Growing Other Leaders Through Coaching
Effective leaders invest in the personal growth of other leaders. As church leaders, we share an equivalent responsibility. This article discusses the need to develop stewardship leaders and educators and present coaching as one of the relevant developmental strategies. It ends by exploring how coaching orientations and procedures can be applied within the Stewardship Ministries of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Development of Counterparts and Volunteers
As a church pastor, departmental leader, and administrator, you surely recognize that for a church entity to function at its fullest potential, it depends on the individual and collective capacity of the leadership team. As we serve within the church structure, most of us exert only a minimal influence on achieving our set objectives. Our success is heavily mediated through others, and this is particularly true for a church with a multilevel structure. The progress of our mission, leading all to put God first, relies not only on our own performance but on the performance of successive layers of church leaders and volunteers.
To mitigate the perceived lack of impact or negative influence of other leaders on the desired outcomes, some of us, as church leaders, are inclined to bypass our counterparts and other church leaders and reach members directly. However, this approach is resource-intensive and yields only short-term and limited results. Investing in the development of our counterparts and other church leaders proves more sustainable and effective for the Stewardship Ministries Department, as well as for other church departments.
Furthermore, when we engage in the development of our counterparts and other church leaders, we are emulating a major component of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Michael Youssef describes the strategy of Jesus: “The transformation of the disciples into bold and authoritative leaders is all the more amazing because Jesus did not choose a dozen natural-born leaders. Instead, he chose a dozen ordinary blue-collar working stiffs, put them through an intense mentoring and leadership training program, and radically transformed them into a force that would impact the world.”[1] This statement highlights Jesus’ intentional investment in empowering His immediate followers and the impact it subsequently had on the expansion of His mission.
Ellen G. White writes about the necessity of grooming workers in God’s church:
Help the inexperienced; discourage them not. Take them into your confidence; give them fatherly counsel, teaching them as you would teach students in a school. Watch not for their mistakes, but recognize their undeveloped talents, and train them to make a right use of these powers. Instruct them with all patience, encouraging them to go forward and to do an important work. Instead of keeping them engaged in doing things of minor importance, give them an opportunity to obtain an experience by which they may develop into trustworthy workers. Much will thus be gained to the cause of God.[2]
A primary responsibility of those in leadership consists of raising an army of well-equipped leaders. Additionally, as church leaders, we should not only collaborate with those who already possess well-polished skills; our responsibility is to identify individuals with talents and engage intimately in their refinement for service.
In the Stewardship Ministries Department, our common strategy to developing our counterparts and stewardship educators has consisted mainly of providing training and creating resources. It is a global (rather than individualized) and highly knowledge-centric approach. The encouraging outcome is that individuals can quickly acquire the basic knowledge and confidently preach sermons, give Bible studies, and facilitate workshops on stewardship topics. The educational approach has proven useful in equipping other leaders.
However, providing generalized training and sharing resources may not be sufficient for optimal performance. It seems that additional competencies, beyond basic knowledge of the ministry, are essential to succeed as stewardship leaders or educators. Key skills that are often lacking include the ability to clearly define one’s goals; transform general knowledge into context-specific plans; cope with changes, failures, questions, and uncertainties; and assess achievements. These observed deficiencies point to a need for further development of fine skills beyond basic stewardship knowledge. Coaching can be considered as a complementary approach to address these needs.
Characteristics of Coaching
Melvin L. Smith defines coaching as: “a facilitative or helping relationship to achieve some type of change, learning, and/or a new level of individual and organizational performance.”[3] This definition captures the purpose of coaching as a “helping relationship,” clarifies the nature of the procedure as “facilitative,” and presents “performance” as the expected outcome. Coaching is understood as a relational, collaborative, and egalitarian approach, rather than authoritarian or a top-down approach. In this context, the coach’s role is to accompany the coachee in discovering their goals, exploring their reality, becoming aware of their available options, establishing their appropriate strategy to reach the desired goals, and developing adequate tools to assess their performance.
Coaching is commonly used in sports to help improve performance. There is evidence that the coaching strategy has longed been employed in other spheres of life. For example, the Swahili people of East and Central Africa have the expression “habari gani menta” to designate the individual who asked, “What is happening?” In the Christian context, Jesus, though rarely introduced as a coach, exhibited coaching qualities during His interactions with His disciples. He would first build relationships, intimacy, and trust with His disciples, and questioning was foundational to His discipleship strategy. He would use questions to create awareness, to challenge, and to teach (Matthew 8:26; Matthew 16:13; Mark 2:8; Mark 9:50; Luke 23:31; Luke 24:17; John 5:44). Today, many high-performing organizations are using coaching to support their leaders and members.
The metaphor of a “coach” can be helpful to better understand what coaching entails. The coach is compared to a “coach,” a vehicle that facilitates a person’s movement from a current point to a desired destination. The traveler, or coachee, defines the destination, the goal, and chooses freely to embark on the vehicle. The coaching exercise facilitates the journey. The coach acts as a traveling partner rather than the one who dictates the destination and means to reach the destination.
However, it is important to acknowledge some limitations of coaching. When there is a deficit of basic knowledge, such as organizational mission and orientation, individuals primarily need training, not coaching. In situations where there are established standards and norms for acceptable performances, individuals need to learn the right procedures. Therefore, coaching should not be the exclusive approach to assist in developing our counterparts and other church leaders; in some instances, it may not even be the appropriate intervention. Before choosing the right supporting procedure, a prior assessment of needs and expectations is necessary. It is essential to remember that coaching does not replace other supporting procedures, but is often complementary.
Benefits of Coaching
The adoption of a coaching orientation and its procedures aligns well with today’s growing aspirations of being sensitive to local organizational specificities and to individual interests and needs. It complements traditional human resource development strategies where the one being empowered is typically a passive recipient of predefined knowledge or plans.
Interestingly, Ellen G. White strongly recommends the consultancy approach for the development of workers in God’s church: “God has not given to any one man all the wisdom, and wisdom will not die with him. Those placed in positions of trust should modestly regard the opinions of others as worthy of respect and likely to be as correct as their own. They should remember that God has made other men just as valuable as they are, and that God is willing to teach and guide these men.”[4]
The messenger of the Lord advocates for openness and support for diverse ideas and plans in the Lord’s work. Her statement stands, recognizing the value of allowing others to think, plan, and take responsibility. No one holds a monopoly of generating good ideas for God’s church. This approach fosters a unique form of cooperation and unity, valuing the contribution of everyone not only as implementers, but also as thinkers and planners. It balances the regular practice of cascading down initiatives across the church structure with the recommendation of apostle Paul to “encourage one another” (Hebrews 10:24, NASB). Thus, the consultancy orientation can unleash new ideas and energies across the church, leading to more relevant and effective stewardship initiatives.
Using coaching as a developmental strategy offers some psychophysiological benefits. Richard E. Boyatzis, Melvin L. Smith, and Alim J. Beveridge explain the positive physical and emotional effects, often described as the “feel good” factor.[5] Do you remember how you felt the last time you could discuss your personal goals and needs to someone interested in you and who cares for your ideas? A coaching environment is usually conducive to learning and heightens performance.
Additionally, Sir John Whitmore, known as the father of modern coaching, explains the effectiveness of coaching by referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At a certain stage of the life journey, people aspire to become self-actualizing individuals, the peak level of human development. A self-actualizing individual demonstrates emotional intelligence, responsibility, self-motivation, and self-belief, which are most likely to produce high performance. This is best achieved through coaching rather than by using developmental procedures that impose plans and ideas without input, adaptations, and ownership from the recipients.[6] Hence, the coaching approach would appeal much to individuals with extensive experience, a track record of success, and aspire great achievement.
Practicing Coaching
One key objective of coaching as a developmental orientation or procedure consists of helping other leaders to “[draw] out” “the purpose in a man’s heart” (Proverbs 20:5, NIV). As a result, the beneficiaries grow in self-awareness, or more precisely, awareness about God’s unique design for their lives and ministries. Dorothy Siminovitch explains how this can be best achieved: “Heightening clients’ awareness requires an interactive, collaborative process, where the coach offers the client data-based observations, questions, and feedback that may provoke new awarenesses for the client.”[7] Relationships, questioning, and active listening constitute the building blocks for the practice of coaching.
Concerning questioning, one can choose to follow or adapt the simple GROW model from Sir John Whitmore. The letters of the word GROW are used as an acronym to introduce the sequence of questions:
G- Goals. What are your goals?
R- Reality. What is your reality?
O- Options. What are your options?
W- Will. What are you willing to do?[8]
One can choose to follow the same or a different sequence of questions in a conversation. In some circumstances, to help our interlocutor dig deeper into one aspect, we may focus on a single question.
Below are three situations that illustrate the application of the coaching orientation and procedure within the Stewardship Ministries Department:
1. Coaching Newly Elected Directors
New stewardship leaders are regularly appointed. After sharing the large vision of stewardship ministries and ensuring that they have the basic knowledge about stewardship, through coaching we can accompany them in these four areas: to identify and formulate their goals, to self-assess their reality and become aware of the facilitators and obstacles to the fulfillment of their goals, to explore the various options that they are available for them to fulfill their goals, and to choose what they will put in place to achieve their desired goals. As a result, these newly appointed leaders will be in a better position to craft a personalized road map for their ministry, which usually generates high enthusiasm for implementation and facilitates the assessment of progress.
2. Reorganizing Our Visits
Visiting the different entities under one’s supervision is a major responsibility for stewardship and other church leaders who work for the GC, divisions, unions, and conferences. During these visits, the main activities typically involve training and delivering inspirational messages. To maximize the often high cost of these trips, we tend to establish packed-full agendas of public meetings, leaving little room for one-to-one interactions. In contrast, Jesus, while He came to save the whole world, invested much time in intimate encounters in the desert, in houses, on mountains, and in the Garden. While we are providing quality trainings, the greatest need of those we are visiting may be a sounding board for their stories of success and failure, a chance to test their ideas and plans, and to engage in prayer with a prayer partner. Unless we reorganize our packed agendas and set aside some of our well-prepared lectures to allow our hosts to share, discuss, and ask questions, we may miss opportunities to contribute to their and our growth.
3. Account, Review, and Plan Meetings
The Account, Review, and Plan (ARP) meetings, as outlined in the GC Stewardship Strategic Orientation (2022–2025), represent another opportunity to use coaching for growing other leaders. These planned meetings, held at regular intervals, either in person or via an e-platform, involve stewardship leaders and their counterparts who are serving at the next level of the church organization. The aim is to provide a space where our counterparts can freely discuss the implementation of their plans and achievement of their goals—those they have adopted for themselves and their departments. During ARP meetings, leaders from the higher organizations act as coaches and facilitators rather than assessors. Recent experiences of ARP meetings involving the GC stewardship leadership and division stewardship directors have shown that this approach facilitates the thorough examination of performance and helps in drafting their way forward. ARP meetings can be replicated across the church structure.
Conclusion
The success of God’s mission globally depends on our dedication to grooming other leaders. While training, preaching, and advising are proven strategies, they must be balanced with more consultative, intimate, and relational approaches, such as coaching. This involves listening to and respecting others’ aspirations, providing encouragement, and supporting others in accomplishing what they believe to be God’s plans for their lives and ministries.
References
[1] Michael Yousef, The Leadership Style of Jesus: How to Make a Lasting Impact (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2013), 183.
[2] Ellen G. White, Christian Leadership (Washington, D.C.: Ellen G. White Estate, 1985), 55.
[3] Melvin L. Smith, Ellen B. Van Oosten, and Richard E. Boyatzis, “Coaching for Sustained Desired Change,” in Research in Organizational Change and Development, eds. Richard W. Woodman, William A. Pasmore, and Abraham B. Shani (Bingley, England: Emerald Group, 2009), 150.
[4] White, Christian Leadership, 36.
[5] Richard E. Boyatzis, Melvin L. Smith, Alim J. Beveridge, “Coaching with Compassion:
Inspiring Health, Well-Being, and Development in Organizations,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 49, no. 2 (2013): 153.
[6] John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance: The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership, 5th ed (London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2017), 16, 17.
[7] Dorothy Siminovitch, “The Coach as Awareness Agent: A Process Approach,” in Professional Coaching: Principles and Practice, eds. Susan English, Janice M. Sabatine, and Philip Brownell (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2018), 136.
[8] Whitmore, Coaching for Performance, 96.
