Posted by jeremyscheller in Featured, Leadership, Organizational Structure, strengths, Teams | 2 Comments
Leading Through Change: Thriving in the Unknown.
Many of you may know, my friend, pastor, and boss of 6 years has been called to a new position. Efrem Smith will be moving on from Sanctuary this summer to a new position as Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It’s a huge honor with a new realm of influence and a higher call on his life in leadership.
This is really awesome for him, and while transitions are really hard, I think great things can come to Sanctuary during this time.
Anytime time there is a major shift in leadership in an organization there are emotional, visionary and team dynamics that are affected by the changes taking place. So how do you survive?
During this time of leadership change I’m planning on focusing on 3 areas as we move into a new season.
- Being a TEAM PLAYER
At this crucial moment, there is no room for sanding against the grain. When you sand against the grain, you leave deep wounds in the wood that requires you to remove even more layers to get things smoothed out again. Being a team player will make it less painful to readjust when new leadership is in place. - No Better Time for SELF EVALUATION
– How does my personal spiritual journey affect the spiritual journey of our community?
– What do I need to improve, let go, start or stop?
– Where have I been dropping the ball and what’s my plan for picking it up?
– Am I acting from my strengths and mitigating my weaknesses?
– How does my performance affect the whole team? - Finally, I plan on BEING HONEST about the future.
This will not be easy. In fact, if it is easy, I think we’re probably not living up to our potential. Being honest about what this team needs in order to fulfill the vision in front of us means we won’t dance around the holes. The holes in our team, the holes in ourselves and the holes in our faith.
Even though this will be a tough transition and I will miss Efrem and what he brought to Sanctuary, I’m looking forward to being pushed and pushing myself to grow in new ways.
What are your thoughts about leading through a leader change? Have you been on a team that lost a key player? How did you navigate?
I like your thinking. It does seem like BEING HONEST and Being a TEAM PLAYER might end up conflicting at times don’t you think?
I really don’t think there is a conflict there. We won’t be successful as a team if we’re not honest with each other.