By Roger Parrott
Roger Parrott, President of Belhaven University since 1995, has an important message for you: Capture opportunities rather than focus on building plans. In Opportunity Leadership he writes, “In 2002, I purposely began to let go of the iron grip all leaders have on planning as the foundation of focus and energy. It was a struggle that took over a decade until, as a university, we were entirely driven by capturing opportunities rather than building plans.” p. 17
Parrott shares Opportunity Leadership, the model of leadership he has developed over the years. As he notes, “relinquishing planning is the single best thing I’ve ever done in my professional ministry life—and also the scariest.” p. 18.
Leadership is not about punching the ‘leadership clock’ versus the ’administration clock.’ It is about being ready when the clock strikes. p. 29
The best part of Opportunity Leadership for me:
Embracing Speed. Speed wins—usually! p. 141. This stands out all the more as it comes from the pen of a leader intent o pursuing Jesus, lifting up his co-workers, and sharing the gospel to see people saved and the kingdom advance. READ CHAPTER 12. He writes,
Speed wins. Every decision would be incrementally stronger if we had more time and more information, but the real world doesn’t work that way. If you attempt to press the pause button for new ventures, the opportunity will have disappeared, morphed, or destabilized before you finally respond. Ministries are not slow because they are lazy. Their sluggishness is built into their organizational DNA, not their work ethic.
I am convinced most organizations would rather live in mediocrity than grapple with a speed of change that pushes them into uncertainty. p. 143.
Parrott is not advocating supercharging your institution just to hear the engine roar. He is advocating building properly so that we are prepared for acceleration.
I needed to hear this:
Capitalizing on YOUR strengths: “David capitalized on his unique strengths and resisted the temptation to follow the patterns of others.” (25)
Focus on agitators , not just the agreeable. “Most importantly, serve agitators until you’ve changed the narrative. Invest in a relationship with an aggressor until the message they share with friends shifts from ‘they hurt me’ to ‘you won’t believe what they did to help me.’” (203)
As you move into Opportunity Leadership: “Don’t discard what you’ve learned about leadership . . . . Instead, hold onto the best of what we’ve all absorbed as planners, and shift those skills into a new level of trusting God for direction and being responsive to both strong gales and gentle breezes as the wind of God blows.” p. 69
About risk . . . “Those who wait to collect all the data and analyze all the angles don’t provide leadership; they merely oversee bureaucracy. In contrast, Opportunity Leaders will know little when they take those first steps but are willing to walk in the light they have at the time." p. 105
Discernment for God’s opportunities comes with knowing your mission and culture from top to bottom. Not just through mission statements and policies, but “how it is lived out through your stakeholders.” Understand it through their eyes will help you see what is likely to be a fit and what is not. p. 106
On being a student of my own institution: “If I don’t understand our finances from top to bottom ahead of time, how could I make a decision of magnitude under the pressure of time constraints? The same is true for student campus life, academics, operations, marketing, or athletics. These require an ongoing immersion education to be ready to make the right decision or take the correct action at a critical moment.” p. 136
Follow the money: The numbers are brutally honest. Opportunity Leaders are always ready to quickly reallocate resources as circumstances change. p. 172
Get the Right People in the Right Place: “About 95 percent of the challenges leaders face boil down to one of two problems: money or people.” p. 173 Don’t hire for the org chart, find the people with a teachable spirit, a commitment to service before status, emotional intelligence, a high capacity for work, and an adventurous spirit adaptable to change.
Respect the market: “Christian ministries appear to be the only enterprise that assume they are protected from the influence of market forces.” p. 161 “Every year, I schedule a session to talk with my board, faculty, and staff about the potential challenges beyond our control on the horizon of Christian education.” p. 161
I pushed back on this . . .
In Chapter three (“Sailboats Verses Powerboats"), Dr. Parrott gives us the option of choosing a powerboat, with a focus on destination planning or a sailboat, with a focus on implementation planning. He argues that we must choose one, “attempting to capture the strengths of both models will minimize the value of the whole” (p. 39). I think his book is great and to narrow one’s focus (having done the work to enable one’s organization to sail) is powerful, but to limit how a leader stewards his or her role to one seems to limit ourselves to a variety of means God may choose to use. I felt he pushed the metaphor too far and found that chapter simplistic and a tad demeaning.
Worth pondering:
Plan B: “There is no “plan B” in Opportunity Leadership. Do not always be thinking that if God doesn’t bring you opportunities, you’ll still have time to develop a plan. No, if the wind of God doesn’t blow, you’ll learn to wait.” p. 75
Potential Donors: Why do your potential donors not give?
Measuring What Matters: What’s the worst that would happen if your ministry closed a year from now?
Faculty members: “someone who thinks otherwise.” Roger Parrott’s father. p. 131
Empowerment: “Leaders will frequently want to personally tackle jobs that are the charge of others on our team. But if someone else can accomplish the assignment, we nee to stand back and give them room to do it.” p. 135
Micro-awareness vs micro-manager: Which are you?
Risk: “What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it is another matter.” p. 155
On Listening: “To act boldly, we must also take time to listen deeply.” Leighton Ford p. 224
Leadership is stewardship: “Understanding that our leadership and opportunities are gifts, it is remarkable to grasp the level of trust God has in us to be good stewards of what he has given to us. He trusts us more than we trust ourselves. God tosses us the key to the family car and doesn’t’ even ask where we are going or when we will be back.” p. 164
Books he pointed me to:
Finding the Next Starbucks by Michael Moe
Recommendation:
Initially, I was suspect, but I am so glad I read this book. I highly recommend Opportunity Leadership with the caveat that what he published in 2022, he began in 2002. Good things take time.
