week look like for you?
- What kind of an impact are you having in their ministry area?
