8 Excuses for not Developing Leaders

In the last post we looked at some of the ways that leaders rationalise not developing other leaders, focusing on one of the most common excuses, the mistaken belief that they are too busy to train up leaders.  

But this is not the only “reason” that leaders use to justify to themselves and others, why developing leaders is not a good idea. 

1. They will see the inner workings of what I do and will find out I’m not as good as I look.
2. They may turn out to be better than me.
3. They may want to take over my job.
4. I must have exclusivity of some things to demonstrate my higher status as the “the boss”.
5. I don’t have time for training others.
6. Only ordained ministers can do what I do.
7. My congregation members are all too busy to take on leadership roles.
8. They won’t be able to do it well enough.   

 Excuse #6:  Only ordained ministers can do what I do

           

Yeah right!  The Church in some parts of the world is conditioned to (falsely) regard ministers as a special breed apart that has the exclusive rights to preaching and certain other tasks. 

This is more about feeding egos (of the leaders) than it is nurturing souls.  There is nothing in the Bible that indicates that officers or pastors are in a class above the rest of Christians.  They do not have the divine right to carry out certain duties that others cannot.  In fact the opposite is true.  According to the New Testament writers, all Christians form the “royal priesthood of all believers” (1 Peter 2:9), are expected to preach (1 Tim 4:13, 1 Tim 5:17, 2 Tim 4:2), and to exercise a variety of other ministry gifts including prophesying, teaching, encouraging and leadership (Romans 12:6-8). 

If an officer is not developing these gifts and abilities in the people around him, he may be standing in the way of the Holy Spirit. 

Excuse #7:  My congregation members are all too busy to take on leadership roles

There may or may not be some truth to this.  Only an honest chat and an accurate assessment of their capacity to give their time will answer that.  Having said that, I have observed that often the people who give the most time are those that have the least of it.  I have seen this time and time again in corps, churches, service clubs, sports clubs and community groups across several cultures.  Perhaps, at least for some people, this is more a question of commitment to serve than it is time.  It seems that the old adage “If you want a job done ask a busy person” has some truth to it.

Excuse #8:  They won’t be able to do it well enough

Again, an informed assessment of their skills and background will answer this question, notwithstanding the propensity of some leaders to expect the least, to be Theory X thinkers. 

Here’s how

So, here's how to get started choosing and training your leaders. 

Identify the potential leaders in your corps and work alongside them, try them out to ascertain their capacity.  Do people respond to their leadership?  Have they got “the goods” spiritually speaking?  Do they have the capacity to learn new skills and the underpinning knowledge required?   Can other leaders in the corps respect them as peers and appreciate their potential?  Don’t announce your intention to develop them as a leader just yet.  Wait until you are sure before doing so. 

When you appoint a soldier to a local officer* position introduce her to the idea that this is a leadership position, one that will carry extra responsibilities, not just those immediately linked to their specialist role.  Each and every local officer should be able to lead, preach and pastor. 

From the very beginning of her local officership, let her know that you will coach and train her in the skills of leadership.  Teach her how to preach (Discover Leadership posts "Public Speaking - Making it Look Easy 1-7" can form the basis of a ready-to-use training course, and this post will give you a great training model that you can use to teach your people how to preach, lead meetings and to pastor to people.)

In your own leadership, model the leadership behaviours you want your trainee to emulate, and explain the principles of what you are doing from time to time.

Give your new leader opportunities to practice these activities under you supervision, and provide feedback afterwards.  Be clear, concise and constructive.  Do not expect perfection, but look for (and reward) continual improvement. 

Finally, appoint her to take over one day when you are going to be absent.  Don’t wait for the day when she is 100% perfect. (Were you 100% perfect when you did your first preach?  I doubt it!) don't wait for the day when she is 100% confident.  Get her started.  

Spend some time helping her get ready for the big day.  Assist her with practical and spiritual preparation.  Provide the opportunity for debrief afterwards. If you have someone who can observe her and give objective feedback ask them to do so.  

Depending on the experience and spiritual maturity of the trainee, you could have her fully up-to-speed within one to two years.  

Developing leadership skills in people around you will produce a cadre of people who can deputise whenever you are away, can support you to carry the burden of leadership and who will collectively be a much richer and capable local officership team. 

*Local Officer = A lay leader in The Salvation Army, somewhat akin to a deacon or elder in other churches or NCO in the military.  It is a volunteer (unpaid) position.  

Dr Evil and Mini-Me: A model for leadership development?

Austin Powers’ arch-enemy Dr Evil's miniature version of himself, Mini-Me* was created to do everything that Dr Evil did, in the exactly the same way that he did it. 

Was he on to something?  A key role of every leader is to develop other leaders, yet so few leaders (and especially Salvation Army Officers) seem to do so.  Perhaps we think it’s because we don’t have time, or maybe it’s because of one of the other common justifications. Of course, there is some cost but, as any leader who is in the habit of developing other leaders will tell you, the benefits far outweigh the costs. 

The Eight Most Common Excuses for not Developing Leaders

Why is it that so many leaders are reluctant to develop good leadership around them?  Here are just some of the expressed and unexpressed reasons I have heard and observed: 

1. They will see the inner workings of what I do and will find out I’m not as good as I look.
2. They may turn out to be better than me.
3. They may want to take over my job.
4. I must have exclusivity of some things to demonstrate my higher status as the “the boss”.
5. I don’t have time for training others.
6. Only ordained ministers can do what I do.
7. My congregation members are all too busy to take on leadership roles.
8. They won’t be able to do it well enough.   

Of course, when exposed to the cold light of day, many of these excuses seem weak and self-absorbed, even as we laugh at ourselves for unconsciously holding them.   But one of these deserves a little more attention. 

Excuse #5: I don’t have time for training others. 

This is a very seductive message for people who are running at close to capacity most of the time.  But let’s stop for a moment and do the maths. 

Let’s say I work about 60 hours a week, but I want to train someone to do everything I do, in the way that I do it (an unlikely scenario, but bear with me for the sake of the exercise).  He can watch what I do for the whole week and it would cost me no time at all. 

But I want to do better than that so I spend a few minutes with him at the beginning of each task explaining it.  During the task I may stop to explain from time to time, and at the end I may re-cap.  This whole process may make the task 10% to 25% longer.  Let’s be pessimistic and say it adds another 15 hours (25%) to the working week. 

To enhance his learning further, I decide to have a fortnightly mentoring session with him.  The session will go for 3 hours and I will have to put in about 1 hour of preparation and another hour of writing up the notes afterwards.  That’s a total of 5 hours per fortnight or 2.5 hours per week added to my workload. 

Now, on Day 1 of the training, I realise that as I am planning my day for two people, rather than just myself, so I need to be a bit more organised.  I put an extra half-hour into my daily time-management planning, but because I am better organised actually gain 1 hour per day in productivity.  That’s a gain of 5 hours on the week. 

Also on the first day, I realise that my trainee is keen to do more than just watch, so I can give him less skilled routine tasks straight away.  Even before the training has really begun he can save me at least an hour a day by doing tasks such as photocopying, running to the post office, attending to routine emails, etc.  (And an hour a day is really a pessimistic estimate!)  That’s another 5 hours a week I have saved. 

So even at the end of the first week, before the training has really begun, the whole exercise has cost me much less than two extra hours per day. 

First Week of Training

	The hours I work	Cost to me in hours
	Ordinary Working Week	60
Add	He watches me work	0
Add	Explanations along the way	15
Add	Mentoring Sessions	2.5
Add	Extra time management	0.5
Minus	Better organisation gains	5
Minus	Trainee doing routine tasks	5
	Total Hours of work for me	68

But this is only in the first week of training, and by the second week the trainee is able to carry out at least two hours of unsupervised tasks per day, which means it is getting close to actually giving me more time.  Certainly, within a month, the break-even figure will be passed. 

How about in six months?  Here’s a likely scenario.

After 6 months

	The hours I work	Cost to me in hours
	Ordinary Working Week	60
Add	He watches me work	0
Add	Explanations along the way	6
Add	Mentoring Sessions	2.5
Add	Extra time management	0.5
Minus	Better organisation gains	5
Minus	Trainee doing more complex tasks	20
	Total Hours of work for me	44

Explanations along the way have reduced to 10% of my time, and the trainee could be doing up to 1/3 of the tasks I was formerly doing.  This frees me up with another 16 hours a week to expand the ministry.  How exciting!

The same principles apply on a task-by-task basis.  If you are to train someone to preach, pastor, teach or carry out any other ministry, it costs no more than about 10% to 25% extra time in the beginning, and ends up releasing some of your time.  

Not convinced yet?  In my next post I will address Excuses 6, 7 and 8.  But in the meantime reflect on these emotional, spiritual and practical reasons why developing a leader is good, not just for the trainee, but for you. 

(Click on diagram for full size version.)

*Image above: Mike Meyers as Dr Evil and Verne Troyer as Mini-Me - Copyright Warner Brothers

Résumé Writing – What the Employer Sees

This post is not really about leadership, but a friend recently asked me to coach her on résumé writing so, having put in the work, I thought why not share it with a wider audience.  So here you go. 

Sell, sell, sell, but play nicely

The point of a résumé is to sell yourself enough so that you will get an interview, so you need to show the employer enough of yourself to make a good impression.  If you get to an interview, it becomes your second opportunity to sell yourself a bit further. 

A numbers game

Sending out résumés is a numbers game.  Only about 2% of résumés lead to an interview, so you must be prepared to send many, but every one of them must be personalised to the employer’s needs.  An employer recognises a broadcast résumé in the first few seconds, and only the gracious ones will keep reading.    

Good résumés, with well-managed follow-up, can increase your likelihood of an interview from 2% to about 20%, so it’s well worth learning techniques to create a favourable impression. 

The sad reality is that most employers (myself included) rarely spend more than a few minutes on the first reading of each résumé.  We want to be able to assess quickly whether or not the person could be the one we are looking for. 

The Two Basic Questions

Every employer is looking for an answer to two basic questions, and all other questions serve to help answer these two.  They are:

     1.    Can this person do the job (competencies)?
     2.    Will this person fit into my team, branch or organisation (values alignment)?

What turns me on in a résumé . . .

As an employer, here are a few of the things that I look for in a résumé, and some of the things that research evidence says are effective in creating a good impression. 

ü  The résumé sells the competencies and character of the candidate to me succinctly, clearly and quickly. It is easy to skim read to get the information I want within a few minutes.  The candidate makes sure that every word counts.

ü  It is well set out, typed on size 12 Arial font or similar, is adequately spaced and makes use of bullet points, all of which make for easy reading.

ü  It has a heading with the applicant’s name, address, phone number, e-mail and photo prominently displayed, and each page is numbered. 

ü  The applicant displays an understanding of my organisation and shows that he/she is aligned to its values.

ü  The résumé has a reverse chronological record of employment, education and significant voluntary service with two or three sentences explaining each position.  These explanations will draw attention to measurable achievements, rather than just position/status only.  For example:  “Oversighted a team of 17 operatives all over Taiwan and turned around the trend in declining sales from NT$1,830,000 to NT$2,010,000 in two years”.  Most employers work on the premise that previous history is an indicator of future performance, so let them see your actual experience. 

ü  It has a list of the skills that have actually been practiced by the candidate.  Some of these could be included under each of the positions, but my preference is for a separate list.  I find it easier to skim read. 

ü  The candidate avoids statements that everyone uses like “A team player”.  I actually groan inwardly when I read this.  It is meaningless, and when I have asked about it in interview, applicants have often turned out not to have worked in a team environment.  If you really are a team player, it is better to say “Experience of working in teams”, but be prepared to speak to it in the interview.  The interviewer will be looking for how you handled conflict in the team, and how you used the synergy of the team to get better results. 

ü  If there are any gaps in your work history, put in a very brief note of explanation, or employers will think the worst (unemployable, in prison, drug problem, chronic illness).  A sentence like “Time off for overseas travel” will cover it, but be honest.  Don’t say “Home-schooling my children” when you couldn’t get a job.  If your absence from the workforce is problematic, remain silent on it in the résumé, but be prepared to speak honestly about it in the interview, if asked.  (Most employers will detect if you are fudging.)

ü  The résumé will include some information about what is important to the candidate, how he/she spends her spare time, etc.  This will give me an understanding of the kind of person he/she is (helping to answer basic question 2 above).

ü  The names and phone numbers of previous employers from whom I can ask for a reference.  If I cannot readily get good quality references I will almost certainly abandon the candidate, even if he/she presented a good résumé and performed well in the interview.  If it cannot be confirmed by an “outside” party it could be faked. 

Pretentious Trends that are Meaningless

There are a few trendy things that seem to be coming up in résumés more and more in recent years.  Personally, I do not find them helpful, just rather pretentious.  They don’t help me to answer the two essential questions “can this person do the job?” and “Will he/she fit into my team?”

The first of these is the personal employment objective.  I do not believe it is easy to honestly disclose one’s employment objective.  I Think an applicant is more likely to give the employer wants to hear rather than “To become CEO of the company” or “To gain experience in this job so I can get a better one”, or even “To earn money to live”.  This whole idea attracts dishonesty and I don’t take any notice of them, nor do other employers that I know. 

Another is the personal mission statement.  Let’s be honest, how many people go through life on a personal mission.  Unless you are an evangelist,  social worker, medical missionary, a Salvation Army officer or something similar you’re not likely to be on a mission, so where is your mission statement going to come from? 

Covering Email

Each time you send your résumé, include a covering email.  The purpose of the covering email is to:

1. Demonstrate that you can communicate with professional courtesy, and
2. Sell yourself enough to motivate the employer to open your résumé.

In a covering email, I expect to find . . .

ü  An introductory statement about the reason for your email.  Give the name of the job and where you saw it advertised. 

ü  A paragraph of about three or four sentences that briefly capture your main selling points.  I look for evidence of experience, competencies and values alignment.  You could throw in one major achievement here, but don’t be too verbose. 

ü  A paragraph about how you may be contacted and your availability (Make it as easy as you can for the employer). 

ü  A request for an interview, and a courtesy comment about looking forward to their response. 

ü  Correct grammar and spelling, and a warm and upbeat style throughout.  (In Taiwan it is understood that applicants are using English as a second language so there is some latitude with this, but this would disqualify you from getting an interview in most English speaking countries.)

ü  The email should be short and to the point.   

Follow-Up

If you follow up with a phone call a few days later the chance of getting an interview increases dramatically.  

(The image in this post is provided by freedigitalphotos.net.) 

How to Recruit and Keep Volunteers (Even in the most Uninviting Workplaces)

Despite the negativity of some managers about using volunteers, the rewards can be great.

However, you must take a different approach to managing them than you would paid employees.  At least that is the case in some respects.  In others, they should be managed exactly as you would employees. 

In my last post I outlined some of these differences and similarities and here I want to show you a system of managing volunteers, from recruitment right through to termination, that really works. My colleagues and I developed and used this model for managing volunteers for an extremely difficult work environment; a sobering-up centre.  Working through the night with people who are abusive, vomiting and at risk of life-threatening withdrawal symptoms is not everyone’s cup of tea, but we maintained a volunteer programme of 20 to 30 people who supported our professional staff. 

Appoint a Volunteer Coordinator

One of the first things you should do is appoint a volunteer coordinator.  She could be a volunteer herself, but will need to have some basic management and organisation skills and an upbeat, outgoing personality.  She will need to be available for four to eight hours per week and will take on much of the practical management of the volunteers.  (If you’re just starting out on a volunteer programme you can do this yourself until you find the right person, but be aware of the extra impost on your time.)

Work on developing an effective and reproducible recruitment programme

You have to come to terms with the fact that there is a high attrition rate at every stage of the recruitment, selection, induction and maintenance phase of the volunteer relationship.  (Even if you do all the right things to care for your volunteers, attrition is always high.  This is not a reflection on your management – it’s just the nature of things.)

After some experimentation, our recruitment programme settled down to the following steps: 

1. We placed a small (but relatively expensive) advertisement in the city-wide newspaper and took about 50 to 60 inquiries,
2. We invited them to an information night and supper, and had about 25 to 35 attendees,
3. Around 15 to 20 signed up for volunteer service on the night or in the days that followed,
4. These were put through an induction course which included half a day in the training room, being rostered into a series of 5 training shifts, and completing a journal of their experiences of each shift,
5. 10 to 12 volunteers would complete the course, but some of them were weeded out by us as part of the selection process,
6.  Those that got through this stage were rostered into the activities of the centre, each one committing to at least one shift a fortnight,
7. The whole process was repeated three or four times a year, and in this way we were able to maintain an establishment of about 20 to 30 volunteers.  

Clearly define the volunteer relationship

Each volunteer received a position description, volunteer guidelines, a volunteer agreement, as well as other material defining the nature of the relationship between them and the centre, and the expectations on both sides.  (This link will take you to the guidelines and agreement that we are currently using in Taiwan.  Feel free to plagiarise with pride.)

Develop a volunteer community and celebrate volunteers with non-financial rewards 

About once a quarter, we had a volunteer event that would affirm the contribution of the volunteers.

Sometimes it would be an event just for them, such as a meal and movie night, and sometimes it would be to an occasion to show them off to the rest of the team, who also need to be reminded of their value from time to time.   Awards, gifts and appreciation certificates had an important part to play in such events. 

Volunteers should get all the benefits that paid employees do

If the paid employees get access to tee shirts, meals on duty, Hep B vaccinations, whatever, the volunteers should be getting them too.  This is important to send the message that they are valued members of the team. 

Performance manage volunteers in a forthright, but respectful and professional, way

One of the things that seems to freak out some managers of volunteers is the thought of performance managing them.  But actually, like most of us, volunteers respond best with professional candid approach.   A performance management interview of a volunteer should not be significantly different to that of an employee.  The legal restrictions may be lighter, but a firm and frank, solution-focused approach will usually enhance the commitment of the volunteer and the quality of his work. 

Clarify and validate the volunteer’s departure

Many volunteers are embarrassed about leaving after a relatively short period, so they just quietly avoid getting rostered on in the hope they will be forgotten.  Of course this sets up a dynamic where it is difficult for them to return should they want to sometime in the future.  Having spent resources on recruiting and training a volunteer, it would be best to have the door open to her return. 

We tried to not let this "quietly slipping away" happen, and if a volunteer had not been rostered on for more than a month or so, we would have a conversation affirming that it was OK to leave, and the door is open for her to come back. 

Understand the reasons for high turnover and accept is as part of the cost of doing business

Coming to terms with the reasons why turnover is high (compared to that of employees) will help you to appreciate that, despite this, volunteers are great value and a volunteer programme is well worth the effort.  These are just some of the reasons:

• Left to start paid employment (I am still amazed at the number of long term unemployed people who enter paid employment after only a short period of volunteer work),
• We liked them so much we hired them for one of our paid positions (happened more times than I can count),
• Went off to do a qualification in human services so they could advance in the field,
• Found that our type of work was too challenging for them (it was very in-your-face),
• Had exorcised their ghosts (many do this kind of work because they had a parent who was an alcoholic, or had some other brush with alcoholism or other drug abuse, and it helps them reconcile with their past). 

By being proactive to leave the door open for a return was a real bonus for the centre.  On several occasions, a year or two later after leaving, the volunteer would present as a candidate for a (paid) position.  In the intervening time, they built on the skills we had taught them, gained more, and came back to us with quite a nice package of experience and competencies, as well as a real affection for the centre that got them started. 

Volunteers are not free  - But they are amazing value!

If we’re talking strictly about financial recompense, it is true that we don’t pay volunteers.  But there are costs involved and they need to be understood and budgeted for.    

Advertising for recruitment, management time and appreciation events are not insignificant costs, and you can reasonably expect these to add up to 10% or 20% of what it would cost to have these volunteers on payroll.  But even at this rate, they are still great value simply in terms of cold hard cash.  

But of course the real value of volunteers is not just the work they do, but they people they are.  It is the intangible value-adding that they bring to the workplace in terms of raised levels of enthusiasm, greater commitment to the mission, and fresh ideas and challenges to staleness.  And having a cadre of workers who are “bigger” than the office politics that all organisations suffer from is invaluable.  

So, what’s stopping you from starting a volunteer programme today?