Graduation time! If you’ve made it all the way through this month-long mini-series on coaching your champions corporately, don your mortarboard: It’s time to walk across the stage and recieve your diploma. In fact, that’s really the final step:

After you’ve answered those ten questions together over the next ten months, get together one final time (this will result in a twelve month process altogether).  And in this final meeting, work with participants to create a personal plan of action related to the cause.

Laying out a personal plan of action related to the cause need not be scary or doctoral thesis-like. It’s simply an answer to the question, What will you do differently as a result of this process we’ve just completed?

Ask participants to each raise up a group of their own that they can lead through this same process – with your help, of course–composed of people in their sphere of influence (friends, family, co-workers). Help them to identify the people they want to invite and then hold them accountable to do the inviting and calendar the process.

As these champions go back into their sphere of influence, taking their own friends and family through this process, the cause becomes replete with champions who are becoming fully mature–champions, who, ideally, you will never meet, since they’re being coached by the champions that you are fully focused on continuing to coach!

And this leads to one cardinal caution:

As a facilitator, and especially as an owner of the cause who has likely been at this for a number of years, it can be tempting for you to agree to let them bring their friends to you to train, rather than them leading a group themselves.

But counter that temptation with this realization:

There’s no leap-frogging ahead in this process. Everyone struggles as a leader their first time out, particularly in a process like this one that is likely so new to them. And that’s totally OK. Let them embark on a group process with your full support…but not your commitment to lead their group for them. Offer to meet with them regularly during the time they are leading. Agree to drop by their meetings now and then.

But don’t shortchange their growth to maturity by leading in their stead.

Instead, provide them with resources for prayer and worship, service, and giving in order to enable their groups to be the best groups they can lead.

And fortunately there’s a resource designed to do just that!

It happens to be a book that I just completed, designed to help you facilitate this process for your champions, no matter what your cause happens to be.

That book, The Whole Life Offering: Christianity as Philanthropy goes on sale in early April. So go ahead and start making the transition to coaching your champions corporately whenever you’re ready. If you do end up getting stumped, let’s get stumped together: the book is actually perfect for reading together with your champions, and I’m never much further away than this blog.

And final thanks to .W’s Jesse Medina and Memphis Leadership Foundation’s Larry Lloyd for Powerpointing with me–rather than fingerpointing at me–to make this mini-series possible!