Is leadership a general skill, or is it context-specific? In other words, does it help to have domain knowledge in the area you are leading, or can a skilled leader lead anything effectively?

I’ve spent 100% of my professional career leading in the technology domain. I’ve never led a business unit, sales team, marketing function, or anything else. I generally consider my technical knowledge a huge asset when leading technology teams. It gives me credibility and empathy with my team and strategic relevance with my business partners.

Given this, I’ve wondered what it would be like to lead in a completely different context. Would I be any good at it? Would I like it? To answer that question, I looked for opportunities outside of my day job.

Six years ago, I was elected by the members of my church, Grace Fellowship, to serve as one of six Elders on our board. Two years later, I was elected as the board chair. I knew all about the business of technology at a Fortune 500 scale, but I didn’t have any practical experience leading a church.

Governance

It’s worth noting that serving on a board (church or otherwise) relies less on domain knowledge than other forms of leadership. That is because boards function in an oversight capacity and are explicitly not supposed to manage. Since managing the church is clearly the responsibility of the Lead Pastor and his staff, I can rely on their domain knowledge and subject matter expertise for church-specific matters.

This in itself was a worthy leadership lesson for me. I often write about how important it is for leaders to resist the urge to micromanage their teams. In a board role, I was strictly prohibited from doing so.

The business of the church

In many ways, churches deal with very similar issues that businesses face. I experienced many “firsts” that are highly relevant to the business world.

• We worked with the city on an eminent domain issue and negotiated a fair settlement for our church.
• We launched streaming and reached new people around the globe through our digital channel.
• We worked through the painful reality of a deficit and made some necessary, but unpopular choices to ensure our continued financial health.
• We cleaned up our financial reporting and worked through several audits and remediations.
• We navigated COVID, and various government regulations associated with it.
• We oversaw various facility-related issues, such as parking lots, deferred maintenance issues, insurance matters, security matters, property theft, and remodels.
• We modernized our constitution and bylaws.

These experiences serve me well in my day job and future leadership roles.

Of course, a church is not a business. I had many experiences that were unique to leading in that context.

• We spent a lot of time praying.
• We spent a lot of time studying the Scriptures for guidance on various matters.
• We witnessed God working in marvelous ways, changing lives every day.
• Our mission is timeless and eternal.
• As we led the church, we were careful to make sure we were led by God.

In church leadership, the faith aspects are front and center. As a leader in the corporate world, I lead through faith, but I’m quite a bit more subtle about it.

Leading for succession

Per our bylaws, we have term limits. I needed to step off the board after six years to allow for leadership succession. That influenced how I led. Knowing my time was limited, I did everything I could to improve processes and systems so they could continue functioning without me. I was also driven to bring closure to several challenges, so I could ensure a smooth transition of leadership.

I’ve written before that I believe it’s important to always work yourself out of a job. Always do your work in such a way that you can walk away from it, and it’ll still run.

We just had our annual meeting this past Sunday, and we celebrated becoming debt-free as a church. Even the local news showed up to cover the story. That was quite a high note to go out on.

Leadership and context

Let’s go back to where we started. Why did the members of my church elect me to be on the Elder board? Because I was a great technology leader? No. Besides running the A/V equipment in the church board room, I didn’t use my technical skills much at all.

I was elected because I was a member in good standing, with established leadership skills. However, that doesn’t mean that the technology doesn’t matter. Context is critically important for building essential leadership skills.

I often talk to college students about their career aspirations. Some tell me, “I want to be a leader.” My response is, “Great! A leader of what?” I needed technology as a context to build my leadership practice. But once I built it, I realized how portable my leadership skills are.

My leadership experiences at my day job helped me lead as a better board chair at my church. My leadership experiences as a board chair made me a better leader at my day job and prepared me for future leadership roles.

Can a skilled leader lead anything?

I don’t know yet, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to expand my experience to lead in a completely different context than my day job. It was an enormous amount of work. At times, it took more out of me than I thought it should. But, in the end, I’m grateful for the experience and am now wondering what is next. For certain, this has prepared me for a future leadership opportunity. I’m just not yet sure what that is.

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