Leadership matters is not just a nice saying or cute hashtag. John Maxwell says “everything rises and falls on leadership.” We at LEAD.NYC recognize that investment in a leader has exponential impact on the leader’s family, community, church and organization.

There are a total of 57 leaders who have joined us for the Advance Leadership Intensive (ALI).  For the first time, we have more leaders in the 6 pm cohort than the 1 pm cohort (21 at 1 pm cohort and 36 at 6pm cohort). These 57 leaders are cumulatively serving over 493,000 people on an annual basis.  With the Advance budget as it is, that’s basically about $1.63 per touch. From prior observation, I can say without fault that ALI has been very effective in turning donor capital into positive outcomes.Training a leader creates massive ROI.

When thinking about the shift in demographics of the leaders we have trained since I joined Movement.org in 2012, I’m filled with hope not only for the Church of NYC but for my beloved city as a whole. What a humbling privilege to train the city’s rising and seasoned leaders? What a weighty endeavor to commit to sourcing our city with leadership training? I’m in awe at what God is doing.  This graphic tells an important part of the story.

My heart swells and my eyes water when I think about what these 57 leaders from 3 countries received yesterday at the virtual launch of the 11th cohort of ALI. The faculty was excellent and both hit home runs:

• Scott Kauffmann, Partner for Content & Business Portfolio at Praxis teaching on the topic of the “Redemptive Pitch”.  Scott made the case for examining our leadership and organizational practices to ensure they are not exploitative or even ethical but they are redemptive.  Redemptive is defined as “creative restoration through sacrifice” in the Redemptive framework.

• “Leadership intent will drive everything in our organizations.  If the leader is leading from an exploitative, ethical or redemptive frame, our strategy and practices will follow.”  Scott Kauffmann, ALI 2020-2021 Faculty
• Early results from our survey of the day showed 100% of respondents rated Scott’s talk as Extremely helpful or Mostly helpful

• Ebony Small, VP for Multiplication at Pulse teaching on “Leading Transformational Change” was a powerful addition to the faculty this year. Her talk was packed with leadership theory and practical knowledge that when applied will stretch and grow every leader in the cohort. She outlined a strategy for the personal and organizational assessments needed to lead change in unprecedented times.

• “Leading in crisis means leaning in to crisis.”  Ebony Small, ALI 2020-2021 Faculty
• Early results from our survey of the day showed 100% of respondents rated Ebony’s talk as Extremely helpful or Mostly helpful

My sense as both cohorts were unfolding was that Scott and Ebony were both providing such great training for our leaders – the Zoom chat and survey of the day confirmed my thoughts. Overall, 65% of respondents rated the day as ‘wildly exceeding my expectations”, with 35% of respondents rating the day as ‘exceeded my expectations and 5% rating the day as ‘met my expectations’.

We received great feedback to make the experience better when we asked “what was one thing we could have done to make the session better”.  We always adjust what we can – feedback is so important to getting better.  But there was so much shared that is encouraging.  Here are some of the comments shared:

• “I was so blessed by this session.”
• “You guys are utterly amazing.”
• “Thank you all.  I am looking forward to our next session.”
• “The speakers were engaging and personable.  The subject matter was presented with clarity.”
• “This was an eye-opening experience in effective leadership.  Looking forward to our next session together.”
• “I didn’t think it could be as engaging as it was over Zoom but I felt very special and I learned so much.  Thank you.”
• “Becky is awesome!”

To my team,

Becky– Thank you for leading so well with passion and endless energy. You are such an asset to me personally and to our team.

Lenmarie and the Advance Internship Experience interns – Thank you for hosting our faculty so well! You all kept our chat updated with links and a number of key presentation points. Your work behind the senses does not go unnoticed

To each leader who has begun the Advance Leadership Intensive journey,

Lean in to these next 8 months – Everyone in your sphere of influence needs you to be the best leader you can be, leading the best ministry or nonprofit it can be.  There is no limit to what God can do with the investment each leader is making in their own leadership development.  My prayer is that God would do immeasurably more than each leader can ask or think … Ephesians 3:20.