.png)
CLERGY COACHING
Our core mission-driven goal at Rite One is to address the overwhelming challenge of clergy burnout, professional dissatisfaction, and employment turnover. Clergy are expected to be experts in all things and to do more than ever despite dwindling financial, institutional, and people resources.
The Church is suffering because our clergy are suffering. Our clergy are struggling with:
-
Isolation
-
Burn out
-
Stress
-
Difficult relationships
-
Communication demands
-
Feeling undervalued and under-appreciated
-
Poor health and wellness
-
Lack of creativity and innovation
-
Overall job dissatisfaction and under-performance
Clergy will serve longer, pastor more effectively, and be instrumental in growing the congregation and the lay leadership when they:
-
Feel valued, supported, and connected,
-
Have a strong work/life balance supported by their congregation/organization,
-
Are encouraged to explore and learn continually, and
-
Witness their congregation/organization investing in their overall well-being and success.
Our work together, coach and client, seeks to create bridges to navigate difficult waters, bridges to new ideas and innovation, and bridges to improved personal balance and well-being.
We offer to individuals, congregations, organizations, and Dioceses an extraordinarily cost-effective and straightforward way to invest in your clergy’s well-being and success through professional coaching. Investing right now in a clergyperson saves money and stress in the long run for a congregation/organization. Additionally, it better positions the clergyperson and the congregation/organization for long-term mutual success and happiness.
The most successful and innovative leaders in corporate America have peers/mentors who coach them regularly. The best and brightest throughout the world often have a peer/mentor who supports them and pushes them to be their best. Shouldn’t the leaders we entrust to help us build up the Kingdom of God have someone who regularly coaches up their well-being and success?
At Rite One, excellence begins within the individual. We want to serve those who serve others by investing our time, energy, support, expertise, and resources into their vocation.
WHAT IS CLERGY COACHING? HOW CAN IT TRANSFORM LEADERS AND ORGANIZATIONS?
Twenty years ago, “executive” or “professional” coaching was about fixing toxic behavior at the top of an organization. However, today, “executive” or “professional” coaching is about investing, developing, and supporting high potential leaders in an organization. Clergy coaching is executive/professional coaching for ordained leaders in the Church. The most successful and innovative leaders in America have coaches who further develop their leadership and vocational excellence. Athletes like Serena Williams and Tom Brady rely on coaches both on and off the court/field. Excellence is not accidental; excellence happens when it is cultivated and embodied by an organization’s leaders.
Clergy coaching is not therapy. It is also not primarily consulting. A coach’s role is not to give answers and solutions; instead, an excellent coach engages in their client’s professional journey through observations, questions, education/resource sharing, advocacy, and empowerment. The ideal coaching environment is achieved when the clergyperson is highly professionally motivated, committed to being coached, and embodies a fierce desire to learn and grow. How involved should the congregational/organizational leadership be in the coaching experience? Clergy coaching is ideally a three-party relationship between the church/organization, the clergyperson, and the coach. The clergyperson and their coach carry out the bulk of the work. Yet, coaching is a forward-looking endeavor that seeks to enhance the individual leader and the church or organization they lead. A three-party partnership better articulates and strengthens the unified goals, supports healthy and transparent communication practices, and best supports the clergyperson’s well-being and success both professionally and personally.
OUR METHODOLOGY
Three key elements define our process (methodology); goals, mindset, and behaviors. Much of the early work is about gaining clarity and focus on what the clergyperson genuinely wants to achieve, in both their short-term and long-term leadership outlook. Those goals may be their own professional objectives (i.e., acquiring a skill, improving a weakness, or better deploying a strength) or an institutional goal (i.e., implementing a strategic plan, developing a new ministry, launching an evangelism strategy). Input and shared goals often are developed collaboratively with the clergyperson and their church or organization. A goal becomes attainable when our mindset and behaviors align and work in partnership. Our mindset informs our behaviors. When our behaviors become habits, success is realized—both for an individual and in an organization. “Successful people simply practice successful habits.” We approach each coaching opportunity from this methodology’s lens, whether addressing a current leadership dilemma or nurturing visionary work.
