The Essence of Adventist Leadership: Taking Responsibility

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The Essence of Adventist Leadership Taking
Responsibility

• BUC Ministerial Council
• 11 February 2008

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Video Clip
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I am a trustee

• My role is to be a trustee of what God entrusts
  to me during my lifetime. I have no ownership
  rights only responsibilities.

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God is the OWNER

• Psalms 241 The earth is the LORDs and
  everything in it, the world, and all who live in
  it.

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God is the PROVIDER

• James 117 - Every good and perfect gift is from
  above, coming down from the Father of the
  heavenly lights.

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Outline

• Who is a leader and what does leadership mean
• Integrity
• Responsible leadership within a church context
• Board/committee good governance process
• Conflict of interest
• Capital/Mission projects
• Excellence in leadership

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Who is a leader?What does leadership mean?
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3-minute group discussion
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WHO IS A LEADER?

• Pastors are leaders 20-30 per cent of the time
  we are all leaders
• Leadership is a gift.A calling. A ministry
• Leadership is a call for action no ex-officio
  or honorary position
• Lead, follow, or get out of the way
• You cannot be a leader if you are afraid of
  responsibility and accountability
• The best way to avoid criticism is to say
  nothing, do nothing and be nothing
• Leaders are to lead initiate and take action

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So you think you know what leadership is?

• The art of getting people to do what they really
  dont want to do and dont feel equipped to do
  against a timeline they dont believe in, with
  risks that scare them, to achieve an objective
  they believe at the beginning to be impossible.
• Eric Gregory

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Effective Leader

• The most effective leaders make no demands,
  they just define and communicate the course,
  provide resources, and get in front of the team.

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NATURAL AND SERVANT LEADERSHIP

• NATURAL

• SERVANT

• Self-confident
• Makes own decisions
• Ambitious
• Originates own methods
• Enjoys commanding others
• Motivated by personal considerations
• Independent

• Confident in God
• Seek Gods will
• Finds Gods methods
• Delights to obey God
• Motivated by love for God and people
• God dependent
• Oswald Sanders

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Did you know?

• 90 percent of all leadership failures are
  character failures

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An Effective Leader
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Integrity - I

• Synonyms soundness, incorruptibility,
  completeness, honesty, unity
• Engineers tell us that a triangle is one of the
  strongest geometric figures used in construction
• Integrity is like a triangle in our characters.
  It has to do with
• Our purpose why we exist
• Our principles what we stand for
• Our intentions what we are up to

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Integrity - II

• There are some words we use to show lack of
  integrity
• Two-faced
• Double-tongued
• According to Kriegbaum, integrity manifests
  itself
• As authenticity being who I claim to be and
  doing what I promise to do
• As honesty, sincerity, forthrightness

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Integrity - III

• Research of 54,000 people integrity is the
  number one quality needed in a leader (Covey)
• 100 top executives of Fortune 500 companies
  listed integrity as essential as corporate
  success (Allenbaugh).
• Eisenhower integrity is the supreme quality for
  leadership without which no success would be
  possible

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Integrity - IV

• We can identify integrity in our church by the
  following behaviours
• Ensure that appropriate policies and protocols
  are approved and implemented fairly and equally
• Hold leaders accountable for fulfilling the
  organisations mission, implementing strategic
  plans, monitoring strategic plans, achieving
  sustainable quality programmes prudently handling
  all resources
• Fully disclose real or potential conflict of
  interests

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Integrity - V

• We see integrity when everyone is treated with
  fairness and equality without favouritism or
  discrimination
• We see integrity in our institutions and churches
  when rumours and gossip is confronted - and
  when/where - necessary investigated

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A Word About Humility

• People who are truly effective have the
  humility and reverence to recognize their own
  perceptual limitations and to appreciate the rich
  resources available through interaction with the
  hearts and minds of other human beings.
• Stephen R. Covey

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Leadership within a Church Context
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LEADERSHIP REALITIES WITHIN A CHURCH CONTEXT - I

• God is in control and takes initiative, church
  members submit themselves to the Lord, decision
  making is done under the guidance of the Holy
  Spirit
• The SDA church is a volunteer organisation.
• Authority is in the hands of the members
  delegated to key persons to lead according to
  specified policies provisions.
• Goals are set by the consensus of the members,
  the result of negotiation and joint effort.
• Richard Hutcheson and Harris W Lee

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LEADERSHIP REALITIES WITHIN A CHURCH CONTEXT - II

• Compliance is voluntary and is most often
  dependent upon the persuasiveness of the leaders
  that is YOU!
• The structure is democratic, providing for broad
  representation in decision making
• Power that is available to leaders must be
  developed through activating and mobilising
  members
• Richard Hutcheson and Harris W Lee

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Policies
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LEADERSHIP THROUGH POLICIES

• Because policies enter and dominate all aspects
  of church life, they present the most powerful
  lever for the exercise of leadership. (Peters
  waterman)
• Policies are there to be followed
• Leverage and efficiency with policy-focused
  leadership, the board can affect many issues with
  less effort boards have only so much time
  available
• Expertise governing board members do not have
  all the skills required to operate - governing by
  policies require non of the specialties

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BASIC RULES ABOUT DEVELOPING POLICIES

• Explicitness policies must exist in written
  form.
• Currentness up-to-date policies are the only
  ones that work.
• Literalness policies must mean what they say.
  If they do not, they should be amended or
  deleted.
• Central availability in one place and easily
  accessible.
• Brevity board policies that are too long and
  too many are enemies of good leadership.
• John Carver, Boards that Make a Difference

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Board/Committee Governance
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BOARD GOVERNANCE - I

• Reality we either are on boards, work for them,
  or are affected by their decision
• There is one thing all boards have in common
  they do not function (Drucker)
• 95 of boards are not fully doing what they are
  legally, morally and ethically supposed to do
• (John Carver)

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BOARD GOVERNANCE - II

• 31 of the action points, they couldnt remember
  what they meant or why they had come up with it
• 48 nothing was done
• 15 were implemented but did not survive beyond
  the initial phase
• 6 were successfully implemented and carried
  through
• John Carver

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COMMON PROBLEMS WITH BOARDS - I

• Do not follow a vision/mission static
• Do not stick to policy
• Spend a lot of time on trivial items
• Spend too much time on short-term items and
  ignore strategic ones (BIG picture)
• React to church member initiatives rather than
  act proactively
• Rubber-stamp documents ideas

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MORE PROBLEMS WITH BOARDS - II

• Dysfunctional board egos at war big
  differences about mission or ambition meetings
  going on and on well beyond the scheduled time.
• Impossible to make decisions slow and
  inconclusive or decisions changed at a
  subsequent meeting because a strong personality
  missed the meeting when the first decision was
  made.
• Devalued board the work gets done outside the
  meeting between the elders and chair the board
  is expected to be a rubber stamp.
• Poor priorities - excessive amounts of material
  with no distinctions between important and minor.
• Personal frustration feeling excluded
  sometimes never having been adequately inducted
  so always struggling to get the hang of the
  organisation, the environment within which it
  operates, or the member role contributions not
  valued no form of appraisal, or opportunities
  for individual feedback.

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Board Process
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BOARD PROCESS - I

• The quality of a board chair can make or break
  a board. Good governance requires sound
  leadership and is inhibited by weak leadership.
  Although an excellent board chair does not
  guarantee superior governance, a poor or
  inadequate one nearly always ruins it.

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BOARD PROCESS - II

• A common governing board mistake is the desire
  to know everything that is going on. Because
  board members spend so much time in this
  impossible attempt, they never really know how
  their Church is doing.

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APPROVAL SYNDROME RUBBER-STAMPING

• It is severely detrimental to the quality of
  good governance
• Reactivity document rubber-stamping place the
  governing board members in a reactive position.
  The governing board can often do little but
  approve what is being presented. This causes
  serious frustration among board members and
  raises questions in their minds about their
  added-value.
• When sheer volume of material is approved, it is
  impossible to determine just what the governing
  board said! Did the board say everything because
  it now owned the document or it said nothing
  because it merely passed what someone else
  contributed.

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Active Board
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TIPS TO MAINTAIN AN ACTIVE BOARD - I

• Constant celebration of the cause, sharing
  evidence of the value of the work, of the
  achievements of the church and its members
  attention to keeping an eye on outcomes and
  impact ENDS NOT MEANS
• Clarity about why - mission, values and
  strategies. What the Church is trying to achieve
  and/or change.
• Kept well briefed and informed about whats
  going on within the Church and within the
  community it occupies a confident and engaged
  board, more likely to be effective and to stay
  clear of micro-management.

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TIPS TO MAINTAIN AN ACTIVE BOARD - II

• Clarity about who does what - respectful of each
  other and skilled at ensuring all have their say
  and are valued for it.
• Consistently exploits the analytical and
  strategic competence and role of the board
  thinks, debates, reviews asks what if
  questions.
• Always looking for further development
  opportunities and ways of enhancing what its
  doing if the church stops looking for
  opportunities for further development and
  improvement, it will become stale and/or
  complacent if that happens, the creative board
  member will probably pack their bags.

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DISSENT AND NON-CONFORMITY

• The board member from hell someone who seemed
  always to be challenging the consensus.
• Dissent is not the same as disloyalty -
  resistance to organisational group-think may be
  critical qualities to encourage within a board.
• Important lessons from Enron for any board. 1)
  make sure a board member truly understands the
  condition of the entity 2) not hesitant to ask
  tough, probing questions 3) willing to challenge
  leaders when something does not make sense.
• Most of our Church governing boards operate in
  such a collegial, consensus-driven manner that
  individuals are uncomfortable challenging
  management or questioning inconsistencies or the
  quality of information they receive. You need
  persons on the board who will be a pleasant
  irritant, someone who will force people to think
  a little differently. Thats what a good board
  does.

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MANAGING A TALKING JOB

• The boards job is a verbal task debating,
  clarifying, emphasising values are talking
  tasks the board talks
• Just because a topic is important is not reason
  enough to deal with it there are too many
  important topics selective
• Discipline is a must what is talked about, how
  the talking occurs and when it is done
• Ensure that you have a pre-assigned time
  slot/section for strategic agenda items be
  deliberate
• Limit staff/department personnel eagerness to
  show-and-tell
• Crisis management who talks?

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Conflict of Interest
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Conflict of Interest - I

• A conflict of interest arises when a leader
  uses his/her position in the church to advance
  his/her private interests, or the private
  interests of family members.

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Conflict of Interest - II

• Promotes both the reality and the perception of
  integrity in the Church
• Focuses on prevention, not punishment
• Is not intended to catch crooks but instead
  recognises the inherent honesty of church leaders
• Does not regulate morality

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Conflict of Interest - III

• Relational Nepotism, Like/Dislike, Favouritism
• Occupational Preserving or enhancing your
  standing with the Board Chair, desire to please,
  fear of reprisal

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Conflict of Interest - IV

• it is often difficult to determine (or know)
  whether a person has a conflict of interest,
  because we may not know how their personal,
  financial, or political interests are affecting
  their judgment, reasoning, motivation, or
  behavior.

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Conflict of Interest - V

• Having a conflict of interest is not, in and of
  itself, evidence of wrongdoing. In fact, for many
  professionals, it is virtually impossible to
  avoid having conflicts of interest from time to
  time. A conflict of interest can, however, become
  a legal matter if an individual tries (and/or
  succeeds in) influencing the outcome of a
  decision, for personal benefit.

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Conflict of Interest - VI

• It is unethical and unprofessional to ignore a
  real or apparent conflict of interest.
• Avoidance policies, protocols, .
• Disclosure COI Statements, .
• Abstain or disqualify from voting, .

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Capital Mission Projects
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What?

• over and above
• for a specific purpose
• for a specific duration
• quality is more important than quantity

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Measure Twice Cut Once

• Make sure you are ready
• Healthy Church
• Clear case tied to vision
• Develop consensus
• Plan well (including funding sources)

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REACTION TO CHANGE

• 2 - Innovators, those who have the ideas
• 14 - Early Adopters, those who latch on pretty
  quickly to new ideas
• 34 - Early Majority, take on board a new idea
  when they see others adopting it
• 34 - Late Majority, take on board a new idea
  when they realise that if they dont, they will
  be left behind
• 16 - Last Adopters, remain skeptical and
  suspicious of change

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Process of Capital Projects
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Am I Walking the Talk?

• Best Practice
• Words and actions match
• Creates high trust
• Builder of satisfaction and commitment

• Worst Practice
• Mixed signals
• Leadership not trusted
• Communication is perceived as all talk and no
  action

High Say/High Do
High Say/Low Do
Low Say/Low Do
Low Say/High Do

• Bad Practice
• Especially problematic if church members perceive
  them as a lingering problem or future danger

• Mixed Signals
• Creates low trust environment high degree of
  speculation and low trust

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Failed Projects are Costly

• Interrupts momentum
• Raises questions about leadership
• Can negatively impact general giving

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MONITORING AND EVALUATING ENDS

• An integral part of leadership
• Should be precise and systematic
• How are we doing? How did we do?
• Evaluation should not only assess whether church
  activities are effective, but also whether it is
  sufficiently effective to be worth the cost

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Excellence in Leadership
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ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN LEADERSHIP

• Trust in God and connect with him
• Be obsessed with effects and benefits with people
• Be obsessed with ends, not means
• Keep the mission out in front and relevant
• Dare to be bigger than yourself
• Lead leaders big thinking must be passed on
• Invest in selection, training and retraining
• Monitor and evaluate ends learn from your
  mistakes
• Pursue excellence rather than solving problems

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A Prayer

• Grant me the serenity
• To accept the things I cannot change,
• Courage to change the things I can,
• And wisdom to know the difference!
• Micah 68
• And what does the Lord require of you? To act
  justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
  your Lord

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SELECT RESOURCES

• Effective Church leadership Harris W. Lee
• Transforming Church Boards Charles M Olsen
• The Art of Trusteeship Candace Widmer Susan
  Houchin
• Boards That Make a Difference John Carver
• Fit to Lead Chris Edmondson
• Moses on Leadership Richard Koch
• Real Power Janet Hagberg
• Spiritual Leadership Oswald Sanders
• The leadership of Jesus and its Legacy Today
  John Adair
• Leadership Tool Kit Bryn Hughes
• How to Help Your Board Govern More and Manage
  Less R Chait
• Leaders The Strategies for Taking Charge
  Warren Bennis