Leadership Development - Director Claude's Thoughts Regarding the Leadership Development Process - 2

 

   This is Chuck Rapp with Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters and leaders.

Our topic for 2026 is Leadership Development. In my previous podcast, I shared VCP Director Claude's thoughts about the process of leadership development. Today I want to continue with his insights.

I asked Director Claude how he helps new leaders grow as spiritual men. It was not surprising to me that he began with how he observes their personalities and their behaviors. This helps him by providing insight into how to pray for each one. Now, in order to observe someone, we must be in proximity to them; we must be near them. We must spend time with them. While it is most effective to be physically together, when this is not possible, technology can help us.

My next question of Director Claude was how he deals with situations when corrective feedback is needed.

Perhaps someone is showing a character flaw in their behavior. Maybe he observed that a task was not completed well. Here is his response.

Claude likes to share feedback informally. Perhaps it will be over a meal. He doesn't like to have these conversations when he is seated across from someone at a big desk. He said that he prefers to do this with both positive and corrective feedback.

I then asked about the timing of sharing corrective feedback, and he told me that when someone does something wrong, most often rather than immediately addressing it, he prefers to wait until there is a natural opportunity. He told me "If you are too strong, they will have fear and hide. The most important thing is that they continue to be open to you." This is great wisdom. "The most important thing is that they continue to be open to you." If someone closes themselves off from us as leaders, then we are no longer able to help them in their development.

Proverbs 27:6 instructs us "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses." When we provide corrective feedback to an emerging leader within the context of relationship or friendship, they realize that while our words may hurt them temporarily, they know that what we are telling them is for their good in the future.

Director Claude continued with his answer by saying that If, however, the mistake is something that can "spoil the work," he addresses it immediately. Two examples that he gave were a poor relationship between a supervisor and a coordinator or the misuse of funds). Most of the time, if it is possible, he addresses the issue in private.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters and leaders.