How Leaders Happen

At the Pacific Western Region UUA conference, I attended the day-long session "Grow Leaders," led by Ken Brown and Jeanelyse Doran Adams, a thoughtful, well-organized presentation of a lot of material in a relatively short and relatively painless way.  I left with a sense that a bunch of things I knew had a coherence that I had not appreciated before.  And on reflection, it seemed I also know some other things that are pretty important.  But you can't do it all in one day.

There should be coyotes, of course, since the whole conference was about adapting our way of being in the world and not staying stuck in an old rut that will end us up on the extinct-religions list, and coyotes are an emblem of adaptability.  These little future coyote leaders are from a blog, Ecotime, by someone known only as Wayne (http://ecotime.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html)

 Ken and Jeanelyse presented a ten point program for what they said would be leadership growth, but it's really much more general than that.  Their ten keys are a recipe for having a strong, effective, congregation, and they are very good.  At the center are personal faith and congregational mission and vision.  Nestling near them are trusting one another, communicating openly and well, dealing with conflict, being accountable, being willing to risk, supporting public witness, valuing results, and having fun together. It's all good.

Surely leaders emerge in an environment where all this is happening.  But the congregations I serve struggle to find the way to bring people into leadership roles, to allow the old leadership circle to move into other kinds of service. I do stress personal spiritual practice, and help the congregation understand its purpose or mission, or whatever name it may have at the time.  And surely it's important to work with them on building trust -- sometimes it's about forgiveness, sometimes about following through on commitments, sometimes something else.  Yes, dealing with conflict, too -- especially in the sense that if there are well established ways to handle disagreement, people may be less reluctant to step into roles where they may be targets of complaint or recipients of tirades about disagreements not involving them.  Are we civil with one another?  Do we act as if we respect everyone's worth and dignity?  Have we left that old "culture of umbrage" behind?  But the nitty gritty of it is very simple:  bring new people into active participation, first in doing things with others in church in whatever way, then in committee or task force participation, and gradually into leadership.

One of the important things about UU leadership is that we do it differently than many other places.  It's a leadership among peers.  While some newcomers arrive with great talent for and experience in leadership in other settings, putting them in charge of things right away is risky.  Time is needed to absorb Unitarian Universalism and our way of leading and following.  And time is needed for an established leadership group to find the relief (and challenge) of being replaced.  There will normally be a time when old leaders who don't want to do more must continue to be "recycled" and some new people who aren't quite ready may have to step up. The good communications and willingness to take risks definitely come into play as this process unfolds.  And through it all, a real openness to being accountable can help a great deal.

So thank you, Ken and Jeanelyse, for setting the framework in which the nitty-gritty steps I associate with leadership development can be successful.  I am struck once again by the realization that while techniques are important, there is something deeper -- something with roots in the spirit -- a loving intention to be active together in co-creating our congregations and our movement.