Leadership PDF
Leadership PDF
Leadership PDF
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LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
AMERICAN SOCIETY
BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
THE CHOSEN PEOPLE
EVOLUTION
HOLOCAUST
ORAL LAW
PROOFS
QUESTION & ANSWERS
SCIENCE AND JUDAISM
SUFFERING
THIS WORLD & THE NEXT
WOMEN'S ISSUES (Book One)
WOMEN'S ISSUES (Book Two)
For information on how to order
additional booklets, please contact:
Ner LeElef P.O. Box 14503
Jewish Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem 91145
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax #: 972-02-653-6229
Tel #: 972-02-651-0825
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SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION 7
LEADERSHIP DEFINED 10
A Torah View of Leadership 10
The Outreach Worker 11
Four Models of Leadership 11
The Sixteen Qualities of a Leader 12
Can Leadership be Learned? 15
Leadership Styles 16
Leadership and Management 18
VISIONS, GOALS AND STRATEGIES 19
Four Basic Questions to Get Started 19
Understanding your Community 19
Mission Statement 21
Goals 24
Strategy 27
Criteria for Success 31
Feedback Mechanisms 35
Evaluations 36
Stay Focused & Energized 40
THE CREATIVITY THING - CHANGE AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE 41
THE PROACTIVE REACTIVE INTERFACE 48
TIME MANAGEMENT AS A FUNCTION OF LEADERSHIP RATHER THAN MANAGEMENT 50
ACTION AT THE TOP THE DYNAMICS OF INTERDEPENDENT LEADERSHIP 52
DELEGATION 54
Get Out of the Way, Stop Managing and Start Serving & Leading 55
Who Works For Whom? 56
Nurturing Managers 57
Feel Secure 60
SHIMUSH & OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS 60
Shimush 60
Outside Consultants 62
SHOULD A KIRUV ORGANIZATION HAVE A CORPORATE CULTURE? 63
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15 TOOLS OF GOOD STAFF MANAGEMENT 68
The One Minute Manager 72
Be Yourself 73
Set a Positive Atmosphere 74
EMPLOYEE EVALUATION 76
The Ideal Employee 76
Team Players 77
Evaluating Employees 79
Input vs. Output 81
Hard and Soft Areas 81
What to do with Under-Performers 83
HIRING AND FIRING 85
Hiring 85
Who to Hire 85
How to Hire - More Than Just the Interview 86
The Interview 87
Common Interview Questions 90
Making the Job Offer and Closing the Deal 94
Firing 103
Thank You Letters on the Departure of an Employee 105
Letters of Recommendation 106
SALARIES 111
BENEFITS 112
BONUSES 113
INTRODUCTION 115
MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, LOYALTY AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE 116
PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND GROWTH 119
UPWARD MOBILITY AND THE PETER PRINCIPLE 122
Recognition and Gratitude - The Thank You Factor 123
TRUST, CARING, PERSONAL GROWTH AND COMMUNITY BUILDING 125
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Trust & Respect 125
Caring 125
Creating Community 128
INTRODUCTION 132
PERSONAL GOAL SETTING 136
Personal Vision within Organizational Life 139
Clashes between personal agendas and organizational vision 140
Burn-Out 141
MANAGING YOURSELF 144
TIME MANAGEMENT AND ITS CONSTRAINTS 147
USING TECHNOLOGY 150
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Introduction-How Big Are Big Kiruv Organizations? 174
Real and Imagined Professionalism 174
Leadership 175
Evaluation Criteria and Goal Setting 175
Action At The Top The Dynamics of Interdependent Leadership 177
Managing Yourself 177
APPENDICES 179
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SECTION ONE: INTRODUCTION
1
This is a book about how to be a leader and how to be a manager. A leader sets a
vision and goals, directs the atmosphere towards creative thinking of the organizations, and
makes drastic changes should the situation so require. A manager ensures the quality of
implementation, of day to day staff motivation and satisfaction, of budgeting and cash flow.
Anyone running a kiruv organization has to be both leader and manager. He has to lead and
manage others, but he also has to lead and manage himself. This too we have tried to relate to
here.
This book could easily have been double the length. We left out pages of issues, all
important and worthy of scrutiny. We hope, however, that our selections are helpful. The
omissions will have to wait for another day.
Those of us who are in leadership positions of organizations have to see this as a
central part of . This is an opportunity to get closer to the , and to fulfill
His . Since we probably spend most of our waking hours running our organizations, if we
waste this opportunity, we have wasted most of our lives. A frightening thought.
Yet it is not easy to turn our organizational work into an act of conscious . It is
easy to rely on the fact that we are doing kiruv, and we know that that is good, and that
therefore everything we are doing is positive . While this is true, it is equivalent to
someone saying that he does not have to work on his davening, since the act of going to Shul
and davening 3 times a day is intrinsically an act of . Yes, what we are doing is good.
But for most of us it is . Even if our organization is growing, we are on
automatic when it comes to turning this into real .
This book, although written in a somewhat secular style, is really about leadership as
. Although I have brought Torah sources whenever I have been aware of them, most of
the attempted wisdom below comes from experience, a great deal comes from shimush, and
some comes from the business world. In particular, I have brought many insights from Jack
Welch, considered by most to be the best CEO of the last century. My partner, Rabbi
Abramov, and myself have applied many of his insights to the betterment of Ner LeElef. My
experience in running organizations, and those of my colleagues, is that we can learn a lot
from businessmen and sound business practice. Here is a community of possibly millions of
people, many of them very bright, who have spent decades trying to understand how to do
things a little better. On the other hand, there are some clear contradictions between the
business practice and, , running a Kiruv mosad. Although business is increasingly
focused on information and technology and services is becoming more brain than brawn, the
basis of almost all business is rooted in a material world of limited resources, of beating the
competition, of newness and innovation. By contrast, the spiritual world of the Torah is
rooted in unlimited, open-ended spirituality, of sharing rather than competing, and of
timelessness rather than newness. I have seen one kiruv organization so enthused by business
models that I truly do regard many of their practices as anti-Torah.
Yet, despite the need for great caution, I remain convinced that the business world can
enhance our efficiency and effectiveness. Kiruv mosdos do have their business side. They
have to make budgets, plan and fund-raise. They are competing with intermarriage,
assimilation and Jewish ignorance. They do need to program and to package, albeit that the
content is our unadulterated and timeless Torah.
, : 1
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As an example, take one of the earlier, successful business books, In Search of
Excellence, by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. Peters and Waterman identify eight
characteristics which excellent, innovative companies appear to have:
i. They are action-orientated - they implement decisions quickly.
ii. They are client-orientated - they understand and care for their
customers.
iii. They are staff-orientated - they encourage autonomy and
entrepreneur-ship amongst their staff rather than trying to control their every
move.
iv. They delegate and empower - they see their rank and file as the
source of productivity and creativity.
v. They see human resources as their primary asset - they see
their success far more as a result of being in touch with the people and shop
floors of their company, than as a result of technology or economic resources
or organizational structure.
vi. They stick to areas they understand.
vii. They have a relatively simple organizational structure, with
relatively few people at the top.
viii. They are structured in some respects (e.g. core values) and
unstructured in others (e.g. with respect to innovation).1
Now there is not one point on this list that I would not find valuable as a head of a
kiruv mosad. Some of these points I had to learn the hard way, and I would have been most
grateful had I been exposed to this earlier. Take for example point six, that
excellent companies stick to what they understand, what the authors call sticking to the
knitting. When Russian Jews first started coming to Israel, the Heritage House was one of
those organizations which jumped in the fray and opened a Russian department. But it was
not our area. We did not understand enough about Russian culture and mentality. We had no
idea how to measure progress. We had no way of telling whether our activities would
produce long term results or not. We thrashed in the dark for a couple of years and then
closed that department. We had violated what now seems to me an obvious organizational
principle, stick to the knitting, but then I was not so wise. .
Having said that I must caution that like all human wisdom, the area of business
management is subject to constant change. Each expert has his own shopping list and there
are waves when some issue or another pops up on the screen or falls out of favor. You can
hardly walk by a secular bookstore today without being besieged by an array of titles on
leadership in business. Fifteen years ago the literature was completely silent on this issue.
And businesses, of course, are secular institutions. They know nothing of
, and of the workings of the soul. They certainly cannot account for the , and
how it nourishes the Jew. For all that, I believe that we do have something to learn here, and
this is my attempt to share some of that wisdom.
Perhaps a businessman should have written this manual. Probably, a businessman
would regard this manual as quite basic. Or perhaps it should have been written by a great
Talmid Chacham, for only he is qualified to sort out what of the can be used by
Torah Jews, and especially those representing a Torah Mosad. I am neither. I consider myself
a busy Boswell, busily taking notes here and there, and passing them on, hopefully to your
benefit.
1
In Search of Excellence, pgs. 13-16.
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SECTION TWO: LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER:
1 - Leadership Defined
2 - Visions, Goals, Strategies, And Project Evaluation
3 - The Creativity Thing - Change and Resistance to Change
4 - The Proactive Reactive Interface
5 - Time Management as A Function of Leadership Rather Than Management
6 - Action at the Top The Dynamics of Interdependent Leadership
7 - Delegation
8 - Shimush and Outside Consultants
9 - Should A Kiruv Organization Have A Corporate Culture?
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1
Leadership Defined
This does not only apply only to And even if a person were
those filling traditional leadership roles, to be close to the angels this is not
Rabbis, teachers and community leaders2, as worthy as the merits of one who
but to each and every one of us, each shows his fellow man the good and
within his or her realm of possibility3. right way, and who sets the evil on a
straight path in serving G-d; for
such a persons merits will be
) ( 1
multiplied because of the merits of
) ( those he helped, increasing as they
:( ) accumulate merits over time.
:
? ? Put this way, we all, in fact, have
. leadership qualities. We are all capable of
: "
, being leaders, of influencing others, in
) certain types of contexts. Sometimes that
(9 leadership is natural, and sometimes it is
forced upon us, usually by our deep sense
2 of responsibility that something has to be
done. In fact, it would appear that some of
"
:
our greatest leaders fall in the latter rather
, ][ than the former category. Examples of the
, , latter extend all the way from Moshe
, Rabbeinu5 to Rav Shach, zl.
3 ( ) , 4
" 5
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The Outreach Worker The Mishnah is coming to teach
that there are three primary types of
What kind of leader is the outreach leadership. There is the political leadership
worker? Ours is the leadership of , of , the spiritual leadership of
1
. We are those who go in and the leadership of the Torah Leader.
search of Jews who fell out of the Each one represented by one of the in
, and get them back in again. " the Beis HaMikdash, implying that each
say, . Rav Tzadok has a role of great holiness. The leadership
Hakohen2 understands to mean of is symbolized by the ,
" . which has its crown ( )around it. The
This of course, is the work of our leadership of is represented by the
Gedolim. But, in a more limited sense, the . It too has a , a crown around it.
kiruv worker is finding a for the Finally, the leadership of is
of many in his generation. It is he who reflected in the . It too has its
shows many how to connect to Judaism in crown.
our day and age. It is he who is entrusted But then the Mishnah continues
with bringing out the relevance and surprisingly:
profundity of Judaism in our time for all
those millions whose only lifeline to the
Torah is through him. The implications are This is seen also as an expression
awesome. of leadership, a . And no ordinary .
This is , higher than any
Chazal tell us: of the other three crowns. Yet, strangely,
(: ) the Menorah, which was , did
not have a - there was no around
Rav Tzadok Hakohen3 tells us that
the Menorah. The Maharal6 explains that
this Chutzpa is not only negative. There is
is a without limitations.
a positive Chutzpah DeKedusha which
A both bestows the
will also be prevalent in our generation.
Little people, kiruv workers from the tribe responsibility but also defines the
of Dan, will have the Chutzpa to go out parameters in which the leader may
and build mosdos, reaching out to hundred operate. It is a limiting factor in the
and to thousands of our alienated brethren. expression of the individual and his
potential. Leadership both empowers, but
it also limits. The Mishnah is referring to
Four Models of Leadership the appropriate boundaries, ethical,
spiritual, financial, which guide and direct
a leader. He must follow one of the first
The Mishnah in Avos4 gives us
three models, each of which is governed
four models of leadership:
by clear laws. But he should measure his
, : behavior against the fourth , the
5
, without clear laws and boundaries, but
which is ultimately the most important
of them all.
: 1
"
5
44 ' ) 2 ,( )= :
:( ,( )
' 3 ( ) ( )"
" 4 6
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We tend to think of leadership as city with say 25,000 Jews, but one cries
something dynamic, something to be HaSagas Gevul when someone else wants
admired and envied. But there is also a to come to town. Humility gives one the
price to be paid for leadership. Leadership confidence to have Bitachon, and stop
can sometimes actually stunt our growth. dealing with other Kiruv Organizations as
We can work on all sorts of management if they were competing businesses.
and leadership skills, we may even Someone who overcomes all that will
undergo a lot of maturation with respect to indeed be wearing the Crown of a Good
judgement calls, ability to deal with people Name.
etc. but we may be lacking any
growth. The mentioned in are
boundaries; but they are boundaries above The Sixteen Qualities of a
our heads. The crown is simultaneously a Leader
parameter as well as a vision and horizon
for growth. Beware the leader whose
Leadership is not a science. Its not a
boundaries extend no further than his own
recipe. Its not the five rules about this or
natural talents.
the six effective habits of that. Its an art,
A leader is a busy person, and what
and as Georges Braque wrote, The only
he is busy with will define whether he
thing that matters in art is the part that
himself can grow appropriately. To grow,
cant be explained.1
a leader must distinguish between
However, all leaders have certain
leadership on the one hand and heroism (in
things in common. These represent the
the Western sense) on the other. The
minimum qualification for leadership.
Jewish hero is measured not by his riding,
Without these, you may be the head of
Napoleonically, into a city, but rather by
your organization, but all that makes you
the daily consistency of his actions. And,
is the boss, not the leader.
as kiruv people, that means 3 good davens
a day as much as it means taking care of
1. Visible enthusiasm for Yiddishkeit.
all ones fundraising, logistics and other
You dont have to be the leading
challenges.
Tzadik in the town, though you do have
The Torah is so full of different
to have good midos and be a
leaders, that we could write a whole book
. You dont have to be a huge
analyzing the qualities of leadership. But
Talmid Chacham (it certainly helps if
the Torah stresses that the fundamental
you are), though you do have to be
trait of our greatest leader ever was
someone who projects a love and
humility. I want to give a new angle on
involvement with Torah. You ought to
what humility does for a leader.
be someone who filters the events not
Humility allows a leader to have
necessarily of the world, but of your
the confidence not only to open something,
immediate environment through a
but to close something which is not
Jewish head, someone who can make
working. (Rav Chaim said that one should
sense for others of what is happening.
never open a Yeshiva which one could not
Leaders are consistently well above
close in a day.) Humility allows one to
average in their s, in
have the courage to do the right thing. It
their compassion, gratitude, empathy
allows you to see that someone else is
and chesed. This is not just a technique
doing the job better and to learn from him,
or a communication skill for them.
or to join him or to hire him. It allows one
to let other organizations on ones turf. It 1
is so ridiculous to know that one is Will The Legacy Live On? The Bottom
mekareving 5 maybe 10 people a year in a Line on Jack Welch, Harvard Business
Review, Feb. 2002
Page 12 of 194
They really do have good midos. They
become attached and loyal to the people
who are working with them. Leaders
may be very down to earth, but they 16 Qualities of a Leader:
also project a certain sense of dignity
and personal presence.
1.Visible enthusiasm for
2. A sense of responsibility for the Judaism
Jewish people. A sense of 2. Responsibility
responsibility, period. A willingness to 3. Vision
undertake that responsibility. A natural 4. Passion for your Project
sense that if something ought to be
5. Courage
done, and nobody is doing it, then you
6. Understanding of how one
have to do it. Leaders put away the
sefarim before and after davening and goes from here to there
help to clean up after Simchas. 7. Willingness to take risks
8. Belief in other people
3. A vision of where you want to get Ability to communicate vision
to. and passion to others
10. Ability to develop a team
4. Passion. Some people do have a 11. Handles stress well
vision, and they talk about it a lot. But 12. Ability to change
they dont believe in it enough to do 13. Good judgement
something about it. Without passion 14. Ability to problem-solve
you will lack commitment and without
15.Creativity
commitment you will lack both focus
16. Humility balanced with
and energy. Energy emerges out of the
intense commitment and passion which Postive Self Image
one has for the project.
someone who, when opportunity does
5. The courage to doggedly and not knock, builds a door1.
persistently follow ones vision.
This is more than dedication. It 7. A willingness to take reasonable
requires the ability to stay the risks. Taking risks probably means
course, even when things are very failing from time to time. A good
tough. It requires resilience, the leader is not deterred by failure, rather,
ability never to be bitter, to retain a he learns from it, and goes forward. He
certain naive sense that you can do operates on the cutting edge, always a
the improbable (i.e. the seeming little mad in his thinking, always a
impossible as opposed to the actual little defiant of conventional wisdom.
impossible).
8. Belief in other people: in their
6. An ability to go from here to there. abilities to achieve together with you.
The ability to create strategic plans.
But more than that, the ability to make 9. The ability to communicate your
things happen where others would not vision, passion and courage to others.
have seen the opportunity. To This builds on your belief in other
paraphrase Milton Berle, a leader is
1
Berles original phrase was, If
opportunity doesnt knock, build a door.
Page 13 of 194
people. Only rarely does this mean the 21st century is different to the
speech making though it does involve person of the 70s), or because you
communication skills. It certainly goofed up or because of changed
involves content, a depth of financial realities. Real leaders have no
understanding to give content to ones hassle admitting they were wrong,
passion and vision. learning from others, and showing
themselves to have weaknesses. They
10. An ability to develop a team with a dont feel a need to act like a leader.
sense of community of common They just act like themselves.
purpose1. The ability to listen to them2,
learn from them, and grow together 13. Good judgement: Leaders have a
with them. high level of common sense. They are
generally level headed and make
11. A show of strength, fortitude, clear consistently good judgements. They
thinking and compassion in times have an above average insight into
of crisis or difficulty. The type of people, and usually view people
strength that others feel they can holistically and not in black and white
lean on. Tough times often require terms. They may be highly emotional,
one to take tough decisions, and to but avoid, in the main, making
balance ones compassion with a emotionally based decisions.
clear understanding of the needs of
14. Good judgement flows into an
ability to problem-solve. We talk
below of how leaders need to become
There will come a time more proactive. True, but they also
when you believe need to know how to get obstacles out
everything is finished. of the way. Sometimes this requires
That will be the networking, and sometimes this
Page 14 of 194
understand whether the problem was excellence are energy, energize, edge and
technical and requires problem-solving execute1. Maybe that is the best list of all.
abilities (14 above), or whether the Certainly there are successful
problem is a function of the wrong leaders out there whose descriptions differ
strategy to begin with, requiring from the list I have suggested. And, in the
creativity to come up with a new secular literature there is nothing
strategy altogether. approaching consensus on this issue. But I
have done my bit I have challenged you
16. Humility balanced with a positive self- with a list2. The rest is up to you.
image. The truth is that one cannot be
humble if one is always struggling to We all live under the same
compensate for ones lack of self-image.
The two go hand in hand. It is hard to find
sky, but we dont all have
truly arrogant people in the kiruv world, the same horizon.
though institutional egocentricity, a form
of sublimated personal arrogance, is not Konrad Adaneur
uncommon. Lack of positive self-image is
much more common, however, and is
expressed by people who seem to be so
well put together, competent and Can Leadership be
successful. Both arrogance (in its personal Learned?
and institutional forms) and Lack of
positive self-image make for poor There is a great debate in the business
leadership. It leads to poor judgement,
world over whether leadership is natural or
undermines the ability to bring in the right
whether it can be acquired? Leadership is
staff for the job, creates poor relations with
too big a word, too vague and abstract.
staff and a negative working atmosphere in
This lends itself to an almost mystical
general and inhibits the ability to network
labeling of someone as a leader, a dividing
with other organizations.
of the world into leaders and non-leaders.
But we have already shown that the Torah
This is my list. And it is sure to be
view of leadership is quite different. The
disputed. Some might leave out things that
Torah expects all of us to be leaders in
I have put in here, or feel that two things
some sense. And in fact, when we look at
ought to be combined. Some might wonder
the sixteen characteristics above, we see
how I left out or combined things such as
charisma or energy, or the ability to make
tough decisions. I did not talk at all about
1
having a high level of expertise in any Will The Legacy Live On? The Bottom
particular area. Nor did I mention the need Line on Jack Welch, Harvard Business
to have standards of excellence or the Review, Feb. 2002. :
attribute of institutional vitality which I 2
Jack Welchs list for the new CEO of GE
mention under charismatic leadership
reads: Integrity/values, edge, stature,
below. And where is the ability to do kiruv fairness, and energy/balance/courage
or to fundraise? Leadership is also a insatiable appetite for increasing
function of consistency. It has to take knowledge courageous advocacy
place every day, not as a rare event. Yet comfortable operating under a
this too did not make my list. The four Es microscope stomach to play for high
of GEs official template of executive stakes
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch
with John A. Byrne
Page 15 of 194
that they can indeed all be learned and contributes to our wrong ideas of
developed. leadership as a gift as opposed to an
It is quite true that there are some acquisition, earned by hard toil.
people who have natural leadership Yes it does help if you are naturally a
qualities, but they often do not always great orator (though anyone can learn how
make the best leaders. In fact, most of the to make a good speech), and it usually
people who are usually perceived as the does help if you are charismatic. But great
leaders of the Baal Teshuva movement by Torah leaders, from Gedolim down have
outsiders are not usually the real leaders. often lacked these things. And what they
They are usually high profile lecturers have all had in common we can all learn
(some of whom are leaders too). Most and acquire. I do not believe that anyone
people in the Torah world have heard of can become a great leader, or that
Rabbis Neugershal, Srebnik, Ordman and everyone should even make the attempt.
other famous Arachim lecturers. But how But I do believe that the short list above is
many have met and know Yossie Wallis, more accessible to us than we imagine.
the founder, brains and leader of Arachim?
It would be a great loss to Arachim if a The reward for work well
Shalom Srebernik or a Tzvi Ingbal were to
leave the organization. But it would still be done is the opportunity to
the same organization. However, it is do more.
much more difficult to imagine Arachim Jonas Salk
without Yossie Wallis1. Now I do not
think I have ever heard Yossie Wallis
make a speech in public. Nor did he see
the need to start calling himself Rabbi Leadership Styles
Wallis. Nor have I ever seen his picture on
any Arachim promotional materials. He
does not display the outward trappings and A leadership style is the way in which a
image of leadership. Yet there is no leader uses his natural personality to
question, that Yossie Wallis is a leader in integrate the sixteen qualities we
every respect. mentioned above. Like all stereotyping,
Were I to make a list of the 10 greatest the divisions we list below are somewhat
leaders of the kiruv world, those who artificial. People are too complex to fit into
made the greatest difference, Rabbi Lazar neat categories. In practice, most leaders
Rosner would definitely be on my list. Yet reflect some combination of the different
many have never heard of this American- types of styles we mention below.
born Chaim Berliner who lives in
Jerusalem and has been the vision and i. The Charismatic Leader:
force behind much of what has happened
to Yiddishkeit in France, Russia, Brazil Most charismatic people I know are
and Israel. And thats the way this great not leaders. Charisma is in and of itself not
man would have it. a leadership quality though it is a great
So some of our greatest kiruv leaders personality asset when combined with
are relatively unknown. Perhaps this vision, passion and the fourteen other
1
attributes we mentioned above. But
I am actually not a great believer in charisma can often hide ones weaknesses,
irreplaceability. And any good organization
including a poor insight into other people.
will set itself up so that no figure, not even
the founder, is so vital to the organization
People do respond more readily to a
that he cannot be replaced. But that is not charismatic person. Proving to be effective
my point here. for one in the short term, it makes it more
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difficult to focus on the growth one needs
for long term leadership. iii. Leaders from the bottom up:
The charismatic leader is great for
starting new initiatives, but is not always These are people who always give the
good for running large organizations. If he Kavod to others, though they may wield
understands his own limitations and he considerable power. This can only be done
surrounds himself with people with good by someone who is both wise and has a
managerial skills then he can keep on strong ego. The person may not be the
growing with his organization as it formal head of the organization, and may
unfolds. not wish to be. In fact he is delighted to
Organizations run by charismatic help lead his leader as well as be led by
leaders often have succession problems. him, being careful not destroy his genius.
The charismatic leader often fails to He is not wielding his power because he is
realize that the qualities that allowed him manipulative or because he is merely using
to get the organization to its current stage his position as a springboard to something
are not those qualities that are required for bigger and better. Rather, he genuinely
the organization in its more mature phases. knows how to lead others to be with him in
We all tend to envy the charismatic achieving their united goals, and there is
leader for his ability to attract others nothing in organizational life that gives
talmidim, donors, and volunteers. But him more satisfaction than that.
most of us who are running organizations Although there may not be many of
are not charismatic. Nor do we need to be. these type of leaders around, they are more
What we need to have is what I like to call frequent then one perceives. By its very
attitudinal vitality. This is a vital quality nature, such leadership remains hidden for
that is born of deep belief in what we are most of the time.
doing, a vision of where we want to get to,
an intensity about pursuing that vision, and iv. Leaders by both choice and
a passion about the Jewish people in necessity:
general. This is the most powerful form of
It is this vitality which energizes and leader. This is the person who sees that
inspires the people around oneself. And it something needs to be done and is willing
is this vitality which the charismatic leader to take responsibility, feels he has to take
needs to tap into as much as anyone else. responsibility. He is not pushing to be a
For someone relying on the natural leader. He is simply doing what he feels
charisma of energy alone will burn out has to be done. Not seeing himself as a
sooner or later. There is no substitute for natural leader (though with many of the
substantive qualities of leadership. right qualities), he is an avid learner. He
learns to distinguish between management
ii. Leaders by Consensus: and leadership; he learns how to be
articulate and he learns how to fundraise.
These are people who actively like and In short he learns organizational
enjoy teams. They do not want to work sophistication, even if it is by the seat of
alone and are always seeking out partners. his pants. He does all of this because he
These are the ones who do big things. We wants to do more kiruv, not because he
have talked about this in a later chapter, wants to laud it over others. I call this kind
entitled Action at the Top the Dynamics of leadership organized personalization,
of Interdependent Leadership where leadership emerges out of kiruv.
Page 17 of 194
Some people are more talented than others. Some are
more educationally privileged than others. But we all
have the capacity to be great. Greatness comes with
recognizing that your potential is limited only by how you
choose, how you use your freedom, how resolute you are-
in short, by your attitude. And we are all free to choose
our attitude.
Peter Koestenbaum
Since 1977, it has become customary to these are the interfaces between
distinguish between leadership qualities management and leadership. And who can
and managerial skills1. Leaders are say that either a leader or a manager can
supposed to give us the vision, the sense of do without caring and empathy, without a
purpose and inspiration, while managers sense of how to nurture and help their staff
are supposed to implement. The truth is to grow. Perhaps the world before 1977
that is hard to be a leader (or at least to be was not such a bad place after all!
a leadership team) without a strong
managerial component. And a high quality
manager will certainly have certain
leadership skills. It would be much better
to talk about leadership skills and
managerial skills than about leaders and
managers.
Management involves hiring and firing
of staff, salaries and fiscal management. It
involves making sure that the programs are
well run and successful, that everyone
know what they have to do and are
coordinated with everyone else.
But management and leadership
become blurred at a certain point. Taking
care of staff, setting the right atmosphere,
evaluating the success of programs all of
1
1977 was the year when Harvard
Business School professor, Abraham
Zelznik published an article in the Harvard
Business Review titled, Managers and
Leaders: Are They Different? The piece
caused a uproar in business schools, but it
gradually gained currency and is now part
of the accepted wisdom.
Page 18 of 194
2
These four you are trying to get to. you have to define at the
questions translate into You need a vision for outset what defines
your short, medium and yourself and the success and what defines
long-term goals for the organization before you failure.
organization. But first you get going. Once you have a Later, we will talk
need to understand your vision, you need to about how to evaluate
community. The long-term translate this into goals for individual programs.
goal for the organization the next year. To achieve Whereas evaluating a
we call the vision of the these goals you need a program is a function of
organization and is strategy. And at the end of management, creating the
contained in the mission the year you need to vision and goals of an
statement. You cannot be evaluate whether or not organization is very much
an effective kiruv worker you were successful. And, a function of leadership.
if you do not know where to make this evaluation
You cannot get going on visions setting up your organization on the wrong
and goals until you have basic information side of town. (I have seen this happen at
about the community you are working in. least twice in North America.) It will help
(In fancy language, this is called the you to realize, for example, that your
current picture document.) This will vision for the organization should be to set
prevent some basic mistakes such as up a series of branches or new kiruv
Page 19 of 194
communities in different parts of the town. independent outreach organization, or a
It will help you to answer basic questions service organization to existing communal
such as whether you should be an structures.
Page 20 of 194
Mission Statement
Once you understand your mission statement was, after many years
community, you need to make a mission without one.
statement, what Stephen Covey calls
beginning with the end in mind. This It is important for your
represents the long-term vision of the organization to have a statement of
organization1. You would be amazed how purpose for two reasons:
making a tight mission statement will help
you to understand issues, which you had A. It makes it clear to yourself (and
left fuzzy, and to articulate this to others your partners / chabura / employees)
what you are all about. It is the first
stage in getting really clear what your
If you dont know where you are going, goals are.
any road will take you there. B. It ought to become the most
concise way to communicate with
Lewis Carrol others what you are all about. The
Projects Mission Statement should
with passion and articulation. serve as the basis for assuring that all
If you were to be setting up a new its components and members share a
organization, then you should formulate a common understanding of purpose and
mission statement at least six months to a direction.
year prior to this. But it is never too late to
develop a mission statement. Rabbi Benzi Lets take a simple example where
Epstein, head of outreach for DATA, the the vision may be fairly easy to articulate;
Dallas Kollel, reported what a huge a day school. It you are opening up a new
difference to the Kollel making such a school (or taking one over) ask yourself,
What kind of graduate do I want to
produce? Asking, What kind of school
1
In more advanced thinking, the vision of do I want to see? is the wrong question
an organization would be a separate and will lead you astray. The school is the
definition, building on the mission means not the ends. I was once at a Jewish
statement. The projects Vision defines Board of Education convention where they
how its mission is expected to be proudly announced that they ran the best
accomplished in the long term. (This is not Jewish day schools in the world. That
the same as strategy, which are the would be a good response to the wrong
specific steps of implantation that need to question, to the question of what kind of
be taken.) It is a very important
school do you run. What they didnt
communication tool to establish direction
and to assure consistency amongst all of
answer, nay, what they didnt even ask,
its parts. was What kind of Jewish commitment
and involvement do our graduates
Sample Vision express? For I know for certain that had
The perpetuation of the existence of the they asked that question, they would have
Katmadu Jewish Community depends gotten a disappointing answer indeed.
upon the creation of a Torah Center
focused on Torah study and structured to
reach out, and to multiply and continue
throughout the future generations.
Page 21 of 194
Examples of Mission Statements:
A.
The Yagidu veYomru Torah Center has the Mission of guaranteeing the continuity
of the Jewish Communities and Jewish individuals around the world, centering on the
traditional religious concepts, precepts and beliefs. This is to be achieved by upgrading
Jewish education and raising the levels of Jewish literacy.
B.
The Kollel intends to target all age groups in the community, i.e.:
People with leadership potential
Children of all ages, especially but not limited to students at the Bar Ilan school
Parents of the children in Bar Ilan
University Students
Adults of all ages
Women of all ages
Page 22 of 194
C.
Sometimes it is good to define basic terms as a part of your mission statement. E.g.
What Is A Kollel?
* Torah study in the tradition of millennia of jews
* A home for prayer and study for all jews, regardless of background
* Learning opportunities for the most experienced and the beginner alike
* A chance for men and women to attain independence in the choices they
make about judaism
* A warm and welcoming environment encouraging questions and
exploration, from ancient texts to modern philosophy
(Fall Into Learning, Valley Jewish Learning Center, CA, Fall 2000)
D.
Our Goal
Judaism has entered the new are entitled to an intellectually honest
millennium fraught with challenges. search into Judaism and the Torah.
Parents are finding it increasingly The Jewish Study Network strives to
difficult to encourage their children to raise the level of Jewish literacy
embrace their heritage. Most Jews do amongst the population of Silicon
not receive an education that allows Valley and Bay Area. We believe that
them to synthesize their Jewish values Jews of all backgrounds have the right
with their lives in modern society. It is to know that their heritage is valid,
the belief of those who stand behind vibrant and relevant as ever.
the Jewish Study Network that all Jews
(Jewish Study Network, Palo Alto Kollel, Silicon Valley, CA)
Our Network
The Jewish Study Network of The Jewish Study Network
Silicon Valley is an association of provides an opportunity for Jews to
young Jewish scholars who have come experience Jewish concepts in an
together to share their knowledge of engaging and stimulating environment.
Jewish tradition with the Jewish Participants are welcome regardless of
population of the Bay Area. Each of previous Jewish educational
these dynamic individuals has spent experience. Aware of the time
several years immersed in the study of constraints many face in demanding
Talmud and a myriad of other work environments, the scholars teach
fundamental texts. They have been in homes, offices, local community
brought together by a shared facilities and even outdoors. The
commitment to the values of group consists of six married couples
community and education, both who function as a team in order to fit
central tenets of our rich heritage. the needs of the entire spectrum of
the Jewish community.
(Jewish Study Network, Palo Alto Kollel, Silicon Valley, CA)
Page 23 of 194
Goals
Now besides ones vision one has to make goals, quite specific ones for the next year
and more general ones for the next two to five years. Without goals, you have no way of
knowing whether you have been successful or not. And without goals, you will be amazed
how the year will just slip by. You must ask yourself the question: How do our goals for the
next year fit in with our mission statement? And then you must develop ways of assessing
along the way whether you are achieving your goals or not.
By the end of the first year the East Victoria outreach organization aims to have achieved the
following:
15 weekly shiurim attended by at least 250 people
50 people who have significantly upgraded their Yiddishkeit (e.g. started keeping
Kashrut, started attending Friday night services, etc.)
10 people who are seriously on their way to becoming observant
4 Shabatonim over the year
a weekly parsha sheet-bulletin
a beginners minyan
A more detailed first year goal for an outreach kollel may look as follows:
Page 24 of 194
By the end of June, the Kollel will have added to the above list the following:
At least two more home-groups
One seminar or major Shabbaton
An activity targeting the parents of the school students
One regular shiur in another part of town
A minimum of 12 people per night learning in the Beit Midrash
One lunch-time shiur targeting business-men
One more shiur for women, hopefully targeting a different type
of women than the first shiur.
Another two Baal Habatim actively involved in helping the
Kollel
Case Study:
The Russian 10 cities project is an ongoing project involving the joint cooperation of
several bodies. Ten new communities were started in ten different cities across Russia. In
most of these places there is no mikveh, and many had no shul at the outset. The new rabbi
had to go around and make a minyan from scratch. This project was very exciting, very
pioneering and seemed to present a clear vision. The goal, after all, was to establish a vibrant
community in each city. Yet Ner LeElef, one of the founders and funders of the project and
its primary source of manpower, did not stop at that. It spent and spends many hours trying to
fine-tune this vision, and to create the specific steps that are needed to develop the project.
Below is but a simplified diagram of the basic vision and goals of the project. (The actual
plan for this project is many pages long and would be cumbersome for the reader who is not
into the Russian scene.)
VISION:
A thriving community which has a core of observant people,
growing in their Yiddishkeit and Torah observance
A strong outreach arm
Financially self-supporting
All communal institutions
Page 25 of 194
CURRENT COMMUNITY PICTURE
Kinder-
Main
Garden
Shul
Networking with
Manpower: Financing: Programming: other
Strategy One family Keroor, Ner Shiurim & Organizations:
for one year LeElef, minyanim in Generic Parsha
goal Reichman, Shul; Sheet from Shevut
Keren Lauder, Communal Ami; Ner LeElef
the Joint seder, chagim. supervision and
Programming
Page 26 of 194
In the morning, we talk about the organization and the people in it. At
lunch, we focus on diversity. In the afternoon, we review the game-changing
initiatives and the people who are leading them.
Our rules of engagement require that there be at least one negative that
requires improvement.
For the last several years, weve met with our diverse high potentials at
lunch. Each one has been assigned a mentor from the business leadership
team.
After lunch, the sessions were devoted to the initiatives. We wanted to
see who was leading them and who was on each team. We got presentations
from the teams on their results against their yearly targets. We picked up the
best practices from each business to take to the next. And most important, we
got a great assessment of just how much horsepower was driving each initiative.
Wed leave each meeting with a clear-cut to do list, which wed share with
the businesses. Two months later, in July, wed revisit these priorities with a
two-hour videoconference to check the progress. That same list would serve as
the agenda for the Session II meeting in November to close the loop.
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Strategy
Once you have your goals clear, you need such a seminar does. Is it best for
to have a specific action plan for raw beginners, or is it best for
implementing those goals. Your strategy people who have already been
answers the questions, What are you involved? Similarly, if you bring in
going to do and how? Bear in mind the a guest speaker, and you are
following: expecting a big crowd, then ask
I. Each project you do must fit into why you want all these people to
the goals for the year. You must be show up. Are you trying to recruit
able to clearly answer how a them for other programs? If so how
particular program is furthering are you going to effect this? Do not
your goals. fall into the mailing list syndrome
II. In addition, you must the thought that if you can add
understand how each one of the some names to your mailing list,
projects fits in with each of the then you have achieved something.
others. If, for example you want to In and of itself, this is nothing.
bring in a Gateways / Discovery / There must be a realistic chance
Arachim seminar, you must ask that the people receiving your
why you are bringing in this mailings will actually show up to
program at this time. This requires your events.
you to understand clearly what
Page 27 of 194
Business success is less a function
III. The overall strategy should of grandiose predictions than it is
translate into a coherent action a result of being able to respond
plan. The action plan is a living rapidly to real changes as they
document that contains all the occur. Thats why strategy has to
activities of the organization. be dynamic and anticipatory.
Jack Straight from the Gut,
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Page 28 of 194
Rabbi Leib Levy will be in charge where there are too many shiurim
of learning in the Beis HaMidrash. This to be given, the Rosh Kollel will
will include active solicitation of people to decide on the allocation of
come and learn in the Beis Hamidrash, resources.
Avos UBanim, Partners in Torah for menvii. In order to allocate
and for women. resources and to co-ordinate
Rabbi Levy will also be responsible efforts, the Kollel will meet every
for the administration and dealing with the Sunday for two to three hours.
finances. Each avreich will present his ideas
Rabbi Ostrov will be in charge of for the coming week and receive
home hospitality as well as of coordinating the input of the other avreichim.
the shiurim given in various Batei-Knesset Projected financial outlays will be
during the week and on Shabbos. He will presented to Rabbi Levy.
also be responsible for arranging Chugei
Bayit. There has to be a structure
and logic so that every employee
vi. Allocation of Resources: knows the rules of the game. The
Each one of the four avreichim will heart of this process is the human
be able to call on their chaveirim resource cycle: the April full-day
and request from the Rosh Kollel Session C, held at every major
to give shiurim in their area of business location; the July two-
responsibility at least once a week. hour videoconference Session C
In the case of triage decisions, follow-up; and the November
Session C-II is, which confirm and
finalize the actions committed to
be in April.
Jack Straight from the Gut,
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Page 29 of 194
1. The people coming to the shiur have a high potential to
grow from the shiur into other areas of Yiddishkeit and Torah study.
2. The people coming to the shiur are likely to attract
others.
3. The shiurim in general will be comprised of the type of
people from whom a community will be able to be built at a later stage.
6 home-groups will be started, one by each avreich
3 shiurim will be started by the wives of the avreichim
One chavrusa-evening (Partners in Torah style) will be started
for men and one for ladies.
One Shabaton will be held
At this stage, a total of 150 people will be attending weekly
events. Ten of these will have made visible progress in their Shemiras
HaMitzvos.
Page 30 of 194
Criteria for Success
At regular intervals, you need to program which you could not close the
evaluate whether a particular project was moment it falls short of your goals. It
successful or not. But in order to do this, takes courage to close. It can even be that
you need to first define success, no easy you have to face (and perhaps lose) the
task1. You also need to set specific targets donor who gave the money for the
for each program. There should be a program to begin with. But the worst thing
higher and a lower range. The higher range in organizational life you can do is not to
tells you what will label the program as a be honest with yourself and your staff. If
definite success. The lower range tells you the news is not good, the best thing you
the minimum success below which the can do is to stare it in the face.
program would be considered a definite Some of the criteria might
failure and you would cut the program. be based on the general upgrade of
There will be many good reasons why a Jewish involvement. For example:
particular program was not successful. It
was snowing that night, the ads did not go Synagogue attendance
out in time, it was in the wrong location, Increase in Jewish
etc. Sometimes there was genuinely a set activity: Observance
of circumstances that were unusual. (Snow
e.g. kashrut, mikva,
in the South). But usually this is just more
mosiditis, being so caught up in the idea
etc.
that your organization always succeeds Attendance to shiurim
that you rationalize away all your failures. Sending kids to frum
Rav Chaim of Brisk said, Never school
open a yeshiva which you cannot close in Participation in Jewish
a day2. We could paraphrase, Never run a cultural activities3
1
In fact, you need to establish a list of key There is no clear answer to the
success factors before you even start. question of what comprises success. Kiruv
This is in order to establish that you have Rechokim in the way we do it today is a
the requisites for the projects success at relatively new thing, 40 years old at a
your disposal. Do you have the mandate, stretch. We do no have a mesorah of the
resources, and finances? Is the city ready generations to give us clear messages on
for all of this? this subject. We know what a good
2
Yeshiva ought to look like; and a good
Rav Chaim was probably referring to a home. But we dont really know what a
situation where the secular authorities
want to compromise the purity of the
3
Torah learning, as they did in Volozhin. See in the Appendices, Chapters I and II
But the lesson is just as relevant to us for variables involved as well as concrete
nevertheless. examples.
Page 31 of 194
good kiruv organization ought to look like. community, investing your energies in
Caution is urged before you make up your people and families, nurturing them to
mind on this one. But, on the other hand, it grow year after year.
would be disastrous if one used the lack of Now let us give an alternative
clarity to abandon any attempt at a vision. Let us say that your dream is that
definition. you will become a thriving Torah center
for the unaffiliated, that 1000 people a
In defining success, there are week will becoming through your doors,
several variables one must account for: that you will be running a Shabaton or
seminar for a different group of people
a. The market standard: every weekend and that you will establish
three or four satellites in different parts of
How are you doing relative to other the town, or the state. This vision requires
good kiruv organizations with comparable you to stay front-line, to avoid becoming a
budgets? It is important for you to see community of old-time baalei tshuvah, to
first-hand some of the organizations that graduate people into other communities.
are regarded as winners. Most outreach organizations try to
However, possibly you are capable have it both ways. They try to combine the
of doing much more than this. Perhaps we two visions I have stated above. They want
need to raise the whole standard for to always do front-line outreach but also
success in the Baal Teshuvah World. develop a community. But they usually do
I always felt sorry for people [who worked] in the so because they are engaged in fuzzy goal
bad [businesses]. They always compared setting or no goal setting at all. They
themselves with their direct competitor. So if their would be much more successful if they
returns were nine and their competitors seven, chose one or the other model. (See however
they were doing very well. The fact that they what we have written in Section Seven,
should have been getting fifteen was difficult to Chapter 2: How Kiruv Organizations
comprehend. Jack Welch1 Begin, Develop and Mature.)
b. Quality vs. quantity:
c. How Unique is the
Or put differently targeting elites Population which your are
and leaders vs. targeting a broader Serving?
audience.
As we said above, it is not easy to Are you the only person dealing with this
answer the question, What constitutes particular population group? This might
success? but two things are for sure
numbers are a part of the story but they are Criteria for Success
never the whole story. Now here we must
The Market Standard
go back to your original vision. Let us say
that your vision for your organization is Quality vs. Quantity
that it will become a thriving community How unique is the
of baalei teshuvah, whose children will go
Population
to the best yeshivas and seminaries. Now
what you are saying is that you do not Your Unique Aptitude
hope to remain primarily a front-line
Measured against
organization. Rather, you hope to build a
Assimilation
Ensuring a Long-Term
1
Jack Welch Speaks by Janet Lowe, pg. Torah Presence in the
27 City
Translating Short-Term
Page 32 of 194 into Medium and Long-
Term Goals
Hashkafik Guidelines
apply to Russians or students or Presence in the City:
Sephardim, or yeshiva drop-outs, etc.
Uniqueness is not a license to keep on Perhaps a more realistic goal would be to
failing. But it is a consideration amongst understand that you have created a Torah
many in determining where to put the bar presence in the city, one that will ensure
for success. the Torah future of that city. This may
represent but a small percentage of the
d. Your Unique Aptitude: Jewry of that city, but it will ignite a
momentum, which will inexorably grow
You might see yourself as a one-mission bigger.
person. You are talented to do kiruv on
one type of population or in one area only. g. Translating Short-Term into
Yet, if you are failing even in your area of Medium and Long-Term Goals:
expertise then it may be time for you to get
out of kiruv altogether. You have invited a speaker to
town. 500 people show up. This is beyond
e. Measured against Assimilation: your wildest dreams. A success? Youve
got to be kidding! Well, not exactly. Why
The enemy is assimilation. The enemy is did you want 500 people in the room?
intermarriage. And the enemy is Jewish Now, you will say, I can get them on my
ignorance. Do we have a right to measure mailing list, and invite them to our
success against anything other than against programs. Now, heres the rub. I have
the problem, which is the reason for our met organizations that have developed
involvement to begin with. On the other mailing lists of thousands of people, but
hand, the problem is so vast, that the only a handful come to their programs.
question can be asked in the reverse. Dare Collecting names just wont hack it as a
we set ourselves up for failure by setting goal. Let us say that only 50 people came
the bar so high. In fact, when organizations to that talk, but that the next week you
set unrealistic goals, they tend to achieve called all 50 personally and made
less not more. On the other hand, can we appointments to meet with 40 of them over
deny the right of a single Jew to his or her coffee. Through those 40 meetings, you
heritage? On the other hand. start 5 new home groups, and 15 others
start coming to your programs. Now,
f. Ensuring the long-term Torah theres a success.
The logic-trap of the 500 people is
Vision a success syndrome can be avoided by
saying what your medium term goals are.
Besides allowing you to measure Let us say that you define that by the end
success, vision will often be the of the year you want your organization to
reason for success to begin with. be giving 20 new shiurim per week, to
It often happens that those who have 100 new, regular participants, and to
are relatively unsuccessful in the have 15 new baalei tshuvah. Now, and
short term succeed in the long- only now, you are ready to ask, In what
term because they are so way is this guest lecturer going to
passionately committed to their contribute to that goal.
vision. The hare might be faster, Some have retorted to me, Yes,
but the tortoise plods on, winning but a big crowd gets us on the map. It
the race. This is good only if you makes us a happening place. Once
do have clear feedback that you people have walked through the door once,
are indeed progressing, and that it will be easier to get them to walk
you have, in advance, set up a
clear way of measuring this.
Even
Page the
33 of tortoise
194 has to keep on
moving!
through the door a second time. And to one who says Pundak is saying that
that we must ask: Do you have a plan? Do Avraham Avinu tried to mekarev everyone.
you understand how it is that you are (All were gathered under his Pundak.) But
going to get them through that door again? the one who says that Eshel means Pardes
How likely is the plan to work? And then is referring to the Pardes of Chochma and
what? And is all this getting you to where holds that Avraham Avinu only mekareved
3
you want to go? The answer must be yes to the elite .
all the questions. A single no and you But only by a conscious decision to
knock out the whole idea. target leadership will you do so. Kiruv by
default will always lead to a numbers
game.
h. Hashkafik Guide-Lines Even members of Aish HaTorah,
who appear to be Hashkafically committed
Let us look at the numbers game to a numbers game, are really only
from a different angle. The average start-up articulating a tactical approach that would
organization is desperate to show success. agree with my analysis above. The Jewish
And success is understood to mean how world is suffering from a massive attrition
many people came to a function. I have due to intermarriage and assimilation. If
spoken with many start-up organizations, we are going to focus on mekareving Jews
and when I ask them how its going, they to full observance in Yiddishkeit, they say,
always tell me in terms of numbers. There that process is so labor intensive that by
is hardly ever any indication as to what the the time we have makereved a few Jews,
ages of these people are, whether they all the others will have disappeared. So
comprise a homogenous population group, Aish therefore asserts that we have to first
whether this group is a group of winners do a holding action increase the basic
and are likely to cause others like them to commitment of the masses to staying
come, what their background in Yiddishkeit Jewish and marrying fellow Jews, and then
is, etc. Now if you are trying to turn over we can focus on a second phase of
the town, it would seem that getting five or mekareving people to full observance.
ten real leaders to a shiur is going to be Now I have called this position tactical
worth more than getting fifty non-leaders because Aish agrees with everyone else
into the room. For the five or ten will be the that the goal has to be to mekarev people
cause of many more ultimately attending all the way. But many senior Aish staff
than the fifty will. have also agreed with me that the way to
The Maharal raised this issue in reach the masses is through targeting
reference to no less than the greatest quality leadership. By going for leading
mekarever of all time, Avraham Avinu. On
1
the verse , Rashi brings two , ,
opinions that Eshel is either a Pardes or a :( )
2
Pundak . The Gur Aryeh explains that the : 3
[ ] ...
" :( ): 1
" '
, .: "2 " ...
,
"
,
) ( ,
.' :(. )
, " .
,
Page 34 of 194
businessmen, professionals and In order to evaluate whether you are being
intellectuals, one will reach more of the successful or not you have to have proper
masses, not less. In fact, it was in two Aish feedback mechanisms to give you the
branches, in Toronto and in Kiev, where I information you need. Obviously, you
saw two great examples of this idea being have to have basic information like how
implemented in practice. many people came to programs etc., but
A third excellent example was there is also other information which you
initiated by my partner, Rabbi Yirmiyahu need to measure. You need to know the
Abramov, when he launched an Ohr quality of the people coming, the progress
Somayach branch in Johannesburg, South they are making and what is really
Africa. Today, Ohr Somayach South contributing to this. In addition you need
Africa has four dynamic branches in to know whether the organization is
Johannesburg, a boys school, a womans essentially healthy, dynamic and capable
seminary, a fabulous branch in Cape Town of taking the next step. It is good that each
and branches in Sydney and Melborne. employee be measured as well, even if you
How did all of this happen? One of the think that you know very well how they
first things that Rabbi Abramov did was to are all doing.
begin a shiur for top businessmen in the You need to create a culture that
homes of one of them on a Friday will allow everyone in the organization to
morning. The shiur reflected a cross- to speak freely and to tell the truth. Only
section of SAn Jewish wealth, and by a free atmosphere, where staff feel that
continues to this day. A few of those who they are free to talk about whats not being
came became observant; all became more done right, but in a positive and
enthusiastic about Yiddishkeit. And the constructive way, will problems be
message was out. Judaism is in. Even for identified, understood, and ultimately
the wealthiest of the wealthy. solved. If your staff will come to feel that
there is too much distance between you
Success does not prove that you and them you will never get clear
are doing the right things. information from them. You will be
presented with half-truths and they will
So you go through the list and you avoid conversations about difficult topics.
are successful. Do you declare a party? To create this atmosphere, you
Not yet. First, the frightening words of have to let staff in on the inside of your
Rav Tzadok HaCohen, that good results do thinking. Some leaders feel that many of
not always mean that it was the right thing their decisions are too nuanced, and too
to do: filled with confidential information to be
disseminated1. Besides, it takes time to
: explain what you are doing. And most
. leaders dont see how running around and
" telling everybody what they are thinking is
. the best use of their time.
But, as Ginger Graham2 puts it, A
lack of information does not build trust.
) Instead, a countervailing dynamic
(
()
1
Ginger Graham, see note below.
2
If You Want Honesty, Break Some
Feedback Mechanisms Rules, by Ginger L. Graham, Harvard
Business Review April 2002
Page 35 of 194
develops. People left in the dark fill the
void with their own mostly negative
interpretations of events. They point The clarity of No. 1 or No. 2 came
fingers at whoever they perceive is at fault from a pair of very tough questions
usually management. They fear theyll Drucker posed: If you werent
be blamed for whatever is wrong. Because already in the business, would you
no one feels free to talk about whats enter it today? And if the answer
happening, the culture becomes poisoned is no, What are you going to do
with speculation, blame shifting and self- about it?
protective behavior.
Honest feedback requires that you Jack Straight from the Gut,
model the behavior yourself. Becoming Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
comfortable enough with your
vulnerability to model honesty well is
probably the single most important thing a game. We have even used visual
leader who wants to build an honest demonstrations of openness and
organization can do. You cant expect accountability, like having management sit
people to be honest with you if you arent in the middle of a circle, surrounded by a
honest with them1. You have to own up group, such as the sales force, and take any
to your mistakes and your weaknesses. question from the floor.
This is incredibly difficult; all your natural One practice in particular has
self-protection mechanisms fight against it. helped our mangers become comfortable
But modeling honesty has a reward: When with vulnerability. Taking an idea from
you do it, people around you become more Roger Connors and Tom Smith, coauthors
honest themselves2. of the book The Oz Principle, we created a
Graham developed a novel very personal feedback process. Each
approach to ensure honesty and openness member of the senior management team
in her company3. She assigned to each would take turns sitting on a tall stool in
executive a coach from deep inside the front of the room. One by one their peers
organization. Drawn from the non- would bring up a shortcoming theyd
managerial ranks, these coaches were observed in the individuals performance
trained to ask questions and gather very and offer suggestions for improvement.
specific information from everyone about The manager on the hot seat (as it were)
executives openness and honest could only listen and not comment. As you
communication. can imagine, many a managers first
I added weekly walk-around to impulse was to disagree or try to explain
my schedule. I made it a point to eat in the away some of these comments. But if
cafeteria rather than grabbing a bite in my several people in the group mentioned the
office. I began to hold brown-bag lunches same thing, the manager would begin to
with small groups of employees understand that his or her behavior truly
throughout the year so they could voice needed to be addressed. As the members
their views to me directly. of the management team became more
As part of our annual, all- comfortable with this approach, they
employee state-of-the-union business began to welcome more and more
review, we always hold open town feedback.
meeting sessions. Any question is fair
1
Evaluations
Graham, ibid
2
Graham, ibid
3
Guidant
Page 36 of 194
Once you have a working definition of There is both an intuitive (leadership)
success, ask yourself how you are going to as well as a rigorous (management) side
evaluate whether a particular project was when deciding whether to do a new
successful or not. Know what you will do program or not, or whether to abandon an
if it is not successful. Will you close it old one. Several years ago the Heritage
down? Or will you make adjustments and House began a program called Study with
try it again? At regular intervals, you a Buddy. Study with a Buddy offered an
should be making evaluations of ongoing Internet chavrusa (a cyberbuddy) to learn
programs. At the end of the year you Torah. We would ideally try and find
should be doing a more fundamental someone a live chavrusa. Failing that, we
evaluation, when you ask whether overall offered, through Torah UMesorahs
you and the organization have been Telephone Partners, a telephone chavrusa.
successful for that year. Answering both However, most people selected to learn
questions is harder than it seems. And through the Internet.
having the courage to act, when it affects
the whole organization is as tough as can Everybody was excited by
be. Study with a Buddy staff,
tutors and those studying, some
Input vs. Output of whom had no Orthodox
resources in their area. Yet the
Input vs. output represent two
different ways of evaluating things that Heritage House closed that
can lead to very different assessments. program. We closed it against our
Lets take a very successful community own positive feelings, because it
organization. Input would measure how did not stand up to a rigorous
many branches it has made, how many evaluation.
shiurim it is giving per week, how many
Shabbatonim etc. It is what the This was a cheap, easy and effective
organization is putting into its kiruv. program. It also had a high public relations
Output is measured by the number of value for the organization.
people who attend programs and the We had several hundred people
progress they are making in their signing up and studying for a period of
Yiddishkeit. It is a measure of the time. By the end of a year we had 70
consequences of what is being put in. people studying long term.
Many organizations advertise input on
their brochures, which is good. But one Two had already made it to Israel to
should always measure success by output. visit their cyberbuddies. One became frum.
The other had a proper Chasuna with her
Sample Evaluations husband in front of the Kosel. (They had
been married only in a Civil Court until
Sample A. then.) Both are quite involved with the
local Orthodox community today.
Page 37 of 194
Everybody was excited by Study
with a Buddy staff, tutors and those Goal-Setting and Evaluations
studying, some of whom had no Orthodox
resources in their area. Yet the Heritage Vision-Mission Statement
House closed that program. We closed it
against our own positive feelings, because
it did not stand up to a rigorous evaluation. Goals
We asked ourselves, If we took this
money and gave it as scholarships to HH
alumni to encourage their return to Israel Strategies
to learn in Yeshiva and Seminary, how
effective would the money be? And the
answer trumped the Study with a Buddy Criteria for Success
option. Closing this program took courage.
The program was popular and a little Mosiditis tends to cut you off from
Evaluations
exotic. It was even successful. But it did the broader goals of serving HaSh-m
not stand up to rigorous scrutiny. and the Jewish People. It makes the
Most of us in kiruv suffer from a growth of the organization an end in
disease called Mosiditis. Mosiditis is the and of itself. And that is a dangerous
yetzer hara to constantly want the thing.
organization to grow and become bigger.
Now of course you should want to do
more for the Jewish People. But mosiditis detailed evaluation. The Rosh Kollel
tends to cut you off from the broader goals together with the Avreichim, will be
of serving HaSh-m and the Jewish People. responsible for writing a detailed report
It makes the growth of the organization an and presenting it to the donors. The six
end in and of itself. And that is a month report will be a five to eight page
dangerous thing. document. It will summarize the outreach
I am pro creativity and I am pro which the Kollel has been doing, an
growth. Failure to be creative is a failure evaluation of its success, and a projection
of leadership. Failure to stop rampant for the next six months. The annual
mosiditis is a failure of management. Once evaluation will take a critical look at all
mosiditis has been built into the aspects of the functioning of the Kollel,
organizational mentality it is very hard to including the learning, the finances, the
get rid of. Increasing amounts of your overall well-being of the avreichim, the
budget will be spent on programs or relationship of the Kollel with other
aspects of the organization, which are bodies, and the projected goals and plans
totally unproductive. I know an for the coming year.
organization that, under huge financial ii. Every year, immediately after the
stress, got rid of half its staff and was school year ends, the Kollel will meet
much better for it. They were lucky extensively over several days to evaluate
enough to have a crisis to correct their the previous year, and to set targets for the
illness. following year. A written report will be
submitted to interested parties. An attempt
Sample B. will be made to invite a senior outsider to
participate in this process.
The Katmandu Outreach Kollel iii. Following the one month summer
i. Every six months, the entire kollel vacation, the Kollel will meet extensively
operation will undergo a mini-evaluation, over several days, to plan for the coming
and every year, the kollel will undergo a year, according to the goals it set.
Page 38 of 194
4
audience is , what the educational strategy
5
of the organization is , follow-up, and the
Other components in Goal Setting and relationship of the organization to the
Evaluation broader community, both financially and
6
other .
If you really want to think at an
organizationally sophisticated level, there
are a few other issues that ought to be and leading, with a sense of idealism and
written up in a basic document of the mission.
organization. Many of these issues may 4
Sample: This organization will target all
seem obvious to you. But writing them up streams of the Jewish Community that are
will force you to think explicitly about in need of strengthening.
issues that are often intuited, and therefore All sectors of the population (children,
not fine-tuned. These issues are subsumed students, adults) should be targeted.
under two categories, Key Principles and There must be a comprehensive mapping
Program Management. of the Jewish Communities or
Neighborhoods in the city or county. This
Key Principles would include demography and full
profiles of the communities.
Careful strategic planning should be
A definition of Key Principles aims employed to identify communities and
at guaranteeing consistency and guidance institutions that would be the recipients of
in the day to day operations throughout all the kiruv staff.
parts of the project. Priority should be given to those sectors
This would include defining the with the highest risk of assimilation.
underlying Torah Hashkafos of the project1, Priority should be given to locations with
defining not only the qualifications of the large Jewish populations.
staff2, but what kind of midos they should The character of the community, the
3 financial ability etc. will determine if the
have . It must answer who the targeted
kiruv staff will be sent as individuals or as
task forces.
5
1
Sample: The Project is centered on Sample: The prime education strategy
Torah-true definitions and precepts. It is should be intellectually based.
based on the belief the All the Jewish The method of education should be non-
People is Responsible one for the other. invasive, and sensitive to the respective
backgrounds of the communities and
2
Sample: The kiruv staff should be au fait individuals targeted.
with, and skilled in modern education A special strategy must be devised for
communication techniques. dealing with university students who are
The kiruv staff should be fully cognizant of away from their communities and transient
the trends in society, and capable of by nature.
showing that the age-old principles of
6
Judaism are as relevant, contemporary, Sample: As far as possible there should
meaningful and sophisticated as ever be integration and cooperation with local
before. Jewish Institutions and Community
The wives of the kiruv staff should also be Leadership.
kiruv-minded to ensure active and passive It is crucial that the local community will be
support. capable of ongoing financial support for
the educational projects.
3
Sample: The kiruv staff should be Torah The Katmandu Fund may, in some cases,
scholars. provide incentive financial support, which
The kiruv staff should be dynamic people will be withdrawn as the project
of outstanding caliber, capable of inspiring progresses.
Page 39 of 194
managers do3.Along with this focus
Program Management comes energy. Energy emerges out of the
intense commitment and passion which
Program Management comprises a set of one has for the project. Some people are
mechanisms and tools for planning, controlling born with high levels of energy, for
and reporting the projects progress as well as example, and some, by nature, are more
1
the achievement of its goals . self-reflexive. But it is important not to
overlook the organizational context of the
Stay Focused & Energized behaviors. Organizations which have
positive energy will generally energize
most of its employees. Organizations with
Successful leaders have the ability negative energy will de-energize its
to zero in on a goal and see the task to employees, even high-energy ones.
completion. Focused managers arent in
reactive mode; they choose not to respond
immediately to every issue that comes
their way or get sidetracked from their
goals by distractions like e-mail, meetings,
setbacks and unforeseen demands.
Because they have a clear idea of what
they want to accomplish, they carefully
weigh their options before selecting a
course of action. Moreover, because they
commit to only one or two key projects,
they can devote their full attention to the
projects they believe in2. Purposeful
managers tend to be more self-aware than
most people. Their clarity about their
intentions, in combination with strong
willpower, seems to help them to make
sound decisions about how to spend their
time. They pick their goals and their
battles with far more care than other
Page 40 of 194
3
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we know what to do with it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Page 41 of 194
behavior. Boundaryless, he stated,
would also open us up to the best ideas
and practices from other companies. It To be effective, an innovation has to
be simple, and it has to be focused. It
would make each of us wake up with the
should do only one thing; otherwise it
goal of Finding a Better Way Every confuses people. Indeed, the greatest
Day. Wed use it to lightheartedly praise an innovation can receive is for
embarrass someone who wasnt sharing an people to say, That is obvious! Why
idea or a manager who wouldnt give up a didnt I think of it? Its so simple! even
good employee to another business [within the innovation that creates new users
the company]. Someone would joke, and new markets should be directed
Thats real boundaryless behavior1! toward a specific, clear, and carefully
In fact, creativity can be a yetzer designed application.
hara and needs to be distinguished from Peter F. Drucker in Harvard Business Review,
Aug. 2002
what we will call constructive innovation.
A new idea is not guaranteed to take you
forward. Often, we get hooked on the
newness of the thing and become excited get once inside. In fact, any organization
about doing something just because it is which does not have ten to fifteen ideas
different. Maybe better to spend that time which it is not currently implementing is
preparing a new shiur or more personal not worthy of the name outreach
time meeting with someone, rather than organization.
running after new ideas. The Torah, after Innovation involves creativity, but
all is eternal, and speaks for itself. it is also includes a fairly rigorous process.
But, although this perspective has It requires you first and foremost to be
something to it, as a singular philosophy it alert enough to see where it is you may be
is wrong. The way we see the problem is stuck and to be willing to take time out
the problem, in Coveys words2. Besides (maybe the most difficult part) to take a
being a recipe for burnout it simply good look at it. As Henry Thoureau put it,
underestimates the human capacity to be a
Mechadesh, to find new and interesting How can we remember our
ways of bringing people through the door ignorance, which our growth
and of fine-tuning the presentations they requires, when we are using our
knowledge all the time.
Page 42 of 194
population out there changed and the old
formulas no longer worked. Other
organizations changed their approach A wise man will make more
accordingly, but these two did not. They opportunities than he finds.
were in denial, denial of the facts. They Francis Bacon
paid a heavy price. Facts, a McKinsey
consultant stated, are your friends.1 Never just tinkering, more of the same done a
begin a discussion without basic little better, it allows you to attempt to
information. You should demand that staff make a breakthrough. It allows you not
who make presentations come in prepared. only to solve a problem, but to create
If they havent done their homework, send something new which is positive in-and
them packing. It will quickly be of-itself.
understood what the standards are in your Let us say, for example, that you
organization.2 ask yourself the question, not who is
coming to your programs and classes but
The targeted population out who is not coming. Let us say that you
there is subject to a changing realize that the real winners in a secular
cultural landscape. The successful sense, the top lawyers and doctors and
kiruv formula of the seventies may businessmen are not represented at all.
no longer work in the nineties. Now you know that a better poster,
a fancier title or nicer refreshments is not
After the facts comes a stage in going to make the slightest difference. You
problem solving which Mckinsey calls begin to think creatively. Should you make
MECE mutually exclusive, collectively home groups for these people? Should you
exhaustive. This means that the problem is create a non-Torah forum for them,
defined in a list where all the items are seminars or conferences on medical, legal
separate and distinct (i.e. mutually and business ethics? The answer may
exclusive) and also includes every item come in a flash, or it may emerge slowly
which is relevant to the issue (i.e. after many hours of work. It will be, to
collectively exhaustive).3 quote the old adage, a product of 99%
Now, once you have done this, perspiration and 1% inspiration. But the
what creativity lets you do is, instead of 1% will have to be there. It represents the
new level of thinking which will make all
Opportunities are usually the difference.4
disguised
1
as hard work, so most Brainstorming takes time. It takes
Ethan Rasiel, The Mckinsey
people dont recognize them. Way, pg. 4
the right environment. And it usually takes
& 5. Rasiel writes: Despite (or possibly
Ann Landers two or more people. Florida Gushing and
because of) the power of facts, many
business people fear them. . Maybe Gates have it right when they say that,
they think that if they dont look, the nasty Notions about innovation have undergone
facts will go away but they wont. Hiding a sea change in the last decade. Where
from the facts is a prescription for failure once we embraced the idea of a lone
eventually, truth will out. You must not fear scientist or entrepreneur and divine
the facts. Hunt for them, use them, but do inspiration, we now see network of
not fear them. (ibid. pg. 5)
2
David Orselet, a retired GE executive
warns: The one thing you can never do
with Jack is wing it. If he ever catches you 4
Einstein observed, The significant
winging it, youre in trouble. You have to problems we face cannot be solved at the
go in with in-depth information. (ibid. pg. same level of thinking we were at when
43) we created them. (In Covey, pg. 42)
3
Ibid. pg. 6-8
Page 43 of 194
Work-Out meant just what the words implied: taking unnecessary work
out of the system. A typical Work-Out lasted two to three days. It started with a
presentation by the manager who might issue a challenge or outline a broad
agenda and then leave. Without the boss present and with a facilitator to grease
the discussions, employees were asked to list problems, debate solutions, and
be prepared to sell their ideas when the boss returned. The neutral outside
facilitator, one of two dozen academics drafted by Jim Bauhgman, made the
exchanges between the employees and the manager go a lot easier. The real
novelty here was that we insisted managers make on-the-spot decisions on
each proposal. They were expected to give a yes-or-no decision on at least 75
percent of the ideas. If a decision couldnt be made on the spot, there was an
agreed-upon date for a decision. No one could bury the proposals. As people
saw their ideas getting instantly implemented, it became a true bureaucracy
buster.
creative people collaborating in myriad Get some refreshments. And request that
steps from brainstorm to finish product1. cell phones be turned off. On the one hand
The Heritage House brainstorming staff need to get a clear signal from you
meetings are held out of the office, where that they should be turning on the creative
even emergencies do not intrude. On juices. You have to invite your staff to
occasion, Ner LeElef has rented deviate from routine problem solving
conference rooms in hotels. Most often, approach and pursue untried ideas.
we invite a knowledgeable outsider to On the other hand, do not confuse
attend, to give us some fresh perspective. brainstorming with hefkerus. Come with a
If need be, we fly the person in2. planned agenda of what you want to be
creative about. For innovation to be
1 reliable it needs to be applied
Harvard Business Review, August 2002:
Richard Florida, Robert Cushing and Gary
systematically, like any business issue
Gates, When Social Capital Stifles
Innovation opposed to asking, Well really, how many
people can become qualified to give legal
2
When Ner LeElef introduced its monthly ethics courses to lawyers? There will be
C-Week meetings (C = creativity), we plenty of opportunities in the future to
learned that it takes practice being poke holes at things.
creative. The purpose of a C-Week Creativity also takes a bit of patience. Not
meeting is to take one topic or problem, every creativity meeting will be successful.
and to brainstorm about it. In the Sometimes the success is one little insight
beginning some of us were looking for a in a whole meeting. And that too is
lot of structure, asking for a clear agenda worthwhile. The cumulative wisdom of
and some of us broke all bounds of holding regular meetings, however, is
structure, not sticking to the topic at all. enormous. Sometimes, the value of the
Neither is good for healthy creativity, but idea will be in the stimulation, which keeps
we quickly learned how to get it right. Not people fresh and alert. It may trigger a
only does the topic have to be in focus, second idea much later of great benefit.
but so does the tone. The way to think Dont presume that the creative process
creatively is not to start out by saying what ends with a creativity meeting.
is wrong with an idea. The idea is to start Sometimes, a germination period needs to
out with what is right about the idea. Oh, take place.
this would be good for so and so, as
Page 44 of 194
the idea is not right for you today, but it
What all the successful entrepreneurs I may be perfect in six months or two years
have met have in common is not a from now3. And yes, to get to those
certain kind of personality but a winners, you will sometimes land out
commitment to the systematic practice trying things which dont work. Every
of innovation. leading kiruv organization I know can talk
about all those failed ideas, lots of them.
Peter F. Drucker, The Discipline of
Innovation in Harvard Business The better a man is, the more
Review, Aug, 2002 mistakes he will make, for the more
new things he will try. I would never
promote into a top level job a man
which you define the problem and then who was not making
solve it: what do we want to accomplish, mistakes...otherwise he is sure to be
and how? What resources will we need? mediocre.
Who will be on thee team? How do we Peter Drucker
motivate and reward them? And how will
we measure success1? You go down 27,000 blind alleys.
If you know of an outsider who has It doesnt work. You start again. You
expertise in the area you are discussing, feel theres no hope while youre
then have him come along. However, any asking those questions, pressing,
intelligent outsider can usually add to a probing, pushing. But you have to get it
brainstorming meeting. resolved; Otherwise youd spend your
Be careful not to dominate. That whole life looking for the ultimate
defeats the purpose of such sessions. And answer.
be careful to create a safe environment Jack Welch4
where people feel free to speak up without
feeling that their ideas are going to be The failure-tolerant leader is not one who
considered dumb. If the idea was abandons standards, accountability or
sincerely meant, but you disagree with it, rigorous thinking. As Farson and Keys
take a minute to explain why. Who
knows? After a few minutes of discussing
3
it, it might not seem such a bad idea after In Let go of youre ideas, Nolan Bushnell,
all.2 And even if it is dumb, the (Harvard Business Review, August, 2002) writes: I
environment must be such that people can think its essential to build a culture where there is
no such thing as a bad idea. At uWink, for example
feel safe putting it on the table anyhow. we have regular compost sessions to come up
Even then, not every idea is going with new game ideas. We dont debate their value.
to work. The fastest way to succeed, Our priority is simply to get as many ideas as
IBMs Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, is possible out of individual heads and into group
to double your failure rate. In fact, only heads. The ideas then become cultivate problems or
puzzles that percolate through the group. And a
about one in ten ideas will be worth couple of months later, someone - very often not
implementing. Only one in twenty will be the person that came up with the particular idea-
real successes. But, the cumulative effect has a break-through insight that lets us to move
of these ideas amounts to at least one new froward.
winner which we are hearing of around
the kiruv world every week. Sometimes 4
Jack Welch Speaks pg. 37. I failed my
way to success, said Thomas Edison,
1
inventor of the light bulb. Jack Welch
Craig Wynett, Make it the Norm, in blew up a small plant early on in his
Harvard Business Review, August 2002 career. (Ibid., pg. 170)
2
Ethan Rasiel, The McKinsey Way, pg. 97
Page 45 of 194
point out1, one can and must tell the
difference between an excusable and an For me, wallowing has always
inexcusable failure. Managing for failure
been a key part of how we ran
requires [you to] ask simple but
GE. Get a group of people
illuminating questions when a project falls
around a table, regardless of
short of its goals:
- Was the project designed their rank, to wrestle with a
conscientiously, or was it carelessly particularly tough issue. Stew
organized? on it from every angle flush
- Could the failure have been prevented out everyones thinking but
with more thorough research or dont come to an immediate
consultation? conclusion.
- Was the project a collaborative
process, or did those involved resist Jack Straight from the Gut,
useful input from colleagues or fail to Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
inform interested parties of their
progress?
- Did the project remain true to its goals If you are the type of person who
or did it appear to be driven solely by immediately thinks of ten good reasons
personal interest why something cannot work, learn to
- Were projections of risks, costs and suppress expressing your reservations at
timing honest or deceptive? first. When someone tells you a new idea,
- Were the same mistakes made first begin to engage in a creative dialogue
repeatedly. with him to develop the idea further.
Sometimes this discussion will lead to a
different direction, which may be the final
Creativitys Partners answer. And all your problems may then
not apply. In fact, most problems are
i. Optimism technicalities that can and will be worked
out if you are sold on the idea.
There is a vital partner to Dont ever respond to any idea,
creativity, and that is optimism. Optimism Thats great, but we have no money right
is not an excuse for engaging in fuzzy- now. Thats the poorest of reasons to kill
thinking. But it does give you the right an idea. You will never have enough
headspace to explore new ideas. Jack money for any idea until you are
Welch said of himself, I am an optimist, sufficiently committed to the idea. And
someone who is often accused of seeing then you will go out and find it.
the glass as half full. And Im probably While I am not advocating going
guilty as charged.2 Some personalities into debt as a policy, there are times when
suffer from the Let me tell you whats an opportunity knocks and one simply has
wrong with that syndrome. Pessimism, to jump. Shakespeare put it well when he
said Arnold Bennet3, when you get used to had Caesar say,
it, is just as agreeable as optimism.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
1
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to
Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes in The Failure- fortune;
Tolerant Leader, Harvard Business Review, August
2002 Omitted, all the voyage of their life is
bound in shadows and in misery.
2
Jack Welch Speaks, pg. 36.
3
Things that Have Interested Me ii. Implementation:
Page 46 of 194
idea for a great painting [should never be
Suppose you know two artists. One tells confused] with the great painting itself.
you an idea for a great painting, but he The fact that you can put a dozen
does not paint it. The other has the same inexperienced people in a room and
idea and paints it. You could easily say the conduct a brainstorming session that
second man is a great creative artist. But produces exciting new ideas show how
the first man is a talker, not a painter. An
little relative importance ideas themselves irresponsibility from blame, work, and
actually have. Almost anybody with the other routine necessities of organized
intelligence of the average businessman society.
can produce them, given a halfway decent [Ideas are worthless until
environment and stimulus. The scare somebody] assumes the responsibility for
people are those how have the know-how, converting them from words into action.
energy, daring and staying power to What is often lacking is not creativity in
implement ideas. the idea-creating sense but innovation in
Children are extremely creative, as any the action-producing sense, i.e. putting
kindergarten teacher will testify. They ideas to work. Therefore, when anyone
have a naive curiosity which stumps suggests an idea, the responsible procedure
parents with questions like: why can you is to include at least some minimal
see through glass? Why is there a hole indication of what it involves in terms of
in a doughnut? Why is the grass cost, risks, manpower, time, and perhaps
green? It is this kind of questioning even specific people who ought to carry it
attitude that produces in them so much through. Adapted from Theodore Levitt,
creative freshness. Yet the unique posture Creativity is not Enough in Harvard Business
of their lives is their almost total Review, August, 2002.
Page 47 of 194
4
Youre running your own kiruv And a totally reactive person can never be
organization. You have barely rolled out of as qualitatively effective as he needs to
bed when the phone rings. Its a call from be1.
your student Jamie who is learning in In order to achieve your full
Israel to tell you that he is engaged. You potential as a leader, you have, to be
make it to davening - a little late but you proactive to some degree. Proactive means
make it. You notice that Bill came this that you are in charge and that you are not
morning that makes it a full week since merely responding to events: It means that
he started doing minyan as he puts it. you are initiating activities and
You sit next to him guide him through anticipating situations and problems and
things; you make sure to give him lots of effectively preparing for them before they
chizuk. You have just begun another occur. Reactive means that you are
madhouse day. spending your whole day responding to
During davening someone things. Events seem to control you, to
approaches you about a problem he is present themselves to you and to occupy
having at work; a staff member asks you all of your time.
for a raise; the bank needs some The ideal formula for any kiruv
documents signed; your biggest donor asks leader is to become proactive for a
you to find him a place for Shabbos in minimum of 25% of his time, 40% is ideal.
Jerusalem; you have to rush to fill in for We need time to be creative; to plan new
one of your chaverim who was scheduled events; to think how to make new
to give a shiur on campus and you have to breakthroughs; to investigate a new
get the ads for the dinner journal finished - neighborhood and to make a decision
all without the secretary who decided to whether to target it or not.
give birth last week. To top it all the If we leave things to their natural
photocopying machine wont work and course, then we will become totally
that phone it rings off the hook the whole reactive. A reactive person deals with what
day. Rabbi what time is Mincha? Are is there already maintaining and
you giving your class tonight? Is this an nurturing what has been done. This is
Orthodox Organization? You finally get important too. But, the people who have
home late at night, your cell phone still not been reached will never have a place in
blazing away, and drop into bed,
exhausted but feeling good about yourself.
1
You really worked hard and all in the Of course we all have off days, days
service of the Jewish people. when we feel that we have not achieved
This may come as a shocker, but if much even if we were busy all day. Jack
Welch, former CEO of GE said of himself:
the above profile fits you, you will never
There are days I sign things and push
do big things for the Jewish people. Nor papers around and go home knowing I
will your organization. Much of what you didnt really do a lot of anything. (Jack
may be doing may be tremendously worth Welch Speaks pg. 30). However, these
while in fact all of it may be important off-days need to be considered the
and productive but all of it is reactive. exception rather than the rule.
Page 48 of 194
a reactive day. It takes a continuous
conscious mind-set and constant
application to stay proactive.
Page 49 of 194
5
Time Management as a Function of Leadership rather
than Management
The immediate reaction of kiruv have to do is indeed a Chesed to yourself.
workers to the challenge of becoming It will relieve you of stress and hassle. But
more proactive is, So teach me time- it will not make you a better leader. (I call
management. Now, it is important to this level one time management and we
learn how to take all the things you have to will deal with this in Section Five, where
do and to learn how to organize your day we talk about managing and taking care of
so that you get it all in. But shuffling the yourself.) What will help you to lead is to
deck more efficiently will only buy you so prevent your day from being so cluttered
much time. Essentially this is a managerial with reactive items that you are not able to
tool, not a leadership one. Understanding focus on the larger issues of the
how you are going to arrange all that you organization.
Proactive Vision,
Leadership Find Partners Delegate Goals,
Strategies and
Evaluations
Time- Become
Manageme Selectively Technology Prioritize
nt Accessible
Page 50 of 194
evaluations. If you are going to stay pour it in until the jar was filled to the
focused, and not get bogged down in brim. Then the expert in time-management
details which may steer you away from the looked at the class and asked, What is the
vision which you have set for the point of this illustration?
organization, it is vital that you review
these periodically. I know from personal One eager beaver raised his hand and said,
experience that this is rarely done by most The point is, no matter how full your
organizational heads. But until you do this, schedule is, if you try really hard you can
you will simply never see the wood from always fit some more things in it. No,
the trees. the speaker replied, thats not the point.
The truth this illustration teaches us is this:
There is an oft-quoted story which If you dont put the big rocks in first,
illustrates this: Big Rocks youll never get them in at all. What are
the big rocks in your life? Your children.
One day, an expert in time management Your spouse. Your loved ones. Your
was speaking to a group of business friendships. Your education. Your dreams.
students and, to drive home a point, used A worthy cause. Teaching or mentoring
an illustration those students will never others. Doing things that you love. Time
forget. As he stood in front of the group of for yourself. Your health. Remember to
high-powered overachievers, he said, put these BIG ROCKS in first, or youll
okay, time for a quiz. He then pulled out never get them in at all. If you sweat the
a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and little stuff (i.e. gravel, sand, then youll fill
set it on the table in front of him. Then he your life with little things you worry about
produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks that dont really matter, and youll never
and carefully placed them, one by one, into have the real quality time you need to
the jar. When the jar was filled to the top spend on the big, important stuff (the big
and no more rocks would fit inside, he rocks).
asked, is this jar full? everyone in the
class said, Yes. So tonight, or in the morning, when you
are reflecting on this short story, ask
Then he said, Really? He reached under yourself this question: What are the big
the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. rocks in my life? Then put those in your
Then he dumped some gravel in and shook jar first.
the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work
themselves into the spaces between the big
rocks. Then he asked the group once more.
Is this full?
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6
Big things are done by teams of people. One-man shows will always get stuck at a
certain point. Some one-man shows manage to employ numerous people. They may have the
superficial look and smell of a real organization. But they will only go so far. Unless you
really believe this, you will probably not be pushed to find a partner. For it is much more
comfortable to be sitting at the top of the pyramid by yourself, condemned to be a small
player forever. Stephen Covey is quite right when he calls the need for independence as a
form of immaturity2.
Whereas partners are essential for doing bigger things now, they are even more
important for the longer-term viability of the organization. They provide institutional depth.
Every healthy organization should be built in such a way that it can continue to run quite well
without any particular person involved. Any time I hear someone say, It is unthinkable to
imagine the Roundtree Machon existing without Rabbi Shlapperbersky, I know that that
institution is headed for trouble, sooner or later. An organization has institutional depth when
you go away for three weeks and people hardly notice. It is a little disconcerting to return and
to find that people managed quite well without you, but that is an issue between you and your
therapist.
There is a corollary to the partners-principle, the idea of teams. We will deal with this
below.
We may debate whether couples who are likes make for better marriages than those
who are opposites, but the best partnerships appear to be of the latter kind, when each partner
brings different strengths to the table. Your partner does not have to be like you in order for
you to have a deep, mutual respect. What is required is a headspace whereby you feel that
most issues do not have to go your way3. Rav Shach, ", was once asked by a Chasan for 3
pieces of advice to guide him into a marriage. Rav Shachs answer was: , ,. A
1
Leadership in the Combat Zone, Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2001
2
The Seven Habits, pg. 51: If I am physically interdependent, I am self-reliant and capable,
but I also realize that you and I working together can accomplish far more than, even at my
best, I could accomplish alone. If am emotionally interdependent, I derive a great sense of
worth within myself, but I also recognize the need for love, for giving, and for receiving love
from others. If I am intellectually interdependent, I realize that I need the best thinking of
other people to join with my own.
3
See below in this section on teamwork. See also under management where we talk about
how to look for employees who are team players.
Page 52 of 194
partnership is like a marriage. If this is the advice for your own , certainly it is good
for your partner of a different sort.
One of the most remarkable partnerships is that of Rabbis Mendel Weinbach and Nota
Schiller, Roshei Yeshiva of Ohr Somayach. These gentlemen are so opposite in their style,
and often differ in their vision of the Mosad. But their partnership is enduring and fabulously
productive. However, their partnership with Rabbi Noach Weinberg, in the early days of Ohr
Somayach, did not endure. The difference was not different visions of the organization that
exists between Rabbis Weinbach and Schiller today. The difference was, and remains, a
fundamentally different hashkafa on the nature of kiruv and even, at times, its halachik
implications. And that is not something any party should be willing to compromise on1.
But most partnerships break up over lesser things. Rarely, is the issue kavod. Kavod is
something which can be endlessly reproduced, in many different forms. I joke with my staff
that half their monthly salary is paid in Kavod. You can always meet your partners Kavod
needs and, even if he does not show the need for it, you should always look to give him
Kavod.
Partnerships break up, not over who gets to say the Brocha under the Chupa, but over
power. When one looks at the actual issues over which partnerships broke up, they rarely
make sense. But they are symbols of power, of . Kavod is for beginners. Power is the
mature persons . Power becomes an issue when people feel more loyalty to their
mosad than they do to their partner. This should never be the case. A true partner will stand
by his shutaf, even if they have to leave the mosad together. If partners do not have mutual
loyalty, then they have compromised their basic institutional integrity. This will show up in
all aspects of the mosads operation.
1
This is one of those cases where I truly believe the break up has been beneficial to the
Jewish nation. It is hard to imagine that as much would have been achieved by the parties
had they all stayed together.
Page 53 of 194
point has to be that it is not an option to split up; that you have got to
make this work.
Partners require lots of communication, loads of it. In fact, with a real partner, you
should feel anxious if you cannot get hold of him for a day. You should feel the urgency of
sharing with him, not only to take advice or to update, but just for the sheer joy of sharing.
Delegation
One of the most difficult things for of the ordinary worker, into the corporate
any kiruv leader is to learn how to arena1.
delegate. People have told me: If you Welch went a step further. He
want to get something done, you have to realized that by delegating he was not
do it yourself; or, I cant delegate, the making a necessary compromise in order
things I am doing are just too important. to do more, as conventional wisdom would
Or We are at such a critical stage right have it. He saw that his workers, being
now, I simply have to handle this myself. specialists in their field, would be able to
Knowing when to meddle and when to let go was a pure gut decision.
I managed tight when I sensed I could make a difference. I managed loose
when I knew I had little if anything to offer.
Consistency was not a requirement here. Sometimes being an undisciplined,
unmade bed got the job done faster. You pick and you choose your
opportunities to make a difference. I loved to go on the field when I thought
I could play, and I loved cheering from the sidelines when I didnt think I
belonged in the game.
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
And of course, I just cant afford to take act in areas of which he was really quite
on (the right kind of) help. ignorant.
Delegation is not something that People say, Jack, how can you be
comes naturally to most leaders. In fact a at NBC; you dont know anything about
Rosh Yeshiva of a leading Baal Teshuvah dramas or comedies. Welch
Yeshiva told me that it was the hardest explained. Well, I cant build a jet engine,
thing which he ever had to learn. After all, either. I cant build a turbine. Our job at
anything which he delegated to others he GE is to build resources human and
knew he could do better himself. But it can financial. The idea of getting great talent,
be learned. One of the reasons that General giving them all the support in the world,
Electric was such a great success under and letting them run, is the whole
Jack Welch was that he learned to do what
even great CEOs had found to challenging,
to bring the democratic process, the voice 1
Jack Welch Speaks, by Janet Lowe, pg.
xviii
Page 54 of 194
going to be satisfied with your employees
work, that you are a perfectionist, then
There is probably nothing worse in understand that, in the long run, you are
business than to work for a boss always going to remain essentially a one
who doesnt want you to win. man show. You may have lots of people
working for you but none of them will
Jack Straight from the Gut, really do anything independently that is
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne creative or significant3. As one GM
Motors employee once put it, For 50
years GM has been employing my body,
when they could have also gotten my mind
management philosophy of GE, whether it
for free.
is in turbines, engines, or a network1.
So what if things do not get done
I found a similar thing in the
as well. In the long run much more is
Heritage House. The campus guy knows
going to get done. Part of delegating is to
more about the dynamics of students than I
watch a staff member doing something
do and the guy who runs the hostels is
wrong and not to say anything. Save your
more of an expert in that area than I could
involvement for the big time. The issue is
hope to be. Similarly, the staff doing
not whether something could have been
follow-up. And if they did not come into
done better. It can always be done better.
the organization that way, it did not take
Rather, focus on whether the program is
long. This is the way it should be.
growing, whether it has a good reputation,
Delegation has to be learned,
and most important of all, focus on
otherwise you are always going to be
believing in the person doing the job. All
overwhelmed, and you will become a
people, with their formidable intelligence,
pathetic half-baked expert at everything.
depth of feeling and desire to grow, are
Learn to be a massive delegator, and you
will do big things.
Getting the right people in the
right jobs is a lot more
important than developing a
Get Out of the Way, Stop strategy.
Jack Straight from the Gut,
Managing and Start Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Serving & Leading2
capable of doing great things. But they
Many people have the idea that, need to believe in themselves; they need a
even after they have delegated, they have
to micro-manage to look over the details
of everything that has been done. This is 3
Ralph Stayer wrote an interesting article
silly, for it defeats the object of delegation. on this point called How I Learned to Let
As a delegator, you have to nurture people My Workers Lead, printed in the
and their ideas, not control them. You have November-December 1990 edition of the
to become more of a cheerleader than a Harvard Business Review, Stayer writes
controller. If you feel that you are not how he had to learn to stop controlling,
and start coaching. Stayer finally learned
1
the difference between letting people
Jack Welch Speaks, by Janet Lowe, pg. independently make the decision he would
10 have made and really allowing people to
2
Expanded from an article written for the make their own decisions.
Yesodos Magazine.
Page 55 of 194
certain confidence to lead1. The easiest Getting every employees mind
way to get them to fulfill that potential is into the game is a huge part of
to believe in them and let them know it.
what the CEO job is all about.
You let them know it first and foremost by
Taking everyones best ideas and
giving them as much autonomy
transferring them to others is the
imaginable.
For this reason never monitor the secret. Theres nothing more
hours of any senior staff member and let important. I tried to be a sponge,
them know that at the outset. The surest absorbing and questioning every
way to get people to want to keep on good idea. The first step is being
growing is for them to trust and respect open to the best of what
themselves. The surest way for you to everyone, everywhere, has to
nurture that is to show that you trust and offer. The second is transferring
respect them. And one of the best ways to that learning across the
do that is to make people feel that they are organization.
accountable to themselves. Few people Jack Straight from the Gut,
want to underachieve. Most people need Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
some framework, like what the minimum
number of hours per week they are
required to do. But I have never had a Your headspace should be, You
senior staff member who only worked dont work for me. I work for you! Part
those hours. This is because most people of your work is to work for your employee
really want to do what is needed. Only in to make it happen for him when he gets
the case of secretarial staff, who are stuck, to broaden his horizons, to act as
serving an office with definite hours, is it cheer-leader and to get rid of obstacles. If I
necessary to have a clock in and clock out am good at what I am supposed to do, then
system. True, Shiurim have to be given on my employee will come to me it will be
time. Meetings have to be kept. But staff worth his while. If he doesnt, I usually
get to choose their own hours. If I have a regard it as my fault, not his. It is I who
staff member whom I need to be accessible have to show him that I can be of help, not
at a certain time, I tell him and leave the the other way around. When an employee
solution up to him. comes to me with a problem, or for a
And if a particular staff member general discussion of how to move things
takes advantage, then fire him. He is not forward, I try to solve things on the spot. I
for you. But dont waste your days try to make the phone calls, do the
monitoring him. networking, write the proposal, all together
with the person right there. His presence
forces me to deal with the issue. And it
Who Works For Whom? gives him a feeling of my availability and
responsiveness. I know that once he walks
out of the door I am probably not going to
have another minute to take care of it.
1 On the other hand, I do not solve
Jack Welch put it this way: It is a series
problems for people who can take care of
of reinforcing confidence builders which
we all go through. When youre elected it themselves. In such cases I try to provide
captain of the team it just happens whatever it is I think the person needs in
youre used to a series of experiences, order to do it by themselves. And usually
and people look to you and respond my first question after a problem has been
favorably to you. (Jack Welch Speaks by presented is, What do you think?
Janet Lowe, pg. 14)
Page 56 of 194
When you see things this way you one spoon of management. If this is a new
will understand what Henry Mintzberg recipe for you, try it. It tastes delicious!
means by calling a senior executive a Of course there will be times when
conductor of a symphony orchestra rather something doesnt get done at all. Worse
than someone who carefully micro- still, sometimes the person may mess up
manages staff1. The role of the executive and cause damage. But overall, thats a
is, through a constant stream of small price to pay; for by delegating you
unobtrusive actions, to infuse others (often not only free yourself up, you also free the
quietly) to perform with inspiration and creative juices of the person to whom you
talent. Mintzberg calls this a covert leader. are delegating. My experience has been
And he agrees such leaders are engaged on that most of the people to whom I delegate
the shop floor rather than detached in their ultimately did a better job than I could
offices. have.
What emerges from this is a very There may have been a learning
liberating insight that by serving in this curve to start with; but ultimately they
way you actually lead. What you are trying became the experts in their field. I, on the
to reduce is not serving but managing. other hand, remained just a kol bonik.
Steven Covey made famous the distinction
between a leader and a manager. A
manager is an efficiency expert superb Nurturing Managers
posters, balanced budgets, everyone with a
job definition. A leader inspires, has a Delegating goes beyond giving
vision and is able to communicate that staff the job to do. It has to involve giving
vision to others. This is an essential some of your staff the mandate to become
element of delegation, the subject of this leaders themselves. Usually, this requires
chapter. If, as a leader, you cannot that you appoint staff to formal positions
communicate a shared understanding of in charge of something or another, i.e. a
the organizations goals, then indeed your formal managerial role. Of course there are
delegation will be problematic. As a leader dangers in this. Elsewhere, we talked
your job is not only to energize and about the Peter Principle, elevating
invigorate, but also to give people a sense someone beyond their level of
of mission, elicit passion and commitment competence. As Carol Walker points out2,
that is specifically directed. As a server, a more common problem is the fact that
you give people the extra tools and help many in this position fail to grasp how
they need to feel empowered by their
mandate.
Every kiruv leader is part manager. This all happened because Reg
Personal and organizational management [the previous CEO] had the
is so essential that we have dedicated two courage to pick someone [Jack
sections to these issues. But woe to you if Welch himself] who was 180
you make management your primary degrees from what was then the
expression and leadership secondary. model GE executive.
So the recipe is about three spoons Jack Straight from the Gut,
of delegation, two spoons of leadership, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
two spoons of serving and no more than
1 2
Covert Leadership: Notes on Managing Saving Your Rookie Managers from
Professionals in Harvard Business Themselves, By Carol A. Walker, Harvard
Review, Nov.-Dec. 1998 Business Review, April 2002
Page 57 of 194
their roles have changed that their jobs response of rookies when faced with such
are no longer about personal achievement challenges is to just do it, thinking thats
but instead about enabling others to what got them promoted in the first place.
achieve, that sometimes driving the bus But their reluctance to delegate
means taking a backseat, and that building assignments also has its roots in some very
a team is often more important than just real fears.
doing it yourself and getting the program First is the fear of losing stature: If
done. Even the best employees can have I assign high-profile projects to my staff
trouble adjusting to these new realities. members, theyll get the credit. What kind
That trouble may be exacerbated by of visibility will I be left with? Will it be
normal insecurities that make rookie clear to my boss and my staff what value
managers hesitant to ask for help, even Im adding?
when they find themselves in thoroughly Second is the fear of abdicating
unfamiliar territory. As these new control: If I allow Yankie to do this, how
managers internalize their stress, their can I be sure that he will do it correctly? In
focus becomes internal as well. They the face of this fear, the rookie manager
become insecure and self-focused and may delegate tasks but supervise Yankie
cannot properly support their teams. so closely that he will never feel
Inevitably, trust breaks down, staff accountable.
members are alienated, and productivity Finally, the rookie may be hesitant
suffers. to delegate work because hes afraid of
As Carol Walker points out, overburdening his staff. He may be
effective delegation may be one of the uncomfortable assigning work to former
most difficult tasks for rookie managers. peers for fear that theyll resent him. But
Wanting to show that they are worthy of the real resentment usually comes when
the appointment, they feel under a lot of staff members feel that lack of opportunity
pressure to produce results. The natural is blocking their advancement.
Page 58 of 194
Seemingly capable rookie
managers often try to cover up a failing We needed a way to surface the best
ideas and move them quickly through the
project or relationship just until they can organization. Thats what our operating system
get it back under control. A newly came to be. Like all companies, we always had a
promoted manager doesnt want you to see series of planned meetings and reviews
weaknesses, lest you think you made a throughout the year. What boundaryless did was
mistake in promoting him1. link the meetings to create an operating system
that was built on a continuous flow of ideas. I saw
When you first put someone in every meeting as a building block for ideas. Each
such a position, you have got to invest in one built upon the other one until the ideas
them. Dont expect him to just get it. became bigger and better. Thats what made it
Explain and nurture the person over the more than just a bunch of boring, time-consuming
next couple of years into higher levels of business sessions.
New employees often comment that what
managerial competence. Make sure that he makes GE different is the steady drumbeat of
feels comfortable telling you about how reinforcing core ideas, meeting, after meeting,
things are going, especially all the things after meeting. Our operating system kicks off in
that he messed up on. Dont keep him early January with the top 500 operating leaders
waiting for days to discuss issues make meeting in Boca. Its a celebration of the best
people and the best ideas in the company. Over
him a priority. At the same time, try and the two-day event, speakers from all levels
avoid giving packaged and boxed showcase in ten-minute bursts their progress on a
answers. Get him to put his own solutions specific company initiative. No long, boring
on the table, and then discuss them. In this speeches, no travelogues just the transfer of
way, you continue to model for him how great ides. (see Appendix D for 2001 agenda).
Everyone is expected to put forth one new
to empower and delegate. Most important, outside-the box idea that can apply to other units.
continue to express your confidence in In July, we have a two-hour follow-up by
him. Tell him again and again and again. videoconference to see if the personnel changes
we agreed on had been implemented. In June
and July, the business leaders come to Fairfield
for strategy of their business, the Session I.
To assist this relentless sharing of best
ideas, we built a corporate initiatives group. 20 or
so MBAs who had been in consulting for three to
five years and wanted to get into the real world.
They came to GE with the promise that if hey
delivered, the GE businesses would steal them
within two years.
Jack Straight from the Gut,
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
1
Carol Walker in the Harvard Business
Review
Page 59 of 194
In order to direct traffic, make
evaluations, and ensure that the
Get Them Information, Get information flows back up to you, you
them to give you information do not need to know everything. But
and Keep the Network Going you do need to train your staff to
know when they have to inform you of
A lot of what I do is just telling something. But if you just leave it to
other people the information they staff discretion you are unlikely to get
need to know: what is happening in the perspective you need. You need to
the organization, what are other have reviews, some of it written, and
people doing, articles, studies, on a regular basis. Dr. Michael
conventions, people to know and ideas Kaufman of VISA (Visiting Israel
to use. Students Organization) has a review of
The other thing I do is each Shabaton first thing on Sunday
coordinate networking. I ensure that morning when all the details are still
all parties to an issue are informed and fresh in everyones mind. I try to
are in touch with one another. I call review at least one program or the
this traffic directing. performance of one staff member per
week.
Feel Secure
I [have] described four types of managers. Type 4 is the most
difficult for all of us to deal with. Thats the person who delivers on
all the commitments, makes the numbers, but doesnt share the
values the manger who typically forces performance out of
people rather than inspires it.
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Its just amazing how many In fact, if you feel secure, then
communal rabbis and kiruv leaders are your most likely problem is going to be
looking over their own shoulders. To the very opposite, that your employees
delegate massively you have to feel still turn to you too much. Never
secure. If you think that your employee answer a question or solve a problem
is going to undermine you let him, or you think they could have by
get rid of him. But dont trap the both of themselves. Say, You can handle
you in your little bubble of inadequacy. that, or Thats going to have to be
Most people in whom you invest your your choice. Chizuk, nurturing and
trust will live up to it. If you are a real encouragement yes; babysitting
leader, you will feel secure. Trusting is never.
a low risk investment with high yields.
Its any investors dream.
8
Page 61 of 194
project which cannot eventually before we could put them out. There
fund itself has no future; you are was a lag time of a few years before
capable of doing much more than second phase kicked in. Yet the whole
you think you are; make sure that purpose of first phase was for the
you are fully networked with second phase. Yet, in practical,
everyone in the field; women are as organizational terms, we were missing
important a force in doing kiruv as this perspective. This was easily
are men; a project without a Daas picked up by outside consultants and,
Torah will fail. what might have become an imbalance
in our focus, was quickly corrected.
One of the most valuable
Now this is but a partial list
consultations we had was from the
of the things I have learned from some
assistant-dean of the Amdocs Business
of the people I ought to mention. The
School. Amdocs is a multibillion-
interesting thing is that the older I get,
dollar company. Its business school
the more I find I am learning from
trains its managers already in the field.
others. I find I am aware of more and
Our issue was how do we give
more issues and am getting exposed to
information which we felt was vital to
levels of depth I did not know even
our participants, but which at the time
existed.
of the course was still too theoretical
Outside Consultants for them to integrate. When we train
our participants they are still in Kollel,
usually in Jerusalem, and it is hard for
Ner LeElef and Aish HaTorah are them to project themselves into the
examples of two organizations, which realities of the field. Amdocs Business
have benefited significantly from School has developed a very good
consultations with businessmen and system of simulations. They simulate
outside professionals. People who have meetings with clients, interviews of all
spent their lives working in and sorts where even the physical outlay of
analyzing corporate structures have a the room imitates reality. The details
tremendous amount to offer kiruv are not important here. What matters is
organizations. By asking the right that we were able to learn very directly
questions, by bringing a fresh from this model.
perspective to the table and by drawing As with any area of wisdom, it is
on a different exposure, they can often those who are not ashamed to learn who
help to considerably upgrade things. are inevitably those who understand the
Top consultants have an uncanny most. Jack Welch, retired CEO of GE
ability to zero in on core issues and can (General Electric) was known to liberally
save one from years of fuzzy thinking. borrow ideas from anyone, anywhere, any
For example, Ner LeElef is time and make them his own. He once
divided into first and second phase spent more than a week with the fabled
programming. First phase Sam Walton to figure out how Wal-Mart
programming means training priced its goods and got them to market so
programs. Because the first phase took quickly. He borrowed the idea of six
place right under our noses and the Sigma quality from Motorola and quickly
second phase took place all over the made it his own1.
word, senior staff was more caught up
with first rather than second phase
issues. Also first phase has to be our 1
Will The Legacy Live On? The Bottom
starting point. We had to train people Line on Jack Welch, Harvard Business
Review, Feb. 2002
Page 62 of 194
9
Page 63 of 194
the corporate world talks of values, they do ingrained principles that guide all of an
not mean only ethical values, though these institutions actions3.
are included. Rather, they are referring to a Thomas Watson, formerly of IBM,
set of attitudes or qualities which will writes about this in his book, A
permeate that company. Examples of such Business and Its Beliefs4:
values are professionalism, integrity, risk I believe the real difference
taking, innovation, collaboration, between success and failure in a
dependability, dedication and self- corporation can very often be traced to
motivation. how well the organization brings out
Even so, values have to be real, not the great energies and talents of its
just slogans. As Patrick Lencioni1 puts it: people. What does it do to help these
Communication. Respect. Integrity. people to find common cause with
Excellence. These are the corporate values each other? . Consider any great
of Enron. As events have shown, theyre organization one that has lasted over
meaningless2. Part of the problem, writes the years I think you will find that it
Lencioni, is that people confuse values owes its resiliency not to its form of
with aspirations. I once asked the CEO of organization and administrative skills,
a Fortune 500 networking company to tell but to the power of what we call beliefs
me one of his firms core values. A sense and the appeal those beliefs have for its
of urgency! he replied without hesitation. people. This then is my thesis. I firmly
So, I asked your employees take quick believe that any organization, in order
action and hit all their deadlines? No, to survive and achieve success, must
he replied, theyre complacent , which have a sound set of beliefs on which it
is why we need to make urgency one of premises all its policies and actions.
our core values. Far from being a Next, I believe that the most important
core value, a sense of urgency didnt even single factor in corporate success is
exist in the organization. It was just an faithful adherence to those beliefs.
aspiration a goal for the future, or what And, finally, I believe if an
Lencioni calls an aspiration value. But organization is to meet the challenge of
core values are different. They represent a changing world, it must be prepared
those values which cannot be changed or to change everything about itself
compromised. They are the deeply except those beliefs as it moves
through corporate life. In other words,
the basic philosophy, spirit, and drive
of an organization have far more to do
with its relative achievements than do
many of the best companies adhered to technological or economic resources,
core values, provoking managers to organizational structure, innovation,
stampede to off-site meetings in order to and timing. All these things weigh
conjure up some core values of their own.
heavily on success. But they are, I
The values fad swept through corporate
America like chicken pox through a
3
kindergarten class. Today, 80% of the Lencioni concludes: Given all the hard
Fortune 100 tout their values publicly work that goes into developing and
values that too often stand for nothing but implementing a solid values system, most
a desire to be au courant, or worse still, companies would probably prefer not to
politically correct. bother. And indeed they shouldnt
1
Harvard Business Review, July, 02 because poorly implemented values can
2
Enron was a giant Texas-based power poison a companys culture.
4
supply company which was involved in The quote is taken from Peters and
overstating its profits, inflating its share Waterman, in their book, In Search of
value and eventually collapsing. Excellence, pg. 280.
Page 64 of 194
Id tell those stories and others like
them, involving everyone in the class in my
ethical and leadership quandaries. Then Id
call on someone I knew had had just been in a
tight spot to discuss their dilemma. The
think, transcended by how strongly the floodgates would open. These personal
people in the organization believe in its discussions were some of the richest moments
basic precepts and how faithfully they we had at Crotonville. Everyone in the room
left knowing they werent alone in facing a
carry them out.
tough call. .
The bigger the organization, the In the early 1980s, many managers
more important the idea of corporate left confused and troubled. By the mid-1980s,
cultures. But even two-man the responses were showing more buy-in. By
organizations will benefit from the 1988 people were saying that the message and
exercise of deciding what their vision made sense. But they often added,
organizational values are. Thats not the way it is back home. The
Of course, for Torah Jews, message still wasnt getting all the way
most of these ideas are incorporated as through.
Hashkofos. But I have seen different We had to get the candor and passion
organizations with a shared set of out of the classroom and back into the
workplace.
Hashkofos who have completely Jack Straight from the Gut,
different organizational cultures. Some Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
are very into stressing their own unique
role, while others have a broader Jack Welch, former CEO of
picture of things; some stress team- GE, felt that a mediocre person who
work as a core-value while others are shared the organizations corporate
weak on this; some feel that hard-core culture could yet have a future in the
front-line kiruv is the only thing they organization. But without that vital
should be doing while others have a ingredient, such an employee ought to
broader mandate. Some organizations be fired.
are infused with a tremendous sense of If youre an A, you make the numbers
urgency. Others lack this. The and embody GE values. If youre a
differences are many and cover a wide B, you either make the numbers or live
spectrum of issues. the values, and the company will work
And certainly, different to help you achieve both. If you cant
organizations have different visions of reach that Olympian height, youre a
where they are trying to go. It is the job C, and youre out of here.2
of the leader to communicate this
vision, and we have included this Checking that someones values
ability as one of the basic attributes of are consistent with your organization has
leadership above. Warren Bennis has to be done from the very beginning. Job
the idea that ones vision should be candidates ought to be screened not only
expressed as a metaphor. If I were to for their skills and experiences but also for
give off-the-cuff advice to anyone their fit with the institutions values. After
trying to institute change, I would say, an institution has clarified what its values
How clear is the metaphor? How is
that understood? How much energy are
you devoting to it? Its the imagery
that creates the understanding, the 2
Will The Legacy Live On? The Bottom
compelling moral necessity that the Line on Jack Welch, Harvard Business
new way is right1. Review, Feb. 2002. Welchs opinion is that
As account for roughly 20% of staff, Bs
for 70%, and Cs for 10%. When Welch
recently appeared on the Charlie Rose
1
Warren Bennis, The Unconscious show, he reiterated his contention that
Conspiracy: Why Leaders Cant Lead, organizations need to continually prune
AMACOM 1976 the bottom 10% of the workforce.
Page 65 of 194
are, it should promote those values at
every turn1.
1
Employees at Comergent, a public
company, are evaluated against the core
values, and when it comes time to award
stocks, bonuses, and raises, the CEO
uses the values statement as a metric. So
too the decision to let someone go. I can
work with someone who needs more
coaching or training, but when it comes to
our core values, I have to be intolerant,
Kovacs, the CEO, explains. (In Lencioni,
ibid.)
Page 66 of 194
SECTION THREE: STAFF MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER:
Page 67 of 194
1
At bottom, management of people member to fail, even when they had been
amounts to giving people a sense that you previously successful.2 The definition of a
believe in them and the tools they need to good manager is then someone who is
fulfill their potential. Studies of the consistently able to communicate his belief
business-world have shown conclusively in his staff in such a way that they always
that staff produce in proportion to the produce the maximum. Moreover, he
amount management believes in them. For believes in his own talents to develop the
example, if a sales-team is regarded by potential of his staff. Studies have shown
their manager as a super-team, they will be that even a poor performing or mediocre
a super-team. And if they are regarded as a staff will improve more rapidly than a
mediocre team or less, they will produce super-staff if they are consistently told that
accordingly, irrespective of their real they are indeed better.3
talents. Moreover, you cannot fake it. You
cannot pretend that you believe in
someone if you dont. In fact, usually, the damage to their egos by avoiding
situations which might lead to greater
managers low expectations are
failure. They either reduce the number of
unintentionally communicated to his staff. sales calls they make or avoid trying to
If you do not believe in a person, you are close sales when that might result in
setting them up to fail a negative cycle of further painful rejection, or both. Low
mutual interactions sets in which almost expectations and damaged ego lead them
guarantees that the person will under- to behave in a manner that increases the
probability of failure, thereby fulfilling their
managers expectations. (J Sterling
Management of people amounts to Livingston, Pygmalion in Management in
giving them a sense that you believe in the Harvard Business Review on
them and providing the tools they need Managing People, pg. 52)
2
to fulfill their potential. Manzoni and Barsoux, The Set-up-to-Fail
Syndrome, in the Harvard Business
Review on Managing People. The authors
produce and maybe even fail or leave the identify eight steps of mutually reinforcing
organization1. It is so easy to set a staff negative reactions which lead to a
downward spiral of failure.
3
This paragraph is based on J Sterling
1
Sterling: In response to low managerial Livingston, Pygmalion in Management in
expectations, [unsuccessful salespeople] the Harvard Business Review on
typically attempt to prevent additional Managing People, pg. 57. Sterling brings
Page 68 of 194
Perhaps we are leading you astray it this way: You must get involved
by using the word manage. People are to have an impact. No one is
not commodities and you need to have real impressed with the won-lost record
relationships with the people you are of the referee.
working with and for. So there is not tooiv. Catch people doing
much to add to the sugya of organizational something right. Keep a list of all
principles over and above the Orchos staff members and check off when
Tzadikim or the Mesilas Yesharim. you last complimented one of
This has now been understood by them. Do not allow a whole month
the business community as well. Stephen to go by without complimenting
Covey in particular has stressed that each one of them. Read The One
techniques will only help in the short-term. Minute Manager (A summary of
As he puts it, Secondary traits alone have this book appears in this chapter,
no permanent worth in long-term below.)
relationships1. v. Ask yourself whether you
Yet, the specific application of really have a wholisitc
good midos to organizational life understanding of each member of
sometimes needs spelling out. We have your staff. What are their strengths
therefore brought a few major and easy and weaknesses? Do you know
principles to follow. These represent a what their hopes and ambitions
summary of many of the issues we deal are? Are these goals realistic? Are
with elsewhere. you and your organization going to
be able to help them to achieve
i. Become a massive these goals? Are they feeling
delegator. Empower your staff to frustrated in the organization?
take responsibility. Whenever they What are you going to do about
come to you for a decision, see this?
whether you can get them to work vi. Give them a feeling
to decide. that you really care
ii. Set clear goals together for their well being.
with your staff. Better, get them to Find at least one
set the goals themselves. From staff person per
time to time give them clear month for whom
feedback as to how they are doing you will do a
vis-a-vis these goals. specific chesed.
iii. Help your staff as much as Keep up-to-date
they need, but minimize managing about their family
them. Serve them, dont have them and always attend
serve you. Make it happen for all their simchas.
them, especially when they get vii. Insure that, from
stuck or are intimidated. You have time to time, you
to earn their trust, not the other have discussions
2
way around. John H. Halcomb put with all staff,
individually or
case studies to back up his claim. Sterling collectively, about
shows that the same is true of teachers the big picture.
expectations of his students or a Make them a part of
psychiatrists expectations of his patients. the broader plan.
1
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
viii. Share with them
People, pg. 22
2 some of the inside
The Militant Moderate, Rafter
Page 69 of 194
info of the mosad talk about the future
and some of the rather than the past.
interesting meetings Say: We need you
you might have had. to come at 9 am,
ix. Give your staff the rather than Why
safety to risk failure. have you not been
Allow your staff to coming at 9 am?
make mistakes xii. Allow for gradual,
without saying consistent
anything. Praise improvements in
good attempts that behavior. If need be,
failed just like you fire a staff member,
praise good attempts but do not makes his
that succeed. It is life a misery by
inaction that is demanding
inappropriate. standards now
x. Help your staff to which he can only
upgrade their skills. achieve at some
Send them on time in the future.
courses, put them in xiii. Develop policies for
touch with other as many scenarios
people and coach as possible. (See for
them yourselves. example, the
Page 70 of 194
necessary, instead of someone who just
having to play the doesnt get it. In
bad cop and worse, these situations,
having to appear as policies are
petty. However, lifesavers.
dont get so caught xiv. Be yourself. Dont
up in your own try to project any
bureaucracy that image of yourself.
you lose track of xv. Set a positive
when to make atmosphere, one
exceptions. In a which gives people
small organization, a good feeling, not
policies will rarely only about the work
be necessary. But environment, but
every now and then, about themselves.
you are faced with
Page 71 of 194
The One Minute Manager
Effective managers manage So we only do One-Minute Goal Setting
themselves and the people they work with on that 20 percent; that is our key areas of
so that both the organization and the responsibility maybe three to six goals in
people profit from their presence1. all. Of course, in the event a special
project comes up, we set special One
The One-Minute Manager2 is a Minute Goals5.
short, easy-to-read book that is based on
behavioral principles of reinforcement. Praising and reprimands are done
The authors talk about three principles: on specific behaviors or achievements as
close to the event as possible. Praising and
i. One minute goal setting reprimands give a person accurate
ii. One minute praises feedback on what they have done. Shared
iii. One minute reprimands goal setting allows the person to see for
himself the results and to know whether
Goal Setting is preferably done by those results are good or not. They do not
the employees themselves, to get them to require your interpretation to tell him this
set out, in no more than 250 words, what information6.
their major goals are3. So often employees He said he wanted me to succeed.
are not clear about what is expected of He wanted me to be a big help to the
them, have not agreed with their seniors organization, and to enjoy my work.
what their priorities are4 or get bogged He told me that he would try,
down over time. A brief statement of therefore, to let me know in no uncertain
goals allows the person to refer to this terms when I was doing well and when I
statement every day for a minute, and stay was doing poorly7.
focused. He made me keep detailed records
80% of your really important of my progress which he insisted I send to
results will come from 20% of your goals. him. He was trying to catch me doing
something right8.
1
The One Minute Manager, pg. 15
Dont wait until your staff does
2
Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson, something exactly right before praising
The One Minute Manager, Fontana Books them. Praise also increasing
1981 approximations to the desired behavior.
3
One Minute Goals Setting is simply: Otherwise you will catch your staff doing
Agree on your goals. more things wrong than right.9
See what good behavior looks like.
Write out each of your goals on a single
sheet of paper using less than 250 words.
Read and re-read each goal, which
requires only a minute or so each time you
do it.
5
Take a minute once every while out of Ibid, pg. 28
6
your day to look at your performance, and Ibid, pgs. 66-68. Everyone who works
See whether or not you behavior matches for me has a plaque which looks like this:
your goal. (ibid. pg. 34) Take a minute: Look at your goals;
4
In some organizations Ive worked in, Look at your performance; See if your
any relationship between what I thought behavior matches your goals.
7
my job responsibilities were and what my Ibid, pg. 37
8
boss thought they were was purely Ibid, pg. 38;
9
coincidental. (ibid, pg. 27) Ibid, pg. 82
Page 72 of 194
After a while your staff begins to accumulate. Reprimand only one behavior
catch themselves doing things right and at a time and as close to the behavior as
they start praising themselves1. possible12.
Be specific in your praise2 (or your You should be praising much more
reprimand3). When praising, tell them how than reprimanding, so youre always
good their success makes you feel, how it trying to create situations in the beginning
helps the organization and the other people where you can give a One Minute
who work there4. When reprimanding, Praising13.
look them straight in the eye and tell them The principles are based on win-
exactly what they have done wrong5. This win, i.e. that the approach is good for
should not take longer than 20 seconds. Do productivity and it makes the person feel
not attack the person, only the behavior6. good about himself. People who feel
good about themselves produce good
Then let what you have said sink in results14.
for a few seconds. Tell them how
competent you usually think they are. Tell
them that you are only upset with them Be Yourself
now because of the great respect you have
for them7. And when the reprimand is Nobody should ever feel that there
over, it is over8. Teach people to laugh at is a pecking order. And nobody should
themselves when they make a mistake9. ever feel intimidated about approaching
Do this by modeling, i.e. by laughing at you about any problem. Some times
your own mistakes10. people in positions of power become
When reprimanding, make sure intimidating without realizing it.
that you refer them back to the original You avoid this by being yourself.
goals, and make sure they understand what There is a tendency for someone who is
is expected of them. Try to find examples leading to become more professional and
which they can actually see, to help them formal in the mood and atmosphere he sets,
understand this11. Do not allow things to and this is a mistake. Because the moment
you are doing this you are play-acting,
1
Ibid, pg. 43. Also youre always trying to be an image of yourself instead of
wondering when he might praise you trying to be you. And an image of you will
again and that seems to keep you going never be as good as you.
even when hes not around. Its uncanny. I remember a certain Talmid
Ive never worked so hard at a job in my Chacham who, as a mechanech was
life. (ibid) characterized for his warmth and
2
Ibid, pg. 44 connection with people. He had worked in
3
Ibid, pg. 53, 55
4 Arachim and was a successful Mashgiach
Ibid, pg. 44
5 and Magid Shiur in a yeshiva ketana.
Ibid, pg. 52
6
Ibid, pg. 55
Whenever you asked people what kind of a
7
Ibid, pg. 54. Applying the behavioral person he was, they invariably answered:
principle of behavior extinction until the , , . Then he opened his own
end, the authors continue: He says how yeshiva and he made a serious mistake. He
much he looks forward to seeing me some decided to act like a rosh yeshiva. In no
other time, as long as I understand that he time he was alienated from the bochrim, the
does not welcome that same mistake yeshiva developed severe disciplinary
again.
8
Ibid, pg. 55
9 12
Ibid, pg. 56 Ibid pg. 87
10 13
Ibid, pg. 57 Ibid, pg. 85
11 14
Ibid, pg. 85 Ibid, pg. 19
Page 73 of 194
problems, and many of the first year group even if you do not feel in a good mood,
left. The man lost one of his greatest assets fake it.
because he decided to be an image of what There is another vital component
he thought he should be. dependent on positive and informal mood.
Being yourself includes never It is very hard to communicate a message of
lauding it over others. There should never you really matter, to employees when the
be any sense that you are the boss in any atmosphere is negative. We yearn not to
conversation. People know that you hired live and die in vain. We yearn to be
them, that you pay them, that you can fire recognized for our efforts. When we are in
them and that, on occasion, you make it a positive work environment, we tend to
clear that you want things done a certain pick up more positive signals about the fact
way. Thats enough. Any further reminders
are going to make the atmosphere heavy, I wanted to create a
and work is going to feel grueling. company where people dare
to try new things where
Set a Positive Atmosphere people feel assured in
knowing that only the limits
Emotional moods are really of their creativity and drive,
powerful things, especially those of the their own standards of
head of the organization. A 1981 study
1 personal excellence, will be
found that when three strangers sit facing the ceiling on how far and
each other for a minute or two, the most how fast they move. In the
emotionally expressive of the three end, I believe we created the
transmits his mood to the other two, greatest people factory in the
without even a single word being spoken world, a learning enterprise,
between them. Another study showed that with a boundaryless culture.
in 70 work teams across diverse industries,
people in meetings together ended up Jack Straight from the Gut,
23
sharing moods within two hours / . So Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
that we are being valued by significant
1 4
By Howard Friedman and Ronald others, colleagues and employers alike .
Reggio. This and the following studies are But, here comes the tricky part. It
brought by Daniel Goleman, Richard is easy to confuse a positive atmosphere
Boyatzis and Annie MacKee in the with a light atmosphere. The former
Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2001. increases productivity, the latter reduces it.
2
Caroline Bartel at New York University I have seen mosdos where many hours of
and Richard Saavedra at the University of the day are spent kidding around,
Michigan in 2000. shmoozing and wasting time. When we talk
of a positive atmosphere, we mean it in the
3
In The Harvard Business Review, Dec. context of a serious working environment,
01, Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee point where people feel a certain sense of
out apparent exceptions, in particular Jack
Welch and Bill Gates. Of the latters
apparently harsh style, the authors write:
Gates is the achievement-driven leader performance-can be quite effective when
par excellence, in an organization that has employees are competent, motivated, and
cherry-picked highly talented and need little direction-all characteristics of
motivated people. His apparently harsh Microsofts engineers. (pg. 45)
leadership style baldly challenging
4
employees to surpass their past Ibid
Page 74 of 194
urgency at achieving what they need to achievement orientated, but simultaneously
achieve. caring and warm. Most people long for the
A kiruv organization ought to be satisfaction of achieving, and they will be
friendly and informal but with standards grateful that you have given them the
and rules. The office has to open and close framework in which to do just that.
on time (this may effect only the But to achieve this, one other
secretaries), people have to feel ingredient is required, safety. People will
accountable, there have to be staff and not try daring or unusual things if they do
program evaluations. These two things are not feel that they can afford to fail. I, for
actually not in tension at all. Most people one, have failed numerous times, and I
enjoy a structure which is serious and
think anyone who had done anything
worthwhile in the kiruv field can say the
same.
As Jack Welch put it:
1
Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with
John Byrne
Page 75 of 194
2
Employee Evaluation
2
Outgoing CEO for General Electric
1 3
Below we will show why ticking attributes Will The Legacy Live On? The Bottom
off a check list is not a good way to Line on Jack Welch, Harvard Business
evaluate an employee. Review, Feb. 2002.
Page 76 of 194
compromise being you for any job in combination of their primary and
any institution1. secondary areas of responsibility.
It is not an absolute principle to Most mosad heads come to us (Ner
avoid insecure employees at all costs. But LeElef) looking for someone who will fit
it is a significant variable. Nor should you a very specific job definition. But perhaps
confuse an employee who has a positive things should be done a little differently.
self-image with one who seems to exude Perhaps one should look for someone who
confidence. The latter may turn out to be is highly qualified for the overall area
quite insecure after all, as I have needed, but that the job will then be tailor-
discovered on several occasions. In fact, made for the person rather than the other
way round. It may require a bit of
Eventually, I learned that I reshuffling of everyones job to do this,
was really looking for people who but the net result is that there is a much
were filled with passion and a desire better fit for everyone.
to get things done. A resume didnt
tell me much about that inner
hunger. I had to feel it. In this
Team Players
new group job, I discovered that
the only business I would ever know It is a mark of good leadership to
in my blood was plastics. This was a be a team-payer yourself, to look for
partners and to empower employees. It is a
big transition in my thinking. I
mark of good management to insure that
could no longer have fingertip
your staff will be team players as well. But
control of all the details. That made team playing does not come as a ready-
my obsession about people even made package. Even those who will be
more intense. team players have to learn how to do this.
Jack Straight from the Gut,
For it goes against the grain of our natural
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
state.
Rabbi Reuven Leuchter points out
that the nature of a person is to see only
his way. Your daas is not democratic. The
the employee with a positive self-image
individual seichel doesnt entertain another
need not start out with confidence.
opinion. In order to be true and pure, in
Confidence can and should be nurtured.
order for your seichel to function and be
And that is your job as much as it is the
you in its truest sense, it has to be single-
employees.
minded, with a complete attitude that I am
But all of this is only an ideal and
right and you are wrong!
you are never going to get the ideal
The area where this quality is most
employee.
appropriate, indeed vital, continues Rav
There is another factor to bear in
Leuchter, is learning; Learning means
mind.
seeing your pshat in the gemora and
Very few kiruv jobs are totally
sticking to it because you are right and he
specialized. It may be that someone is
is wrong. It does not, it cannot accept a
more front-line or more second stage,
different view to its own or else it is not
more administrative or more people
your pure seichel.
orientated, but usually someones job
Then eventually, as you are
involves multiple different areas, as a
meffalpel with your chavrusa, you allow
yourself to take a step back from the
1
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch rigidity of being committed to your local
with John A. Byrne
Page 77 of 194
vision rightness, and recognize the others the loner is quite hard working and
opinion. talented. In these cases, his reason for
In the running of a team though, cutting others out is because he is trying to
these functions reverse; The main part is to carve out his own little melucha. My
be able to give in, despite what your experience is that this is usually insecurity
seichel tells you. Your job as a team rather than a gaava problem. It is just as
player is to bend, agree, and compromise, unpleasant, nevertheless.
to work together with and to be mevater. Half the battle is won by the
And this is where middos really behavior you model and the atmosphere
come into their own. The middos to be you generate. If you are a team player,
content with giving if necessary, to not your staff will usually pick up on this and
remain with open or hidden resentments, be the same. In such an environment, the
but knowing that this is the team and is all message to everyone is one of I need you.
part of our common purpose. Your are important to me, and that allows
Team playing is a learned everyone to feel good about themselves
behavior. It is learned in families, it is and about those around them. Dont expect
learned in team sports (where those are your employees to be better than you. If
permissible) and it can be learned in you act independently, without consulting
multiple other ways. As Stephen Covey and sharing with them and bringing them
puts it, we have grown on the maturity into the loop, they will behave in the same
continuum from dependence to way.
1
independence to interdependence . But not everyone is naturally going
In a good Jewish chinuch, a bochur to become a team player even in the right
and later avreich should be educated to environment. There are many kiruv stars
understand that a community is a function, who arent team players and whose
in part, of team play. All too often, influence remains therefore limited. My
however, I see people who see the kehila experience is that it is better to take a
as something you use as a service. I need mediocre team player than a star who is
to daven in a minyan and therefore I have not. You will do more in the long run.
to go down to the shul. Probably it helps
me with my kavana and who knows, How silent the woods would be
maybe they give a good shiur too. But if only the best birds sang.
contributing to a broader sense of Anonymous
community is a minority attitude.
Some of the biggest frustrations of A team-player is characterized by
people in the field are by those who feel the mindset of being prepared to roll up his
they are working with someone (it only sleeves and join in the ground work if
takes one) who is not a team player. thats whats required. He wont see
Usually the feeling is that the person is not setting up tables or clearing up as mesiras
willing to roll up their sleeves and nefesh. For him, that is simply what needs
participate in the less romantic parts of to be done. And that kind of positive
kiruv they want to stick to the pure kiruv attitude is infectious.
as opposed to the everything, before and People who are not team-players
after, which makes it happen. Sometimes, are ultimately a burn out. They are high
maintenance if they are not upsetting
others, they are getting upset themselves.
1
The Seven Habits, pg. 49. There he They often have unrealistic expectations
writes that dependence is the paradigm of which inevitably lead to them having
you; independence is the paradigm of I taanos against you. Every time a staff
while interdependence is the paradigm of
member leaves, they will be convinced
we.
Page 78 of 194
that they are going to fill the slot. organization when such people are around.
Similarly, they will be upset by any
perceived threat to their jurisdiction. Appraisals All the Time
Team players, on the other hand,
can handle it when things do not go their I was giving appraisals all the
own way. times. I always wanted everyone to
This type of insecurity is something to know where they stood. Every year,
be wary about when choosing a staff Id send a handwritten note with the
member. It can be the single biggest annual bonus to my direct reports. Id
reason why potential kiruv work isnt write two to three pages, outlining
being done by adding constraints, which what I was looking for in the coming
severely limit the effectiveness of the year. Id attach to it the prior years
organization. Insecure people are easily letter, which I would mark up in red, to
upset, perceive many threats to their give continuity to the process. These
jurisdiction and require a lot of stroking. notes did a couple of things. I had the
The classic non-team player is the chance to reflect on each business
one who always considers his project the and what I thought was important. My
only important one amongst the many direct reports realized that there would
which the organization may be doing and be follow-up and that I cared a lot.
demands more than his fair share of The process was time-consuming, and
resources when they are limited. sometimes late on a Sunday night, I
would wish I hadnt started it, but it
They say that differential was great discipline for me.
treatment erodes the very idea of
Jack Straight from the Gut,
teamwork. Not in my world. You Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
build strong teams by treating
individuals differently.
Page 79 of 194
Good Mediocre Poor
Primary Areas of
Responsibility: X
Front-line kiruv
Secondary Areas of
Responsibility: Staff X
management, rel.
with the neighbors,
programs.
Areas not essentially
a part of job X
Definition:
Brochures, etc.
Page 80 of 194
the potential to do a lot better. If he is a D, funny) they are likely to shmooze a lot to
then he lacks that potential and he is best other employees, lowering the work ethic
laid off, the sooner the better1. and productivity with every conversation.
They may be well liked, but very
It is the Cs who are the most unproductive. If they are not so social,
problematic for it is not acceptable for an they are more likely to put their heads
organization to keep someone who is just down and work, but as low-performers.
We will discuss what to do about the Cs in
the next section.
The As are people who are filled A good organization with 10
with passion, committed to making things employees is likely to have three or four
happen, open to ideas from anywhere, and As, three or four Bs, two to three Cs, and
blessed with lots of runway ahead of them. maybe one D. The D must go, and the Cs
They have the ability to energize not only either have to become Bs or they too have
themselves, but everyone who comes in to go. On the other hand, one cannot get
contact with them. They make business rid of a staff member simply because
productive and fun at the same time. They someone better became available. A C has
have what we call the four Es of FE to be given due process, but, as we shall
leadership.: very high energy levels, the see, with clearly delineated time frames.
ability to energize others around common
goals, the edge to make tough yes-and-no Input vs. Output
decisions, and finally, the ability to
consistently execute and deliver on their Hard and Soft Areas
promises.
In my mind, the four Es are connected by There are two ways in which one
one P passion. can define a job, according to input or
The vitality curve must be according to output. Input is the work that
supported by the reward system: salary someone does. Output is the results. Most
increases, stock options, and promotions. jobs, including kiruv ones, are defined by
The As should be getting raises that are input, not output. For example, the
two to three times the size given to the Bs. standard contract will define the hours a
Bs should get solid increases recognizing person is supposed to work and what he is
their contributions every year. Cs must get supposed to do during those hours. But
really it would be much better to define the
nothing.
job in terms of output, i.e. by setting clear
targets as to how many people should be
Jack Straight from the Gut,
attending shiurim after 2 months, 6 months
Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
and a year, and the same with those
becoming frum etc. When one describes a
job according to input, it usually takes
scraping by. They not only fail to really many, detailed points and the negotiations
produce, but they tend to be unhealthy for on each point can be quite tedious. In
the general atmosphere and they lower the business, input oriented contracts can
bar for everyone. If they are the chevra- involve over 100 points. However, when
man type (and probably cheerful and one defines the job in terms of output, one
can usually do the job in a few sentences.
1
Note, these letters refer to a persons Input orientated contracts are good for
performance and not to the person people you dont trust. You are worried
himself. that the person is simply not going to put
Page 81 of 194
in the time (the input) and you cant points on a contract, otherwise things get
imagine how he will achieve his targets out of focus again.
(output). So you start telling when he The situation gets a little more
should be starting and stopping, when he complicated when people are meant to
gets to go home for dinner, how much work in teams. So start off with the output
learning and how much kiruv, etc. But criteria of the team. If the team does not
actually this often has limited practical produce as it should be, then you may have
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Page 82 of 194
are in danger of blaming your lack of
success on anything but the productivity of In manufacturing, we try to
your own staff. (It was a bad time, we stamp out variance. With people,
chose the wrong place, the other variance is everything. . We
organization ran an event the same night, forced our business leaders to
this town is so hard to work in, etc.) differentiate their [staff]. They had to
The danger with this approach is identify the people in their
that, in attempting to quantify things one organizations that they consider in
can get off track. For example, one may the top 10 percent, the vital 70, and
call a 30 person attendance to a shiur a finally the bottom 10 percent. If
great success while one may call 5 people there were 20 people on the
a failure. But what if the 30 people are management staff, we wanted to
really a motley bunch and are unlikely to know the four in the top 20 and the
create the atmosphere for further growth? two in the bottom 10 by name,
What if the 5 are real winners, and are position, and compensation. The
likely to lead to a steady and healthy under-performers generally had to
growth? At what stage must the 5 become go.
30 in order to justify this logic? Or lets say Differentiation comes down
we measure how many people the person to sorting out the A, B, and C
manages to get onto a Gateway Seminar as players.
the bottom line (not a bad measure). But Jack Straight from the Gut,
what if your crowd doesnt fit in with the Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
average Gateways attendee? Can you then
replace this measure with some other?
a shiur or a seminar. It may mean that
And what of the organization which
you need to give out evaluation forms
attracts a big crowd, but very few become
at the end of each shiur/seminar.
frum? Does that mean that the front-line
guy is also not doing his job? I do not have What to do with Under-
a clear answer to all of these questions for
reasons that we explained in the chapter Performers
under goal-setting. So yes, output Once you have identified a C
measures are tricky things. But we ought player, you must produce an action plan
to be using them nevertheless. Its the best for that person1. It must be made clear to
measure we have. the C that he is going to be held
The output criteria must have a few accountable for carrying out the action
conditions: plan. The consequences for not carrying
1. The number of criteria must be out the action plan, including loss of job,
few, preferably no more than 4 or 5. must also be clear.
2. The criteria must have a clear If the person fails the minimum
time-frame. E.g. after six months we production threshold within the designated
expect to see such and such. time then he has to go. Cs are often the
3. The criteria must be measurable, hardest people to get rid of. You may have
i.e. what you are expecting to see must become quite close to them and you may
be clearly laid out and open to be acutely aware of the difficult family
assessment without it becoming your
or someone elses opinion. 1
The action plan will depend on several
4. You need to make an effort to considerations: Does the person want to
measure the criteria. For example, let improve? Does this person have some
us say that you want to know that strong skills that are valuable to the
people are really excited and moved by company? Is this person in a job that is
not suited to his skills or her skills?
Page 83 of 194
position that they are in. They may have
been very loyal to the organization and
you may feel that you are being quite
treacherous in return. You may feel that if
you just work with the person a little
longer you can get them up to standard
after all1. Yet, in most cases, you cannot
justify keeping such a person on. The hard
case is someone who was once an A or a
B, worked for many years in the
organization, and is now burnt out, or no
longer relating to the targeted audience.
This is a Sheela for a Gadol.
1
Even in most business companies, which
we perceive as much colder and tougher
places, Cs are not removed as they
should be, especially C managers.
(Harvard Business Review, Jan. 02, pg.
82 83)
Page 84 of 194
3
Hiring
There is something rarer than ability.
It is the ability to recognize ability.
Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
Who to Hire
When embarking on employment There is an art to searching and
searches start out by creating a proper job screening (see note 2), but like everything,
description (see note 1). I often hear heads
of kiruv organizations saying things like,
I cant give you an accurate description of
the job, but I know who I am looking for. 2
The Search:
Usually, these are the jobs that stay open Review your resume collection.
for years and years. Ask friends for appropriate resumes.
Contact people in identical or similar
positions (allows you to say: We are
looking for someone like you).
Advise your appropriate staff.
1
The following, as well as the footnotes Contact spies (Apt.).
which follow, was contributed by Yossie Appropriate publications/locations.
Kaufman: Expand your parameters.
Job Description: Forget being yotzeh.
Define your needs (subjectively, Persistence as a hit-man.
objectively, and via inside/outside CHAZOREH.
feedback.)
Run through your needs (put yourself in Screening:
the shoes of the hired employee). Review resumes. Make notes on an
Shepherd or sheep? (Gives commands attached sheet of paper with your
or takes ?). questions/concerns that you wish to
Commitment needs - hiring once or address.
turnover is a given level of commitment of 3 piles (yes, no, maybe).
both sides. Contact references (check accuracy of
Define needed internal experience, performance, satisfaction on
qualities/personality. both sides, personal/ family connections-
Prepare/submit a concise description. (Ad how did they originally hear about the staff
appropriate for the right person).
publication/location with your general Clarify why the employee left: Did he jump
contact info, and deadline. Request or was he pushed?
resumes and photo. Do not always submit Contact top 3-5 candidates and arrange
full organizational details). interviews.
Be wary of a facade.
Page 85 of 194
it takes time to do things properly. This is interview questions we have brought
truly a case of a minute in time saves below.
nine, (if you will excuse me for
borrowing a phrase.)
We suggest you review the sections How to Hire - More Than
headed the Ideal Employee and Team Just the Interview
players in the previous section as a
background check-list and then consider
the following1: Below we have brought a
Desire-Drive comprehensive guide to interviewing,
Capabilities which will inform you, as a potential
Chemistry-who will they need employer, of much that you need to know
to interact with? about this vital area. But you cannot rely
Personality (attitude) is he a on the interview alone. Unless you add
team-player? other elements to complete your
Responsibility level understanding of the applicant, you are in
His 3-5 strengths and great danger of hiring the wrong person.
weaknesses.
His reason for looking for work
and why for you References
Direct experience
Related experience
Responses to actual scenarios Probably the most important thing
Contact appropriate references in finding out about someone is references.
Contacting references is vital. You can
Note that we have put desire and find out a lot more about the person by a
drive above capabilities. As John Stuart few inquiries to the right places than you
Mill put it, One person with a belief is a may from the interview itself! Letters of
social power equal 99 who have only recommendation usually exaggerate a
interests. persons positive attributes and are
A further guide to the qualities you therefore not worth that much. But, when
may be looking for is contained in the spoken to directly, people are willing to
say much more than they are willing to
write. Make sure that the references are
Be friendly, clear and tougher than you
would usually be. You will ease up as you
helpful ones. The least helpful is the
establish a working relationship. persons former Rosh Yeshiva. The most
Why did they leave their previous helpful are the persons immediate
position? Why are they presently looking previous employees and personal friends.
for work? What do they know about your Ask many questions. That way, even if the
organization? Why with us? What would reference person begins with a sales pitch,
they like to be doing professionally in he/she will start coming out with more
2/5/10 years? Where? accurate information with each question.
Consider inviting an associate to join for a
few minutes to shmooze and discuss the
organization, its needs(touch base after,
but with a grain of salt).
Do not burn bridges with non-accepted
applicants. Be makir tov.
1
This list was contributed by Yossie
Kaufman
Page 86 of 194
Trial Shiurim
I was selling runway
Many places ask the candidate to the capacity to grow something
give a few shiurim as well. Sometimes, Ive always looked for in every
these talks are viewed as the most appointment I have made. I
important part of the interview. This is an always bet on runway. I felt it
error, for it gives undue weight to one area was a good bet to put people in
of the persons qualities. Unless you are stretch jobs early in their
hiring this person as your major shiur- careers. Far more often than
giver, it is a mistake to give too much not, they brought a lot more
emphasis to this. excitement and passion to the
The candidate may be a fabulous job and achieved greater
networker, an excellent organizer, a superb personal growth for themselves.
ruach man, and a great counselor, but he Jack Straight from the Gut,
may give only a mediocre shiur. The Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
reverse is also true. I know some great
lecturers who are good for little else. In
addition, many interviewees come to a
list of attributes we brought under the
town harried and lacking sufficient
heading Who to Hire? above1.
knowledge of the local crowd to really
connect with their shiur. Some, stupidly,
come inadequately prepared to give a Before the Interview
shiur. Although this says something about
the person, it should not be given undue Be enthusiastic when informing the
weight. applicant that you want to interview him.
In order to give the person the best Tell him to get a pen and paper, then tell
chance at succeeding in this area, make him as much about the interview as
sure that he knows in advance that he is possible: day, time, place, who will be
being asked to give shiurim. Be as specific interviewing, how many people are
as possible. Tell him whether you have participating in the interview, and whether
any topics in mind, what the age, level of there is anything you would like him to
commitment and level of learning of the bring. Tell him a little about your
audience is; are they intellectual or more organization, the town and other
down to earth; how much time will he information that will give him a feel of
have. Tell him what kind of topics they
usually like. Dont make him give a shiur 1
with one hand tied behind his back. Desire-Drive
Capabilities
Chemistry-who will they need to interact
with?
The Interview Personality (attitude) is he a team-
player?
Responsibility level
Interviewing is an art, especially His 3-5 strengths and weaknesses
when the candidate may be clueless as His reason for looking for work and why
how to be interviewed. Somehow, in a for you
very short space of time, you need to get a Direct experience
clear picture of the interviewee. Related experience
Minimally, you are looking to clarify the Responses to actual scenarios
Contact appropriate references with
pertinent questions, once again
Page 87 of 194
what he is coming to. Shmooze with him a
bit, for he is probably nervous and
somewhat intimidated. Presume that the interviewee is not
If he has a Semicha, a degree, or used to making logistical arrangements, so
any other qualifications, remind him to have someone on your side walk him
bring the necessary papers with him. And through. (He may also be flying to several
remind him to bring a resume of both other locations and be exhausted and
himself and his wife, in a plastic folder, overwhelmed.) Get exact flight details, and
with a few copies and with a few letters of give him clear instructions as to who is
recommendation. meeting him at the airport and how he can
Tell him that Ner LeElef has a be recognized. Give this persons cell
detailed How to Interview for a Job number as well as yours. Instruct your
booklet and that he should get hold of it. secretary that if this person should call, she
should make sure that you get the call. Tell
him to call if his plane is delayed. If his
Telephone Interviews luggage is lost and he seems simply too
distressed to interview well, ask for the
Telephone interviews can be good as interview to be re-scheduled, and ask him
an initial screening procedure, but they are to extend his stay.
misleading to some degree. These Presume that he is exhausted upon
interviews are often more difficult than arrival. Do not take him straight into
face-to-face interviews, as they do not interviews. Give him a good few hours
allow the applicant to project his before the interview so that he can freshen
personality as easily and he is often not up and have a nap if need be.
aware of how he is coming across. It is
vital when undergoing a telephone Dress
interview that you ensure that you will not
be interrupted or distracted. It can be so Dress and physical appearance do matter.
disconcerting for the interviewee. You So why not tell the person to come to the
should also make a greater effort to be interview in Shabbos clothes. Why not
friendly and disarming over the phone as point out to him, before the interview, if
neither party is getting the kind of his tie is skew.
feedback you get when sitting face-to-face
with a person - neither from facial
expressions nor from body posture, which
Presume the candidate does
can often communicate whether you are
interested or bored by what the applicant is not know how to interview
saying. Note that if you are relaxed and
smiling, despite the fact that they cannot
see you, this will be projected in your Most people do not know how to
voice. The opposite is also true. Note too undergo an interview. And yet you are
that there is a tendency to talk faster over going to judge them based on something
the phone than face-to-face. You must they do not know how to do. Therefore,
take this into account when assessing the my approach is for the interviewer to walk
interview. the applicant through the interview
process. Make as many allowances as
possible for his lack of professionalism.
Try and anticipate as much as possible to
Logistical Arrangements protect him from himself and perhaps the
Prior to Arrival critical eyes of others around you. That
Page 88 of 194
way you can focus on really interviewing 9. How lechatchila is this job for
him, as opposed to getting stuck on the him?
frills. 10. How relevant is his previous
work experience to the position at
What to look for hand.
in the interview 11. What other jobs is he looking
at? How high on the list is this
We mentioned above the list of job?
qualities one might be looking for in a 12. Where does his wife want to
potential employee. In addition, we have go?
brought a comprehensive list of interview 13. If the person is young and this
questions further below. A single is his first job, knowing about his
interview is rarely enough to discover parents is helpful.
these qualities. In Ner LeElef we found 14. I ask the person which Sifrei
that the best system for acceptance to our Mussar, Machshava, etc. the
programs is to have someone do screening person has learned and then ask
and then, if the couple makes it, to give the him to say something from one of
husband and wife an initial interview with those sefarim. (It is amazing how
a male and female staff member for a basic many applicants claim that they
evaluation. A second interview of the have learned or are learning a sefer
husband in front of a broader team and, and yet cannot quote a single
separately, of the wife by a woman alone thing.)
is then held. These interviewers have with
them the notes of the initial evaluation, Whether he is quick to say anything negative
and are able to take things further. We are about other Hashkafos, or even other religious
careful to write everything down groups and to talk politics. (All of these would
be negative indications.)
immediately after the interview. We ask
Even if the person is nervous he should
for a picture of the couple, so that we can express some appreciation for your taking all
remember them in the future. I also find it this interest in him.
useful to write something on the form
which will remind me who this couple is. Help the Person to Produce his Best
Some of the telling things that you
will be able to tell from the interview are
as follows: Since you want the person to put his
best foot forward, you want him to feel as
relaxed as possible. You certainly do not
1. Eye contact
want to be over-aggressive in your
2. Body language interviewing. You are not being more
3. Social skills does he connect professional by so doing. It is unfair to
with people, does he project take a young interviewee, and to unclothe
warmth, is he likable? him when he feels very vulnerable in your
4. Is he a positive person about life presence. It also usually does not give you
in general? an accurate reading of the person, though
5. Does he seem to have energy, some might rise to the occasion.
oomph and vitality? The more people sitting around the
6. What is his desire in general to table, the more nervous he is going to be.
do kiruv and to make a difference If you see that he is nervous, you may
7. Clarity of Goals want to call him for a second interview,
8. Sincerity which you should not label an interview,
where you just shmooze with him in a
Page 89 of 194
friendly relaxed way. You may see a Establish rapport. If he is going to
completely different aspect of him. work for you, you have to like him, not
In any event, you should always let just respect him. At the beginning of the
the interviewee know that you are interview, look for ways to connect with
listening. Do this by filling the gaps in the interviewee in the same way as you
the interviewees conversation with verbal would if you had a new guest at your
placeholders such as yes, or I see, and Shabbos table. Take three to five minutes
even just uh-huh.1 Taking notes to show to play a bit of Jewish geography, as
that you are really listening is also a good common acquaintances always increase
idea2. the mutual feeling people have for each
In most interviews, you are not other.
looking for yes-or-no answers to your Allow the interviewer to ask you as
questions. You want exhaustive answers many questions as he wants about the job,
as much information as possible. The way but only at the end. Otherwise he will land
to get them is to listen. Talk as little as out interviewing you and not the other way
possible, just enough to keep the interview round. Do not get into too many specifics
on track. . Ask open-ended questions.3 though. Try and zero in on salient points
If you feel that there is a particular which may change the persons mind. For
piece of information that you the example you may not want anyone for less
interviewee is not revealing, wait until the than two or three years. Do not get into a
interview is formally over. At this stage, salary negotiation with the person at this
everybody becomes more relaxed. Then stage.
say, Excuse me. There is one more
question I forgot to ask. Very often the Follow-up
interviewee, feeling less defensive, will
then reveal more information. Sometimes The interviewee will be anxious to
it is better to wait until the next day.4 hear your response. So let him know as
If you see that he has very little body soon as you have news what is happening.
language he is probably nervous. Do not wait for him to call.
However, find out whether English is his After dealing with common
mother tongue. People use a lot less body interview questions we will return to the
language in a second language. Ask him to details of negotiating a deal and signing a
give a Devar Torah in his mother tongue, contract.
say Russian, even if you do not understand
a word. Then watch for the body language.
If you are interviewing his wife then
the best way is by having a woman you Common Interview
trust do this. Women do not necessarily Questions
interview well when interviewed by
another man, and may become flustered
and embarrassed in front of her husband
(or he may become flustered by her). Also, Just like the candidate needs to be
you do not want him yelling at her in the prepared, so do you. Have your interview
hotel room after the interview for messing questions written out before5. Here are
up.
5
Ethan Rasiel, in The Mackinsey Guide,
writes, When I asked McKinsey alumni for
1
Ethan Rasiel, The Mckinsey Way, pg. 81 their best advice on interviews, every
2
Ibid. single one of them said, Write an
3
Ibid., pg. 83 & 84 interview guide. (pg. 79)
4
Ibid, pg. 85 & 86 .
Page 90 of 194
some of the questions you may want to ask Many interviewees will be reluctant to tell
him: you about any weaknesses they have.
Often I hear, Well of course, I have lots
Tell me about yourself.1 of weaknesses, but none that I can think
are relevant to the job. Of course no one
likes being put on the spot and therefore
Why do you want to work here? or
some are opposed to even asking this
What about our organization interests
question. However, it is not so much the
you?2
information that the person provides as his
skill in handling the question which is
Why did you leave your last job?
revealing here.
Ask him if he had any
problems.
Do you prefer to work by yourself or
How did you get
with others?
along with your former
boss and co-workers?
What are your career goals? or
Watch out if he starts
What are your future plans?
bad mouthing former
If he is coming from
employees or co-
Israel you want to check
workers! You want
whether he is coming
someone whom you can
with a Jewish Agency
trust to get along with
mentality, i.e. he see
everyone. But if he
this as a two year
does tell you of certain
adventure, committed to
problems in the
going back to Israel
previous job this is not a
with a bit of money and
knockout. Even if it was
experience in hand. It
his fault he may have
is very hard to build
matured.
something on a system
What are your best skills? of two-year rotations.
Ask him to give You are not looking to
examples where he has tie the person down. But
demonstrated these you want him to be
skills. open to staying if things
What is your major weakness? are working out. Some
jobs, however, are
intrinsically springboard
1
A professional response will involve a jobs (e.g. assistant rabbi
short, organized statement of his jobs, especially in
education and professional achievements smaller towns.)
and goals. The candidate should also
briefly describe his qualifications for the
job and the contributions he could make to What salary are you expecting?
the organization. You may find expectations here which are
2
A professional response will show way out of the ball park for you and the
interest in the organization. The sooner you know this the better3.
interviewer will reveal some knowledge of
the job and the organization. He will
3
describe how his professional skills will A trained interviewee will avoid
benefit the organization. answering this one directly, instead,
deflecting the question back to the
Page 91 of 194
Do you plan to continue your
Do you have any questions?
education?
Page 92 of 194
What were your biggest What can you do for us that
Interviewer can talk about his How do you feel you would be
busy schedule and how sometimes he able to attract the youth of our
his? ?
position, what would it be? groups do you feel that you have the
Where do you see yourself in 10 How much money will you need
Page 93 of 194
How soon would you be willing The husband is interested in
to come and take the job? Yiddishkeit but the wife is not. He asks
What is the probability that you you if he should divorce her. What
How will this job fit in your How would you respond to
What do you expect from this does not want to learn or attend a
Page 94 of 194
critical stage. Be honest about future certainty by the other party and often
possibilities. one of the parties is convinced that
If you are not 100% financially something was clear and the other side
prepared or certain of board backing, claims to know nothing about this. A
agree to get back to each other by a written document forces all these
definite day. issues into the open.
If the candidate is looking for Here are a list of reasons why you
more than you are prepared to may be reluctant to sign a contract:
authorize, then suggest a 24-hour break You are nervous about
for all to review their positions. If your committing to the money for the entire
offer is firm, then this will allow him period of time and want to take it
time to think over what has been month by month
discussed and to agree to your offer. You may be intimidated by
If this person is by far the ideal contractual obligations of any sort,
candidate, then review your finances feeling that the best way is to have the
and consult with your board or donors. flexibility to sort things out as they
If you cannot come to an happen. The organization may have
agreement then be appreciative of his several employees without a contract
time and move on. Make your with one of them.
intentions clear. You are a little ambiguous about
Once you have agreed on a the agreement.
written understanding including a
probation period, then notify those that Whatever the reason, from the candidates
were not finalists immediately. point of view, it is not good news not to
have a contract (even if he is also
uncomfortable with signing it). Certainly,
Put Things in Writing were a potential employee to come to me
for advice and tell me that you were
It is vital, when about to hire refusing to write a contract, I would
someone, to get things clear (including probably tell him not to take the job. In the
the conditions under which you would worst case scenario, at least agree to a non-
end the relationship). And the only contractual, written memorandum of
way to get things clear, and to keep understanding.
them that way, is to put things in
writing.
Even if the parties do not sign a The advantages of a written
written contract, it is still worth having document:
a written memorandum of i. Although
understanding. This is not so much this obligates you, it
because one of the parties may be also protects you,
dishonest or manipulative, but because
by obligating the
one of the parties may truly forget
what was said or, more commonly, other side.
gets it wrong. (It is usually the ii. It makes
employer who forgets what was said or sure that both
forgets to mention vital points parties understand
altogether.) Often during negotiations the deal in the same
things were said by one of the parties way.
in passing, which is taken as a
Page 95 of 194
iii. It ensures looking forward to doing big things
that all important together with him. Finally, tell him
issues get that you would like to work out the
specifics of the deal and sign a contract
addressed. as quickly as possible in order to be
iv. It able to start working as soon as
prevents, at a later possible.
stage1, one of the 2. At all times, you must maintain
sides forgetting a balance between striking a fair deal
what was agreed and maintaining a positive atmosphere.
upon. Remember, you have to not only live
and work with the successful
Not everything that needs to be candidate, you want him to be
agreed upon can appropriately be written enthusiastic about his coming. And
in a contract. Some things need to be you do not want to be so worn out by
spoken out but not written. Although the the negotiations that in the end you
fundamentals do need to be in writing lose your own enthusiasm to his
there are times when the trust between the coming.
parties needs to be activated. If you cannot 3. Although there may be certain
trust the person at all, dont employ him, points that are essential for you to
but dont try and box him into a contract receive, you are not trying to get a
that will force him to be trustworthy. perfect deal, only a fair deal. In fact,
The general protocol is for the everything we have written here for
employer to make the contract, and it is you as an employer would be just as
certainly not to your advantage to have the helpful for the employee. Thats what
candidate write up the contract. However, fair means. The information and model
if you are so pressed for time that you just contract we have written here is not
know you are not going to get around to it, biased in favor of either side. It reflects
then ask the candidate to present a draft of that type of fair, considerate deal
points which reflect his understanding of which we believe ought to be a
what has been discussed so far, from standard for all.
which you will make a final contract. 4. You need to maintain a healthy
perspective of what is an essential and
what is a peripheral. Do not get so
stuck on bargaining about a small point
a. General Principles of
that you poison the whole atmosphere.
Negotiation:
5. Keep on stressing the good. Say,
for example, You know, this contract
1. When calling the candidate to
is beginning to look good and I am
wish him Mazel-Tov on his successful
looking very forward to getting going.
application, tell him that you are
I feel that we can all do big things
looking forward to working with him.
together. There is however, one small
Tell him, if appropriate, that you are
issue which I would like to clarify with
you. Or say, I am not worried that
1
Usually it is the employer who forgets. we wont come to a consensus on this.
Many times the employer is a group of In general we seem to be on a
baal-habatim who are running their own wavelength, and I am sure that we will
businesses, sometimes involving tens or sort this one out too. And how about,
hundreds of employees. They certainly do Maybe youll give in a little and Ill
not remember the details of every deal
which they make.
Page 96 of 194
give in a little and well meet ii- Rent
somewhere in the middle. ii- Chinuch
iii- Health Insurance
b. Now is the time to get the iii- Tax
following things clear:
In order to protect the person, it is best that
1. Job you give them a fixed basic salary and that
Description the rest be paid by the kollel. In addition, I
2. Starting date recommend that mosdos pay and extra
3. Salary & $3,000 P/A per child over the third child.
Benefits (including
health insurance) The following points need to be
4. Tax related remembered:
issues
5. Moving and Rent: If the couple has more than 3 kids,
Settling Costs some landlords are going to be reluctant to
6. Vacation rent to them. It may therefore take a lot
time and longer to find an apartment/house. Where
conventions, etc. is this couple going to stay in the interim
7. The and are their expenses going to be much
candidates wifes higher in that first period as a result?
role and
remuneration Chinuch: Are you going to
8. Termination arrange a tuition break for the
procedures candidates children or not?
Are you guaranteed in getting
the break? If you or the
1. Financial Package candidate does not get it, will
you be in a position to pick up
the difference?
Cost of Living
Page 97 of 194
Health Insurance: If your organization year. This will ensure that he is
does not have a good and reasonably constantly staying fresh, growing
priced health plan, then you are going to and getting chizuk.
have to assess the market in general. .Do
not wing this, because you may then Vacation time: This is something which
budget for a plan which turns out to be a must be clearly defined at the outset, or
poor one or not to fit the needs of the else it can cause a lot of tension and
candidates family. Be sure to ask the confusion. See the Heritage House
family in advance about any particular vacation policy at the end of this book.
medical needs and ensure that the plan
covers these things. Make sure that he Taxation: You should try to get
understands that health plans generally do as much parsonage for your
not cover pre-existing conditions. This is employee as possible.
particularly pertinent to pregnancy. If his
wife is pregnant he may have to pay for If your state or city has
that privately and it will significantly alter unusually high taxes (e.g. NY
his expenses for that year. City Taxes) then you have to
Preferably, there should be some tell the candidate this. This may
general contractual clause saying that be particularly pertinent if he is
special consideration will be given to relying on his wife working and
covering medical expenses not covered by they need a baby sitter to do so.
the health plan within a reasonable range. Sometimes there is so little left
after her second salary is taxed
and baby sitter expenses, that,
Other Benefits: from a strictly financial point of
a Travel: If the job view, it is not worth her while
involves a good deal of to work.
traveling, provision should be Clarify at the outset who is going to
made to provide the candidate pay the taxes. It is preferable that you
with a car, pay mileage, or give withhold them from his salary and pay
a car allowance. Generally, the them on his behalf.
principle should be you get to
and from work on your own Moving and Settling Costs:
steam. We provide any work- Most organizations do not think
related travel costs once you to factor moving and settling costs
are on the job. into their budgets. By the time you
b. Entertainment: If the couple realize that you have to get the
is expected to host people regularly fellow, his family and belongings
for Shabbos and Yomim Tovim, you over to you, you may be clueless
need to give them an entertainment where to get the money from. If a
allowance. family of three children is moving
c. Discretionary Fund: Make from Israel, with seforim and
sure that you set up a Rabbis minimal belongings, and has to buy
discretionary fund for small, petty basic furniture when they get to the
cash purchases. It is demeaning and States, this is going to cost you
unproductive to have the candidate between $8,500 and $10,000.
ask for every little penny. In addition, it is a
d. Conventions: Agree to send reasonable request that you provide
the candidate to one convention, moving costs back to Israel, should
seminar or professional course per this be required.
Page 98 of 194
Moving and settling costs can be 5. Hidden costs. (See footnote 4)
broken down into the following categories:
1. Airfare (both international and internal)
2. Cost of lift or overweight (See footnotes The wife of the candidate:
(1 and 2) Her role and remuneration
3. Visa and related costs
4. Purchases and set-up costs in new
location. (See footnote 3) Many places would like to get two-
for-one, both husband and wife working
1
Lift: It is our experience that, in most for one salary. If the expectations are that
cases, sending a lift will not be worth the the candidates wife is going to be
candidates while. Electrical goods from involved with any formal job, then it is
Israel are not compatible with American important that she get paid or that the
current and some of them do not work well
with a transformer, which often make the
appliance awkward to use. It is usually whatever) which was unnecessary and of
not worth transporting furniture either. course they have now run out of money
and have the chutzpah to ask you for
2
Overweight: When booking an airline, get more. They may think that they need this
him to choose the one that goes by huge dining room table whereas you
suitcase rather than weight, even if that employers had a normal table and a
means a stopover in Europe. Be sure that folding table or two in mind. They may feel
they understand what the total allowance strongly that they have to buy the best
is for their family as a whole. Some mattresses for the whole family. They may
airlines have a liberal policy regarding see this as a health and not a comfort
some overweight when they understand issue. But you will not necessarily agree.
that someone is moving. Try to clarify this They may always have had a display
in advance. Tell him to get to the airport cabinet and your hosts may think that is
early so that he will have enough time to excessive.
maybe find someone else on the same Other sources of tension arise
flight who is travelling light to share the when the couple unwittingly buys from
weight. Instruct him that, if there is a stores that are overpriced.
problem at the check-in ask to speak to a To avoid all of this, get them to
supervisor, who has more discretionary price everything first, so that they can see
powers than the check-in clerk. clearly whether they are going to go over
The biggest problem may be budget. Then regroup before they start
books. It may be worth sending a few their purchases. You must budget extra
boxes via the post-office, which have time for all these things, because they are
special boxes for this purpose. Do not going to be under pressure to get their life
allow him to get into a situation where he together.
will have to pay significant overweight on
4
his flight. He will pay an outrageous sum A new couple is likely to incur many
for very little gain. costs, which are difficult to ask for, such
as their trip to the airport. Before they get
3
Furniture: Give him clear instructions to know your city, they may inadvertently
about the purchase of furniture. A lot of shop in more expensive stores, and not
tensions arise when the candidate runs come out the first month or two. So when
out of money and feels that he needs to calculating moving and settling costs
ask for more to buy, lets say, ten dining round the figure up rather than down. If
room chairs because of all the guests they the candidate really does not have money,
are planning on having. You in turn, think do not put him in the position where he
that they could just as easily buy some has to start haggling over every expense.
plastic or folding chairs. You feel that in This is not the way to start off the
any case they bought a freezer (or relationship.
Page 99 of 194
global salary for the couple reflects her may be high and neither side may be in a
involvement. Generally, if the wife is giving mood. Every contract must,
being asked to work she should be paid therefore, contain termination procedures.
separately. A second, more common This should include under what
scenario exists, where the wife is expected circumstances the candidate would be laid
to find an independent job as a teacher or off, how much notice he will be given and
in some other, independent role, and it is whether there is any compensation
understood by all parties that the couple package involved. In addition, if he is
will only come out on the combined being laid off, he needs to be given time
income. In these cases it is proper that off from his job to look for another job.
you, the employer undertake the
responsibility for finding the wife a job.
Halachik Issues:
----------------------
To whom it may concern,
1 - Salaries
2 - Benefits
3 - Bonuses
Salaries
Salaries in the kiruv market have chinuch and even rental costs. That way
been low but are getting higher. Many you insure that you are not only paying a
organizations, which knowingly underpay living wage to the person when you hire
their employees, claim that they have no him, but that you will continue to do so
choice; they simply cannot afford to pay both as the persons family gets larger and
anything more. While I have no doubt that older, both of which require increasing
they believe what they are saying, this wads of greenies.
position is unacceptable. Such In other words, the financial
organizations do not address the salary arrangements must be viable in the short (1
problem for one and one reason only it is yr.), medium (2-5 yr.) and long term,
not a high enough priority. although some outreach kollelim have a
An organization may not be able to built in turnover rate of about 3 years. But
redress the entire differential immediately, every organization, if it wants to achieve
but it can certainly solve the problem over high and stable productivity, has to look
a number of years. Underpaying for ways to keep staff long term, even if it
organizations should assess that the total means an extra financial strain.
I do not believe in Hakaras HaTov
What these organizations are saying is when it comes to keeping a staff member
you must suffer for the sake of the who is no longer pulling his weight. But I
higher goals of the organization and do believe in HaKaras HaTov when it
comes to loyal, hard working and
that is a very bad thing. productive staff members whose
increasing financial requirements are
financial package must be livable
within a normal range.
according to minimum, decent standards
Should your final comment after
of that city, and raise salaries gradually
reading this be, You know, what he is
over a five-year period. I have seen
saying is probably true, but I can barely
organizations take another and yet another
make my current budget at the end of the
employee, all underpaid, when that
month, then it is my opinion that you are
increase in their budget should have gone
not fit to be running a mosad. It is time
to making it up to current employees. I
that you threw in the towel.
have seen underpaying kollelim starting
out with ten underpaid avreichim rather
than 6 or 8 adequately. What these
organizations are saying is you must
suffer for the sake of the higher goals of
the organization and that is a very bad
thing. It is tantamount to saying that the
means or some means justify the ends.
This is not a Torah idea.
Benefits
We discussed benefits above, in the have worked for the organization for four
section on hiring new staff. Let me add years or more, in full time positions. This
here that one of the most important allows us to avoid investing in high turn
benefits which you should be giving is a over staff. Our package allows each person
three-in-one insurance package, involving to choose the relevant amounts of life
retirement, disability and life. In the States, retirement and disability. In the open work
social security certain makes it a lot easier place, such policies are linked to salary. In
to make it through the retirement years. the Heritage House, the policy is the same
But it is usually not enough. However, for all staff.
please insure that all your staff will be People give their lives for kiruv.
eligible for this. Not all are going to be They sacrifice all financial well being for
American citizens, for example. But social the sake of the Klal. We owe it to these
security is not enough, in the main, to people to look after them in their old age.
survive beyond a basic poverty level. The The problem has not hit the kiruv mosdos
average kiruv person just scrapes by so he yet, only because the kiruv movement is
is not likely to have any savings either. In too new for there to be many retirees. But
Israel, Bituach LeUmi is certainly not we are all aging, as sure as our ancestors
enough for a person to retire on. did, and so are the people we are charged
The policies of the Heritage House with looking after. And to look after them
and Ner LeElef apply to employees who we have to start now.
Bonuses
Both the Heritage House and Ner LeElef 5 pts: Heads of Programs
pays bonuses Pesach and around the 4 pts: Recruiters, Follow-up workers,
Yamim Noraim. We do not tell staff about Office Managers
bonuses in advance and we do not commit 3 pts: Secretaries, Week-day Staff
ourselves to paying these. However, we do 2 pts: Maggid Shiur
budget for these bonuses in advance. The 1 pt: Inputter, Shabbos Caller, Logistics,
amount each person gets as a bonus is Fix-It
worked out on a per need basis, with each -1pt: Cleaner
person getting awarded a certain amount
of points according to perceived financial C-Full/Part Time
need, family size, etc, as per the chart 7 pts: Total Organizational Commitment
below. I try to slip in a note, if not 6 pts: Full Time
personalized then at least personal in tone 5 pts: 3/4 Time
and content, together with this. 3 pts: 1/2 Time
1 pt: 10 - 19 hrs
1 - Introduction
2 - Motivation, Inspiration, Loyalty and The Jewish People
3 - Professional Competence and Growth
(Mentoring: Teaching Smart People to Learn)
4 - Upward Mobility and The Peter Principle
5 - Trust, Caring Personal Growth and Community Building
Introduction
The best way to measure how well of productivity, profit,
you are developing staff is through the retention and customer
eyes of the staff members themselves. In a satisfaction and
book called First Break all the Rules,
Buckingham and Coffman bring a 12-point
questionnaire to measure this.:1 ii. The
employees immediate
1. Do I know what is expected of manager not pay,
me at work? benefits, perks or a
2. Do I have the materials and charismatic corporate
equipment to do my work right? leader was the critical
3. At work, do I have the player in building a strong
opportunity to do what I do best workplace.2
every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I Moreover, they stress that one should take
received recognition or praise for care of the basic needs of a staff-member
good work? before soaring to higher things. These
5. Does my supervisor, or correspond to the first six questions
someone at work, seem to care above.3 To warrant positive answers to
about me as a person? these questions from his employees, a
6. Is there someone at work who manager must be able to do four activities
encourages my development? extremely well: select a person, set
7. At work, do my opinions seem expectations, motivate the person, develop
to count? the person.4
8. Does the mission/purpose of my Although we dont always use the
company make me feel like my same language, we have addressed all 12
work is important? issues below.
9. Are my co-workers committed
to doing quality work?
10. Do I have my best friend at
work?
11. In the last six months, have I
talked with someone about my
2. Ibid., pg. 32
progress?
3. Ibid, pg. 48: If the employee doesnt
12. At work, have I had know what is expected of him as an
opportunities to learn and grow? individual, then you shouldnt ask him
about playing on a team. If he feels as
The authors report that: though he is in the wrong role, dont
i. Those pander to him by telling him how important
employees who responded his innovative ideas are to the companys
more positively to the reengineering efforts. If he doesnt know
twelve questions also what his manager thinks of him as an
worked with higher levels individual, dont confuse him by
challenging him to become a part of the
new learning organization.
1Pg. 28 4. Ibid., pg. 59
1
Rober Goffee and Gareth Jones, Why
shoul Anyone be Led by You? in Harvard
Business Review, Sep.-Oct. 2000
CELEBRATIONS
Business has to be fun. For too many people, its just a
job. I always found celebrations were a great way to energize an
organization. From my first days in plastics, I was always looking
for ways to celebrate even the smallest victories.
Dont look at me. I cant celebrate for you. Were not going
to have a vice president of celebrations at GE. You have to
consider yourself the manager of celebrations. Your job is to
make sure your team is having fun while theyre being
productive.
Jack Straight from the Gut, Jack Welch with John A. Byrne
Everybody wants to feel that they which is never going to be used here. What
are growing and developing. No one to do?
wants to feel that they are just treading Tinkering will not help in such a
water. In the section above we talked case. You must do something imaginative
about skills development and in the section and far reaching. Offer the person to
below we talk about personal growth. Here develop a new branch of the organization
we choose to talk about the most obvious in another location. Offer the person a
indication to someone that they really are partnership, now or in five years time.
growing, promotion. Only a large Help the person to develop projects which
organization can easily accommodate an you might not have gone for otherwise.
open-ended policy of upward mobility. In However, beware the Peter Principle.
a smaller organization someone might feel The Peter Principle says that
that they have reached a dead-end fairly someone gets promoted to one level above
soon. Some larger organizations are so his competence. Instead of a fabulous
tightly structured front-line kiruv worker
that each for example, you get a
employee is The Peter Principle says that third rate administrator. I
expected to slot in someone gets promoted to one have unfortunately, seen
in a very specific level above his competence. the Peter Principle at
place and more or Instead of a fabulous front-line work under my very
less to stay there kiruv worker you get a third rate nose. On one occasion,
for the rest of his administrator. the natural growth of the
life. organization and the
Now these increasing complexity of
limitations may the issues just ran away
not bother your staff at first, but sooner or with the person. On another, I was guilty
later they are going to feel stuck. They will of assessing the persons potential too
suffer from burnout and, if they are wise, high.
they will leave. If they stay and they are The tragedy of these situations is
intelligent, they will look increasingly for that the person who has been Peter
things outside of their job to stimulate Principled will not be happy. He will be
them and to provide them with spiritual out of his depth. He will usually lack the
satisfaction. They will look to minimize confidence to ask for help, thinking that he
the job as a part of their lives. has to prove himself. He will find it hard
Many of the things we have to delegate, thinking that he has to show
discussed in other chapters of this section that he can do things himself. He will be
may alleviate the problem. A working frightened about losing control and he will
atmosphere which is caring and nurturing, lack the control to act in a way that, in his
which imbibes a deep sense of mission, eyes, may not put him in a visibly positive
where there is a sense of community all light.
these things are motivators which will Once you have Peter Principled
keep the person going. But a wise person someone, you have generally created a
will realize that he has more potential monster. The person will never go back to
what they were doing before. The only
CHAPTER:
1 - Introduction
2 - Personal Goal Setting
3 - Managing Yourself
4 - Time-Management and its Constraints
5 - Using Technology
Introduction
:[ " ] "
' ' ] ' "
' .[
"
,
Personal goal setting is no different to organizational goal setting. First you have to
formulate a personal mission statement. This is the vision you have for yourself ten years
from now. Your vision for yourself should push the boundaries of what you can become,
though it should not be that which is produced by the gentle tides of sleep2. Start off with a
simple statement like:
Dont worry in the beginning about putting the goals in any order in particular, though
if there is one goal which is clearly a priority put that one down first.
Then start filling in the details:
Talmud Chacham:
To learn six masechtos
To know hilchos Shabbos, Yom Tov, Eiruvin, Mikvaos and Geirus.
To become boki in the sugyas dealing with kiruv, such as Hilchos
Tochacha, Lifnei Iver, Ifrushei Meisurah, etc.
To gain a working knowledge of Kiddushin, Inyanei Kashrus and Sofrus.
To know Chumash, Rashi (at last) and 3 5 Ikar Rambans on each
Parsha
To know the following: one sefer of the Maharal and of Rav Tzadok
HaCohen, the Derech HaSh-m and the Daas Tevunos of the Ramchal,
and 15 maamarim of the Pachad Yitzchak.
1
Jack Welch Speaks by Janet Lowe, pg. 15
2
Shakespeare: To sleep the gentle tides of sleep
1
Although you might set yourself a
standard of knowing them in order to be
considered that you learned them.
Managing Yourself
What we have been talking about
above is how to manage ones personal A directly goal related action is an action
growth in the context of a demanding, which represents the hard core kiruv you
professional environment. However, in are trying to do. This may be a shiur, a
addition to to this, one also has to learn program, talking to someone about
how to manage the purely professional Yiddishkeit, and so on.
aspects of oneself. The easiest way to
understand the challenge in this is to A secondary goal related action is an
define your job and then contrast that action which reflects the background of
with how you actually spend your day. what you have to do in order to do kiruv.
If the disparity is large, you This includes formulating a vision, setting
desperately need the words below. goals, strategizing and evaluating, staff
Many people, when faced with management and coordination.
grueling schedules, think that the
answers lie in better time management. Other actions are those actions which do
But time management (which we bring not help your own kiruv efforts but are
below) is not the only component of worthwhile nevertheless. Such actions
managing yourself. Managing yourself include helping other organizations to do
has as much to do with what you do as kiruv or chesed or raise money, helping
how you fit it all in. An ideal schedule individuals who might be regular frum
just does not exist, not because you are members of the city, or any other
not perfect, but because the world worthwhile action that may have nothing
around you is not. Welcome to Olam to do with your own organizational goals.
HaZeh, a messy place full of greys. So
what you are trying to achieve is a Means to ends actions have no value per
practical, good year1. Such a year se, but have to be done in order for your
should be divided between the organization to continue running. This
following chunks of dedicated time: includes fundraising and publicity, legal
and halachik issues, obtaining and running
a. Directly goal related a building, etc.
action
b. Secondary goal related Yesurim shel Ahava are the things which
action really do not seem to be helping you in any
c. Other way, but take significant amounts of your
d. Means to ends action time and energy nevertheless. This
e. Yisurim shel Ahava includes politics and failed initiatives.
1
I have talked about a year rather than a
smaller unit of time because many of
things we bring below are either seasonal
or infrequent, but quite time-consuming
when they do occur.
Counseling 3% 3% 2%
Kiruv giving shiurim, program, seminar participation 4% 8% 15%
Programming brain-storming, planning 7% 5% 5%
Programming implementation 2% 14% 8%
Programming discussions and evaluations 5% 1.5% 1%
Sub Total 1 21.00% 31.50% 31.00%
3. Other
B MEANS + OTHER
4. Means to ends
Fundraising and public relations 18% 22% 20%
Financial, admin., legal, building 5% 9% 7%
Halachik 1% 1% 1%
Crisis management 2% 5% 7.5%
Total 26.00% 37.00% 35.50%
Using Technology
Technology will probably make switch it on at that time for that purpose.
your life easier. But it will not necessarily Thats it. And I couldnt be happier.
save you time. And in fact, used in the But I still suffer from a more
wrong way, it can make you a less rather ancient malady. The desk phone. I was
than a more effective person. once in an El Al office and there was a
Take palm pilots. Most people in huge line. Part of the problem was that the
kiruv use palm pilots as electronic El Al agents were taking phone calls all
telephone books and as appointment the time. So I walked out of the office to
books. I have no palm. I use a paper (yes, the call box 5 yards away and called them.
paper) diary, and I use a Casio electronic I received instant service. Now I have the
phone book. Speed? I have watched people same yetzer hara as other people to
write appointments in their palms as I was helplessly respond to that ring no matter
writing in my diary. The best palm time? who I have sitting in front of me. I know
One and a half times my diary-writing that the chances of the phone call being as
time. I have watched people beam to each important as the conversation I am
other and waited for them to finish long currently having are very small. I know
after I wrote in the number. (And how that I am effecting the quality of this
many times in your lifetime are you going conversation. I know that this conversation
to beam anyhow?) Convenience? About is an arranged appointment and the call is
once a month I hear of someone who lost not. I know that this person spent a good
his palm, dropped it in water or down the deal of time shlepping over to meet me
stairs and forgot to back it up. and the caller did not. So what is the
But more than that, my diary mystery of this grip of modern technology
allows me to see my whole week at a over our lives?
glance, prioritize things, set goals and feel I will leave you to answer that
I am on top of things. It allows me to question. But let me tell you what I did to
easily relate to longer periods of time, try and save my life from this horrible fate.
months at a glance, plan overseas trips and Generally, I organize my day as follows:
make sure I get everything else in as well. Mornings until noon: Teaching and
I would never give up my paper diary for a administrative work. Appointments: 2pm
silly palm. onwards. I tell my callers to try between
And then there is the cursed cell 12 and 2. That is also the time that I return
phone. I will not rant on about things you calls. So, although I turn down most (but
already know about this most invasive of not all) callers at other times, I am telling
instruments. So let me just tell you what I people when I will be available for their
do. I have a cell phone but I do not give calls. My secretary has a list of names of
out the number. The cell phone is off, on callers I will take any time (very few) and
most days for the entire day. I turn it on to a great deal of others find, that when I am
make outgoing calls. The cell phone does not available, that there are suddenly other
not take messages. I will sometimes people who can help sort them out. I have
arrange to have someone call me on my oversimplified, but the idea is clear.
cell phone at a particular time, and then There is a great rule thumb in
technology investment that will keep you
Fiscal Ethics
' 3
: "5
4
' .
"
Fundraising
This section will not deal with the But the smaller amounts can certainly be
art of fundraising per se. What we want to taken over. They can be collected in the
deal with here are some of the managerial form of dinners, raffles, or just the good
and decision-making issues that surround old door-to-door way. They can be
fund-raising. For there is more to collected on a Super Sunday, with
fundraising than soliciting funds. An volunteers and very low expenses. And
organization needs to assess not only they will be your savings whenever the
whether its fundraising mechanism is economy hiccups a little, and your big
putting money on the table, but whether its donors start running scared.
long-term prospects are healthy or not. It is important that you concentrate
There are two variables here: on the right ration of big to small donors
and that you give attention to correcting
i. Is the fundraising broad- any imbalances
based or dependent on one or A healthy organization with a $1
several sugar-daddies? million a year budget might raise it as
ii. Is the fundraising follows:
dependent on only one person in
the organization or does it have a 30%: $ 18 - $ 750
broader base? 25%: $ 750 - $ 2,500
20%: $ 2,500 - $ 5,000
15%: $ 5,000 - $10,000
(about 20 donors in this category)
Sources of financing - A 5%: $10,000 -
to 5 donors in this category)
$20,000 (3
A small mosad can afford to have a most of us are not used to thinking
loose structure. The larger the mosad, in this way, imagine the following.
however, the more problematic the Let us say that your current budget
approach. Nevertheless, even a large is $ million p/a. Imagine that you
mosad can have a loose structure in one took that budget, and asked anyone
of two models: who wanted to do a kiruv project to
a. Everyone has a clear area of apply for a $10,000 - $25,000 a
responsibility, with very little year grant. You would subject each
overlap. Ohr Somayach, South initiative to strict standards, the
Africa, a large kiruv organization applicants would at least have to
with 4 branches in Johannesburg match the funding, and there would
and one branch in Cape Town is an have to be a strong plan and
example of this. Someone is in commitment to continuing the
charge of fundraising and the project independently after two
administrative infrastructure; years. Now say to yourself,
someone is in charge of front-line Would more for Klal Yisroel be
kiruv, someone in charge of the done that way than raising the
Beis Midrash, etc. and each person budget for what I am doing now?
more or less looks after himself. The answer may well be yes.
To do this you have to have two Ner LeElef is an example of
elements: A deep mutual respect a loose structure which seems to
and a high level of competence and have worked quite well. Although
motivation. we saw the need to centralize the
b. The second model is where training programs to upgrade their
the mother organization sees efficacy, there is no project out
itself more as a type of catalyst to there with a Ner LeElef sign on the
nurture fairly independent, door. This is true even where we
ultimately, self-sustaining projects. are the primary funders of the
Chabad works very much in this project. The policy, however, has
way. You get two years of funding allowed us to make many financial
from head office and then you are coalitions, to get local donors to
on your own, usually in many more take responsibility, and essentially
senses than just financing. The to act as a catalyst to projects
head office may provide some which become independent after
services, and occasionally try to two years. We are then able to
reign someone in, but essentially it move onto the next project, thereby
is every center to itself. Although achieving much more.
1.
See what we brought in the name of the
Chazon Ish in the previous footnote. Of
course, historically there have been many
situations where Torah principles required
a stand against anti-Torah positions but,
says Rav Etlinger (Minchas Ani on
Chumash), this is because ultimately
peace between us and Shamayim is of
transcendent value to peace between us
and our fellow man. The first Midrash
Raba on Parshas Pinchos says:
. ][ : "
.
.'
Elsewhere, we have already dealt with the (See also Section One, Chapter xi,
importance of accountability in a real Shimush and Chapter xiii, outside
fashion. was consultants)
said for Baalei Mosdos first and foremost. Most often, you will not have the
Another reason for putting together a choice of whether you are going to have a
board of some sorts is for fundraising lay-board or not. Most often, the lay
purposes. But the most important reason people will have been there before you. In
for having a board is to have more team- fact, they will be your employers. Often
members, for ideas, for practical help and this works out fine. Sometimes, one is
for advice. faced with a difficult layman who
But boards are tricky things. threatens to cloud your entire job-
is not always the same as satisfaction.
. Some ideas might sound plain wacky Often, laymen who are very
to you, and then how do you explain to this sophisticated in the work-place, who may
gentleman on whose largesse you be running major corporations at the
somewhat depend that you are not highest levels, become hard if not
currently interested in what he has to say. unreasonable task masters over their
Boards of any sort can also make things oh Rabbi. They will impose their will based
so slow. I know an organization that told on the skimpiest of understandings of a
me quite clearly that they cannot make a situation, and they may always be a little
decision in under four months even if condescending to the rabbi, who after all,
everyone agrees. Yet the answer is clearly is not as much a man of the world as they
not to go back to one-man shows. There is are. They are convinced that the rabbinate
no point wasting ones time with yes-men requires the meagerest of salaries,
either. If one is going to get quality people especially since it is coming out of their
involved, then they are going to have pockets.
opinions of their own. But there is worse to come. The
There is no clear answer to this. real problems start when the rabbi is
And different large organizations reflect employed without a clear job definition to
different models. Rabbi Shalom Schwartz begin with, and where the expectations for
of Aish HaTorah has shown how achievement may be totally unrealistic.
effectively one can get anyone who walks Someone once told me that he
through the door involved, in not only worked for a whole year, thinking that he
shiurim, but in helping and organizing. was doing a good job. At the end of the
This system does not necessitate a lay- year he was shocked to find out that he had
board of directors. Rather, the work gets been doing the wrong job. The baal
done through formal or informal sub- habatim had never bothered to
committees or, even more loosely, in communicate with him what it was that
different areas of responsibility. they wanted him to do, so he did what he
Of course, it goes without saying intuited was their will. Well, he turned out
that every organization has its . to be dead wrong.
Some organizations, like , have On another occasion, we
gone a step further, actively looking to get discovered that the four major baal
Gedolei Torah involved at some level in habatim in a town all had different job
their activities. definitions. For six months we tried,
1. Do you often ask yourself tough and insightful questions about your kiruv role?
2. How vigorously do you pursue answering them?
3. Can you list ten such questions?
4. Is there a chavrusa/rebbe with whom you interact regularly on these issues?
d. Organizational Shimush
*Have you ever worked closely with someone you considered an organizational
professional?
Leadership
f. Charisma vs. Organizational Sophistication
*Do you have a sense of the common elements of character, style, vision, etc. of some
of the leaders of the baal tshuvah movement?
*Are you working on improving yourself in those ways?
*Do you understand the relationship of you own Yiras Shamayim, Limud HaTorah and
general Avodas HaShem to your effectiveness as a leader?
l. Success
1-Criteria
*Do you establish clear criteria before each program initiative, which will determine
whether you continue with that program or not?
*Will you definitely close the program if it does not achieve a minimal level of success
within the allotted time?
*How do you compare the successes of various programs?
*Do you measure the quality of people getting involved in various programs as a
function of success? How?
*Do you measure the number of people who become frum as the bottom line success of
any program?
*Do you know how to make a cost benefit analysis of your programs?
2-Local success
*Do local successes such as improving your image, a big turn out, an enthusiastic
response, etc. comprise relevant criteria for the success of a program?
m. Budgetary allocations
*Do you allocate more than 20% of your budget to fundraising and administrative
expenses?
*If so, do you justify this by saying that it takes money to produce money?
*Do you have clear hashkafic parameters as to what demands present kiruv
opportunities vs. long term planning should be made on your current budget?
p. Specialization-Choose or be chosen
*Do you have a clear sense of who your targeted audience is as distinguished by age,
sophistication, level of commitment and interest?
*Are all people within the targeted range going to feel comfortable with each other?
*Who, of that targeted range, is most likely to actually come to any program?
*How much effort have you invested in understanding the specific dynamics of that
population?
*Why did you choose that population?
1-Interdependency
Managing Yourself
r. A practical, good year
*Can you define your year in terms of time spent on direct vs. secondary goal related
activities, ends vs. means activity?
*Do you know how to implement a sensible ratio?
*Do you have goals for each week? How much time do you spend on your goals verses
other things?
s. Graded inaccessibility
*Do you accept all calls, and respond to all requests for appointments?
*Are you equally accessible to all? Do you see this as a good thing?
*Do you know how to make people feel that you are accessible without making
yourself hefker?
To be held every week, Wednesday afternoon, 2:00- 4:00 pm in Rabbi Abramovs office.
G (General) Feedback
Held every alternative week, these meetings are to go through the list of people
currently being placed and to discuss the many issues that surround each placement. We will
attempt to insure that the graduate is placed in situations that give maximum expression to his
potential. Programming staff and participant issues are also discussed.
These meetings include the following Staff:
Rabbis Abramov Edelstein, Altheim, Miller, Gendelman and Ingber. Rabbis Efros
and Butler will join these meetings whenever they are in town, as will Mrs. Levine and Mrs.
Ingber whenever the meetings effect their area of responsibility.
C (Creativity) Feedback
Once a month these Wednesday meetings are dedicated to brainstorming about first
and second phase issues. For this purpose the forum is broadened to include Rabbi Leuchter
and Rabbi Gershenfeld as well as relevant outside consultants. Mrs. Leah Emanuel will
attend these meetings and draw from it ideas which will then be e-mailed to all our graduates
in the field.
P (Participant) Feedback
Once a month the Wednesday meeting is dedicated to going through each participant
on the program name by name and evaluating his program and
determining what individualized treatment he might require. Relevant teachers will be invited
to this meeting such as Rabbi Orlowek concerning the English Second Year Program and
Rabbis Leuchter and Gershenfeld concerning the English First Year Program.
A. In Israel
There is a well-developed system with Rabbis Miller and Altheim, visiting programs taking
attendance and taking reports on the quality and relevance of lectures. Mrs. Levine does the
same for the Womans program.
B. Overseas
Rabbi Tipograf supervises the Moscow and St. Petersburg program. However we have no
supervisor of the students programs and one avreich program in Buenos Aires.
Once a year each program director and other senior staff members should write a report and
evaluation of their areas of responsibilities as well as a performance evaluation of staff under
their supervision. The evaluation should highlight problems and provide concrete suggestions
for upgrading. This should be followed by a two-day evaluation meeting by the directors and
different columniations of staff. Following this a concrete list of upgrades combined with
target dates and specific individuals to be held accountable for implementation.
Every month a different program or aspect of Ner LeElef will be thoroughly evaluated and
a final report with concrete suggestions written about the program. For the programs overseas
this will preferably include a visit either by one of the directors or by an outside evaluator.
A program evaluation will involve the recruitment, educational content, placement,
relationship with Ner LeElef, etc Specific targets for the following year and for
subsequent years will be set.
Vacation Leave
All such employees are entitled to the following paid leave, unless explicitly stated in
their contracts:
1. All Chagim, Yomim Noraim, erev Chagim and Yomam Noraim including erev
Bedikas Chometz, Chol Hamoed, Tisha BAv and Purim but excluding erev
Purim, erev Chanukah, Chanukah, (see below, b), erev Tisha BAv, minor (12
hour) fasts, Yom HaAtzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim, Lag BaOmer and your
birthday. Purim means the day that you are chayav to celebrate, either the 14th
of Adar if you live out of Jerusalem or the 15th if you live in Jerusalem.
2. Heritage House will try to facilitate that married staff members are home to light
Chanukah candles bizmano, each to his/her own minhag. However, time taken
off for this purpose needs to be made up. eg: If you work in the administration
from 9am, we would expect that you come in an hour earlier etc. as per
arrangement with the director or, where relevant, the controller. Heritage House
reserves the right to require staff members to work their regular hours, should the
situation so require or should staff members not be able to make up the time.
3. One additional week paid leave.
4. Three days paid leave if your spouse gives birth (Mazel Tov), maternity leave if
you give birth (see iv below). (If youre male and you manage to give birth well
give you a year off).
5. One day on the day of the bris, if the child is a boy.
6. One day if your child is having a bar mitzvah.
7. Eight days if you are getting married.
a. Qualifications
1. The additional week can only be taken with timely, prior consultation with the
director.
2. Permission for Vacation Leave: Vacation leave will not be given unless
the relevant staff member responsible for finding and/or approving a
substitute has been given adequate notice. Ordinarily this staff member is
the general manager of the mens and womens hostels in the case of the
hostels, the controller in the case of the office and project heads in other
Maternity Leave
1. Maternity leave may be taken for up to 3 months commencing at any
time after the beginning of the 7th month of pregnancy onwards, at 75%
of your average salary for the last 6 months.
2. No maternity pay will be given to anyone who was pregnant at the
time of employment for that pregnancy. Maternity leave may
nevertheless be taken as unpaid leave. Staff who are pregnant at the
time of employment are required to inform the director or controller
prior to accepting employment. Failure to do so may lead to dismissal
without notice.
Other Leave
Under rare circumstances and for exceptional reasons, and at the discretion of the
director, an extra week unpaid may be granted by the director. This may involve using
up sick leave, though unpaid, toward the extra week.
Army Call-ups
Miscellaneous Clauses
1. In all the above cases, wherever the job of the staff member requires
them to be at a specific location, working from home is not considered
having worked. This is true even if Rabbi Schuster, the Director or
anyone else specifically asked them to work from home, unless this has
prior clearance, from the director.
2. Any previous arrangements inconsistent with this memo are null and
void unless specific instructions to the contrary are given after receipt of
this memo by the director.
3. Any cases not explicitly covered by this policy are to be presumed as
coming from the vacation leave unless explicitly stated by the director to
the contrary. Specific dispensation will always be given for that occasion
only and are never intended to apply to future cases of a similar nature.
4. Logging: Staff are required to phone in to the controller during his
working hours, any vacation or sick or other leave within her next
working day after taking the leave if it was unanticipated or in advance
as in all normal cases of vacation leave. Failure to report any absences
will be reviewed as a serious breach of the working relationship.
Of the four best books I have to recommend, three of them are short and easy to read:
The fourth book requires more work to get through, but it is well worth your while:
First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
Based on a huge survey of managers, it has a lot of basic information on good management
and leadership.
Non-Profit Management
Today, there are also numerous books on management of non-profit organizations. Many of
these books have the advantage of presuming that the reader has no experience in budget
making, fund-raising or goal setting. I have not found any single book in this series which I
would put on the must-read list, though each of them has useful information:
Miscellaneous
Audio
Fundraising:
The following is a list of some cassettes and books on fundraising. Books on sales are also
included, as some of the fund-raising technique overlaps with that of sales.
10 Commandments of Fundraising
13 Fundraising Stories
5 Habits for Successful Fundraisers
Maximizing Your Fundraising Meetings
All four audio-tapes by Rabbi Yitzchak Greenman. They are a part of a five part series of
tapes on fundraising put out by Aish Hatorah.