When you are the person at the top of your organization or a solopreneur, it sometimes gets lonely. By definition, no one else within your organization has the same perspective as yours given your perch at the top. Similarly, the leader’s ear isn’t as close to the ground as others who are deeper in the organization. This can become acutely evident when a functional or divisional leader raises a red flag regarding a corporate decision that affects her area, which can make her feel isolated when raising her concerns. This is especially true when the enterprise has already communicated an initiative throughout the organization without first getting the buy-in of functional, divisional and informal leaders.
These types of change initiatives aren’t limited to large, hierarchical, corporate settings. I know someone who was on the vestry, or lay-led governing body, of the church he attended. His church’s vestry took stock of what its church had to offer their local community, and they identified the church’s gorgeous gardens behind the church’s locked, iron gates as something that they were stewards of for the community at large and not just for the church. Excited that they landed on something valuable and relevant to their neighborhood, the vestry sought to bring the church’s “Garden Club” into the fold and treat it at as any other ministry with a vestry liaison and accountability for how they were using the funds budgeted for them by the vestry.
The couple who led the garden club for years balked at the closer oversight and resented being called a ministry. The vestry tried to help them come to see that the gardens were part of the church’s ministry, that its parishioners were stewards of the gardens and that the couple was welcome to continue to serve the community through their work tending the gardens. Instead, the couple rejected the vestry’s overtures and they refused to work on the gardens if the church opened them to the public during the week.
Since everyone on the vestry was conflict averse, including my friend, my friend volunteered to discuss the garden ministry with the leader couple and a member of the vestry who also served in the Garden Ministry. My friend thought that leading efforts to resolve this conflict would help him confront one of his leadership gaps, and it did.
The couple that had previously run the “Garden Club” refused to change, so my friend dug deeper into that ministry and recommended new leaders who were subsequently appointed by the vestry. Ultimately, the church opened its gardens to the public, engaged more garden ministers and the neighborhood came to find the church’s gardens a welcoming and comfortable place to relax where they could escape the bustle of New York City and take some time to sit and enjoy the beauty of creation. Over time, some of the people who visited the gardens eventually stepped through the doors of the church itself, which helped the struggling church grow its membership and allowed it to take on even more ministries to serve its neighbors.
Opening previously locked gates took courage and a willingness to make the church, its gardens and its people vulnerable to abuse of what the garden ministry had for years nurtured and cultivated. This fear perpetuated locked gates and hardened hearts. Changing stances from one that was closed to the public to one of being open for enjoyment stemmed from the priest’s vision for the church. He wanted my friend’s church to be an open and welcoming place for the entire neighborhood. The priest, in turn, needed to excite members of his leadership team, the vestry, about that vision. Next, he needed to engage informal leaders in the church to spark excitement in others for his vision for the church. For that vision to take root required changing hearts and minds to embrace a mindset that was open to new possibilities instead of a fear-based mindset that seemingly allowed them to remain protected but inaccessible.
Leaders who skip exciting formal and informal leaders throughout their organization about their vision do so at their peril! Failing to do so could at best not produce any traction for their change initiative, and at worst incite those leaders who were not engaged by leadership to “break glass in case of emergency” if they are not aligned with the change initiative. Sometimes, it takes some digging to find those change agents who can help bring the vision to life. When done properly, though, such initiatives can yield much needed vitality and growth.