About leadership and mountains

I love mountains. Especially powerful mountain ranges and deep valleys. Some of my most wonderful experiences come from hikes in Switzerland, Ethiopia, France and Norway. To feel small and in need of help, and at the same time raise my eyes to the mountains and be reminded that the help I need comes from the Lord, as David writes in Psalm 121.

Our hike in 2020 has certainly not been an easy trip. It started out a bit like a lovely mountain hike. Clear air. The sun is shining. We have a goal. We have a good plan for how to get there. But mountain weather is moody. Can switch quickly. We were hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as a sudden storm not only over our mountain, but all over the world. A huge low pressure. Nothing turned out the way we planned barely a year ago.

Exchange of experience on ‘leadership in crisis’

In crisis situations like this, good leadership is needed. It’s not easy, but it’s important. Therefore, on 4 December, SMC – Faith in Development invited to the first of a series of webinars focusing on leadership, organizational development and how our faith plays a part.

Guided by Rick James and Elaine Vitikaien from Space for grace, around 20 leaders from ten of SMC’s member organizations and the chancellery gathered to share thoughts and experiences about “leadership in crisis”.

It was a very valuable opportunity to stop and reflect on the past year, to think about what we have to leave and what we can learn from the past year. Several of the participants testified that the year also strengthened hope by seeing how people continued to give faithfully to the business; how the relationship with local partners has been strengthened when seconded staff have chosen to stay in the partner countries; how organisations have quickly adapted to new ways of working and that it has become clearer how decisions are made. For those of you who want to know more about what the webinar was about, there is a fantastically pictured summary to be inspired by: Leading in Crisis with Elaine Vitkainen and Rick James 2020.

More about leading with hope in January

Looking into 2021, much is still unclear. The fog is dense. But we know there’s hope. SMC wants to be a meeting place for the exploration of this hope. We want to do this on the digital member days 3-4 February 2021. We also want to do this at the next leadership webinar under space for grace on 22 January 2021, which consequently has the theme: “Leading in and with hope”. There’s room for more, so sign up now!