During a recent trip to a North Carolina beach, a young friend demonstrated how to kayak before we headed out on an afternoon adventure. Her feet were planted in the sand, knees bent, paddle held loosely in her hands.
She was teaching us techniques for a successful paddle that day. But she was also teaching us broader lessons -- how to sustain the pace over a distance, how to stay on course, how to practice courage.
What can leaders learn from kayaking?
Distribute the workload. During my first time in a kayak years ago, my instinct was to grip the paddle for dear life and use my arms to move it through the water. But I learned the hard way that the key to sustaining the muscle power for a longer trip is to distribute the workload. The more efficient the stroke, the less strain on the body. Our kayaking friend explained that shoulders and arms only transmit the power; efficient kayakers turn from their torsos, the body’s power center.
I was reminded of a seminary dean who told me that the dean was the “heavy lifter,” or power center, of a seminary. It was the job of young, new faculty to learn to teach well, the dean said. It was the job of the dean to ensure that young faculty were not overburdened with committee work or other distractions that might wear them out before they’d learned to teach well.
What are the strong “muscle sets” in your organization? The strongest muscle might be a leader, or it might be some other person, resource or form of institutional capital. Is this strength well-utilized? And which muscles tire more quickly? What might it mean to “turn from your torso” in your setting?
Maintain balance. Kayaks are built to move swiftly through the water. But their narrow shape means that you need to actively maintain balance at all times. This requires good posture, relaxed stomach muscles and letting the kayak tilt a bit when the waves come. A key to staying in balance is keeping your eyes on the horizon.
While Christian institutional leaders struggle with many kinds of balance, one common theme I hear is about maintaining a balance between family life and professional work. A recent group of 25 leaders in one of our programs named work/family/personal balance as one of four primary concerns in their leadership (along with isolation, cultivating strategies for change and developing big-picture vision).
They were interested in learning ways to manage email, delegate more work and develop relationships while still keeping family life and self-care as a priority. They wondered, how do we manage our spiritual lives alongside our work and family responsibilities?
Like kayakers, leaders learn to lean toward one side or the other to offset an imbalance. Sometimes we are good friends/parents/partners, and sometimes we are well-prepared for a project at work. Some days we keep Sabbath, and some days we nail our to-do lists. But in my experience, we can’t lean port and starboard simultaneously.
Amid this balancing act, what is the horizon -- or telos -- that brings you back to course? What is the ultimate goal of both your personal and your professional life that keeps you in balance?
Turn directly into the waves. Kayakers sometimes are faced with unexpected disruptions, such as the wake of a motorboat. Kayak wisdom is to not go parallel to the wake (like a swimmer in a riptide) but rather to turn directly into the waves. While it feels counterintuitive and takes courage, facing the wake head-on and cutting through it is the right thing to do.
The Rev. Brian Combs turned into the wake when he decided to create a place of welcome and ministry for the homeless and marginalized in downtown Asheville, North Carolina.
Despite uncertainties and risks, Combs took the empty building that had housed the former Haywood Street UMC and, with the support of the bishop, district superintendent and other North Carolina congregations, launched Haywood Street Congregation.
Now known as a church of “holy chaos,” Haywood does the work of a church and a social service agency combined, in innovative ways. Supported by numerous churches and other institutions throughout the city, Combs forges ahead, keeping his vision to minister to the homeless at the forefront of all he does. But chaos is ever-present, in the outbursts of volatile worshippers that sometimes disrupt the liturgy, and in the ways the Holy Spirit often shows up unexpectedly.
What kinds of disruptions do you face in your institution? Have you ever had to turn head-on into the waves? What examples from your leadership confirm the wisdom of this technique?
Both kayakers and leaders need good form, balance and courage. Like kayaking, leadership also involves a deep love of the waters and the serendipities of the long haul.
