2 Samuel 20:23-26  Joab was over Israel’s entire army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; Adoniram was in charge of forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest. (NIV)

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This is a text I return to regularly in my work to help leaders develop and accelerate their leadership. The truth is, no leader leads alone. Or maybe a better way to say it is that no leader leads successfully alone. Every leader needs wise advisors, people smarter, better, faster than him or her.

King David had Joab, who was over the army, a position similar to our Secretary of War. He also had Benaiah, who was over the Kerethites and Pelethites, these were foreign mercenaries of special talents and abilities. They were David’s bodyguards, similar to the Secret Service that protects the president.

Adoniram was in charge of forced labor. These were the people Israel allowed to live when they came into the Promised Land, but also assigned them the manual labor needed to run the kingdom.

Jehoshaphat was the recorder or historian. He is the one who kept the records of what was done, why, and what the results were. Future planning always builds on the perspective gained from what happened before. As Tom Paterson said, “Perspective before planning.”

Shiva was the secretary who kept up with the daily inner workings of the king and his cabinet. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests. They were the ones who could seek God with the Urim and Thummim for those especially difficult cases before the nation.

Ira was David’s priest. Ira was a different kind of priest. He was from Manasseh. He was not from the tribe of Levi. It sounds like he was a man with a deep, abiding walk with God who was able to serve in David’s Cabinet, helping him and them stay focused on God’s direction for the nation.

One of the best-selling books in leadership circles in the last few years is Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferriss. The title alone reminds us of this passage about King David and his team. You and I do not have to be leaders of prominence or significance to require a team of mentors. Each and every one of us needs a group of people who are smarter, better, and faster than we are.

Who’s in your tribe?

Each of us needs a mentor. A mentor is someone who can give us wise advice over a lifetime. These leaders have our best interests at heart. They guide us with the wisdom they have learned through experience and observation. They help us know how to mentor others.

Keep in mind that some people mentor us up close and personal, while others mentor us from afar through their books, videos, podcasts, or other resources. A man who has mentored me from afar for nearly thirty years has recently become a mentor up close and personal. Our monthly meetings enrich my life and leadership in ways I had not really anticipated. I see my emerging role in a far different way than before.

Every leader needs a coach. A coach is someone who can ask the kinds of questions that help us think in new ways. They help us arrive at clarity not through direct instruction but by helping us piece together the bits of leadership wisdom we’ve gained over the years.

Every leader needs a counselor. All of us have knots from the past that keep us from making progress in certain areas of our lives. A good counselor can help us see the issues of our pasts in a new light. They can help us move beyond what was done to us, what we did to ourselves, and what we did to others, so that we can make significant progress.

Every leader needs a pastor. Every pastor needs a pastor. Each of us needs someone who can speak God’s truth to us that we will hear with deep reverence and solemn consideration. Each of us needs someone who can bring us comfort and encouragement in seasons of challenge and loss.

Every leader needs a friend. Not just an ordinary friend that we enjoy running into in a restaurant, but the kind of friend who is our friend no matter the distance, no matter the time of day or night, no matter what’s going on in our world or theirs. There are typically only two or three of these across a lifetime. And as someone wisely said long ago, having a friend is like having an extra life.

I was at a high school executive council retreat at a Baptist encampment on Lake Travis during my senior year of high school, when I learned some of what has been related above. Our speaker provided us with a booklet in which he asked us to inscribe the names of eight people we looked up to. It could be people we knew well, people we were related to, or people from church or our school. It could even be someone in popular media.

These eight people represented who we wanted to become and what we wanted to do. They were also the sources of our personal values. I had never really thought about anything like this before, but it made perfect sense then, and it continues to make good sense now.

Years ago, when I first came to my present position, we went through a planning process in which we identified the six people in our association who best represented who we are. I still have the chart paper with the names and characteristics of those people. The four values that we drew from those people’s lives still guide our every decision.

Our mentors, coaches, counselors, pastors, and friends shape us into the person we are becoming every day. The person we will be one day, at our highest and best, is largely determined by who makes up this tribe of mentors for us today.

Take some time to make your personal tribe of mentors. What are the values they represent? What are the leadership capacities you admire? How do they bring special meaning to your life? Who leans on you as a mentor, coach, counselor, pastor, or friend? How do you intentionally bring your wisdom to bear on those relationships?

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I will continue cultivating my personal tribe of mentors so that I can be the kind of leader others turn to for wisdom, encouragement, and deepening discipleship.

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Our Father, thank you for the tribe of mentors you have placed in my life. Thank you for the men and women who have enriched my walk with you. Thank you for those leaders who have shown me the way I should go. Thank you for those who continue giving me the blessings of their wisdom, kindness, and encouragement. Empower me to live the kind of life that others can look up to and lean into, now and for all the rest of my days. Amen.