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Those impacted must gain a vision as a survivor rather than a victim. Research indicates that humans are an amazingly resilient species as we bounce back from adversity. We are fearfully and wonderfully made! • Communicate flexible and reasonable accommodations as people progress to a new normal. Staff members and volunteers should not all be expected to immediately function at full productivity (although some will), but will recover quicker if assigned to simple, concrete tasks. Structure and focus are helpful, and extended time away from previous roles often inhibits recovery. “If you fall off a horse, get back on a pony.” While I hope this is the most interesting article you never need, effective leadership during crises represents a meaningful min- istry platform to truly make a difference in the lives of others. I believe that there is no greater honor and no greater responsibility than to be there for people on the worst day of their lives. Please access Critical Incident Response supportive resources and do it well. Bob VandePol serves as Executive Director of Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Service’s Employee Assistance and Church Assistance Programs ( www. pinerest.org/pine-rest-eap ). He has also served as president of Crisis Care Network, the world’s largest provider of crisis response services to the workplace, managing the Command Center in Manhattan after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and leading response campaigns following many of our nation’s large-scale events. Active as a keynote speaker, he has published in business and clinical journals and has frequently been featured as an expert in media interviews and training videos. bob.vandepol@pinerest.org because they are out of touch with expressing lover archetypal energy in an appropriate way through their leadership role. Another aspect of shadow is our survival plan from childhood that has turned into an unholy version of a redemption plan as an adult. Nothing to do with spirit redemption, it is the ego’s distortions about redemption: I am going to make up for how I failed to get the connection, validation, or safety that I needed growing up by over-excelling, overachieving, etc., as an adult. With power or money, those redemption plan scripts undermine and sabotage authentic leader effectiveness. Gruder , continued from page 19

Another dimension of shadow for leaders is money shadow: thinking about money in ways that sabotage profits or aggrandize money to a level where leaders are willing to sacrifice integrity, relationships, and social responsibility for greater profits in the short run, despite committing brand slaughter, as David Corbin refers to it, in the long run. The final big aspect of leadership shadow is boundary shadow. Most people think of a boundary as a line in the sand or ultimatum. Those are not boundaries, although they get misdefined that way.A boundary is any limit I need to honor to love (a person or relationship) or to collaborate (a work relationship) with you with integrity and without resentment. Real, authentic boundaries are about collaboration, not ultimatums or lines in the sand. When leaders don’t have clarity about healthy boundaries and how to enact them in effective ways in their leadership role, they are in boundary shadow. We have shadows in power, authority, archetype, survival and redemption plans, money, and boundaries, all of which are part of shadow illiteracy in leaders, not because we are horrible people, but because shadow is something that linguists call an empty category, a nameless phenomenon. With no name, a conscious relationship can’t be developed with it. No harm, no shame, no fault, no blame. Now that you are aware of the existence of shadow and its unintended negative impacts on leader effectiveness, you can develop shadow literacy. There are many books that can help people with shadow awareness. Start integrating this into your leadership effectiveness. Open your own doors around shadow awareness. This is not about shame or blame or anything along those lines. It is quite the opposite. Even effective, seasoned leaders simply haven’t been exposed to this dimension of leadership. All of us can identify leaders who are operating from places of shadow in their relationship to how they express leadership. They don’t even know that there is such a thing as leader shadow, let alone what the dimensions are, or how to develop a conscious relationship with these aspects of ourselves so that we can lead in an elevated way. Imagine what it would be like if the leaders in your business, nonprofit, community organization, places of worship, and the government were really aware of leader shadow and had literacy around the right

cident Response Consultant provides a safe, directed environment to: 1. Consult with leadership to shape the response effectively 2. Position leadership favorably through shared messaging 3. Allow people to talk if they wish to do so 4. Identify and normalize acute traumatic stress reactions so that those impacted by them do not panic about them 5. Build group support within work teams 6. Outline self-help recovery strategies 7. Brainstorm solutions to overcome immediate return-to-work and return- to-life obstacles 8. Triage movement toward either immediate business-as-usual functioning or additional care Crisis Care Network, the largest provider of Critical Incident Response services to the workplace, developed a crisis communication process that has been helpful for both consul- tants and business leaders.The acronym ACT describes a means of Acknowledging, Com- municating, and Transitioning amidst a crisis. Acknowledge and name the incident • Have an accurate understanding of the facts and avoid conjecture. • Demonstrate the courage to use real language that specifically names what occurred. • Acknowledge that the incident has an impact on everyone and that it is okay that individuals will be impacted differently. • Acknowledge briefly that the incident has an impact on you personally. Doing so compassionately gives others permission to feel and diminishes the likelihood that you will be the target of blame. Communicate pertinent information with both compassion and competence • In the absence of information, people create it. Providing information reduces the likelihood of rumors, builds trust, and provides a sense of order that supports moving forward. • Although it is very difficult to do when impacted by traumatic stress, communicating with both competence and compassion demonstrates leadership effectiveness in a caring way. CIR Consultants often help church leaders by scripting and coaching their messaging. Transition toward a future focus • Communicate an expectation of recovery.

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