Young Life develops leadership in people. That is a passive way of saying it, but most of the time our leadership development just happens, somewhat unintentionally. Club needs to happen so people develop the skills to make it happen. Same with campaigners, camps, etc. One way we can be more intentional and active in developing leadership is asking for feedback and self-evaluation.
Sometimes asking for self-evaluation isn’t the right thing to do. If a club and leader have been in the dumps for years then asking for a self-evaluation might feel like asking someone to describe every part of their car that needs to be fixed after they totaled it in a crash. “Thanks for asking, I’d LOVE to talk more about it”. But most of the time self-evaluation can be helpful. By-and-large people like to talk about themselves and appreciate that you want to know what they are thinking. After a semester or year of club our club kids aren’t surprised when we ask them what they think of Jesus, in the same way most leaders are ready to talk about their leadership after a few months of leading.
To get the ball rolling you can send out an email or Facebook message and then follow it up with a face-to-face conversation. Here is a message I sent to leaders on my team recently:
I’d love to get some feedback from you about your experience leading at PHSYL this semester. Here are the questions:
1. Do you think Jesus is happy (glorified) by YL’s work at PHS? Why?
2. What was your highlight of being a leader in the last semester?
3. What was your biggest challenge being a leader in the last semester?
4. Name one person you felt like God used you to influence for Christ. Explain.
5. How do you think our team functioned as a team this semester?
6. As a team leader, what are the things that Sean does that help our team? What are things that could be improved?
7. What is one thing you want to be sure to do as a leader this coming semester?
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