Leadership Reflections

I sure would appreciate getting your perspective on the topic of the day!!!  How much risk are you prepared to accept for your ministry based on faith that God will provide?  Do you have big faith that God will provide and then you act?  Or do you have big faith that God will provide when you act?  I think there is a fine line between having the faith to trust God and being presumptuous in testing God.  The practical issue is how much we factor God into our strategic plans.

In a sermon I heard in Sunday School, Andy Stanley made the point that there is only one time in Scripture that it says Jesus was amazed, and it was the big faith of a Roman centurian of all people that amazed him!

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”
Matthew 8:10

A personal challenge

Stanley challenges us asking, “What would your life be like if you knew for sure there is a God who is all powerful, who knows you and has promised never to leave you nor forsake you?  What if you had perfect peace and no fears or anxiety about anything?”  What would we dare try for the sake of Christ?  What might we do that would demonstrate a faith that could amaze Jesus?

A ministry challenge

What would it look like if your ministry assumed no limitations that God couldn’t easily overcome?  What if we decided to trust God for the things that keep us from daring to do all that we can dream of?  If we believed God could provide the “if onlys” that we are wishing for?  Better yet, what if we prayed for them?  What if the exploits of our ministries demonstrated a faith that would amaze Jesus just like the centurion’s did?  What if…?

A planning challenge

What if our strategic plans required divine rather than human capacity?  What if our plans were so big, so bold, so far-reaching that we’d have to assign responsibility for executing parts of them to the Lord?

If we can complete the plan ourselves, I’m sure God will allow us to do it ourselves.  But maybe he wants us to plan something so stupendous and awe-inspiring that it gives him a unique role to play.  The Bible is full of stories of how God worked through individuals to accomplish great things.  What if we inserted into our plans something that only God could do?  That means, of course, that by definition our plans will be unrealistic.  Would a staff be bold enough to recommend such a plan?  Would a board be daring enough to approve such a plan?  Just wondering!!

Are we:

• too cautious?
• too realistic?
• too self-reliant?

I admit that as I read these paragraphs, they scare me!  But I think they are also a healthy challenge to think about with the board and staff.

Living by faith

If we try to increase the faith component of our plans, we face the question of whether we should act first and depend on God to provide subsequently or let God act first and be ready to do what he has provided for.

In Acts 1, Jesus tells his followers not to do anything yet, but wait in Jerusalem until the Father sends his promised gift.

In Exodus 14, God told Moses to take the people of Israel to a specific place where they could be easily cornered by the Egyptians.  He basically told Moses to deliberately lead them into a trap!  Moses obeyed God and only then did the Lord part the waters and provide a way of escape.

I think there are some different approaches to the topic and each of them has a biblical basis.  I believe that which one we use will depend on how the board and staff together discern God’s will in a specific matter.

Pray and act with human wisdom

It might seem strange to start with human wisdom, but Scripture takes it seriously and so should we.  The book of Proverbs consists of the best of ‘worldly wisdom’ in that it sets out “the way things are” or “the way things work.”  God has given us great intellectual power to work out for ourselves some of the mystery behind God’s work, such as the hard and soft sciences.  Jesus commended the use of human wisdom in Luke 16:8.  French Arrington discusses the surprising position Jesus takes on human wisdom in his New Life Bible Commentary on Luke, saying:

…the sinful “people of this world” are favorably compared with the “people of the light.”  It is their resourcefulness and their dedication to the achievement of their intended goals that are held up as examples for emulation.  The implication is that the “people of the light,”  whose goal is infinitely more valuable, should be all the more resourceful and dedicated as they work toward their goal of a ‘treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted.”

Furthermore, Jesus’ advises in Luke 14:28 and 31: “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?…Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”  It seems that Jesus believes that thinking ahead is just good common sense.  His point is, “Don’t become a disciple if you are not willing to go the whole way.”

Finally, Paul advises Timothy (1 Tim 5) to drink a little wine because of his stomach and many illnesses.  I’m sure Paul had already done the spiritual thing and prayed for his healing, but he also gave Timothy the best human wisdom he had to help him with his stomach problems.

My position is that, unless he has otherwise directed us, God expects us to use the best of human wisdom in leading our ministries.  Use your noggin!

Pray and wait for God to act

We can also think big, figure out what is humanly possible, pray for God to do the rest and then act when he has made it possible.  There is Scriptural support for this option.  Jesus’ instruction to wait for the gift of the Spirit is one example.  Paul raising the collection for the Jerusalem relief effort is another.  Paul committed to no specific amount, just that he would bring an offering.  The prayers of the saints for Peter in prison are yet another example.  They did not mount an attack on the prison to free him, but were waiting in prayer, and God acted and miraculously freed Peter.

This is also an approach recommended by Jesus: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7, 11.  What Jesus is telling us is: ask, receive, proceed.

Pray and then act in anticipation of God’s action

This is the basis behind faith missions.  Sometimes we have to act first and then we will see God do something wonderful.

• Joshua had to march around Jericho seven times before he saw God bring down its walls.
• The disciples handed out the fish and bread not knowing what was going to happen, but God provided.
• Jesus had to go to the cross trusting that his Father would resurrect him.

Virtually all Christian ministries operate to some degree on faith because their revenue comes mostly from donations, and who knows what will come in next month?  They make long term commitments by hiring staff and acquiring property and trust that money will continue to come in.  But while some are very good at active fundraising, writing persuasive appeals and so forth, others will only do passive fundraising.  This group will pray but not tell anyone of their financial needs.  Hudson Taylor ran CIM this way, on the  assumption that “the Lord will provide.”  God has blessed this approach too.

Some advice

Any of the three strategies may be the appropriate one for you.  My comfort level is to operate the very best we can with the best knowledge we have (option 1) and to think big and wait for God to provide (option 2).

Which should you follow?  It all depends.  I think it comes down to group discernment.  I believe that God will lead the entire leadership team to one of the three options.  The board, the chief staff officer and the senior leadership team should all be in agreement about their position on faith and risk.  If one person feels the ministry should take on more risk with higher faith, then the whole group should enter into a discernment process to determine if they also feel the same.  This is what Paul did with his group.  He alone heard the call of God to go to Europe, but the whole team decided it was the right thing to do.  When Paul felt he had the answer to how to evangelise the gentiles, James and the apostles in Jerusalem discussed the issue and came to a collective decision.

If someone gave your ministry a million dollars, how would you use it?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive a million dollars!  If God said he would do anything you asked him to do to help with your ministry’s mission, what would you ask him to do?  If you don’t know, then maybe you aren’t ready to receive his miraculous help.  At the very least, have a list!!

Think BIG, pray HARD and follow the option that seems best to the team.  “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) needs to be what you say when you announce your decisions.

Everyone knows about penicillin’s accidental discovery, but it wasn’t that accidental, and knowing the real story behind the ‘accident’ will add a great tool to your strategic planning toolbox.  The truth is that Alexander Fleming was not an absent-minded, messy researcher but a brilliant strategist with habitual practices that made discoveries more likely.  By adopting his practices, you will likewise make it more likely that good things will happen to your ministry!

What really happened in Fleming’s lab

Fleming's lab fills the tower bay. It is the middle level of the three vertical windows.

Wikipedia and other sites describe Fleming and his lab as untidy, messy, or cluttered, but if you visit the lab, which is set up exactly as it was in 1928, you will find out that what appears messy and cluttered is just another aspect of his experimental work.  (Sorry, no pictures are allowed inside the lab.)  The museum guide told me that when Fleming was done with an experiment (the experiment he intended to do), he always left samples of his experiment out for at least several days (as an experiment to find something unintended that he obviously wasn’t looking for).

Another practice was to combine things just to see what happens.  In 1921 he had a cold, and put some of his nasal mucous in a petri dish and saw that it dissolved the bacteria in the dish.  He discovered a natural human antiseptic, lysozyme, which would have guaranteed his place in history even if he had never discovered penicillin!

Practices such as these made it possible for Fleming to be surprised by the unexpected.  He was very intentional about creating opportunities for discoveries to be made.  If this made his lab untidy or cluttered, so be it.

Furthermore, it wasn’t an accident that he just happened to notice something unusual in a sample.  He always inspected the samples very carefully, and this time he noticed a clear spot on the slide where the bacteria that he was experimenting on should have been.  The organism had been killed by something on this one part of the slide, and the killer agent turned out to be a mould that he first called mould juice and (wisely) later called penicillin!

The real story is that the discovery of penicillin was not so accidental.  Fleming deliberately left the cultures out to allow time for something unexpected to happen.  He deliberately inspected the samples to see what, if anything, had developed.  He deliberately followed up an unexpected observation to find an explanation for it.  And he deliberately invested time to think about the implications of what he had discovered.  Anyone who does what Fleming did is likely to discover something sooner or later.

In summary, Fleming’s method was:

1. Create opportunity to be surprised
2. Be on the lookout for surprising things
3. Be curious about the surprises you find
4. Look for ways to take advantage of the surprises

My discovery using Fleming’s methods

Although I did not realize I was using Fleming’s methods at the time, I discovered the idea for this post following the same principles as Fleming.  It was no accident that I stumbled upon the lab that led to the story that inspired this post.  Here’s an example of Fleming’s method at work:

Create opportunity to be surprised

• I was on a layover in London while returning home from Zürich on the last leg of my round-the-world sabbatical trip.  I had not intended to visit the lab, but I had made the decision to make the most of my time on this once-in-a-lifetime trip by taking every opportunity to explore.  So when I had two extra hours available before I needed to leave for Heathrow airport, instead of killing time at the airport or the hotel I got out my GPS and looked to see what tourist attractions were nearby.  Fleming’s lab was the closest attraction and it was only a mile a way.  Using the GPS as my guide, I walked to St. Mary’s Hospital and found the museum.

Be on the lookout for surprising things

• As the guide told the story of Fleming’s discovery, he made it clear that Fleming had deliberately left the cultures out after he finished his experiments with them.  He said it was not a case of being messy, but that this was his usual practice.  That I found surprising.

Be curious about the surprises you find

• I had never heard this aspect of the story before, so I asked why he would do that.  That’s when I heard about his looking for the unexpected.  This was a surprising idea because I thought scientists always had some concept of what they were looking for, an hypothesis to prove or disprove.  Simply putting something ‘out there’ to see what happens is quite different from the scientific method I learned in high school.

Look for ways to take advantage of the surprises

• I was not expecting to find something to blog about in that two extra hours I had, but as I heard the true story behind the discovery of penicillin I realized I had accidentally discovered a great leadership practice just as Fleming accidently discovered penicillin and I should share it on this blog.

My ‘accidents’ at CCCC

When I arrived at CCCC in September 2003 I decided to provide leadership that was open to opportunity.  In fact, we would search it out.  I decided that we would be willing to shift priorities based on comparing new opportunities with our current action plan.  To make this happen, the board and staff were told our action plans were simply default plans that we would follow as long as nothing better came up.  Then staff performance review criteria were set based on exhibiting our team values rather than reaching pre-set goals.  That way we could be flexible and nimble.  Here are a few examples of how that has worked out:

• CCCC sponsors the Best Christian Workplace survey in Canada, and it all started because I just ‘happened’ to be attending a conference in the States where I saw the second annual presentation of awards for the American Best Christian Workplace survey.  But I was at the conference because I was looking to see what’s new and different, so I set the stage for opportunity.  I immediately connected what I saw with what I thought Canadian ministries needed because I was already on the alert for new ideas.  Within a couple of weeks, we had an agreement to do it in Canada.  I took action on an idea instead of just thinking, “That was interesting.”
• CCCC was a partner in the 35<35 program that recognized young Christian leaders because I just ‘happened’ to run into Carson Pue in a hotel hallway.  But I attend EFC’s Presidents Day each year because it is the best place for me to meet a lot of ministry leaders at one time when I have no responsibilities of my own to attend to.  I was open to some collaborative work and wanted to talk with as many people as I could about what they are doing.  When Carson Pue and I crossed paths, we chatted a bit and when he asked what was on my mind, I told him we wanted to do something to recognize and encourage young Christian leaders at our next conference.  Wouldn’t you know it, he was wanting to find some partners to promote young leaders too and he had the idea for the 35<35 recognition program.  That turned out to be a great success for both of us (and Bridgeway Foundation and Christian Week – our other partners in that program).
• Jerry White, International President Emeritus of The Navigators, is probably the highest ranked speaker we’ve ever had at our conference.  I ‘happened’ to have a personal connection with him that made me think of him as a speaker.  But I didn’t just ‘happen’ to meet him.  While writing my first doctoral research project in 2005 I was critiquing his 1983 book on my topic and I wondered if this author were still alive.  I tracked him down, and since then we’ve met a couple of times and had some phone calls, and he ended up not only speaking at the CCCC conference but also writing the foreword for my new book, The Church at Work.  Lots of good has come about because I didn’t just read and critique a book but took the additional step of contacting the author, not knowing at the time what was going to come of it.  I had no expectations at the beginning that anything would develop.  I just thought Jerry would be an interesting person to talk with and get to know.  But that created the environment in which other good things could develop.
• Our horizons at CCCC are rapidly expanding as other staff members are also creating intential opportunities for ‘accidental’ discoveries!

Creating intentional accidents at your ministry

How much do you leave out to see “what might happen”?  In what ways do you create opportunity to be surprised?  To find opportunity you did not know existed?  Do you have an intentional plan to find the unexpected?  Some things you could do are:

• Talk with people outside of your usual circles who might introduce a new idea from their sphere into your sphere.
• Investigate what beneficiaries or clients do outside of your programs that might affect your program design.
• Read a good book like The Eureka Effect, to stimulate your creativity.
• Encourage your team to experiment on their own and be willing to try a small-scale pilot project.
• Visit unrelated ministries doing a different part of the Christian mission and find out what’s new with them.
• Just tell everyone you meet what your ministry does.  The more people who know about you, the more you are likely to hear about opportunities.
• If you have field staff, pay close attention to what they are actually doing.  You’ll probably find a lot of good creativity on the front lines!
• And of course, pray hard that God would bring unexpected opportunities your way!

You can never know in advance, of course, what will be discovered by following a strategy of intentional accidental discoveries, but that’s the fun and amazing part of it!  All you know at the start is that discoveries will be more likely because you have put yourself in a place that is conducive to discovery.  You won’t believe what good things will happen once you set the ball in motion by stepping outside of your zone.  Just watch what develops!

I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface of how to make accidental discoveries more likely.  Please add your own ideas by making a comment.

As a blogger, I spout my opinions frequently and strongly.  I think I’m right, but you know, at times I may be wrong or at least my suggestions may not be universally applicable.  In Sunday School today we watched a sermon by Andy Stanley on “Big Faith“, the first in a series on five ways that God works to build our faith.  In the introduction he says something like, ”I may be wrong of course.  Maybe there are six ways, or a completely different list of five, or perhaps God works another way entirely, so this is just an observation of five ways it appears to me that God works.”

As you and I both know, there is no one single way to lead.  There is no single formulaic five step process to successful leadership.  There are all sorts of ways one can lead, and which way you choose may be highly dependent on circumstances, your nature, and a whole bunch of other factors.

My caveat

This blog is a series of reflections on how to provide Christian leadership.  I’ve made some strong statements and I know I say ‘should’ quite a lot.  That sounds pretty directive!  Since I write based on my experience, my circumstances, my personality and so on, I think my suggestions will work well for me, but will they for you?  You must decide that for yourself.  My goal is to get you thinking and provide you with some help along the way by sharing the very best information I can find or think of about Christian leadership.  I am sure my thoughts have widespread application (or I wouldn’t bother writing), but in the end they are just observations.  They are my contribution to Christian ministry written in response to the question I assume readers are asking: ”I wonder what a Christian leader who has time to think and write about leadership issues thinks about leading in a Christian way?”

Your caveat

You as a leader are in a similar position.  You have your opinions about issues facing your ministry’s leadership and as a leader you should be sharing them.  We lead from our convictions knowing that people want to have confidence in their leaders, but that means that we tend to lead with a high degree of certainty.  Let’s not be more certain about things than we have a right to be.  In many cases, there is more than one way to “skin the cat.”  (What an awful expression, but it expresses the thought perfectly.)  This is why it is best to lead with consensus decisions, or decisions that you make but which have been shaped by group discussion.

In closing

• Knowing that I could be wrong, or that there is more than one way to lead, is why I allow comments on this blog.  I want you to participate with me and my readers in a group discussion so we can all learn together.
• Knowing that you could be wrong or that there is more than one way to address whatever issues face you, is why you have a team to consult with and to help you lead.  Two heads are better than one and all that!

Leaders are not required to have all the answers, but to know how to develop a good answer and to make a decision.

Plans fail for lack of counsel,
   but with many advisers they succeed.
Proverbs 15:22

“It’s lonely at the top” is true only if you want it to be.  It doesn’t have to be that way, but when there is no one a leader feels comfortable discussing the really challenging issues with, it truly is lonely.  In that case, it seems inevitable that some day either a challenge or the person’s own blindness to a situation will trip the leader up.

When ministry leaders come and go in just a few years, I wonder how connected they were with other people.  Could they have had greater longevity and success by being vulnerable and discussing these issues with someone else?

If you are finding leadership a lonely experience, here are some people who can keep you company.

Staff

You should be able to discuss almost any issue with your senior staff because they are your team and they are the ones who will execute whatever plans you approve.  They are every bit as familiar with the ministry as you are and they share your vital interest in its success.  Why not bring them into your confidence?

Just because the senior leader has the executive authority and bears all the responsibility for results (to the board) doesn’t mean the person must be a lonely, solo leader.  Two of my senior staff report directly to me and I trust both of them completely and value their judgment.  Beyond them, there is a leadership team (and also staff who join us based on the topic of discussion).  Why should I rely only on my own knowledge and experience when I have so much more available to me?

There are a couple of reasons why some leaders hold back from their staff:

• They may have a personnel issue or something that they don’t want to discuss with any staff.  Okay, but as you’ll see below, there are still other people you can discuss things with.
• You many think that not having the answers will make you appear weak.  You may be afraid of losing the staff’s confidence if you ask for their help.  If so, I think you’ve bought into the ‘heroic leader’ myth.  Business books and biographies almost always tell a story by focusing on one individual, as if their success was 100% from their own efforts and ideas.  I can recall only one book written about an heroic team, The Wisdom Of Teams.  That’s the exception.  All the other books focus on a single person because we want a hero, and heroes are supposed to be able to overcome obstacles by themselves.  But this is to put unrealistic expectations on yourself.  Roger Patterson, co-author of Leading from the Second Chair, sent me the text for his second book (not yet published) called The Theology of the Second Chair and in it he makes an interesting point.  Scripture shows that God appoints people to leadership, but these are all people with limitations well known to God.  Think about Moses and his poor speech.  God puts people around his leader who fill in for the leader’s shortcomings.  The leader is strong in what God wants them to do, and the team does the rest.
• Finally, be wary of pride.  For the sake of the ministry, accept the team’s wisdom.  James presided over the Council of Jerusalem and allowed his team to thoroughly discuss the Gentile question (Acts 15) even though he alone made the final decision.  Paul had his missionary team confirm the meaning of his Macedonian vision even though he knew what the dream meant.  It was a way of testing his interpretation.  So confide in your team.

Board

If you think you can’t talk to your staff, you can talk with your directors.  I am blessed with a board that is supportive while at the same time holding me accountable.  CCCC has a policy board, so my concerns are within my jurisdiction not theirs, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a ‘fireside chat’ with them.  We both know that they will not tell me what to do and that I am solely responsible for any decision I make, but we have had hours of fruitful discussions that have benefitted me greatly.  Just like my staff, they are dedicated to the success of the ministry, and because they hired me, they want me personally to be successful as CEO.  Why should I not have the benefit of their wisdom and experience too?

However, you might not want to talk with your board because you may feel your job is in jeopardy if you ask for input or show that you struggle with some things.  You certainly need to be a top performer, but it shouldn’t be a problem to seek counsel or to ask for prayer support.  Unfortunately we at CCCC hear about many conflicts between board and staff.  You can reduce board-staff conflict if you accept the board’s authority and if the board does good board orientation and development so directors know where the line is between board and staff.  The board should also recruit people who subscribe to the values, ethos, and strategic statements already in place and who are in basic accord with the senior staff person.  They don’t have to always agree with the leader, but they shouldn’t come on to a board already wanting to change basic elements of strategy or staffing.

Ministry Peers

I have developed relationships with ministry leaders across the country by simply visiting them in their offices, seeing them at events such as EFC’s Presidents Day, and otherwise being open to any opportunity to say “Hi” to them.  You may not have access to leaders across the country, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t know the ministry leaders in your area.  Pick up the phone, call someone and ask to have lunch with them, or ask to come and see their ministry.  You may have to juggle schedules, but sooner or later you can make a new friend who could be very helpful.

When I wanted advice on change management I called four leaders of ministries that had been through successful change, and all of them were willing to talk about their experiences and the lessons they learned.  While visiting some leaders out West a few weeks ago, conversation drifted around to a leadership topic that I’ve been wrestling with for a while and these leaders just opened up and shared their own experiences with that issue.  Leaders are willing to talk and help each other if you are willing to be vulnerable and share the issues that you are dealing with.

Sometimes you need someone else to see something that you can’t.  Moses had his Jethro who could see the quagmire that Moses had fallen into.  Wouldn’t it have been better for Moses if he had found out earlier about the problem and fixed it sooner?  He could have asked someone, maybe even Jethro, “Here’s my plan to lead the people of Israel.  Do you see any potential problems with it?”

The only thing that might hold you back from talking with your peers is pride.  Everyone wants to look successful at what they do, but the most meaningful and helpful conversations come about when the masks come off and people are real with each other.  It deepens your relationship from the relatively superficial “Hi, how are you?” stage to the much deeper level of feeling you really know the other person.

Your Spouse

I am richly blessed with a spouse who also has a business degree, is an accountant, and who has chaired some boards.  She understands leadership, strategy and all the other issues I deal with.  She is an invaluable support to me and offers great perspectives.  But even without her background, she would still be a tremendous support because:

• as my spouse, she is 100% committed to my success because both of us are bound together  in marriage, so my welfare is her welfare and she wants the best for me.  In this spirit, your spouse is not afraid to ask the tough questions, and will provide a clear-headed perspective.
• she doesn’t have to know business or governance to ask the right questions.  ”Have you prayed about this?” is one of those perennial favourites of hers!!!  Your spouse doesn’t need to have the answers, just the right probing questions to stimulate your thinking.

God

I’ve left God to last not because he is the least important but to end on the note that you must be talking with God because the ministry you lead is his, not yours.  This reminds me of a video that we show in the Stewardship I course – God’s Pie.  A person divvies up a pie with pieces for people representing his house, his cars, etc., but gives God nothing.  As he eats his own piece of pie while God watches, with an empty plate, the guy representing his German car says, “Dude!  He brrrrought ze pie!”

Well, dude, the ministry you lead is his, so consult with him about what you should do with it.  The key to Christian leadership is to recognize that you are a follower before you are a leader.  If you find yourself talking about leadership and then admitting as an afterthought that, “Well, of course, the Bible says that God is the ultimate leader of this ministry,” then God’s leadership looks pretty perfunctory.  His leadership needs to be fresh and vital every day.  If you only know the idea of God’s leadership rather than the experience of God’s leadership, I suggest you check out the spiritual disciplines and practices that are at the core of being led by God.  Take a spiritual formation course at a seminary or Bible college or pick up a good book such as Space for God: The Study and Practice of Spirituality and Prayer or Listening Prayer: Learning to Hear God’s Voice and Keep a Prayer Journal.  While you should go to God first, he is also the final resort after all human wisdom and advice has failed.

Conclusion

I hope you see by now that there are a lot of people around who could support you in ministry.  There is no reason to feel lonely and unable to talk to anyone.  Take the initiative and go see someone right away.  And if you have anything to contribute to this discussion, I’d love to hear from you.

How many consultants does it take to change a lightbulb?  No one knows, because they never get past the feasibility study.

I’ve had good and bad experiences with consultants and can share with you some suggestions as to when to use them and when to avoid them.  The term ‘consultant’ captures a wide range of services, a wide range of paradigms that influence their output, and like lawyers and accountants they can be solo practitioners or members of a global firm.

Types of consultants

It is helpful to distinguish between the various types:

• Pure consulting is limited to investigation of a topic or issue, reporting and perhaps recommendation.  However, many consultants do much more by performing work that ranges from interviewing customers for market research or doing ongoing work such as HR or IT as part of an outsourcing strategy.
• Every consultant has a paradigm or model on which they base their work.  You need to understand what their model is to be sure you buy into it.  Based on the assignment, the consultant should be able to tell you which model(s) they will use to develop their recommendations.  Many large consulting firms are famous for developing particular models (such as the Boston Consulting Group’s Growth-Share Matrix), so you know these models will loom large in their approach to your issue.  Ask consultants which books have influenced them.  If you’ve done any preparatory research on the issue (if you haven’t done it, do it now!), you should be familiar with the various approaches and issues and will likely have an opinion as to which approach fits best with your situation.  At the very least, you will know the questions to ask.
• Whether you go with a large firm or an independent consultant depends on your needs and, most of all, your budget.  A large firm will likely cost more, but you get the advantage of a consultant with access to a large knowledge bank and associates who can provide specialized expertise if needed.  An independent consultant may be less expensive and less committed to a particular model, and therefore be more versatile.  For most charities, cost will be the deciding factor in favour of smaller firms or solo practitioners.  Just be sure you agree with their basic approach.

To use or not to use?

Some leaders use consultants a lot and others won’t have anything to do with them.  Professional advisors have told me that Americans use consultants with great enthusiasm and Canadians tend to accept them as a necessary evil.  I’ve heard horror stories of consultants really messing things up badly and I’ve also heard of consultants who helped a group achieve a significant breakthrough.

When should you use a consultant?  I googled this question and found lots and lots of advice…from consultants trying to sell their services!  Hardly unbiased advice.  I didn’t find a single buyer of consulting services who wrote about it from their perspective.

I did however find a really great book, Extract Value from Consultants: How to Hire, Control, and Fire Them, written by two consultants that reads like an exposé from the inside.  Since both have worked for global consulting firms, I gues that’s what it is!  They detail all the tricks of the trade that consultants use to hook a client and then squeeze them for more cash as the work progresses.  Then they tell you how to reverse the tables, fight back and extract value from them.  If you use consultants, read it!

How to decide

We’ve used several consultants over the years at CCCC, so I’m open to using them, but I am very judicious as to when.  As a buyer of consulting services, here are my thoughts about when they are appropriate:

• A consultant might be handy if you and your staff are stumped about a problem and you need a breakthrough.  They can draw on what they have learned from numerous clients, they have a fresh perspective, and they have no commitments to the status quo.
• Generally you would hire staff for core competency areas or where there is a long term need.  Consultants are useful for non-core areas that you do not have in-house expertise for, and a consultant-contractor could be useful for boosting your staff levels on a short term basis.
• Consultants provide an independent, objective assessment of a situation and can confirm or disprove your assumptions.  They can illuminate any blind spots you might have.  On the upside, I hired a consultant who is an expert on Canadian associations.  We wanted to know how CCCC is doing from an association perspective and this person had done detailed analysis of more than one hundred associations.  He brought a perspective that we could never have ourselves.  He said, based on performance metrics, that we are a top-performing association.  That’s good to know.  We don’t have problems that need fixing, just opportunities to exploit.  We know where to focus.  On the downside, especially for ‘quick looks,’ consultants might only get a superficial understanding of your operations and environment.  I’ve seen reports that are simplistic because the authors simply didn’t get a deep understanding of the nuances and contexts.
• Outsiders can say things you want said but don’t want to say yourself.  They don’t have to live with the consequences!
• If you face a steep, long or expensive learning curve, you can use a consultant who has done it before and who has spread the cost of the learning curve over multiple clients.  Just be sure that there is a transfer of knowledge so that when you engage a consultant your own staff learns something.  Don’t simply accept their recommendations.  Ask how they arrived at the recommendation.  Those are the processes you want to learn.
• The work might be something your team could do, but there are higher priorities taking the team’s time.  The work needs to be done, but you just don’t have the time.

Your leadership responsibility

As a leader, you are always responsible for your decisions.  You can’t delegate decisions to a consultant.  It is always up to you to make a decision.  Check how they came to make their recommendation and be sure it is based on reasonable assumptions and complete data.  Watch out for ”me too” recommendations.  If the consultant is simply following what everyone else is doing, then that is all that you will be doing too.  That’s no way to get ahead!  All you’ll do is catch up to the crowd.  You’ll also have to check their recommendations for feasability.  It’s easy to make expensive recommendations when it will be paid for by someone else.

I think the main message is that consultants are not a magic bullet.  Don’t count on them fixing everything that you haven’t been able to fix.  A consultant simply provides another viewpoint, another option.  They are not always right.  The real value of a consultant is the new idea or perspective they are able to contribute from their specialized knowledge and experience.  They can broaden your horizons and make you aware of new possiblities beyond what you are capable of thinking of.  You just have to take what they suggest and assess it for yourself to see if it really fits your ministry.

Now, I’d like to learn from you.  Any ideas to add?  Please comment.