Archive for the ‘Retooling Leadership’ Category

 

Leadership in a Time of Flux

Posted on: February 2nd, 2012 by Hayim Herring

By Colin_K on Flickr

The recently concluded World Economic Forum‘s 2012 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland has posted the uncurated library of content, blog posts, tweets, videos and more from the meeting on its website.  One session that caught my eye was titled “The Davos Debrief: Leadership and Innovation Models.”

This session discussed how leaders are usually held accountable for not dealing effectively with crises, “when the real problem is the failure of organizational structures to respond to newly developing situations.”  It highlighted the Eurozone debt crisis, noting that while Europe has “plenty of leaders,” its existing organizational structures are not capable of handling these unanticipated problems that the EU is now facing.  In other words, they weren’t built to adapt to radically different realities.

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What Do You Do When You Lose?

Posted on: January 19th, 2012 by Hayim Herring
Tim Tebow

From Jeffrey Beall on flickr

As a leader, what do you do when you lose on a big issue? By “big issue,” I mean one that is core to your beliefs and values. You’ve put the winning strategy in place, you’ve practiced, you’re confident but not arrogant, you’ve executed well—but you fail at your mission.

I’m not referencing Tim Tebow in asking this question (okay, maybe I was thinking about the Denver Broncos’ loss to the New England Patriots last Sunday). I was actually reflecting on the opening of this week’s Torah reading, Vaera (Exodus 6:2-13). The reading opens with God listening to Moses’ disappointment about his unsuccessful encounter with Pharaoh. Moses had followed God’s directives explicitly in confronting Pharaoh. Yet, Moses doesn’t get the result that he anticipated. Pharaoh doesn’t free the Jewish people from slavery and in fact, inflicts even more punishment on them. So Moses vents his disappointment on God.

Too often, leaders (and especially clergy) have a tendency to isolate themselves when conditions become difficult. Instead of finding a mentor, family member, trusted confidant or a coach, they erect a barrier around their feelings and carry the pain of disappointment alone. Prayer to God can definitely be helpful. But I believe that it’s not enough.

The Torah was not written as a management book, but it is often an incredibly wise source for personal reflection on leadership. This week’s Torah reading once again offers important guidance to leaders of all stripes. Disappointment and failure inevitably strike. But when they do, we see that we don’t have to endure them in loneliness. If you don’t have someone with whom you can share moments of triumph and joy, and times of disappointment and frustration, consider making it a priority to find someone. You’ll see how much sustenance you can draw that will keep your leadership vital for years to come.

What Non-Profit Leaders Can Learn from Steve Jobs

Posted on: August 29th, 2011 by Hayim Herring

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs is an undisputed genius in the field of technology and computing. Someone with his brilliance is exceptionally rare. And while we can’t be Steve Jobs, non-profit leaders can still learn much from him about some fundamentals of leadership.

Innate genius is a gift. But leadership is something that you can cultivate in yourself and others.

You Can’t be Someone Else, You Can Only be More Fully Yourself

Posted on: November 19th, 2010 by Hayim Herring

When I first began working as a congregational rabbi, I used to ask my wife to comment on my sermons. One day she said to me, “your sermon was good, but do you have to sound so preachy?” I thought that was a funny question to ask a “preacher.” But I’ve learned over the years that the most effective preaching doesn’t sound preachy. Years later, in the work that I did when I was executive director of STAR, I was introduced to Eda Roth, who is a communications specialist and this week’s guest blogger. Eda explains how rabbis and all people involved in public communications benefit when they step out of their role and step back into their authentic selves.  Hayim Herring

Rabbi Hayim Herring has quoted me as saying “You cannot be someone else. You can only be more fully yourself.” What does that mean? Most people express a narrow range of themselves. We all develop habits and stay within a certain range of expression. Professionalism adds even more constrictions. Whether business, healthcare, non-profits or the Rabbinate, there seems to be an agreed upon, accepted set of limitations called “what is appropriate” or “professional”.

Recently when working with rabbinical students, I heard a generic commonality in what and how they were expressing, rather than the vibrant individuality and uniqueness of who they really were, with their insights, passion and genuine desire to reach people. Granted, as students they were beginning to learn effective modes of constructing sermons and messages, but the danger was that some of those early habits would become entrenched and limit them and their capacity to genuinely inspire others; that they would stay within a rather safe, comfortable, borrowed and habituated range.

There is an unmistakable ring of truth when we touch genuine chords of who we are – our individuality, passion understanding, insight – and allow those to be heard and felt. That’s the power of words made manifest. If our expression is timid, or limited, if we are afraid to be loud enough to be heard, or so bombastic that we are not making our own genuine connections with the text and allow that to be heard, then our communication is not genuine.

Years ago a rabbi came to me for voice coaching. He felt his voice was constricted and reported that he would run out of breath. As we worked, we addressed not only on the dynamics of the voice, but his connection to what he was saying in his sermons. Were his messages coming across as compellingly as he desired? Was he really reaching people? We continued to explore the message itself, his real connection to what he was saying, the fullness and freedom of how he was saying it, and whether and when he was genuinely connecting with those to whom he was speaking (whether a Bar Mitzvah or a congregation).

In connecting with text or Torah, it comes most alive when we bring our insights, understanding and passion to the text, and allow those to express THROUGH the text. It’s then that truth and meaning become immediate real and alive, not just historical cultural memory and wisdom revisited. Say, for example, we are quoting from Proverbs, “Trust in God with all your heart and lean not upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God and God will direct your paths.” We first, of course, begin with the text itself. What is it saying? How is meaning conveyed through the construct of language itself? What is the architecture of the language, the arc of the phrasing? Then we address how we enter and fulfill that text. If we bring what we know, understand, have lived of those words to our expression of the text, then it becomes present and alive with meaning. Our understanding, our individuality, what we know and have lived of that text enables us to become a transparency for the truth of the text and IS what reveals meaning. It is not reducing the text to us, but allowing who we are to come through the text. We then become a link in the chain of generations through which the word is not only passed down, but is alive, real and immediate. That is then the power of the word, expressed and felt.

How honest, how daring, how real are we willing to be? More than a repeating or rehearsed expression, do we express ourselves genuinely, authentically? That can only happen if the fullness of who we really are is opened and available. We bring our intellectual understanding, our passion, compassion, the fullness of our voices available to reveal that expression, and most of all; great love of truth and of all to whom we communicate. We do not constrict or circumscribe expression, but ultimately allow and reveal.

It is a noble goal – to inspire – to breathe divine life into – others; to allow that divine life to breathe into us.

Eda Roth
Eda Roth & Associates
Real Presence and Communication

Eda Roth is a communications consultant who uses her acting and directing skills to enable people be more value-based, genuine, strategic and clear. You can reach her at edaroth@aol.com.

Why Your Rabbi Can’t Lead

Posted on: November 2nd, 2010 by Hayim Herring

On October 13, I attended a conference on continuing rabbinic education, sponsored by The Alliance for Continuing Rabbinic Education. I was also a presenter on a panel, where I spoke about an inherent tension in the role of a congregational rabbi which often prevents an effective exercising of rabbinic leadership. Based on some feedback from the presentation, I decided to blog about the presentation, and my post can also be found on the website of the Alliance, along with video excerpts from the other panelists, Dr. Jonathan Woocher and Rabbi Marc Margolius.

I hope that this post will foster some open conversation!

Thank you, Rabbi Herring

—

In 1893, Ahad Ha’Am, a proponent of cultural Zionism, wrote an essay entitled, “Priest and Prophet.” The gist of this article was that Moses, the Prophet, was an idealist. Therefore, he was uncompromising in his expectations about God’s demands the Jewish people.  On the other hand, Aaron the Priest, the older brother of Moses, was a popular leader.  He worked in the messy, real realm of people and was a pragmatist. Aaron was beloved, while Moshe was respected and feared. It took an idealist and a pragmatist, leaders with two distinct roles, to lead the people from Egypt to Israel.

And that’s one of the reasons that rabbinic leadership is complicated today. Idealist and pragmatist have been fused into one role for rabbis. Their training makes them idealists, but living in community of real people, they have to be caring, kind, compassionate, forgiving pragmatists. Jewish communities need both leadership qualities to have a dynamic community.

If it took a Moses and an Aaron to forge a community, why do we expect that one person can embody both religious personalities in today’s Jewish communities? There are others in Jewish communities who have the training or could acquire the training to provide the pastoral, the organizational and even spiritual dimensions of Jewish community life. They can be the primary pragmatists. But only rabbis have the breadth of Jewish learning to provide authentic leadership at the current turning-point in history. (By “authentic,” I mean ideals, ideas and insights that reflect an understanding of an almost 4,000 year-old multi-layered historical, textual, spiritual and intellectual journey).

I think that rabbis and volunteer leaders have some soul-searching to do. Volunteer leaders often express concern about a lack of rabbinic leadership, when at the same time they can be punitive when rabbis actually lead with their ideals. Rabbis seem to be more concerned at times with making sure that people feel comfortable, instead of challenged. This dynamic creates equilibrium at a time when the Jewish community would benefit from a little imbalance created by an injection of fresh thinking and reinterpretation of classical Jewish ideals.

Rabbi Hayim Herring, Ph.D.
President, C.E.O., Herring Consulting Network
“Preparing Today’s Leaders for Tomorrow’s Organizations™”

The Clinton Wedding: Living in a Post-Jewish World?

Posted on: July 30th, 2010 by Hayim Herring
The term post-denominational has been around for a while. Here’s how I understand it. Yes-religious denominations exist and have value. But, the conditions that gave rise to their creation have changed and you can’t exclusively categorize people and synagogues by denominational labels.
Example: a synagogue has an inspiring musical Shabbat evening service. It features live instrumentation, contemporary poetry along with traditional liturgy, time for meditation and the chanting of niggunim (wordless, simple, moving melodies). How would you characterize this service-Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform? It’s hard to know because it might be any of the above, or a congregation that self-defines as “independent.”
Post-denominational is handy in this situation, because it captures the fluid and evolving nature of Jewish religious and spiritual life. Denominational labels no longer sufficiently differentiate and shed clarity on religious belief and practice.
It’s in that sense that I use the term, post-Jewish, to capture another dynamic occurring. If a person acts post-denominationally, it means that this individual doesn’t want others defining their personal religious identification. And, by extension, those who are post-Jewish don’t want someone else to define their identification with the Jewish people or Jewish community. They can be  proud Jews and have many other identities. The most compelling example: a person can be a practicing Jew, married to a person who practices another religion. For them, multiple identities are not signs of disease, but security and freedom. They don’t have to mix, match or try to harmonize their faith traditions because they can have it both ways. What others may view as a contradiction has an inner logic to them.
The speculation around the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding is in part driving my observations. We will see tomorrow if Chelsea and Marc, each raised in a home in which religion played some role, want their respective clergy or faith traditions represented when they wed. But regardless of what happens, those who work and volunteer in the Jewish community need to get ready for a wave of post-Jewish behaviors and practices. What’s our initial reaction to thinking of couples like Mark and Chelsea as a post-Jewish/post-Christian couple? Is it different from thinking of them as an interfaith couple? How do we view someone actively volunteering for a worthy social or environmental issue, with a strong awareness of Jewish intentionality, even if no others Jews are involved? Have they assimilated into the broader culture or are they practicing in a post-Jewish fashion? Lots to ponder on this subject….but it’s clear that we need to begin having the discussion.

The term post-denominational has been around for a while. Here’s how I understand it. Yes-religious denominations exist and have value. But, the conditions that gave rise to their creation have changed and you can’t exclusively categorize people and synagogues by denominational labels.

Example: a synagogue has an inspiring musical Shabbat evening service. It features live instrumentation, contemporary poetry along with traditional liturgy, time for meditation and the chanting of niggunim (wordless, simple, moving melodies). How would you characterize this service-Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform? It’s hard to know because it might be any of the above, or a congregation that self-defines as “independent.”

Post-denominational is handy in this situation, because it captures the fluid and evolving nature of Jewish religious and spiritual life. Denominational labels no longer sufficiently differentiate and shed clarity on religious belief and practice.

It’s in that sense that I use the term, post-Jewish, to capture another dynamic occurring. If a person acts post-denominationally, it means that this individual doesn’t want others defining their personal religious identification. And, by extension, those who are post-Jewish don’t want someone else to define their identification with the Jewish people or Jewish community. They can be  proud Jews and have many other identities. The most compelling example: a person can be a practicing Jew, married to a person who practices another religion. For them, multiple identities are not signs of disease, but security and freedom. They don’t have to mix, match or try to harmonize their faith traditions because they can have it both ways. What others may view as a contradiction has an inner logic to them.

The speculation around the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding is in part driving my observations. We will see tomorrow if Chelsea and Marc, each raised in a home in which religion played some role, want their respective clergy or faith traditions represented when they wed. But regardless of what happens, those who work and volunteer in the Jewish community need to get ready for a wave of post-Jewish behaviors and practices. What’s our initial reaction to thinking of couples like Mark and Chelsea as a post-Jewish/post-Christian couple? Is it different from thinking of them as an interfaith couple? How do we view someone actively volunteering for a worthy social or environmental issue, with a strong awareness of Jewish intentionality, even if no others Jews are involved? Have they assimilated into the broader culture or are they practicing in a post-Jewish fashion? Lots to ponder on this subject….but it’s clear that we need to begin having the discussion.

Rabbi Hayim Herring

A Passion to Serve

Posted on: June 25th, 2010 by Hayim Herring

This post is personal because it concerns my family – not my genetic family, but my spiritual family.  I’m referring to congregational rabbis (although I also feel that anyone who serves the Jewish community in a professional capacity is a part of my family). While some colleagues remain secure in their jobs, many are feeling anxiety about their future. They watch others who have had their positions eliminated or reduced.  And a good number of rabbis, from what I’m hearing, are unsure about what to do to create a more secure congregation, or to prepare for a future in which there might not be one available for them. People who study for congregational life feel called by God. If they can’t serve a congregation, how can they fulfill a calling which possesses them?

I empathize with my colleagues because I have been through a number of professional transitions. In some of them I have felt a greater sense of calling, in others less so. I understand the feeling and perception that only a congregational setting allows for that kind of ongoing intensity of Divine purpose. In addition, schools and other Jewish institutions where rabbis have traditionally found employment are experiencing similar downsizing, leaving congregational rabbis with even fewer options.

I’ll be participating soon in a program where this issue will be explored. Clearly, congregations are not going to disappear. But the congregational rabbinate is experiencing the same kind of structural change that most industries and professions are feeling. So I am turning to you for ideas about how rabbinic colleagues can prepare for a future which may hold part-time congregational work, rabbinic work outside of the congregation, or a job in the for-profit or general non-profit sector.

Rabbinical training is a precious experience, taking between five and six years. While rabbis don’t seek congregations for financial reasons, they still have financial obligations which they must meet: repayment of academic loans, the cost of day schools and Jewish camps, giving tzedakah… and the list goes on. Rabbinical education is a tremendous resource for the Jewish community as no other kind of education offers similar depth and breath. In this time of tectonic shifts in the Jewish world, we have to make sure we have enough rabbis to provide guidance and leadership based on the legacy of our tradition, but they also have to know that they have a reasonable chance to find employment.

So what advice can you offer rabbis who dreamed of serving in the congregational world for their entire lives, but now find themselves in a profession which is undergoing a profound transition?  Do you have personal experience to share?  This is definitely a question that requires our collective wisdom!

Thank you for your help.

Rabbi Hayim Herring

image: flickr.com articulatematter

New Rituals: You Won’t Believe This One!

Posted on: December 3rd, 2009 by Hayim Herring

Last week I asked you to share new rituals that you had heard about. Thank you for responding! While some of you responded on this blog, others wrote to me through Facebook or Twitter. Aren’t social media wonderful for purposes like these?! In no particular order, here is a summary of your ideas, plus a few of my own:

• Rabbi Mel Glazer: has an entire service on Blessing of the Pets, which he instituted years ago on Parashat Noach; many Synaplex™ synagogues have done so as well.
• Gary Stern: suggests creating an “Ally of the Jewish People” ritual, for someone who hasn’t formally converted to Judaism, but wants to actively participate in the life of the Jewish community.
• Rabbi Daniel Alter: bat mitzvah in the Orthodox community and zeved ha-bat (ritual for naming a new-born Jewish girl). Rabbi Alter notes that within the Orthodox community, many new or recovered rituals have been inspired by Feminism.
• Additionally, there has been a growth of rituals outside of the Orthodox for girls and women, GLBT Jews, and bedtime rituals for children.
•  Lighting a yellow candle for Yom ha-Shoah, invented by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs: tinyurl.com/ykevgax.
• From Rabbi Mordechai Rackover: at the secular synagogue in Tel Aviv they make Havdallah between Yom ha-Zikaron and Yom ha—Atzma’ut.; Also from Rabbi Rackover: Men going to mikva on the same day their wives do (in observance of the laws of family purity).
• Developing non-Orthodox Chevrah Kadisha groups which are based in synagogues or the community-see Kavod v’Nichum, an organization that has lead this initiative: www.jewish-funerals.org.
• Creating just workplaces in kosher restaurants and providing a certificate attesting to it: www.utzedek.org/tavhayosher.
• Sending e-greeting cards for Jewish holidays, often with decent artwork.
• Holding an ecological Tu b’Shevat Seder.
• Holding a Tikkun Leil Shavuot—something that has taken root outside of the Orthodox community.

And, I also heard a few miscellaneous comments worth noting:
• A number of people recommended www.ritualwell.org, which is an excellent user-generated resource for new lifecycle rituals. (You can also find out about the history of the “orange on the seder plate” ritual there.) Also, a few people said that they search the Reform Movement’s website: www.urj.org.
• Rabbi Kerry Olitzky found that men are not experimenting with rituals in the same way that women are.
• Jonathan Freed wrote: “My father purchased me from our Orthodox synagogue for $1 following my Brit Milah,”—is anyone familiar with this one?

Thank you for your help and I’ll be doing further analysis in article that I’m writing about ritual. So—if you remember additional ones, please don’t hesitate to add to the list.

Rabbi Hayim Herring

In Search of New Rituals

Posted on: November 25th, 2009 by Hayim Herring

I’m in search of new rituals. I’ve been asked to write an article on the development of new rituals, which is certainly a broad topic, and the most enriching way to do so is to tap into your knowledge. I don’t want to define what a new ritual is too tightly because I’d like you to think expansively and consider the range of innovation in rituals which we’ve witnessed over the past several decades. But, here are a few flexible guidelines to stimulate your thinking about this intriguing topic.

By new ritual, I’m thinking:

I’m sure that there are other possible criteria, but again, these illustrations are to help jog your memory about new rituals which you are practicing, have observed or perhaps even created.

I’m also interested in learning about the origins of these rituals from you. For those who identify with a religious denomination, did they originate from within your denomination on the grassroots, regional or national level? Or did several synagogues within the denomination begin observing it and then the national structure helped to disseminate it? To what extent did wider social trends help to foster the ritual (feminism, inclusion of the GLBT community in Jewish life, eco-kosher)? How did you learn about these rituals?

Once I hear from you, I’ll compile a list of what I’ve learned and post it on Tools for Shuls. I’m eager to hear what you have to say and thank you in advance!

Rabbi Hayim Herring

A Serious Man: An Ad for Rabbinical School?

Posted on: November 2nd, 2009 by Hayim Herring

My wife and I finally had a chance to see the Coen brothers’ new movie, A Serious Man. In addition to enjoying the Coen brothers’ movies, we had to see it because it’s set in our neighborhood, St. Louis Park, MN. Some scenes were shot in a local synagogue and the old Talmud Torah building in which the Coen boys studied (affectionately called, “Talmud Torture”). And several of those who had minor parts are friends or acquaintances.

Enough people have reviewed the film so all that I’ll say generally is it is indeed like a modern day take-off on the Biblical book of Job, with a lot more irony and less resolution. What I want to explore in greater depth, though, is the treatment of the three rabbis.

The old European rabbi (Marshak) is barely accessible to the public and one approaches him with foreboding. But, Marshak expresses a deep humanity to the fully-acculturated and Americanized bar mitzvah boy. When the modern-day Job, Larry Gopnik, tells his tale of personal and professional disintegration, the Junior Rabbi (Scott) responds with a sunny theory about life’s meaning. When Gopnik finally meets with the Senior Rabbi (Nachtner), he offers Gopnik what we learn is a canned story that is either utter nonsense or a deep parable for theological counsel, further exasperating Gopnik. And Marshak—he closes his door to Gopnik, as if to say that Gopnik will have to accept whatever questionable wisdom there is from the present generations of rabbis and not look wistfully toward some nostalgic age when rabbis allegedly knew the true meaning of life’s pains.

In short, you’re served rabbis who are detached (Marshak), demented (Nachtner), or deluded (Scott)–not exactly an advertisement for rabbinical school. Yet, their words of “wisdom” reappear in various scenes in the film, in the mouths of Gopnik and other characters. Now remember—this is a Coen brothers movie, so you have to be prepared for their ability to play with our minds, and leave us guessing whether a scene is meaningful, meaningless or just plain paradoxical. But is there some truth to their portrayal of rabbis? Do rabbis appear that detached and inaccessible from others? Does trying to live life on a different spiritual plane (which anyone can attempt) make those who do the envy of others because it looks like they’ve “figured things out”? If you were writing the script, how would you portray the rabbis?

At the end of the movie credits, there’s an advisory which reads, “No Jews were harmed in the making of this film.” But, did the Coen brothers help or harm the image of the rabbi and American-style liberal Judaism? What do you think?

Thanks,

Rabbi Hayim Herring