Sustainable Leadership

from 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

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

The Leaders Survey feedback – 2006

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

The Leaders Survey feedback – 2011

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.

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.

Sustaining the journey

• Spiritual foundations

• Clarity of purpose

• Sense of self

• Integrity

• Supportive relationships

• Balance and boundaries

The Personal Foundations

The six Personal Foundations are:

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.

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.

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.

Sustainable Leadership

The Personal Foundations

For further information about the six Personal Foundations see:

www.leadwithyourstrengths.net