My name is Grant Stevensen.  I have worked for 30 years as a parish pastor, an organizer and a leadership and organizing coach. I have worked in Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, rural Wisconsin and urban St. Paul, Minnesota, as well as coaching people in Chicago, Illinois and Fargo, North Dakota. These diverse settings have enabled me to learn how to adapt my coaching for people in different environments. I work with individuals, organizations and faith communities to build leadership on a foundation of honest relationships, clear thinking and courageous risk taking. 

 

Here are some of the challenges I have worked with these communities to overcome:

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• Re-focusing unfocused staff

• Gaining clarity on a campaign or initiatives

• Understanding internal and external power dynamics

• Building effective teams

• Creating successful strategies 

• Triaging activities by importance to assist with getting unstuck

• Leadership development and coaching

• Making challenging tasks happen

• Preparing and leading effective meetings

• Developing volunteer leaders

• Training in the disciplines of organizing both community organizing and faith based organizing

• Building team cultures where people feel safe to take risks with each other and address the problems

 

Many of the things in the list are about effective leadership.  Leadership matters.    The world we are living in and the organizations and faith communities we belong to are yearning for leaders who will lead.  Yet, I could just as easily have said, “the world we are living in and the organizations and faith communities we belong to are suspicious of leadership and think of it as a synonym for hierarchy.”   That’s the position that leaders are in today.  It is a leadership challenge for those who run organizations, faith communities, even neighborhood block clubs, but it is not a no-win situation.  Leaders can learn to listen to and clarify their own vision, while listening to and helping to clarify the vision of those they lead.   

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