On Thursday, October 20th, the British Prime Minister, Liz Truss resigned. What makes this noteworthy is that she has only been in office for five weeks. That’s right, only five weeks! Her resignation will now lead to Britain having its fifth Prime Minister in just six years!
This is not a blog post about British politics and the shortcomings or advantages of it. However, from what has been published and discussed by the people who do know, there were a variety of things that went wrong in her five weeks that spoke volumes on leadership.
Here are some leadership lessons to remember:
1. Get Buy In from the Team. Whenever you make a decision, it is important to full support of your team before you make a decision. They may not all agree with it at first, but the more you discuss it, you give the team an opportunity to buy in and support the decision.
The ministry lesson is that you need buy-in and support from your team as you move forward, especially when you are making a big decision. They may not fully support your ultimate decision but they need to be aware of what is happening and have input as much as possible. Ultimately, you are in charge and you need to make the final decision but their input, understanding and support is really important.
2. Keep Vision Casting. Abrupt u-turns and reversals can cause a lot of confusion and chaos. When her proposals were met with skepticism and issues, she abruptly changed course. She fired a close friend and architect of the original deal and adopted ideas from the opposition party. This caused massive confusion and many wondered what was really happening.
The ministry lesson here is to cast vision and keep moving towards that vision. When changes happen, they are not always met with great optimism at first. However, if your plan of action is right and appropriate, no matter what challenges lie ahead, keep casting that vision and moving towards it.
Give your team an opportunity to have input in decisions. It gives them an opportunity to know what is happening and helps you get their support when making big decisions. Click To Tweet3. When you lose support of your team, there is no turning back. Liz won the position of Prime Minister. She was not given that position. She had support from her party to be elected to that position. But, after a series of questionable decisions, she lost the support of her party and team. Once that was clear that she had little support, she resigned.
The ministry lesson here is that you cannot lose support from your team. You may not get fired or forced to resign because of your lack of support, however, your team will leave. In addition, parents will stop sending their kids to your children’s or student ministry programs. Volunteers are vital to the success in ministry. The more you have the more ministry that can be done. The less you have, the less ministry can be done. Make sure you continue to have support from your volunteer leaders and parents.
4. Redemption is possible. The reason why Liz became the Prime Minister is because Boris Johnson resigned amongst his own political fallout. But now, less than 5 months later, he is being talked about as a possible replacement for Liz.
The ministry lesson here is that redemption IS POSSIBLE! We all make mistakes in ministry but it doesn’t have to be a career killer. Work through the issues and your leadership and see what can happen. If politicians can make a comeback, so can ministry leaders.
Conclusion
All of these things happened to Liz Truss in England and it directly applies to your leadership as well. Just because it happened in politics doesn’t mean it can’t happen in ministry. It does happen. That is why it is so important to work to get consensus when making a decision. Once you make that decision, stick to the vision and the plan. Even if you have to adjust, don’t abruptly reverse course. And work to keep your team united and focused on working on the goal together so that your ministry doesn’t take a step back. Help them continue to move forward.
What do you think? What else can ministry leaders learn from Liz Truss’ resignation? Share your ideas below or on social media.
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