Small Group World

06.16.10

Bill Donahue Interview II... Leadership and Small Groups

Bill Donahue has been serving at one of the premiere churches in the country. Willow Creek Community Church has been passionate about equipping and empowering leaders for decades. It was for this reason that I was thrilled to discuss Bill's takeaways concerning leadership. His perspectives may change the way you think about leadership.

Rick: Bill, I'm gonna turn the conversation toward leadership now. I think for a lot of people you represent not only one of the best in the small group space, but because of Willow's focus on leadership and your being there with Bill Hybels and all that team and all you guys did in leadership you really are a great representative for a lot of us as a person who represents leadership as well as small groups. This series of questions heads down that path. Leadership is a major focus at Willow. What are the three most important things you learned about leadership every small group pastor needs to know, understand, and embrace?

Bill: Well, there's a number of things. One would be I think shared leadership is essential but challenging. I think the idea that you're at the top of the pyramid and it's just you, that doesn't work for community leadership. Team leading is the way to go because it models what you're asking others to do. I think the other thing is always speak current reality to people. The first job they say of a leader is to name reality. I think that's absolutely essential. I learned that over the years, and we had different people in different roles, sometimes not really acknowledging reality. They were in denial of the reality of where we were at the time. You just have to be honest and name that at all times. So, yeah, just name reality.

And clarity, I think being very clear about what it is you're trying to do. I've gotta go with Andy Stanley here. Clarity is more important than certainty. You may not be able to be certain, but you need to be clear what it is you're asking people to do, what roles are they playing, and that has to be communicated regularly, and it has to be communicated in a way that is winsome and invites people in. So it's clear vision, clear strategy, clear values of what we believe and why we do this and communicating that regularly. Those are some of the biggest things I learned at least.

Rick: Bill, what leadership call did you make that looking over your shoulder you realize slowed down the goals you had in mind?

Bill: It was never like I made a call. You know, it was such a team thing.

I think the move to, the move to geographic—more specifically the move to neighborhood strategy without a support structure of leaders and leader development was a huge mistake. I would say that very clearly. You cannot have a neighborhood ministry without a strong support system behind it so that the organic place-based community experiences you're looking for are supported by an infrastructure. You can't just create experiences for people to have. It needs leaders, it needs clear direction, it needs integration throughout the church, and I think we went ahead and embraced some values and some practices without the commensurate support structure and leader development that was required around it. So that's why that, that didn't bode well for us. So I would—if I could roll the tape back I would definitely have changed that.

Rick: Bill, how would you suggest a team process something that didn't work so that they get meaningful takeaways? How did your teams go about doing that?

Bill: Well, I think first you collect honest data. You talk to the people that led it, and you talk to the people who experienced it. You have to go to the grassroots and find out how did this really work? And again, you can't just rely on vision hype. This is one of the things I had in a blog I did recently about leadership that kills community. A leader shouldn't get all caught up in their vision, and miss seeing reality. You have to really peel the layers off the onion and look at reality. What is really happening? How are groups really working? How are leaders really feeling about their role, their impact in other's lives? Is coaching working, and if so, where; and if not, where and why not? You know, how are we really talking about this? So real, clear, honest data is the first thing. They go back and look at what happened, what really happened. Not what did we think happened. And then try to figure out why. Then… each leader needs to own their role in that. You know, where did I contribute to the problem or the oversight or the mistake? In some cases maybe there's no ownership. It's just, you know, it's a fallen world, you try something, and it fails. You've just got to name it. But it's—I have to take responsibility ultimately for it, and so I think each person needs to say, "Ok, here's where my responsibility is in that," and put that on the table.

And then I think you've gotta get past all that and say, "Ok, let's get on the solution side. In light of this reality, where do we wanna go, and how do we get there? What needs to change? Do we need to change players? Do we need to change philosophy? Do we need to change strategy? Do we need to change the process we're going about here? Maybe the way we're making decisions isn't working. Do we need buy-in from senior leaders? You know, what was broken, and then what needs attention, and go from there.