One of the most difficult challenges for you the “leader” is moving the organization through a major change.  It might be a major change in strategy, it could be a complete corporate reorganization, it could be a new mission, it could be a merger or acquisition, or it could be a completely new product line with a new manufacturing process.  Change is always hard for people.  We just seem to get set in our ways.

In 1992 the U.S. Air Force went through a complete reorganization from top to bottom.  The Air Force was getting smaller, so the reorganization was designed to maintain or improve combat effectiveness with fewer people and less equipment.  This change impacted the Air Force from the Major Command level all the way down to the airmen on the flight line. This was not fun, but in the words of the Air Force Chief of Staff, General Merrill McPeak, we must organize our Air Force so it will stand up to all the stresses of combat and win the fight.  No one really liked this process, but it was the job of every leader down the line to implement the changes so their part of the Air Force would be completely effective in combat.

The real leaders in a military organization are the Non-Commissioned Officers and Petty Officers.  For them to begin working for a new boss as was required in the reorganization was a major change in their lives and in the lives of the airmen whom they served.  Just moving to a new building or to a new office down the hall was a big deal.  From my perspective as Commander, Air Force Special Operations Command, this was a change that had to be done because it improved our effectiveness when our units were deployed, and AFSOC people are always deployed.  But at any level, change is hard for people and you the “leader” must understand it.  You must take on the fears and concerns of the people and return it to them in a way that provides them hope so they can successfully complete the tasks at hand and “own the change.”

In a military organization, the leader could use his or her authority to direct change.  Not smart, this is not the way of a servant leader.  In a business, just exercising authority will probably not get the job done as well as it should. Somebody must actually begin to exercise leadership. In a not-for-profit, volunteer organization, exercising authority over those whom the leader is to be serving, will lead to failure.  EXERCISE LEADERSHIP.

If you want to test your mettle as one who exercises leadership, try taking a volunteer based organization through a major change. There you must actually exercise leadership because you have no authority and your “followers” serve for reasons other than pay.

I’ve watched major change happen in my church.  First, there was a name change from Niceville United Methodist Church, to Crosspoint.  You might think this was easy, but if you were one of the older people who had attended the church for many years, well, this change might not have happened so easily.  Then a changed vision; to plant Crosspoint campuses across Northwest Florida that required (so far) two major fund raisers.  I watched the Crosspoint Lead Pastor, Rurel Ausley, take several thousand people through these change processes.  He did it throughout with prayer.  He first focused on the church corporate leadership, and then the complete congregation with great love, patience and determination.  I happen to know a little secret; Pastor Ausley doesn’t like change.  But he was called to lead these changes, and he never lost sight of what Crosspoint was about; PEOPLE invited to come as they are to meet Christ . . . There was some real leadership exercised here over several years by Rurel who is a lover of Jesus and a student of leadership.  It wasn’t easy, but we all have been blessed through the process.

Everyone, HAPPY THANKSGIVING and ask your friends to check out my book, Growing and Building, at Growingandbuilding.com. You might find my pastor toward the end of the book?. Remember my book signing at Bayou Books in Niceville on Saturday, December the 9^th.  Come meet the guy who writes these crazy Blogs.

^[1] https://yourcrosspointcc.org/staff/