By His amazing grace I’ve been in full-time vocational Christian leadership for 58 years. I’ve learned a lot,  seen a lot experienced a lot and made a lot of mistakes. One of the things I learned is there are not a lot of churches that have all the leaders they need and want. Additionally, many of these church don’t have a  thought-through plan on how to identity, develop and deploy new leaders. In today’s guest post, Pastor and author Eric Geiger deals with this issue.

Guest Post by Eric Geiger

Who should I consider for this important role?” When someone asks me that question, I often respond with my own question: “Who do you see excelling in lateral leadership that you can promote?” At which point I have often scribbled this compass for them on my dry-erase board.

Many people only think of the direction of leading downward, of influencing people you are responsible for. But that is only one aspect of leadership. Most important is self-leadership, because if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead anyone else. Leading upward is influencing your leaders. Lateral leadership is influencing your peers.

Here’s what I’ve found after years of these conversations: one of the best indicators that someone is ready to lead more is if they are an effective lateral leader. Because lateral leadership is the hardest kind of leadership. There’s no paycheck to leverage. No reporting lines to reference. The people who excel at lateral leadership excel at coordination with people they don’t have positional authority over. They are able to influence others by their credible character, the strength of their vision, their commitment, their ability to communicate and execute, and their servant’s posture toward others. Someone who excels in those attributes is a good candidate for a position where they will need to lead a team or lead downward.