Leadership development has evolved from training, to coaching, and most recently to mentoring. There is a growing interest in how to impart wisdom to the inexperienced, so that great organizations can survive through a succession of great leaders. As you know, I like to read books in unusual and provocative pairings. This time I read Reverse Mentoring by Earl Creps (Jossey-Bass, 2008) alongside A Companion to the Study of Augustine by Roy W. Battenhouse (Oxford, 1955), during my summertime reflection of how the “City of God” might overlap with the City of New Orleans.
Reverse Mentoring is a terrific book, and well worth reading by anyone interested in mentoring processes or leadership succession. The basic idea is that by deliberately exposing the limitations of one’s own life and leadership; and by inviting correction, conflict, and honest dialogue; and by building relationships beyond our comfort zones; and by reading between the lines and looking beyond the immediate situation; and by generally shedding our ego and claims to competency; we can learn a lot. That learning will not only make us more effective leaders. It will also reveal and encourage our future replacements.
The RM philosophy of the book is a product of RM experience. How interesting! The insight that friendship is the core dynamic of real learning comes neither from within the church nor educational institutions, but from corporate business and the military. Friendship becomes a learning strategy when it is deliberately varied, courageously deep, humble before the Lord, begins with a plea for help, and leads to personal growth. Who knew that Jack Welsh thought that way? Well, maybe not quite. But Earl Creps is doing just what he recommends: read between the lines and look beyond the situation.
What was even more interesting is that the RM philosophy has ancient and pre-modern roots. The very sections in Reverse Mentoring by Creps can be used to interpret the life and effective leadership of Augustine. As a young man who was cool, hip, and “with it”, his remarkable conversion and re-education was an admission that he wasn’t cool, didn’t get it, wasn’t really relevant. It was a habit that lasted a lifetime (see Creps, Part One: Facing Reality). Augustine’s methodology combined vision, wisdom, and relationship in order to see beyond ourselves, beyond our information, and beyond our peers (see Creps, Part Two: Cultivating Spirituality). His ministry focused evangelism by learning from outsiders; focused preaching by learning from listeners; and focused leadership by learning from followers (see Creps, Part Three: Experiencing Practicality).
Of course, Reverse Mentoring certainly stands on its own as a great book. You don’t have to appreciate the literature of current corporate leadership or know anything about Augustine to find tremendous value in this book. I just ponder how “reverse mentoring” might also mean post-modern openness to ancient leadership practices. There seem to be no limits to how far humility can take us.
Tom Bandy
www.ThrivingChurch.com
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