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"You\u2019ve got the makings of a leader\u2014you\u2019re educated, creative, savvy and influential. You have everything you need for world change, right? \r\n\r\nNot so fast.\r\n\r\nFirst, you need to slow down and find someone who can show you the ropes. \r\n\r\nI once watched a leader with great potential fail because he misunderstood the relationship between his own potential and his need for mentoring. \r\n\r\nThis young man dazzled in the eyes of his senior-level leaders, and he suddenly found himself in a high-profile leadership position. Yet his new status caused him to see his own abilities as more valuable than the guidance of those who had been down the same road before him and wanted to see him succeed.\r\n\r\nInitially, people wanted to follow him and his attractive persona. But it wasn\u2019t long before he realized he was in way over his head in his flashy new executive role. \r\n\r\nThe end result was that he lost the respect of those who reported to him, and he was forced to attempt the impossible: effectively lead people who had long since figured out he wasn\u2019t going anywhere they wanted to go. He relied on his title to command the respect he should have earned with his character and performance, and he failed. Eventually, his superiors asked him to leave.\r\n\r\nIn short, this leader\u2019s promising start fizzled because he refused to seek and heed the wisdom of mentors. A strong start is rarely followed by a strong finish without the help of mentors in between. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nStrangely enough, leaders often need mentors more than anyone else because they land in situations that call for wisdom beyond their experience. And because they\u2019re given responsibility for others. And because the consequences of their choices reverberate. And because \u201Cfrom the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked\u201D (Luke 12:48).\r\n\r\nIf you are a person of influence (and everyone is, at some level), there are a few good reasons you should find a mentor. \r\n\r\nInvestment. Securing a mentor means you\u2019ve found someone willing to make an investment in you. The support you receive from them will help you grow far more than you would without them.\r\n\r\nChallenge. Your mentor will push you to think outside your limited viewpoint, which will exercise your perspective and, ultimately, stretch your leadership skills. \r\n\r\nObjectivity. A mentor has personal distance from the issues you wrestle with and is able to look at your life with a more grounded and long-term perspective than you can. Their vantage point will be invaluable to you.\r\n\r\nNavigation. The mentoring experience is like traveling with someone who has a map. As much as you may feel like a pioneer in your leadership context, many people have already been where you\u2019re going now\u2014just with different scenery. A mentor can help you find your way.\r\n\r\nInterpretation. Having another set of eyes gives you twice the ability to interpret your world, thoughts and experiences.\r\n\r\nLearned memory. A mentor can pass along historical spiritual stories you wouldn\u2019t otherwise know, just from journeying within the long legacy of leadership and wisdom passed down through the ages. As God instructed His people in Deuteronomy 8, we must remember what has happened before us and what God has done in the past. \r\n\r\nWisdom. Wisdom really does come with experience. Clich\u00E9? Yes. True? Also yes. Our culture idolizes energy, innovation and fresh ideas\u2014but these are all useless without the counterbalance of time-tested wisdom. \r\n\r\nIdentity. Mentoring is not about learning to copy someone else. It\u2019s about growing into your best self\u2014which can be sharpened and shaped by a person you admire. \r\n\r\nLeadership can be a hard and lonely road. But if you take a mentor along for the journey, you\u2019ll join the ranks of Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Naomi and Ruth, Mordecai and Esther, Elizabeth and Mary, Barnabas and Paul, Paul and Timothy and many others. \r\n\r\nAs their stories testify\u2014and yours can, too\u2014when leaders learn from each other, their effectiveness can only be multiplied. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/next/lead/why-leaders-still-need-leaders>