Sustainable Leadership from surviving to thriving

1. Sustainable Leadershipfrom surviving to thriving In the second half of 2012 Personal feedback for church leaders on issues crucial to avoiding burnout and moving towards thriving The Leaders Survey feedback

2. The Leaders Survey feedback – 2006 From the 2006 Leaders Survey leaders received feedback naming their four main leadership strengths from a range of 12 areas of leadership. This Leadership Strengths survey is still available online and will give instant feedback - see www.leadwithyourstrengths.net

3. The Leaders Survey feedback – 2011 The 2011 Leaders Survey will give feedback regarding the Personal Foundations that underpin their Leadership Strengths. These Foundations: - sustain us over the long haul - protect us against burnout - help maintain our enthusiasm - shape our values and priorities

4. Sustaining the journey Wearing out: Church leaders record high levels of satisfaction with their roles, but also often dangerously high levels of emotional exhaustion. 26% feel their workload is simply too high and 38% feel they really lack backup support. The purpose of giving leaders feedback is to help them focus on this issue, and identify key areas for them which may help them avoid burnout, or move them from simply ‘surviving’ as a leader to thriving.

5. Sustaining the journey What feedback will be given? The primary feedback given at a personal level will be the Personal Foundations of sustainable leadership: Six qualities about ‘who I am’ and ‘how I live’ that NCLS have identified as related to issues of burnout and thriving. These qualities will be ranked from strongest to weakest for a leader – comparing their results to thousands of others in church leadership. Specific individual scores will not be disclosed.

6. The Personal Foundations The six Personal Foundations are: • Spiritual foundations • Clarity of purpose • Sense of self • Integrity • Supportive relationships • Balance and boundaries

7. Sustainable Leadership How will feedback be delivered? • Results will only be available online, via a personal login and password. Leaders who completed the survey online will use the same log-in to obtain their results. • Leaders who completed the paper survey will need to create a personal log-in, and access their results using the password they created when filling out the paper survey.

8. Sustainable Leadership The issue of Ethical Disclosure • The issue of how one is surviving in church leadership is a highly personal one, where some leaders may already feel vulnerable or distressed. Such leaders will benefit from face-to-face interaction with a professional or pastoral carer, to help evaluate where they are and what action to take for the future. • NCLS Research is not aiming to take the place of such professional or pastoral care. We will not be disclosing any information that can increase a person’s distress such as scores for burnout, satisfaction, etc. • We will also not be disclosing any individual’s results to other parties, or identifying people in any way.

9. Sustainable Leadership How do leaders use the results? • Leaders are invited to reflect on their personal foundations as areas of relative strength and weakness, and how these qualities might impact on their life and ministry. • They will be stimulated to consider how their stronger foundations can be used to the full, and how their weaker foundations might be grown, giving them better protection from potential burnout and enhancing their sense of thriving in ministry. • Regional groups may want to facilitate voluntary interaction between leaders using these results and the explanatory material available from NCLS. Regional summaries will also be available for multiple measures.

10. The Personal Foundations For further information about the six Personal Foundations see: www.leadwithyourstrengths.net