Are you being promoted? Being transferred? Have you been reassigned? Are you preparing to retire? Usually, we think about transition being linked to a job, but practically we deal with aging, child-rearing or new technology, and they all require some kind of a transition. [CHANGE] With my own aging process, I am discovering that my physical strength is changing. (In golf I don’t hit my seven iron as far as I used to. HA!) So, the transition is to a different pace, to a gracious flexibility, a more focused attention, less hurry and a recognition that what doesn’t get completed today will get my attention tomorrow. (This doesn’t ignore emergencies however.) There are still times to hurry.
All through my ministry of over 60 years, as a preacher, I have had a constant message of challenge that produces conversion, newness, and hope. In every experience of “conversion”, I have witnessed a similar phenomenon called change or transition. It was leaving the former and transitioning to the future through an exciting present. Sometimes it was leaving something so dark and wicked, the close friends were the first to notice the difference. Often there was an awful sadness eliminated by the joy of forgiveness. While lots of outward things changed, I watched the attitudes and even facial expressions change to a happy and hope-filled countenance. This welcome change usually accompanied an observation like: I wish I would have done this sooner.
How are you handling your own transition? In every working position and employment situation, there is a need to prepare for transition if for nothing else, continuity. That preparation is necessary so that the hard work done by you, is not wasted in the past, but is a definite investment in the future of the company or business or organization you have served. That preparation includes the following:
- I must recognize that I am temporary in my tenure. My influence will be given to this generation with such open transparency that it may be duplicated. However, my influence will have some obvious time limits associated with it.
- I will need to set an example of willingness to intentionally prepare someone to follow in my footsteps. Finding that person will require more than a good background check, it will require that I intentionally seek the person the Lord wants.
- I will need to understand that this preparation will be hard work and often inconvenient. If I do not remember this, I may give up on the process when the first obstacle happens.
- I will need to focus not only on skills and experience of that “someone”, but on the character of the person. Charisma may be charming and popular, but a person with conviction will be the person who will last.
- I will need to remember that while my successor will be doing my job, the style of that work will not necessarily duplicate my own style. This is actually simple when I remember that there is often more than one way to get a job done.
- I will also need to remember to get my audience, workforce, constituents and co-workers ready for the transition to come. This will include the consistent communication to all of them about what I am practicing and preparing as well as getting them ready for their cooperation and support, for me and the new person.
Did you notice anything about the above suggestions for transition? Do not miss that a transition must be initiated by the one who is leaving the position. That is the healthy way to do it.
Here is the exception to these ideas: A crisis transition or a sudden transition will not allow these preparatory steps. If a person is terminated, dies suddenly or is incapacitated by illness, those circumstances do not give the needed time to prepare. So, what can I do? The simple answer is that I think and prepare about it before it is absolutely necessary.
The attitude for the actual practice of leading that transition is the one offered in the Bible illustration of John the Baptist recognizing he was preparing for the Messiah. He was preparing the way for his successor, Jesus. His humble attitude was: He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)
What an amazing attitude of transitioning that would be!
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