Transitions
I haven’t posted for a few days because, as usual, I’m busy with work and church stuff. I have been thinking a lot about transitions lately, probably inspired by this post that I read the other day.
I had an interesting discussion with my managing partner on Friday. Since our company’s inception, I have been handling all of our IT and finance in addition to my practice responsibility. In the beginning, this was an hour a week proposition. Now, it’s a day a week. We had a great talk about how to best make use of my time specifically; should we hire someone at this point to handle the day to day bookkeeping and have me concentrate on strategic finance and cash management (in addition to IT). In the end, my bill rate for work in our practice is about 5x what it would cost to hire a bookkeeper. Game, set match. In short, we had become successful enough that it no longer made sense for me to do the basic accounting. For the good of the firm, I needed to give up a degree of control to concentrate on the big picture. Easy in the head- not so much with the heart.
On a similar vein, I have watched a number of churches grow and die because of the lack of a transition plan. I did a study once of the number of pastors in our district who are over the age of 60. It was terrifying. Many pastors are unable (or unwilling) to implement a succession plan. They lose sight of the fact that it isn’t their church. It’s God’s. I remember having a frank discussion with my pastor a few years ago and imploring him to have a plan in the event that he dropped over dead (two caveats- I was not then (or not) interested in the job and he had already laid the groundwork). I have watched this transition begin to play out over the past two years and it has been fascinating. Both parties are respectful to the other and are mindful that the end goal is to see the church thrive. They realize that the church is bigger than their individual needs and egos. I am impressed.
Probably from watching the church transition I have learned how to apply this principle to my business. Step back, transition, and do what’s best not only for me but for the whole enterprise. It’s been a fun ride.
