Re-imagining Your Board Sulam For Current Leaders Action Community Leadership Team Training

Bob Leventhal, Leadership Specialist Nadine Kochavi, Transformation Specialist

Agenda - Morning

9:00 AM Breakfast

9:30 AM Welcome & Introductions - Nadine

Overview – Nadine

• Agenda -5 minutes

• Learning Covenant - “Know-Do-Feel”- 10 minutes

• Mission, Pillars and Timeline- 15 minutes

Understanding Differences- 30 minutes- Bob

• Personality Profile- 10 minutes

• Art of Asking- 15 minutes

11:30 AM SCL Campaign of Change- 20 minutes- Bob

11:50-12:00 PM Leadership Team Roles – Nadine

12:00 PM Leadership & Exec Committee Start-Up – Transformation Specialists

• Fact Book & Board Self –Assessment Review – Strengths & Weaknesses

Agenda - Afternoon

12:45 PM Lunch + Mincha 1:15 PM Leadership Plan -

Group Work- Text Study - Vision- 10 minutes Whole Group- Vision Builder- 20 minutes Journal- Putting vision into action

2:00 PM Delegation Plan- Workshop Retreat Day - Text Study- Yitro- 10 minutes Case Study- A Well Designed Agenda-20 minutes Group Work: Ten Tips For Better Meetings - 20 minutes Journal- “ Hope to Improve”- One board meeting idea to share- 5 minutes

3:00 PM Meet with Transformation Specialists Leadership and Learning Between Sessions Questions Evaluations

3:45 PM Takeaways and Next Steps-

Introductions

• Name • Kehilla

(Congregation)

• Role

• Hope to Do

Sulam for Current Leaders Overview Learning Covenant Mission, Deliverables, Pillars

Learning Agenda By the time you leave, what would you like to…

• Know?

• Do?

• Feel?

On Site

On Site

Self

Self

• June – July 2017 • Leadership Team Start Up & Board Leadership Session

• August – September 2017 • Delegation Plan BD

• October-November 2017 • Accountability Plan

• November-December 2017 • Chair Orientation & Training

• January-February 2018 • All-Chair Training

Sulam For Current Leaders

On Site

Sulam for Current Leaders Mission • Sulam for Current Leaders (SCL) is a leadership development

program of USCJ that supports purposeful, energized and sustainable congregations by strengthening the leadership community of officers, board members and committees

• SCL guides kehilla leaders through the process of creating a leadership vision and strategies. It then builds on these to develop board expectations and leadership behavioral agreements. It also develops operating agreements about board meetings, decision making, committee structure and board oversight

• It helps the board identify its strategic objectives so that it can create committees and task forces to address priority issues

USCJ will be evaluated on deliverables Did you complete your assignments? • Board Self Assessment • Board SWOT • Leadership Vision • Board Expectations Document • Board Meeting Improvement Plan • Executive Committee Job Description • Key Committee Job Descriptions • Committee Chair Self-Assessment • Volunteer Profile and Volunteer Want Ads • Board Briefing Book • Committee Tool Kit

We need your help to stay on track: • Make appointment

with Transformation Specialist for start up!

• Help us document your progress

SCL is Concerned with Future Impact Vision: After 18-24 months, the board will include a diverse mix of longstanding and new leaders with shared visions, expectations and practices united by their new Leadership Haggadah. • Board Self-Assessment • The Timed Strategic Agenda • Parking Lots • Committee Job Descriptions • Process Checks • Board Expectations • Chair Self-Assessments • New Member Orientations • Committee Training • Model Proposal Templates • Committee Interview Process • VP Portfolio Job Descriptions • Committee Charters- Job

Descriptions • Membership School Committee • Fundraising Committee

Impact: Do our exercises lead to new sustainable practices that go from administration to administration?

SCL Program Pillars • Reflection – Self-assessment of current leadership situation and

succession plans • Leadership Readings – Articles, bibliography, blogs, web-based

resources on leadership concepts and practices • Webinars –Webinars are available on the overall program and on

individual units • Experiential Learning Exercises – Annotated guides are available for

facilitators to conduct the interactive workshops. Sessions integrate biblical leadership texts and contemporary leadership exercises

• Action Planning – Leadership learning leads to a desire to initiate experiments and to implement new practices. Process provides time for the Leadership Development Team to follow up on meetings and to experiment with new practices in subsequent board meetings

• Sulam Learning Network – Kehilla leaders become part of a larger network of leadership improvement and change

Transformation Specialists Will… Be Present! – Facilitate and/or assist in the facilitation of the Executive Committee start- up session and Delegation Plan workshop to help guide and support your efforts in this leadership journey.

Check-in and Debrief- Work with the Leadership Team in-between sessions.

Coach - support you through successes and challenges. Help highlight short term wins!

Guide You from A-Z! – Ensure that you are prepared from Start Up to All-Committee Training Day.

Feeling Better?

Transformation Specialists Will Not…

• Recruit your leaders • Do your assignments • Apologize for checking up and

tracking your progress • Stop requesting copies of your

deliverables • Own your decisions • Ensure your success

“Don’t own client issues” - Peter Block

Sulam for Current Leaders Understanding Differences Self Awareness & Self Management Social Awareness & Social Management Daniel Goleman- Emotional Intelligence

Understanding Type Preferences Helps with Self and Social Management

• Self-Awareness • Self Management • Social Awareness • Social

Management

Listen to a recorded webinar for more information

Feeling Focused vs. Thinking Focused (People have a predisposition to thinking or feeling-Meyers Briggs)

Feelings Focused • Focuses on the impact of

decisions on how others will feel

• How will our committee chair, Sarah, take this?

• When leaders create change they can stir emotions immediately

The tradition says that we need to balance our focus on mission with our compassion for people.

Thinking Focused vs Feeling Focused (People have a predisposition to thinking or feeling - Meyers Briggs)

• Focus on impact of decisions on the synagogue’s mission and goals

• Focuses on the impact leaders can have on making society better

• Synagogue leaders often won’t be able to see the impact of their strategic efforts for several years. Rewards are more long term

The Torah often focuses on what is most important for the long term future of the Jewish people and their mission

Art of Asking Tell Your Story- 5 minutes, Partner Asks Questions- 1 minute

What are some of the things in your profile that you can affirm and validate?

What is one strength or preference you might bring to strengthening your leadership

community?

The Power of Questions

• “The very act of asking questions influences people. Asking and answering questions alters experience and generates possibilities for further experiences.”

• “The best single mark of an honest, open question is

that the questioner could not possibly know the answer to it…. It shows authentic curiosity.”

Parker Palmer – The Courage To Teach

Narrative Exercise- 15 minutes What are some of the things in your personality profile that you can validate? What is one strength you might bring to strengthening your leadership community? • Each person should take about 5 minutes to answer the

question. • Your partner will actively listen, but not speak. • At the end of the 5 minutes your partner will ask you

“perspective clarifying questions” for 1 minute. Story teller listens, but does not answer.

Next: Reverse Roles

Social Management Designing a Decision Making Process

List steps, logic model, examine consequences EC

create a plan for initiatives

Determine impact on self and others,

harmony Check in with others- go

slow

Re-Imagining a Board Meeting

N Intuition

S Sensing

Explore Possibilities Leadership Vision

F Feeling

T Thinking

Gather facts, define problem- Sulam Assessment and SWOT

Review Group Types • What are some things we

can observe?

• What are some strengths of the group?

• What are some less

developed areas?

Questions?

Campaign of Change Sulam For Current Leaders

SCL & John Maxwell - 5 Levels of Leadership http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/the-5-levels-of-leadership

Level 1: Position

Level 3: Production

• Good leaders always make things happen. They get results. Not only are they productive individually, but they also are able to help the team produce.

SCL

Sets Agenda- Goals

• The entry level. They rely on rules, regulations, policies, and organization charts to control their people. People will only follow them within the stated boundaries of their authority/ position.

Level 2 – Permission • Leadership is influence, and when a leader learns to function on the Permission level,

everything changes. Because the leader begins to influence people with relationship, not just position.

Sit in President’s

chair

SCL Builds Relationships

John Maxwell - 5 Levels of Leadership http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/the-5-levels-of-leadership

SCL-Develops capacity

• Level 4: People Development On Level 3, the emphasis is on the ability to create a high productivity team. Good leaders on Level 4 invest their time, energy, money, and thinking into growing others as leaders. They put only 20 percent of their focus on their personal productivity while putting 80 percent of it on developing and leading others. This can be a difficult shift to highly productive people who are used to being hands on. • Level 5: The Pinnacle The individuals who reach Level 5 lead so well for so long that they

create a legacy of leadership in the organization they serve. Pinnacle leaders stand out from everyone else. With gratitude and humility, they should lift up as many leaders as they can.

In order to get to Levels 4 & 5 your leadership plan must be embraced by future leaders

SCL- Create leadership culture

and legacy

SCL Level 4- Sets the table A Leadership Haggadah • Humility and Openness- Willing to

revisit our leadership story- we know the seder well but we retell the story each year

• Set table for Guests- Make sure new leaders have a place

• Leadership Seder-Get Organized to Get Connected- Step by step process- facilitator’s role

• Experiential- Engage with hands on rituals, readings and questions

• Recognize Learning Differences- types- different questions 4 questions

• Open door to the Future- Maintain hopeful stance Elijah

Thriving Attributes Addressed • Vision • Vision in Action • Reflective Leadership • Accountable Leadership • Leadership Transparency

• Volunteer Development- Pipeline of Leaders

• Clear Expectations • Innovation • Collaboration

Sulam Leadership carefully “stirs the pot” • Looks to future beyond day

to day problem solving. • Stirs the pot. Asks

tough questions. • Seeds ideas that are often

not fully realized until months later. Board changes may take years.

No change without risk

Change Creates Resistance • Technical Resistance- People may challenge the details of

the program • Flight to Health- Leaders may have argued that they really

needed help to strengthen their board. When leadership change agents try to engage the board later in real work, the same leaders say, “We are actually doing great!”

• Interpersonal Resistance- Leaders may look for weaknesses in the personality or skills of the leaders who are championing change

• Passive Resistance- Some leaders are sabotaged by fellow leaders who are ambivalent about the leadership work

SCL Action Leadership If you manage change you will be more likely to increase capacity

Create: New Practices Gain Capacities Anchor Change Depth of

change

Make Change: Manage conflict

If you move too fast you

can become a lightning rod for resistance

Unfreeze: Readiness to start process

Leaders Manage AnxietyPeter L Steinke, Congregational Learning in Anxious Times, Herndon, Va. The Alban Institute, 2006. p 7-14

• “Anxiety is also contagious. It connects people. Let one or two people unleash their anxiety and it won’t be long before it has a ripple effect on the congregation.”

• “Anxiety (and fear) represses human functioning by decreasing our capacity to learn, replicating our curiosity with a demand for certainty, and stiffening our positions over and against one another.” Story

of the Spies Don’t act alone!

Get your EC on board first so you launch the campaign together. We suggest you send a letter to your EC. Plan first meeting with TS

SCL Action- Pacing SLOW and STEADY

Leaders comfort the afflicted (Feeling Focused) and slowly and strategically afflict the comfortable.

Leadership Journal Managing Change

– Name one challenge that you might face in this process.

– Why might it be difficult to manage?

Take time to write.

After the discussion, please put your name on the sheet and hand in

Leadership Team & EC Start Up Leading Campaign of Change Our Iceberg is Melting, John Kotter NY: ST Martins Press - 2005 (P 130-131)

Getting Started • Create A Sense of Urgency- Share what you have learned

at Sulam training • Build a Guiding Coalition – Get Rabbi, Executive Director

and EC behind commitment to reflect on practices. Reach out to “the willing”

Decide What to Do • Develop Vision of Change - Have EC do Vision Builder exercise

. Communicate - Get buy in from the group – read materials, attend workshops, webinars • Empower Others to Act - remove barriers – provide resources, support – authority and responsibility. Get board members to participate in training. • Produce Short Term Wins - ensure some early successes meet leaders where they are. Try some easy ideas out. • Don’t Let Up - Raise expectations for change as you go. Work with KRM to access the whole range of SUL leadership programs. • Create a New Culture – Strengthened Kehilla

Campaign of Change: Make it Happen

• The Leadership Development Team

• The Entire Executive Committee (officers, rabbi and executive director)

• “The Willing” – Board Players to be

Named

The SCL Guiding Coalition

• Size and Composition Leader/ Champion Facilitator/Trainer

• Optional Team Members • One member of the

Executive Committee • One emerging leader on the

board • Executive Director • Clergy member

40

The Champions

Size: 3-6 members

Leadership Development Team

Trainer’s Roles What is expected of trainers

Facilitator/ Trainer Who? • Someone who can facilitate

the training and development process

• Active in life of congregation • Can facilitate • Can be careful reader of

curriculum • Can partner with

Transformation Specialist • Can partner with leader/

champion

Leader/Champion Who? • President, incoming President or

past president • Knows organization • Knows politics • Knows people • Knows good governance /

management principles from past work or volunteer experiences

Strategic ShiftFrom Managerial to More Strategic Board

• As a board shifts to focus more on governance, they need to manage less

• They can afford to

allocate more meeting agenda time for learning

Sulam For Current Leaders

With Transformation Specialists

Executive Committee & Leadership Pre Meeting “Start-Up” 60 minutes

Introductions 10 minutes Review Agenda 5 minutes Overview/Timeline 10 minutes The Work Between 10 minutes Personality Preferences 15 minutes Leadership Strengths & Weaknesses 10 minutes

Develop ways to nurture “greenhouse” leadership

Full Board Training Session 1 The Leadership Plan Goals

• Explore a leadership vision

• Assess current leadership situation. Look at gap between vision and reality

Activities

• Text Study- Leadership Vision- 10

• Exercise: Board Vision Builder Exercise-20

• Discuss: Review Results of Board Self-Assessment-20

• Journal- Write one “Hope to Do”- 5 minutes

• Share- Ask for volunteers- 5 minutes

Future Orientation Tool Kit

• Leadership Vision Document

• USCJ Succession Survey- There are few ongoing leadership programs, retreats, and annual plans. Many don’t know who will be the next president. Many have not groomed a successor amongst officers

• Sulam Board Self Assessments – Undeveloped practices, no written goals, goal tracking or accountability. There are unclear expectations for leaders and few written job descriptions. Lack of intentional meeting agenda planning

• SSP Congregational Survey -There is a gap between the board and the congregation. Board members feel more connected, welcomed and known than average members. They commit more time and money. Leaders need to bridge this gap

• Most leaders cannot share their vision, enthusiasm, goals or financial knowledge with others

Leaders are not sure about how to pass the “mantle of leadership” (II Kings 2:8) to the next generation of leaders.

The Leadership Challenge What We Have Recognized

Review of Fact Book Phase One • Members • Terms • Meetings • Practice Phase Two • ABC type decisions

Fact Book and Assessment shape Strengths/ Weaknesses analysis

Looking in the Mirror Group Work: Review Results of Board Self Assessment. Report Out: What do we need to improve to make vision a reality?

Assessments

Review Your Leadership: • Strengths • Weaknesses

Build on strengths and shore up weaknesses.

Leadership “SW” Analysis Create some Leadership Urgency

Leaders must find balance

• Honest Assessment- Is the soil fertile?

• Hopeful Forward Looking- spies are to bring back fruit

Vision Builder Exercise • “If we were successful in our work what

would our leaders look like?” • “What would they be doing, thinking,

feeling, saying?”

Text Study

What are the two approaches? What are the pros and cons of each?

Home Depot Values

Why do the founders require all home Depot employees to wear aprons in the store?

Vision- A desired future Whole Foods- Whole People • Whole Foods — We search for the highest

quality, least processed, most flavorful and natural foods possible because we believe that food in its purest state — unadulterated by artificial additives, sweeteners, colorings and preservatives — is the best tasting and most nutritious food there is

• Whole People — Our people are our company. They are passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. They take full advantage of our decentralized, self-directed team culture and create a respectful workplace where people are treated fairly and are highly motivated to succeed

Leadership Vision Builder • Introduction- What is Vision? Why does it matter? - 10

minutes • Group Work- Text Study- Two Rabbis- 10 minutes • Whole Group- Vision Builder- 20 minutes • Group Work- What are the themes?- 10 minutes • Journal- Hope-to-Do- One thing to make vision a

reality- 2 minutes

Leadership Journal ם ע ע ר זון יפ ין ח בא“Without a vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18)

• Name one specific thing that you hope

the board will do to put this vision into action • Why is it important to you?

After the discussion, please put your name on the sheet and hand it in.

Take time to write.

SCL- Five Training Sessions

1. Leadership – TS on site (same night as EC startup) 2. Delegation – TS on site (3 hours, preferably on a Sunday) 3. Accountability – Self-led 4. Volunteer Development Plan (optional, self-led) 5. Chair Training – TS on site (invite wider leadership circle)

Group Work: Review Results of Board Self Assessment.

Report Out: What do we need to improve to make vision a reality?

Assessments

Looking in the Mirror

Full Board TrainingDelegation Plan Part One

Pre-Work- Bring current document if available

Goals

• Explore challenges to delegation

• Consider how to build board agreement around expectations

• Review importance of committee job descriptions

Part One-Activities

• Welcome- 10 minutes

• Text Study: Yitro- 10 minutes

• Review: Review Your Board Expectations- 20 minutes

• Case Study: Raising Fundraising Expectations-20 minutes

Future Orientation Tool Kit

• Board Expectation Document

TS on site

Part Two Pre-Work- Bring draft of Executive Committee Job Description Goals

• Look at role of president and EC in shaping the board’s agenda • Explore meeting strategies

Part Two- Activities- 1.5 hours • A, B, C of Board Meetings • Case Study- A Well Designed Agenda- 20 minutes • Read and Discuss: 10 Tips for More Effective Board Meetings- 30 minutes • Review: Role of Executive Committee- EC presents- get list of questions- 10

minutes • Next Steps- 10 minutes

Future Orientation Tool Kit • Job Description EC • Model Agenda & Meeting Ideas

TS on site

Full Board TrainingDelegation Plan

Text Study- 10 minutes

Delegation, leadership expectations, levels of decision making.

Exodus 18:13-16

• 13 Next day, Moses sat as magistrate among the people, while the people stood about Moses from morning until evening. 14 But when Moses' father-in-law saw how much he had to do for the people, he said, "What is this thing that you are doing to the people? Why do you act alone, while all the people stand about you from morning until evening?" 15 Moses replied to his father-in-law, "It is because the people come to me to inquire of God. 16 When they have a dispute, it comes before me, and I decide between one person and another, and I make known the laws and teachings of God."

• 17 But Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing you are doing is not right; 18 you will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. 19 Now listen to me. I will give you counsel, and God be with you! You represent the people before God: you bring the disputes before God, 20 and enjoin upon them the laws and the teachings, and make known to them the way they are to go and the practices they are to follow. 21 You shall also seek out from among all the people capable men who fear God, trustworthy men who spurn ill-gotten gain. Set these over them as chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and 22 let them judge the people at all times. Have them bring every major dispute to you, but let them decide every minor dispute themselves. Make it easier for yourself by letting them share the burden with you. 23 If you do this — and God so commands you — you will be able to bear up; and all these people too will go home unwearied."

• 24 Moses heeded his father-in-law and did just as he had said. 25 Moses chose capable men out of all Israel, and appointed them heads over the people — chiefs of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens; 26 and they judged the people at all times: the difficult matters they would bring to Moses, and all the minor matters they would decide themselves. 27 Then Moses bade his father-in-law farewell, and he went his way to his own land.

Text Study

What makes a great meeting?

What makes people feel satisfied and happy?

Effective Meetings 30 minutes

Ten Tips for More Effective Meetings 1. Be focused- Have meeting objective- time allocated

to priority issues- don’t avoid important issues 2. Forward looking- Think about desired successful

outcome 3. Interact- If meeting face to face, use that time to

interact. Create a safe space for people to manage change

4. Reduce minutia- Prune small managerial issues (C issues) that can be delegated to staff or unpaid staff (policy not potholes)

5. Get permission to move on - consent agenda

Operating Covenants

TIPS

Ten Tips for More Effective Meetings 6. Be prepared - send out important information in

advance and ask people to read it 7. Get in the habit of deciding- help committees present

issues in ways that empower the board: • Background • Proposed motion • Revenues and expense any major policy issues • Policy issues • Staff required • Pros • Cons

Ten Tips for More Effective Meetings 8. Show your work – put an easel at the front of the

room-show options you considered 9. Policy vs. case-by-case- focus on policy dimension of

case, not specific people 10. Be a learning organization - study background of key

issues and committees, read books and articles together, do text study

• Name one specific thing that you

might do to improve meetings. • Why is it important to you?

After the discussion, please put your name on the sheet and hand in.

Leadership Journal Board Meetings

Take time to write.

Sulam For Current Leaders Looking Ahead With Transformation Specialists

Full Board Training Session # 4 The Accountability Plan

Recruit VPs to do exercise

Goals

• Explore the challenges of accountability

• Learn to diagnose sources of role confusion and lack of accountability

Activities

• Text- Golden Calf- 10 minutes

• Case Study- Sarah, The Membership Chair- Unclear expectations- 30 minutes

• Exercise: Chair Self-Assessment-(volunteers use the process)- 10 minutes

• Chair Self Assessment

• Committee Interview Worksheet

Self Led

Board and/or Committee Chair Orientation/Training Visioning

• Synagogue Mission

• Leadership Vision

Organizing

• Leadership Organization Structure

• Role of EC, Board and Committees

Funding- Source and Uses of Funds

• Synagogue Finances- Ten Big Ideas

Welcoming-Member Engagement

• Membership Facts & Policies

What all leaders should know.

On Site

Consider inviting

non board chairs.

Board and/or Committee Chair Orientation/Training Overview- Ten Tips for Committees

Proposal Template Board Decision Process

Strategic Direction How does committee work connect to mission/vision? Committee Job Description- create bullet list Review questions from Committee Interview Worksheet

Report Out One goal for year

Plan- Future Committee Presentation

On Site

Board Training Session The Volunteer Development Plan

Use USCJ template to develop a profile

Goals

• Find ways to understand member’s passions, talents and interests

• Strategies to identify volunteers and match to work

• Honor and recognize volunteer work

Activities

• Text Study- Eldad and Medad- 10 minutes

• Case Study- Sue and Beth-20 minutes

• Exercise- Membership Profile-15 minutes

Future Orientation Tool Kit

• Create leadership profile for all board

and committee members

• Have Membership Committee take USCJ Audit

Self Led

Consider inviting all committee

chairs.

Leadership Development Team The work between sessions • Debrief Each Session

• What did we learn? • What are our deliverables and when are they due? • Edit and refine documents before next session

• Collaborate • Discuss with Transformation Specialist • Decide what to bring back to the board • Identify challenging issues- ask for help if needed

• Innovate • Find new tactics to achieve vison and strategy

• Communicate • Prepare and debrief each session with TS • Keep board and other stakeholders aware of work • Share constructive ideas with congregation

Questions? Sulam For Current Leaders

Your Next Steps

• Ask all board members to complete Personality Profile exercise

• Schedule the Start Up Meeting with your TS – Session Ideally to be completed by July

• Communicate leadership development work to board and ask board to complete Board Self- Assessment

• Secure date for Delegation Plan Retreat and confirm with Transformation Specialist

Thank You