By Chad Hershberger

As you may know from some of my blog posts, I’m a student of leadership. I enjoy learning more perspectives on the topic, read a lot of books on leadership, and try to be observant of leaders I admire to see how I might improve in my role.

During the COVID pandemic, I noticed something being done by younger leaders that I didn’t think was necessarily leadership. That was crowdsourcing. I saw so many go onto social media and professional forums and ask, “What should I do?”  Now, don’t get me wrong. I think consulting with colleagues or experts is important. But, asking for the “most votes” in what someone should do as a leader is not appropriate to this old-school guy. I feel you need to weigh all the facts, options, and consult trusted people to come to your decision. Putting up a poll on Facebook is not leadership. Leadership is looking to do what is best for the people you serve.

So many tough decisions were made during those pandemic days, particularly those I was closest to. Camp directors were having to decide whether to shut down their main program of the year. Pastors were deciding how long to keep their doors shut for Sunday worship. Mothers and fathers were deciding how to homeschool their children and provide some continuity in an age that none of us were prepared to deal with.  All these groups were weighing options, looking at their context, and making the tough decisions. They knew their decisions would affect the future.

In an online forum I attended, Evan Moilan, who also is a student of leadership, reminded us there is the response, recovery, and redevelopment phases to a disaster such as a global pandemic. Not only did we have to have an immediate response, but we had to look ahead to how we would and bring forth resurrection from that time. And in the cases where I saw it done effectively, there was leadership. I saw creative minds thinking about how to do new things to meet the needs of the people we serve. We got through that challenging period with true leadership, not with surveys and crowdsourcing on social media. We got through it with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, prayerful deliberation, and intentional decision-making processes.

While the pandemic certainly wasn’t a time that many will care to remember and re-live, I think the tenants of leadership that we saw during those days in our local communities was a pandemic positive. I know I was blessed to work with some talented leaders who supported one another to get us through those days successfully. It took true leadership!