Leadership Lessons from Serving on a Church Board
Zach Hughes
Vice President, IT at CHS | Leadership Lessons | Tech Futurist | Speaker | Writer | Podcaster
Is leadership a general skill, or is it context-specific? In other words, does it help to have domain knowledge in the area you are leading, or can a skilled leader lead anything effectively?
I’ve spent 100% of my professional career leading in the technology domain. I’ve never led a business unit, sales team, marketing function, or anything else. I generally consider my technical knowledge a huge asset when leading technology teams. It gives me credibility and empathy with my team and strategic relevance with my business partners.
Given this, I’ve wondered what it would be like to lead in a completely different context. Would I be any good at it? Would I like it? To answer that question, I looked for opportunities outside of my day job.
Six years ago , I was elected by the members of my church, Grace Fellowship , to serve as one of six Elders on our board. Two years later, I was elected as the board chair. I knew all about the business of technology at a Fortune 500 scale, but I didn’t have any practical experience leading a church.
Governance
It’s worth noting that serving on a board (church or otherwise) relies less on domain knowledge than other forms of leadership. That is because boards function in an oversight capacity and are explicitly not supposed to manage. Since managing the church is clearly the responsibility of the Lead Pastor and his staff, I can rely on their domain knowledge and subject matter expertise for church-specific matters.
This in itself was a worthy leadership lesson for me. I often write about how important it is for leaders to resist the urge to micromanage their teams . In a board role, I was strictly prohibited from doing so.
The business of the church
In many ways, churches deal with very similar issues that businesses face. I experienced many “firsts” that are highly relevant to the business world.
These experiences serve me well in my day job and future leadership roles.
Of course, a church is not a business. I had many experiences that were unique to leading in that context.
In church leadership, the faith aspects are front and center. As a leader in the corporate world, I lead through faith , but I’m quite a bit more subtle about it.
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Leading for succession
Per our bylaws, we have term limits. I needed to step off the board after six years to allow for leadership succession. That influenced how I led. Knowing my time was limited, I did everything I could to improve processes and systems so they could continue functioning without me. I was also driven to bring closure to several challenges, so I could ensure a smooth transition of leadership.
I’ve written before that I believe it’s important to always work yourself out of a job . Always do your work in such a way that you can walk away from it, and it’ll still run.
We just had our annual meeting this past Sunday, and we celebrated becoming debt-free as a church. Even the local news showed up to cover the story . That was quite a high note to go out on.
Leadership and context
Let’s go back to where we started. Why did the members of my church elect me to be on the Elder board? Because I was a great technology leader? No. Besides running the A/V equipment in the church board room, I didn’t use my technical skills much at all.
I was elected because I was a member in good standing, with established leadership skills. However, that doesn’t mean that the technology doesn’t matter. Context is critically important for building essential leadership skills.
I often talk to college students about their career aspirations. Some tell me, “I want to be a leader.” My response is, “Great! A leader of what?” I needed technology as a context to build my leadership practice. But once I built it, I realized how portable my leadership skills are.
My leadership experiences at my day job helped me lead as a better board chair at my church. My leadership experiences as a board chair made me a better leader at my day job and prepared me for future leadership roles.
Can a skilled leader lead anything?
I don’t know yet, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to expand my experience to lead in a completely different context than my day job. It was an enormous amount of work. At times, it took more out of me than I thought it should. But, in the end, I’m grateful for the experience and am now wondering what is next. For certain, this has prepared me for a future leadership opportunity. I’m just not yet sure what that is.
Read this article on my blog site or listen to it on my podcast???
-Pastor
2 个月Absolutely love this article. Thank you, Zack!
I empower Christian women to break free from anxiety and embrace a life of peace, joy, and purpose through the transformative power of God's Word.
3 个月Excellent post!
Consultant | Problem Solver | Leader of Teams & People
4 个月I missed this when you published it so just reading now -- and I'm glad I did! So many great points, Zach!
Technology Leader | Creative Problem-Solver | Growth Mindset Advocate | Results-Oriented | Passionate about Continuous Improvement | DEI Ally | Driver of Innovation and Strategic Execution
6 个月Great article, Zach Hughes, and what a major milestone to be completely debt free as a church! ??
Access Administration | Data Security | User Provisioning
6 个月Excellent post! Thank you for sharing.