My Experience of the Leadership Matters Course, Turkey, October ‘04

The Leadership Matters Course (LMC) was a wonderful opportunity to take a few steps back from my assignment and review the whole leadership task. The two week course brought together many of the bits and pieces of training, reading and informal learning of the past 20 years, and helped me integrate these elements into a unified framework. It was stimulating to be alongside experienced and emerging leaders from other agencies, in particular those from OM.

The trainers were experienced leaders with well developed presentational skills. They were very effective in modelling the principles being taught. Five trainers who serve with OM in significant leadership roles were accompanied by David Cummings, former President of WBT, John King of Wycliffe Canada and Peter Lester of East Asia Group.

Very little of the course content or skill set was new to me. The benefit came from being reacquainted with things I already knew and being helped to appreciate the value of these fundamental skills and insights through reflecting on them and applying them in practical exercises. An analogy might be a course of advanced driving instruction – sharpening my awareness of the basic driving skills, identifying areas of weakness in my technique, and equipping me to drive more expertly and with fewer mishaps. For example it was very helpful to take time to work through skills such as delegation and supervision. In addition to vital leadership elements such as vision, communication and management the course also covers areas such as the pain associated with leadership.

The LMC does not make any attempt to address theoretical models of leadership-related issues. It confines itself to teaching a set of practical skills in addition to development of healthy attitudes towards the task of leadership

Towards the end of the two weeks I found myself thinking more like a leader and less like a manager or administrator. Back in my assignment I am now tending to ask myself questions such as, “What leadership skill is appropriate in this setting?” as opposed to asking, “How can I overcome this problem or address this situation?” The LMC is designed to develop an increased awareness of God’s anointing and an associated confidence in approaching the leadership task. I have found this to be the case.

The instructional technique had much in common with Learning that Lasts – first drawing on the awareness and experience of the learners, and then adding the learning appropriate to a given unit. The question asked at the end of each training session was, “What will you start doing, stop doing, or do differently as a result of this training?”

I see the LMC as complimenting SIL’s MDOC programme by adding a leadership emphasis as well as reinforcing the basic management skills. Recommended reading in areas of management and leadership theory alongside MDOC and LMC would, in my view, provide a comprehensive equipping for leadership. In a profoundly simple way LMC develops a broad understanding of essential leadership issues and foundational skills, and makes direct application to the assignment of the participant.
LMC is a program of the International Training Alliance, an organization which has come into being in response to the deep need for leadership training amongst mission and church leaders, both amongst the expatriate missionaries and nationals in the developing world.

Eric Graham (England)