Cincinnati’s Top Leaders Make an Impact Through Volunteerism: Brian Tome

Cincinnati’s Top Leaders Make an Impact Through Volunteerism: Brian Tome

Founding/Senior Pastor; Crossroads Church

Q. How important is it for a leader to have experienced a season of volunteerism?

A. It is critically important because the first step to being a good leader is being a good follower. There is no better grounding than when you follow and you are not being paid to follow. This sets us up to refine what we are doing. We are leading not for numbers, but for people. When you volunteer, you have conquered a hurdle about caring for people.

Last night I was asked to go with a group to serve coffee to a midnight shift at a local hospital. That was outside of my official job description. It was also out of my comfort zone — I like to be asleep by 10:30. But this is what leaders need to do; be ready to step outside of the norm.

Q. When you were an upcoming leader, who is someone you observed in a volunteer position or a leadership role?

A. That person would be Denny Pattyn. He built into me as a high school student and gave me an understanding of who God is. He also gave me understanding of what it was like to be a leader as I went on to college. He gave me feedback — he was a great encourager and a great criticizer. He instilled a lot of drive in me that I am thankful for to this day.

Q. How do you manage your time between leading and providing a role model for community work?

A. No one goes where they haven’t seen anyone else going. As a leader you can’t just give platitudes and instruction. You need them to see you in action and say, “Hey, if that is a direction I would like my life to go, then I will watch what this person is doing.” If I want more people to have a heart for the poor, then I need to have a heart for the poor. It is about what is caught, not what is taught.

Q. Describe the role you see yourself in in 10 years.

A. In 10 years, I see myself keeping the same hours I am keeping, giving the same sort of macro vision to a movement that swept our country. But I also see myself still involved day-to-day in normal people’s lives while ushering in a new group of leaders.

Q. How do you use your leadership talent to encourage and groom others?

A. You have to have people around you. You have to invite people into your life. When I go to my friend’s house on the lake, I always take people with me. I have people to my house and they have dinner with us. It is important to pull back the veil and allow others to see into our real lives. We need to be relationally engaged. That is where leadership development happens — not in a class, not in a book. Just this morning I sent out texts to about eight friends, sending them written prayers to connect with them and encourage them.

Q. How do you monitor the performance of the people that you have to lead?

A. If it is people I am leading in spiritual formation, I am looking to see what kind of character development is happening in their lives or isn’t happening. If it’s people I am leading who I’m paying (employees), it is all of that plus looking at the numbers, the output — is your campus growing? Are the videos getting more views than before? Is the music you are writing moving more people in the midst of worship? You can say all of the soft, catchphrase things about leaders, but at the end of the day, it is about taking people to a different place, a place they cannot go without your help.

Q. Leadership roles lose significance unless they are able to impact those who come behind us. How are you making a lasting impact for future generations?

A. We have to keep remembering that it is all about people. Numbers are important, but not the end goal. Projects are important, but not the end goal.

We have to ask, “How is this activity pinning itself to a life being better off?” If we are trying to grow our social media presence, it is not about the number of followers, it is about the number of followers being helped. As a leader I have to tell my folks that we are not here about a numbers game. If you are not helping people, ultimately, your numbers are not going to go up.

Q. Describe your leadership style.

A. I’m a mobilizer. I’m best when I am mobilizing people to a vision or a purpose. I like to see new territory that we have to take. I am not as passionate about process and strategic planning. I can see the general place we need to go, but if there are 100 steps to get there, that is not a strength for me.

Q. What challenges are you facing?

A. It is important for every organization to try and stay young. It is important to keep yourself fresh for the next generation. It is a challenge navigating the digital world and the physical world. Our entire model for ministry for the first 20 years was to get buildings and fill buildings. We still want to do that, but we live in a digital world, so we have to adapt. How do you live in a world where buildings have been so central, but you don’t want them to be too central moving forward? That is indeed a challenge. Technology is totally changing things, but we have to adapt.

Q. What does a great day at work look like for you?

A. Meetings that are filled with joy, laughter, and purpose. Feeling, with everyone in the office, that we are on the same team going in the same direction.Knowing that lives are better because of our ministry’s presence. Seeing new things begin to bud that we have been working on for a long time.

Q. What title would you give this chapter in your life?

A. Convergence.

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