Two leadership principles

I share a couple of leadership/management/supervisory principles that I have come to believe in deeply and find them to have constant applications in living:

First, effective leaders must constantly pay attention to two objectives:
1) Getting the job done, and
2) Assuring the growth and satisfaction of their people.
Sometimes there is tension between the two, but a good leader must respond to both needs, and find an appropriate balance for the environment in which they are functioning.  I suggest in the working world that to really succeed a leader needs to devote at least 10 to 20 % of their effort to the latter.  In the Church the percentage may be about 50-50.  So much of the work of the Church has to do with personal progress. For example, lots of callings are more for an individual’s growth rather than who can do the best job.

Second, effective leaders vary the way they approach different situations.  One leadership style is not adequate (authoritarian, democratic, etc.).  Good leaders make assessments: How knowledgeable or motivated is the other person?  Is there risk if no action is taken?  Or not taken quickly?  Then they decide how heavily they must become involved in promoting or guaranteeing the task result and also how deeply they must invest in relational behavior in order to succeed in this situation.  And, as above, ultimate success involves both task results and growth of the people involved.

"Make good happen"

I connected with Elder Chandler’s letter of 4/16/13 which included a personal “mission” statement, because of my work with the Priests/Venturers in our stake where we have been considering mission/purpose/vision statements.  Just yesterday, our Stake Venturing Officers Association (which I am adviser, etc.,  to) presented the Venturing Leadership Skill Course (VLSC) to a number of Priests from our stake and their leaders.  The VLSC is a course on basic leadership skills created for Venturing age young people, a part of Venturing’s “Nature of Leadership” training program.  We have been preparing for this event for some time.  In February we took VOA leaders up to the family cabin and presented this course to them, and since have been preparing them to be able to present the same lessons to a broader group in the stake.  We have helped them get support for this from stake and ward leaders, to plan and carry out a publicity campaign to get attendance, to plan other details of this specific event, and to prepare to present the actual lesson materials. 

Yesterday we held the event, with 19 young men and 9 of their leaders present.  We started with a breakfast at 7:30 am and finished about 2 pm.  Wendy, bless her heart, created the meals (breakfast burritos and hoagies) with a little help from a couple of VOA mothers.

Regarding mission statements, the very first session in the VLSC is on “Vision,” a topic which we understand is of very much current interest with managers and leaders in business, government, and elsewhere.  This is the creation of mission/purpose/vision statements which describe in a succinct way an organization’s reason for existence and energize and unify persons serving in organization around its purpose.  I have obtained some insights on this subject from Greg, whom I consider something of an expert on this subject since he was a part of the team that created Wal-Mart’s “Spend less, live better” statement and shared with me a book by a management consultant, Roy Spence, who had worked with them on this project.

Our VOA has agreed upon this statement which defines for them the purpose of Aaronic Priesthood Venturing:

“Preparing the next generation of incredible leaders, in the Church, and in the world.”

I like this statement very much and  find myself energized by it.  It makes me want to use all my mind and strength to improve the use of the Venturing program in our stake and scouting district.  It seems to me that it well describes the unique contribution that Venturing can make to the preparations of our Priest-age young men for missionary service and for life.  When fully used, Venturing provides young men with both formal training and opportunities to practice and experience leadership, in ways not duplicated by the other tools that the Church gives us for developing our young men-- Duty to God, Come Follow Me curriculum, Seminary, etc.

In the VLSC session on vision the young men are also challenged to define their personal vision or mission statement.  I think of my personal vision statement, developed and refined over a number of years, which I share (with a little hesitation, because it is personal) :

“Make good happen.”

It tells me that it is not sufficient for me to know and understand what is right and true and good.  I am obligated to see that these things are implemented.  It helps me to wake up from the nap, set down the book, get up from the computer, and undertake actions to accomplish things that will bless the lives of others.

89 letters

Yuch!  I have an awful taste in my mouth!  I just licked 89 envelopes which contain invite letters to each Priest in our stake.  This is all a part of publicizing our Stake Venturing Officers Association-sponsored training “How to be a leader” (Venturing Leadership Skills Course), to be held a week from Saturday.  As adviser to the VOA, I get to do lots of things in the background to facilitate our work.

One of our earliest (and most important) VOA objective was to introduce and promote the Venturing leadership training resources in our stake.  A year ago when I was called to the stake YM Presidency, these training tools were totally unknown or ignored by all the crews in our stake, and their emphasis seemed consistent with my charge to strengthen the use of the Venturing program and also to be an important way in which better Venturing could contribute to better prepared missionaries.  We trained five members of the VOA at a retreat held at our cabin mid-February and are preparing them to be the primary presenters on April 20th.  The letters are a part of an ambitious publicity plan we developed with the group.  Someone had taught the principle of Seven Touches as a key to successful advertising or publicity.  Therefore, we brainstormed seven ways that we could communicate with the Priests and their leaders about this event.  We wrote a letter about to Bishops and Advisers for the Stake Presidency’s signature.  We prepared a flyer which was passed out in quorum meetings.  VOA members made a personal visit to each quorum. We caused the event to be announced in several places.  Now were are sending out this letter to each Priest and their parents.

Its taken about 10 days to get the letter ready to go.  Dallin, our VOA President, and I visited a week ago Sunday to outline the content.  Because he had a busy schedule, I made notes of his ideas for wording and wrote a draft.  I sent this draft back to him and the VPs, and revised the letter from their suggestions.  At the same time I started working with the stake clerk, at the Stake Presidency’s direction, to draft an endorsement note to go at the bottom of the page, to get names and addresses of all Priest age young men, letterhead stationery and envelopes, to access the Stake Presidency’s electronic signatures, etc.  He got approval from them for the letter’s wording, and I prepared a final master copy, got signatures from the three key members of the VOA presidency, ran copies of the latter, created labels for each envelope, hand wrote each young man’s name on a copy of the letter, folded , stuffed the letter and ,as above, licked and sealed 89 envelopes.  I hope the glue was safe and sanitary.  And, I would prefer a less eclectic flavor, like, maybe, raspberry, rather than Old Horse Hoof.

Now, off to the post office!

General Priesthood Meeting group expanding

I felt pleased at the expanding size of the Utah County family group that we had together to attend the Conference General Priesthood Meeting.  It was great to have a BYU contingent of Soderquists and also to have Ethan with us for the first time as a new Deacon.

This year we gathered at the Spanish Fork East stake center.  This used to be our ward house and stake center but now belongs to Scott's and Emilie's stake.  After the meeting we went to Scott's and Emilie's place for BYU Creamery ice cream.  In behalf of Ethan and Justin, I will note that they both wore ties to the meeting.