Summary: Chris Allen is a Young Men's President in Sandy, Utah. He works for a local blood laboratory and enjoys being with his family when he isn't mountain biking. He has years of experience in the Young Men's program and shares a fascinating approach to helping young men become leaders in his ward.<br> Enter Chris…<br> I was sitting in one of those 7:00-am-and-I'm-way-too-tired-to-be-here priesthood training meetings, listening to the stake president teach. I was struggling to pay attention until a single phrase focused my thoughts and brought the promptings of the spirit on me like floodwater bursting over a levee. The stake president said, "If a young man has to come to you at the start of Priesthood meeting to find out what the plan for the upcoming mutual activity is, you're not doing your job right." This simple phrase changed the way I lead my young men.<br> <br> I've been serving in the YM program pretty much continually since I turned twelve, whether formally or informally and my leadership of young men has changed dramatically over the years. I used to try leading them from the front of the room where I could speak and teach and share my wisdom and knowledge in a strong and authoritative manner. As my understanding of young men and their needs has matured, I now lead from the back of the room.<br> <br> This back-of-the-room approach is often referred to as shadow leadership and, in my experience, it's much more difficult to master than the alternative, but yields significantly better results. The Church Handbook makes clear that the young men are the leaders, and the adults are called as youth advisors. As an advisor it's my job to guide and mentor the leaders who can then lead the rest of the young men. I'm essentially acting as a sounding board and a validator. Let's look at this in action in a few key scenarios: a presidency meeting, Priesthood opening exercises, a quorum meeting and a mutual activity. As we walk through each scenario, look for principles of shadow leadership. We'll summarize them at the end of the tour.<br> <br> The quorum presidency meeting is where it all starts. Presidency meeting for the young men is vital and we try hard to hold it every Sunday. This is where the quorum leaders learn how to lead. This is where they develop skills, knowledge and confidence for what they need to do the rest of the week. Presidency meeting is presided over by the quorum president, who is either a Deacon, a Teacher, or the Bishop, it can be conducted by any member of the presidency, but it shouldn't be the bishop. The secretary should have prepared an agenda for the meeting as shown here. The adult advisors, including the bishop should try hard to not speak unless necessary. (For a fun exercise, try counting how many sentences you speak each meeting and try to reduce it each week). The conducting youth should lead the discussion seeking input from the adults when needed. This takes time to develop, but is amazing to see done well. At the beginning the young men will need to be prompted on each agenda item and will often look to the adult for permission to start the meeting, move to the next agenda item, or assign action items. Coach the youth to do these things on their own. Sit in silence and wait for that awkward tension to build while the youth venture out from being led to being leaders. The young men will discuss the needs of each member of the quorum, what Come Follow Me discussion topics would be best and who should teach them, what mutual activities will best meet the needs of the quorum, what training is needed for priesthood duties assigned to the quorum, and they will reflect on past activities or lessons and discuss things that went well and why as well as things that didn't go well and why. Key training items can and should be assigned to the adult advisors, but once again, let the youth pick topics to train on. As they progress you can even try not showing up to presidency meeti...
