Rev. Mark Skrabacz
July 10, 2011
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org
I wonder what you think good leadership is? What is your experience of leaders and as leaders?
A few months ago 10 of our Congregation’s leaders gathered to share a Leadership Training. This was a round table discussion during which we explored readings and topics to enhance our understanding of leadership, specifically for our church. As UU communities we are committed to democracy, which means that “we the people” are the principals of our church. Our Boards are our elected voluntary representatives and as such serve as leaders for a time. We members are also in a way only temporary, too. Nevertheless, members present and future will endure as the responsible authors and leaders of our churches.
Right here, right now, I invite you speak out single words or phrases in answer to these questions: Firstly, what are some of the qualities you most admire in good leadership? Secondly, what are those qualities you most fear or dislike?
Changes are happening around our planet. The whole world is changing, and what can we learn from this? We learn that good leadership is absolutely necessary to navigate through times of change. Changes are happening in our church community as we grow with the steady addition of new members, new interests, new concerns, talents and energies. We are expanding our embrace and becoming more broadly linked to the world. We are blessed to be growing in increments, so that we can integrate new energies with the old. For we have something special here that called us and will call others. We all have to take responsibility for our church community. Today’s message will address this in part.
Nowadays there are countless new examples of how leaders mobilize others to get extraordinary things done in just about every area of organized activity. Leadership knows no bounds and can be found in every racial, religious, ethnic and cultural circumstance. Yet the traits of leadership follow remarkably similar patterns as mentioned in our brief Q&A today. Let’s examine some common virtues of leaders that will hopefully steer us toward further achievements in our church community.
In olden times, society and churches accorded great authority to clergy. The priests were the authors of their church’s destinies and the center of church communities. That was my experience growing up. It led me to pursue leadership training in a Roman Catholic seminary in the navel-gazing 70s. This was a time when many priests were looking at their lives and the dwindling prospects of their dreams being actualized in a church that seemed bent on preserving the past, and an extremely patronizing and authoritarian one at that. They started leaving in droves. In the midst of my own aspirations, I began to witness the loss of the best and the retention of the “yes men”. The inner authority that clergy demonstrated began to falter as many persons who possessed the personal traits of honesty, transparency and trustability left the clergy.
The great opportunity of the demise of authoritarian leadership lies in developing a new capacity for leadership. A title and authority can be given but it’s behavior that wins respect. The first virtue of leadership is that leaders must model the way. People respect and follow first the person, then the plan…bringing to mind the cardinal principle of parenting: kids don’t go where you point; they go where you go.
Leading means you have to be a good example and walk your talk. Exemplary leadership attracts commitment and achieves high standards, because it models the behavior expected of others. One of the guiding principles of modeling is that it clarifies your values. Your values are at the core of leadership. You have to open up your mind and heart to let people really know what you think and believe. Yet it’s not just the leader’s values that are important, because leaders aren’t just representing themselves. They speak on behalf of the larger organization.
20 members of our church met last December to launch our Long Range Planning process with an appreciative inquiry facilitated by Eric Hepburn. He helped us ask questions and tell stories in order to think and listen for our own core values that we personally find in our lives and that are shared in our church. We came up with three: communication, interconnectedness and acceptance. Leaders must forge agreement around the common values and ideals of the group being led.
A friend of mine works as a leadership consultant and he tells of his initial meeting of with a company president The CEO briefly outlined their history, mission, current goals, personnel problems and the situation he wanted help with. My friend listened and then asked the president what he valued more than anything else. The president asked for clarification. My friend asked him again to declare the single thing that motivated his life. He got up and closed the door and asked if that meant for work or life in general. My friend said there was no difference; that there was only life.
He finally answered, I guess that would be love. The consultant asked how many were on his executive team and he said 8 and that most of them had been with him for 5 years. The consultant remarked that probably all of them knew that love was is most cherished value. He answered probably not. 6? No. 3? No. My friend said: “How many of these people with whom you’ve worked closely for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week for 5 years, would know that love is your most important value?” He answered, “Probably none.”
Makes you wonder if that leader was lying to himself about his personal values. How do your leader’s modeling of their personal values impact their ability to represent your congregation’s values?
A second virtue is that leaders must also inspire a shared vision. You all — this church — has done a lot of work on this these past few years with your core values and development of vision and mission. The idea here is that when we get as excited about our future as we do about our present, we will allow that vision to pull us forward into it. Our vision is the force that directs our future. Leaders gaze across the horizon of time and imagine the exciting and ennobling opportunities that are in store for their organization. Leaders have a desire to make things happen that no one else has ever done. Do you have any interest in your future as a church community? Do you have any images to share of how we might be making a difference? Then you are a visionary leader and I hope you will step up and act, so that we all can support these ideas.
A note of caution: Be careful about surrendering your own authority and initiative to a charismatic leader. Remember we are about creating a future that is bigger than any leader.
This is what the world wants and the basis of today’s revolutions–the chance for the people to author their own lives and destiny. Facilitating this is the work of leadership. How well is your church doing in raising up leadership? George Bancroft, a notable early 19th century historian wrote: “The exact measure of the progress of civilization is the degree in which the intelligence of the common mind has prevailed over wealth and brute force; in other words, the measure of the progress of civilization is the progress of the people.” Sounds like our recently-departed contemporary historian Howard Zinn.
That brings us to the third virtue of leadership the ability to challenge the process. Whatever the challenge: growth, change, mission, expansion, innovation, all cases involve a change from the status quo. This is challenging for us to hear. Yet the fact is not one leader who has ever achieved something of great importance did it by keeping things the same. All leaders challenge the process.
Leaders venture out. They invite others into challenging conversations. They are pioneers searching for opportunities to make things better, to integrate the best of the past with the burgeoning future. They listen within and without in order to check the timing, take risks and create the atmosphere for experimentation, the implementation of new ideas and the willingness to innovate. Risk and change are scary. Not everyone is comfortable with uncertainty. Yet small steps and small wins build confidence so that bigger challenges can be met. My view is that this happens best when it happens in increments. We must feel safe first, then we can begin to take the risks necessary to lead by challenging the process.
There’s a difference between managing and leading. Managers use their authority by making decisions, decisions that get things done; leaders exceed this kind of authority by causing others to ponder troubling questions; questions like how can we be more relevant or more transparent or inclusive or more compassionate? Managers calm people by resolving ambiguity; leaders often frustrate people by refusing to decide quickly what can only be solved slowly and digested by a greater number than one or a few. You see, the most important challenges are too big for individual decision-makers to address alone. That’s where leaders come in to bring the whole group’s gifts to bear. Anyone, from any seat in here, can lead.
Which situations call for management and which for leadership? One factor is the nature of the challenge to be faced. For example, if the central air malfunctions, it must be repaired. Our congregation has authorized our Building and Grounds Committee to pick a contractor and spend money pronto. On the other hand, hypothetically a once-successful program that no longer attracts participation may need a cross-section of good heads to take whatever time they need to cook up a fresh vision of this activity.
Leadership is not a personal trait, but the ability to take action: like getting a whole group of us to address our most important challenges. Leadership is measured not by whether leaders get their way, but by how well the resources of the congregation come to bear on crucial questions.
That’s a picture of the next virtue of good leadership: Leaders enable others to act. They build trust and foster collaboration. The single test most used to detect whether or not someone is on the road to becoming a leader is the use of the word “we.” They use it nearly 3X more than the word “I.” Leaders make it possible for others to do good work. They empower others. They delegate. Like the reading for the Tao Te Ching, they give the work back to the people.
Finally leaders encourage the heart with genuine acts of caring that uplift the spirit and draw people forward. Personal thank you notes, phone calls, visits to the home, then following up with an email. These are old-fashioned but timeless signs of encouragement. Recognizing contributions and celebrating shared values and victories are also helpful, as are empathy and sympathy when things are tough.
Before closing I’ll paraphrase Gordon McKeeman, former President of our UU Starr King School of Ministry and a parish minister of 22 years in Akron, Ohio.
There are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people. Beckoning them forth is the task of leadership. As leaders we have the responsibility to lead our institution – in our case our church – in becoming a source of power of making a difference. We are called to do this in the midst of a group of people overwhelmingly devoted to individualism, and who are consequently suspicious of institutions.
Each individual is a locus of power, actual and potential. A purpose of having any institution is to link the separate powers of individuals into one larger, more committed, more powerful community. … The maturing self struggles to embrace more and more … to grow toward a larger self that is always learning to love one more person, forgiving one more person, understanding that his or her well-being is inextricably bound to that of others. … It then realizes that the glorification of the small, narrow I is the source of what we call evil.
The errand on which we are bent is this: the realization of exalted human possibilities through self-growth from narcissism to encompassing wholeness. Let’s become “we” speaking people.
Fortunately, anyone can lead. While it is far from the ideal solution, when official leaders fail, then leadership can still emerge from the periphery: from ad hoc planning teams, from voices crying in the wilderness, even from the mouths of babes. Maybe you feel like a voice in the wilderness or even a baby to your community. This message is to encourage you to consider serving in leadership on a working committee. Your Board would be interested in hearing from you about your concerns and interests regarding your church and if you are interested in serving on a committee. You know, serving this congregation on its board or a committee, your board and committees, is a very good learning opportunity.
After hearing this, I leave you with these questions about your own beloved Church’s leadership: Considering the virtues of leadership we have just explored, what do you feel you are doing well and where could you use some improvement?
With acknowledgment to the authors of Leadership Challenge: Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner for material reiterated in this sermon.
