I’m Back
I was away this week for some training. My diocese has decided to participate in the “Good Leaders, Good Shepherds” program. This is a leadership training program, developed by the Catholic Leadership Institute, specifically for priests. It is only about a year old, but it is very evident that they placed a great deal of time in developing the program. It is actually a two-year curriculum. It is based on a model which they call SOTOR (which, allowing for a misspelling, is the Greek word for Savior) that stands for: Self, One-to-One, Team, Organization, and Relationships. Most of those components are pretty self-evident; Relationships means “strategic relationships,” that is relationships between your organization (the parish) and other organizations (e.g., other parishes, the diocese, other churches, charitable organizations, etc.).
This week was actually called “Preparing to Lead,” and stemmed from the premise that an effective leader must know himself. So we looked at our basic dispositions (called DISCpositions, because it uses the DISC personality inventory), values, and our persona. As a psychologist I have been through a lot of these professional development workshops, and many of them are poorly organized. This was the best one I have ever attend. Very well organized, and excellent pedagogue. Instead of just one lecture after another, they talked for a few minutes, and then there was some type of interactive exercise which got us to apply what they were discussing. Also, it really was specifically geared to priests and challenges that they might face in a parish. It was also good to be with some of my fellow priests. I am looking forward to applying some of the insights I gained about myself this week, to more effectively work with my parishioners.
Now that I am back, there was the pile of mail to go through, voicemail messages, and email. The desk is finally cleared, and the phone calls have been returned.
