LEADERSHIP AND POWER

Leadership and Power

 

In the midst of holiday garlands and end of the semester grading, carols and case studies, I received a very "Official Appointment Advisory Form."  Hurriedly I clicked on the e-mail, opened the document – mainly to see how long I could put off attending to it – but the first question peaked my interest.  It read:  "What missional factors have you considered in making your appointment request and how does your pastoral leadership contribute to these factors?" (Italic mine)  Leadership – I was intrigued.  We talk about leadership, we even teach about leadership.  We enact leadership every day, but do we have/take time to think deeply about the leadership we practice.

 

This ecclesial form offered me the opportunity to think more deeply about leadership.  Below are some strands of my evolving understanding and practice:

Leadership is no longer a set of practices to be mastered and implemented.  Leadership is not about exerting power over the other(s).  Leadership is a way of being – in honest, intentional relationships.  Leadership requires listening often- both to others and to the quiet whisper of Spirit - they frequently merge into the same voice.  Leadership is not all about me.  What a relief.  Leadership is about relationships. I experience this as a liberation to love that fuels a more authentic leadership. 

 

Power understood as relational, contingent, and open-ended is risky and rich with possibilities rather than certainties.  Like manna this power spoils when we try to hoard it, to amass a stockpile against possible threat.  This power is expectant.   Perhaps that is why this ecclesial form came during Advent…

 

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

 

 

 

 

 

Having Double-Vision as a Supervisor

Being a skilled and artful supervisor of a Divinity student requires the capacity to see more than one thing at a time.  It requires a kind of double vision: near-sighted as well as far-sighted.  That is, sometimes the work before us requires us to look very closely (together) at one task that is before us.  It might be word-smithing, word by theological word, a sermon, a prayer, a news release, a statement to board members.  This kind of work reminds me of the kind of sight Annie Dillard must have had when she wrote, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek based on her very close observations of one square foot of land over time.  It requires seeing detail, nuance, slight movement.

And then there are the times when we need to see as far down the path as we can.  A student might be encountering a difficulty in the internship that could have long-term ramifications.  What if I do not have this gift?  Should I change course?  At times like this it is helpful to have the vision (and navigational tools) of a sea captain.  Having a sense of where the currents change, where there might be something lurking beneath the surface,  and what might be the best timing for a course correction.

Where have you recently encountered the need for one or other of these kinds of vision?

What wisdom might you share?

Finding Voice in the Second Year

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9812

"Community of Truth"

"A Community of Truth"

 

In Proverbs of Ashes:  Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us, Rebecca Parker, addressing her own journey of healing, writes:

       I also had to find a community of truth.   When friends sent me to a

       support group for people struggling with their response to the 

       effects of alcohol on those they loved, I found a place of unmasked

       human presence.

       Because that group was one in which people didn't hide, I   

       began to learn not to hide.  It took a long time, but I gradually

       began to tell the truth about my life.  It was like learning

       to speak all over again.  The habits of hiding and denying

      were so old, I didn't know how to speak except in a way that

      was a kind of a lie.  I didn't know how to say, "I hurt.  I am afraid." 

      I only knew how to say,  "I'm fine.  Nothing is wrong.  Everything is great."

      (Brock and Parker, p. 214)

 

What is a "community of truth"?    According to Merriam-Webster a "community" is "a unified body of individuals", and "interacting population" with "a common characteristic or interest." (Merriam-Webster)  What would a community whose stated common characteristic is truth telling look like?  This is not, I think, truth with a capital "T", connoting an absolute certainty beyond the capacities of human finiteness.  According to Parker it is a community that does not require hiding and denying.  It demands a new language – or perhaps the reclaiming of an old, old language forgotten in the pull and tumble of human existence, a language that can express what is real inside and among us, our truths with a more modest lower case "t."  A "community of truth" needs listeners, those able to hear the hard, tragic , sharp, brutish edges of life and hold fast in community.   A "community of truth" requires a kind of mutuality born of an awareness of sharing in the human condition.   A "community of truth", I think, is based in the ancient art of story telling, in this case, our own tattered volume, including chapters of hurt, fear, anger, and grief.  A "community of truth" holds one another accountable in love.  A cheap love can embrace the "fine and great" and even a measure of woundedness.   A "community of truth" needs an expensive, extravagant love to encompass the hard, tragic, sharp, brutish edges of life as well as its joys and to remain vulnerable to hope and possibility.

 

What does this have to do with theological supervision?  That hinges on the goal of theological supervision.   I am not sure what exactly is meant by "training the next generation of leaders", a phrase we hear often enough, but it strikes me as timid.  What if, rather than settling for "training", we decided to risk mutual forming –perhaps trans-forming - by gathering and "practicing" being "communities of truth"?

In some ways this is easier than being the expert with "answers."  However, vulnerability does seem to be requisite - not unfettered disclosure - but a willingness to at times forthrightly "not know", to listen, to be as authentic as we can be at any given moment, to do our own hard, necessary, continual practice of  inner assessment.   There just may be more authority in this practice of authenticity than in having answers.

 

Come to think of it, in the Christian faith tradition, a "community of truth" sounds a lot like some descriptions of the "the Body of Christ."

 

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

 

Brock, Rita Nakashima., and Rebecca Ann. Parker. Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. Boston: Beacon, 2001. Print.

 

"Community - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community>.

 

 

--
Trudy Hawkins Stringer
Assistant Professor of the Practice
Associate Director of Field Education
Vanderbilt University Divinity School
615 343 3962

"Coaching" in Supervision

A recent article in The New Yorker (“Personal Best” by Atul Gawande) raised the very provocative question of whether or not all kinds of professionals might benefit from a personal coach.  The author, a very accomplished surgeon, described himself as being “at the top of his game” when he decided to experiment with this question.  Interestingly, it was a random encounter with a much younger tennis player who offered the author some tips on improving his serve, which prompted this vocational reflection.  

The entire article can be found here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande
I will go ahead and spoil the ending by telling you that even a seasoned surgeon found it useful to invite a trusted colleague to observe his work and offer feedback about becoming even better at what he does!

While the work of personal coaches is often geared toward a particular challenge such as weight loss, improved athletic skills, better public speaking, etc., there is some wisdom in the practice of coaching that might be of use to those of us who supervise Divinity students in the mysterious process of coming to confidence and competence in daily practice.  Religious leadership is difficult to teach partly because  “jobs that involved the complexities of people or nature seem to take the longest to master.”  (p. 44)

Often I think that I do too much of the talking when I am supervising a student.  This article offered some concrete techniques that help me quickly shift into listening mode, while still being attentive to important feedback that needs to be given.  After the student has engaged in some work of their own, instead of the supervisor immediately offering praise and possibly critique, experts from the world of coaching suggest a few simple and straightforward questions:

• what worked?
• what did not work as well as you would have liked?
• What might you do differently next time?
• What else did you notice?

What I like about these questions is that they ask the student to quickly get to the heart of the matter.  It gets them in the practice of reflecting on their own work, in the moment.  Part of the work of supervision is to be attentive to unhelpful dynamics, such as exaggerated self-criticism or self-praise, a tendency toward perfectionism, etc.  But the starting point for this work is what the student herself says about her work.

Sometimes a student’s reflection offers a natural segue for the supervisor to share practical wisdom.  “Others in this situation have done this or that.  Or: sometimes I have had success with this.  Saving this part of the conversation for later assures us hat we are offering advice that is needed and welcome, and speaks directly to the student’ situation.

I invite you to read the article for yourself and share your own comments and reflections about times you have coached or been coached.

--Viki Matson

EXPERIENTIAL PEDAGOGY

Experiential Pedagogy

 

In The Rule of Benedict Joan Chittister relates the story of a visitor to a contemporary monastery asking a monk,  "'What do you do in the monastery?'  And the monastic replies, 'Well, we fall and we get up and we fall and we get up and we fall and get up."[1]

 

Experiential pedagogy (or experiential education), the stuff of Field Education, is variously defined as "learning by doing"[2]; or "the process that occurs between a student and an educator that combines direct experience with the learning environment and subject matter"[3]; or "a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values."[4]

Recently I attended a workshop on "Habits of Creative Problem Solving."  The presenter pointed out that the words "experience" and "experiment" share the same root, the Latin experiri which means "to try."[5]  An experience is defined by Merriam Webster as  "a direct observation of or participation in events as a basis of knowledge" or "the fact or state of having been affected by or gained knowledge through direct observation or participation."[6]

 

Experiential pedagogy at its root invites – requires – experimentation.  Did you have a Young Scientist Club Science Kit Set or perhaps the Test Tube Adventures Lab?  If so, you may remember that not all experiments turn out as expected.  Some things work; some don't work; and some don't work as expected.  All three outcomes are expected in the learning process.  Similarly, experiential pedagogy requires that we risk finding out what works and what does not  and what does not work as we expected– that we risk being wrong – risk failure.

 

How can we best help our students to move beyond "getting it right" (whatever the current "it" may be), to move beyond a kind of ingrained academic perfectionism, and move toward experiri?  In "An Experiment in Feedback" Barbara Blogett challenges us to challenge ourselves as supervisors by differentiating between praise and feedback.  Blogett suggests that we help the student identify a specific learning event, specify learning goals for that event and request specific feedback on these learning goals.[7]  I suggest that praise can be understood as a generalized affirmation, while feedback ( Perhaps "constructive" would be a useful qualifier for feedback.) is particular to a discreet experience.  One obstacle to giving and receiving feedback, Blogett points out, may well be our own "intern inside" us, the one who likes " receiving praise for hard things as a substitute for analyzing what is hard about them."  And the one who uses "praise to cover our own anxiety about the hard things we are asking others to do."[8]

 

Do you remember in the 1970's and 1980's when  "continuous" or "continual" quality improvement programs were all the rage?  Some of us became worn out with the notion that nothing was ever "good enough."   I do not think this was the intention of these programs; however, the context, the organizational culture, can make all the difference in implementation.  And so, I suggest, it is with the use of feedback.  If we begin with a theological anthropology that acknowledges that "we fall and get up and we fall and get up", then perhaps we can risk admitting that we have fallen in the past and are likely to fall again in the future.  If we covenant to do this in community, to give and receive constructive feedback as a way of helping one another get up again, perhaps our "inner intern" can be stilled and the courage to risk trying can replace the fear of failure.

 

---

[1] Joan Chittister, The Rule of Benedict:  A Spirituality for the 21^st Century (New York:   Crossroad, 2010) p.

[2] "Worldview Literacy Project, Experiential Pedagogy, Middle School, High School, Web Based, Self-aware, Qualitative, Classroom Observation."  Johns Hopkins School of Education.  Winter 2011.  Web. 26 Sept. 2011. http://education.jhu.edu/newhorizons/Journals/Winter2011/Schlitz

[3] Jesse Jewell, "Experiential Pedagogy",  Web. 26 Sept. 2011 http://yukonee.wikispaces.com/D.+Experiential+Pedagogy .

[4]"What is Experiential Education?" Association for Experiential Education:  a Community of Progressive Educators and Practioners, Web. 21 Sept. 2011.

http://www.aee.org/about/whatIsEE

[5] Eric Booth, "Creative Problem Solving", Creative Practice Boot Camp, Vanderbilt University Curb Center, Nashville, Tn. 2 Sept. 2011.

[6] "Experience – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary", Dictionary and Thesaurus – Merriam-Webster Online.  Web. 26 Sept. 2011.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/experience

[7] Barbara Blogett, "Experiment in Feedback", Alban – Building Up Congregations and Their Leaders. 19 Sept. 2011:

[8] Blodgett, http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754 

Trudy Hawkins Stringer

Link to thoughtful article about giving feedback

http://www.alban.org/conversation.aspx?id=9754