by the Rev. Susan M. Smith
Perhaps you are in one of those congregations in which the
old “Nominating Committee” has become the new “Leadership Development
Committee,” and no one quite knows how to get that started. It’s a question
I’ve gotten a few times lately. It’s very like those new “Committees on
Ministry” that still operate like the old “Ministerial Relations Committees.”
You want to get the benefit of a new and better way of guiding your
congregation rather than just put a new label on the same-old-same-old. I think
you must start with the leaders you already have to build the leadership you
need.
Build a culture of sincere gratitude. Make sure that
everyone is being thanked for everything they do every chance you get. If you
lead worship, thank the pianist, the choir, the person who arrived early to
create a beautiful space. As you arrive, thank the ushers for volunteering
today and the Membership Committee folks for greeting. Stick your head in the
kitchen and thank whoever is there setting up coffee hour or staying after to wash
up. Show appreciation to staff as well. Make sure that every volunteer receives
holiday greetings and thanks for their work in the year just past. Give gifts
when you can. When the occasion warrants it, give engraved plaques. Expressing
gratitude contributes to our mental health, and potential leaders will see that
their work will be appreciated.
Encourage your current leaders to always ask someone to help
them with their work. This will create low stakes opportunities for those who
are not in leadership to test the waters. Ask every current volunteer to think
of at least one thing that they do – usher, set up coffee hour, oversee the
kids in the playground – with which they can ask someone to help. These are
usually best when they are spur of the moment things. Also, encourage current
leaders to have special events and projects for which potential leaders can
participate for a very limited time rather than an open-ended committee
position.
Help your current leaders get to know themselves and one
another better. There are many different free and reasonably priced online and
remote resources for allowing people to learn more about one another. Whether
it’s Myers-Briggs, enneagram, conflict style inventory or intercultural
competency, develop a variety of ways that members of boards, teams and
committees can share more of who they are. Work a case study. Do a free UUA
curriculum for leaders like “Harvest the Power.” Have them consider how the
story of the Stone Soup or the Parable of the Sower relates to your
congregation at the present time. In short, develop a real appreciation for
both difference and commonality. You will be moving away from thinking that any
warm body can fill an opening and toward asking people to serve in a position
because they are uniquely suited to it.
Help people to move from begrudging work into passionate
work. In his landmark book on organizations, Good
to Great, Jim Collins writes that the first step toward true greatness is
to make sure that the right people are on the bus and that they are in the
right seats. I like to literally put
painters tape on the floor to make a few squares and label them as ministries
of the congregation (Stewardship, Worship, Justice, etc.) and ask everyone to
stand in the square where their current work places them. Then I ask them to
move to the square for which they have passion. Unfortunately, I’ve seen groups
of committee heads and board members where no one was where they truly wanted
to be. Discerning a good fit between a volunteer and a position is key to
developing happy and productive new leaders.
Finally, members of the Leadership Development Committee
should do just what Committees on Ministry should do, get acquainted with the
work of every volunteer in the congregation. That doesn’t usually mean sitting
in a committee meeting. It means pruning the hedges to watching the newsletter
put together to singing in the choir. You will be asking what would make these
positions more effective, more fun and easier to do. You may come back with a
list of better supplies or more modern equipment that is needed. You may see a
cultural change that needs to be made or a need for a position to have more
autonomy. At the very least, you will know enough about what volunteers are
doing to speak intelligently about it to potential leaders.
If you start with these things, you will be well on your way
to creating a volunteer environment in which people want to be a part. And
those volunteers will live deeper and more fulfilling lives because of the
opportunities you provide to them.
