• Preparation
• Two Day Residential Session
• Faculty and Peer Coaches

Preparation

The Lay Leadership Institute involves a two-day residential session, peer coaching, and coaching by Eitzah Center faculty. The process by which participants enter the Institute program commences with interested congregational leaders speaking with a Center co-director to determine whether they are appropriate candidates for an upcoming Institute. Candidates also discuss who from their congregations would benefit from attending the Institute as well. Those who enroll in the Institute prepare for the program by completing surveys that will enable them to reflect on previous experiences, examine current transitions, identify goals, and develop an agenda to pursue during the Institute program.

Two Day Residential Session

The Lay Leadership Institute's two day residential session focuses on the theory and practice of the lay leader’s role in synagogue life. Lay leaders from a range of synagogues facing a variety of leadership challenges and opportunities are exposed to the principles of board leadership and provided with structured opportunities to learn the skills necessary to enact those principles. Through presentations, case discussions, exercises, and readings, participants will approach from varying perspectives the challenges that lay leaders typically face in synagogues. These include managing board-Rabbi relationships, board processes and politics, synagogue change and transformation, financial oversight and crisis management, and the effective practice of collaboration, conflict resolution, and other leadership practices.

These and related topics are examined in terms of how lay leaders can be effective at working with multiple constituencies at the same time. Lay leaders must represent the diverse interests of synagogue members while retaining financial oversight on their behalf. They are the primary points of contact with clergy and staff. They must learn to work at that intersection while providing real leadership during times of stability and times of change. This requires lay leaders to have a keen understanding not simply of their own roles but of the pressures, interests, and perspectives of those with whom they must regularly work. The Institute residential session emphasizes understanding not simply the nature and practice of the lay leader role but understanding the positions and perspectives of spiritual leaders, other clergy, staff, and congregational members more generally. It is at the intersection of these various groups that effective lay leaders operate. The residential sessions map this intersection and enable participants to learn how to work there with the utmost effectiveness and grace.

Faculty and Peer Coaches

As with each Eitzah Center program, the Lay Leadership Institute involves two primary sources of support enabling participants to meet the challenges they have identified. First, Eitzah Center faculty members provide individual coaching. During the residential session, faculty members help participants diagnose issues that have surfaced during their work as lay leaders. They also offer support and guidance for a specified period after the residential session as participants put into practice what they learned during that session. Second, each participant is matched with a peer coach—a fellow Institute member from a different geographical area dealing with similar issues—who gives and receives support throughout the transition process.