Session three: Building leadership competency

In this session you’ll be exploring what it means to build leadership competency. Watch the accompanying videos from Ian Marchant and Yasmin Mohseni.

Download the video or download the transcript.

Download the full interview.

In order to be an effective, competent leader you need to understand your innate gifts, as well as skills you can cultivate. Take one or more of the tests below to explore your gifts. Consider how they serve your leadership, and what skills or gifts you would like to cultivate further. Remember that no test is definitive and it may be helpful to take a couple. While the results can help you to understand your innate strengths, you should still develop other skills which might be essential for your leadership role. After reviewing the results, talk about them with someone you trust and pray as well. Ask God why he has given you these gifts.

CPAS has collated a number of free tools and resources under the headings of spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experience. There is an emphasis on the calling to church leadership, but the tools can also be used to explore public leadership vocations. The use of spiritual gifts in public leadership roles is often underappreciated.

CliftonStrengths (formally StrengthsFinder) is a widely used assessment for exploring innate ​‘talents’. A book or e-book (there are several versions, including a leadership book) costs around £20 and includes a code for the online assessment tool and access to your top five strengths (the full report is around £65). The online assessment is hosted on the official website, though the books can be bought on a number of websites, including Amazon.

viachar​ac​ter​.org is a free psychometrically validated personality test that measures an individual’s character strengths. Character strengths are viewed as our core capacities for thinking, feeling, and behaving in ways that can bring benefit to us and others. You can also pay for additional resources and online courses.

Myers – Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a popular introspective self-report questionnaire with the purpose of indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world around them and make decisions. A free version can be found at 16per​son​al​i​ties​.com.

Enneagram is another popular personality profile tools. The Enneagram Institute, one of several organisations that uses the model, provides two possible assessments, each costing around £9.

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Should secular leadership theory influence Christian ministry? by Ian Paul

Right to Lead by James C. Maxwell

Invitation to Solitude and Silence and Strengthening the Souls of Your Leadership by Ruth Haley Barton

So good they can’t ignore you: why skills trump passion in the quest for work you love by Cal Newport