Writing has been my way of grieving and processing my Dad’s death and celebrating his life, so I didn’t share in memorial services a few months ago. That’s why I wrote From Great to Good: When Keith Drury Felt Like a Failure and a story about my Most Interesting Machine that he and I both owned.
If you knew Dad, you may have heard of the Cadre, or perhaps knew others who said they were "in the Cadre" and you might even have wondered what that meant. This article intends to not only explain what the Cadre was as I observed it, but also to share leadership lessons anyone can apply from it.
Because I was so young when it emerged, I asked three Cadre members about their experiences. Each were not only influenced by my Dad, but later on they influenced me significantly and still do, and I’m grateful they each took the time to write up some reflections for this article for me and to honor my Father.
Dan Reiland of 12Stone Church and often called "The Pastor's Coach."
Steve Moore, president of nexleader and creator of IPSAT.
and Tim Elmore, founder of Growing Leaders.
What can we learn from Keith Drury’s Cadre so we can invest in our leaders more intentionally? Well…
First, set them apart.
We want to influence people, but we need a subset to influence more intentionally, a vanguard for the big thing we do. That group needs more from us, and they need it earlier. This is what the Cadre was for my Dad. Every leaders needs a group to influence first and most. So we just ask people to be set apart.
It may seem like an awkward ask, but we underestimate the impact of such an invitation. Dan Reiland says, "Just being selected as part of the Cadre was meaningful. Someone noticed, saw something, and invited me in. Belief and inclusion is a great gift." They need to know a select group exists, and they've been chosen for it.
Having a name for it is helpful, a kind of shorthand. But the name itself doesn't matter. "The Cadre" is not all that special of a name. I've seen some use names like "D-group" or "The Insiders" or "Culture Changers" Others have called it "The Fellowship" or "Leadership Insights Group." Whatever it's called, we call it something, we tell them what it is, and we invite them in.
Next, communicate with them regularly.
We might be able to have meetings with those we influence, but my Dad rarely did. Instead, the Cadre received a periodic memo sent to them in the US Postal Service (remember snail-mail?). This memo would highlight a particular leadership concept or share a neat resource to use, or outline a spiritual formation concept. Those we influence more intentionally need a regular communication from us. They need to know we are thinking of them and that they are getting something of value, sent only to them (more on that below).
Now, connect them with each other.
Steve Moore says my Dad was great at connecting mentees "...with people, resources, and/or opportunities they would not otherwise know about or have access to." Calling this part of leadership a "mentor sponsor," Steve says my Dad wanted him to fly from New York to spend a day with someone, and to send him a bill for all of the expenses of the meet up. That's all Steve knew. There was no agenda, no plan, just that he told him he needed to know this guy.
"That’s how I met Dwight Robertson," Steve says, "and that twenty-four-hour meeting has become a nearly forty year friendship. Keith was responsible for connecting me with some of the most formative relationships in my life.... It has inspired me to do the same for others."
Those we influence first and most might do some of their best life's work together, and we might be the ones to introduce them to each other. Some of what made them stand out to us is what makes them great potential partners in future initiatives and ministries.
However, keep it informal and semi-secret.
We might communicate with them and connecting them but we don’t tell others what we’re up to publicly. We don't reference them from the stage, on social media, or in our reports to boards or superiors. If we do reference them it might be more informal, perhaps saying, "I have some leaders I've invested in from time to time and one thing I told them was..." and that's about the extent of it. We certainly don't list this on our website or take applications. Only those we choose are in it. That's part of what makes it special, and that was one of the mysteries of my Dad's Cadre. Nobody really knew what exactly it was or who all was in it.
After that, invest in them deeply.
They need more than information. They need life-on-life spiritual investment. Dan tells a story to emphasize this, saying, "Keith was always practical... but he was first spiritual. At a spiritual retreat he was leading, Keith just happened to walk by a tree I was leaning up against and asked me what God was saying. I told him my story. His only response was to say, 'You know what you need to do,' and walked away. And I did. Humbling, but I did it and that experience changed my leadership character in a profound way."
We can do more than skim the surface with a smaller group. Most at the retreat Dan references might have just thought they were at a one-off spiritual retreat. But Dan was processing it as a part of his Cadre experience. That's how the smaller group we are investing it starts to see things we are leading. They're in it for the long haul because they know we are in it for them too.
Generally, teach them lasting principles.
While you can get technical and speak to current events, it is best to generally focus on lasting principles that will stay with those you influence for decades to come. Tim Elmore says, "I met Keith Drury in 1984, as part of the Cadre of youth workers he met with across the country. From day one, I was convinced I needed to be 'under the influence' of Keith Drury."
Tim got hooked on something many Cadre members reference, my Dad’s Strategetics. These pithy leadership principles were part of the core communication to the Cadre from Dad. He didn't invent most of them, but instead gleaned them from others and adjusted them slightly and communicated them effectively to the group.
When you focus on these lasting principles, the ideas become memorable and portable, a kind of shared leadership language develops among those you influence. Dan recalls one of his favorites from Strategetics "...called the 'Taxi Cab' principle: 'Count the cost before you get in.' Thinking ahead was the great lesson that I pulled from that. Well, thinking period, but thinking ahead has been deeply ingrained in me over these more than 40 years. It was the early edition of what I now refer to as play chess not checkers.”
Likewise, let them know insider info.
Sharing some insider stuff with this group helps them and helps us. They feel that they are "in the loop" on things others don't know yet. They feel respected and perhaps they even have an opportunity to influence what's happening before it's public. Many leaders do this informally when they share sensitive information to some inner circle first. By creating something like a Cadre it draws a more concrete line of who one of the most inner circles is for us.
But it's not just for them, we also benefit from this by having a group to bounce early ideas off of, or to process some big changes. It helps us vent some frustrations, or to cast some compelling early adopter vision the public might not yet be ready for. We can feel less alone as leaders when we have a group like this to treat like insiders.
Afterwards, strategically platform them.
Steve mentioned to me that my Dad created space for him to organize a global outreach experience for students at a national youth convention in 1986. Steve told my Dad he needed to recruit a leader for the eastern Europe trip, and my Dad responded by giving him a list of over 100 names. Steve says Dad, "...had highlighted about five names and said, 'Start with the highlighted list.' The first highlighted name was the college pastor at Skyline Wesleyan, where John Maxwell was the pastor. That’s how I met Tim Elmore." Yep, that's the Tim I quote above. Because of that connection Steve says he and Tim have been friends and ministry partners in various ways for 40 years.
This story from Steve illustrates two kinds of platforming we can do with these groups. On the one hand, we can use our actual primary leadership areas to deploy the great leaders we are influencing. That's what Dad was doing with Steve at that convention. But beyond that we can also platform others with those who need them. That's what Dad did when supplying Tim's name to Steve. He was quite literally and figuratively highlighting Tim and saying, "This is a guy to platform."
Finally, be sure to hold it loosely.
Along the way, I noticed Dad didn't continue communicating to the Cadre, and didn't maintain "the list" for it. He adapted. For a season he started writing a weekly "column" that went to a much larger list (some say he practically invented blogging). This article here is releasing on the Substack newsletter platform for writers, which has only been around since 2017. Dad was doing exactly what Substack does in the early 1990s already (let me know in the comments of this article if you were an early subscriber and what article you remember).
My Dad also adapted his methods to a college environment once he became a professor at the age of 50. I noticed didn't stick with one model of investing in people, locking the Cadre system in stone. As important as the Cadre was, he held the way it was happening loosely, and found new ways to invest intentionally, where others might have forced it to stay the same the rest of a long career.
But he also held the ideas he communicated to them loosely. Tim says, "Anyone who knew Keith experienced how generous he was with his time, his resources and his ideas. My nine Habitudes books were inspired by the Strategetics that Keith taught the Cadre. Today’s emerging generation loves 'narraphors' (narratives and metaphors)…. I wanted to check with Keith to make sure he was okay with me leveraging this basic idea for students and young leaders. When I brought it up, I don’t think he even let me finish my request before he said, 'Yes, of course. Go take this to the next level.' His generous spirit informed his response." On top of this, one of Dad's students named Eric also wrote and illustrated (with Dad's willing permission) a visual guide to the Strategetics which you can find here.
Dad held not only the model loosely but also the core intellectual capital he created for the Cadre. He cared about the investment in the people more than the content he created to invest in them.
So, what do you think about what it might look like launch something like the Cadre today and in your sphere of influence?
Coach was perhaps one of the most thoroughly pragmatic (in the most positive senses) thinkers I’ve ever known when it suited the context ;-). The way he held ideas and people loosely was an extension of whimsy and generosity in a lot of ways. It allowed him to adapt continuously. This article captures this idea so well and I can see how it evolved over time and impacted me. Thank you for this Dave!
Keith was a leader who never let the platform of his service interfere with the mission of his calling. His calling was always focused on raising up the next generation of godly leaders. He refused to let his ministry feet be nailed down so securely to a narrow platform that he could not reach beyond his defined role to his mission calling.