Heron Michelle of the Witch on Fire blog has a brilliant post titled How to Avoid Being Burned at the Stake: A Guide for Pagan Leadership<\/a>. It\u2019s funny and deadly serious at the same time, and I highly encourage you to read it. Although it\u2019s written to Pagan leaders and would-be leaders, it\u2019s really directed at the rest of us who have expectations for our leaders that are unreasonable, unfair, and unworkable.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t control other people\u2019s expectations for your leadership. But you can control how you lead. Here are 13 questions to help you become an effective Pagan leader.<\/p>\n First and foremost, leadership is about service. It\u2019s what you do to make things better for your group and its members, for your allied Gods and spirits, for the world at large, and in support of your collective values and virtues.<\/p>\n If you have personal obligations and obligations to a group, you must do both. Occasionally that can be done simultaneously, but not always. I led two rituals for Cernunnos at Denton CUUPS, but being an officer in a CUUPS group meant that I also led and participated in rituals for many different Gods and traditions. Those \u201cother\u201d rituals didn\u2019t excuse the commitments I made to Cernunnos and other deities \u2013 I had to satisfy Them on my own.<\/p>\n Who are the persons \u2013 human and other than human \u2013 you serve?<\/p>\n Once you figure out who you serve, the next question is how you go about serving them. Do you hold public rituals on the eight high days? Do you focus on public service and political action? Teach classes? Teach one-on-one? Conduct elaborate magical workings?<\/p>\n Just being<\/em> a Wiccan coven or a Druid grove or a polytheist religious order is only the beginning. What is it that you do<\/em>? You cannot be an effective leader unless you understand the mission of the group you lead.<\/p>\n Now we move down to specific actions. What will you do to accomplish your mission?<\/p>\n You need a calendar. Not just a collection of things you\u2019re going to do, but an actual 12-month, SMTWTFS calendar. If you\u2019re a small group that may be a spreadsheet or even a text file. If you\u2019re a larger group you may want a Google calendar or something like it. Regardless of the technology you use, there needs to be one central calendar where all the group\u2019s events and activities are scheduled. Otherwise people will schedule things over your events, or they\u2019ll just forget about them.<\/p>\n The bigger and more active the group, the harder it gets to find times when you can get together. Schedule early, and make keeping your schedule a priority.<\/p>\n Another advantage of an actual calendar is that it shows you just how much you\u2019re trying to do. And that raises the question of whether or not you can actually do it all.<\/p>\n I cannot tell you how many events and activities you should schedule. Large churches have multiple events going on every day \u2013 but no one person is expected to be at all of them. For a coven-sized group, simply gathering at every full moon may be a challenge. We all have lives: work and\/or school, family obligations, other interests and commitments. If you try to schedule too much you\u2019ll burn yourself out. If you schedule too little people will lose interest.<\/p>\n Do what you need and want to do to fulfill your mission, but remember that it\u2019s better to do a few things well than to do many things poorly.<\/p>\n Once you figure out what you\u2019re going to do, it\u2019s time to figure out who\u2019s going to do it. A leader will be busy \u2013 probably the busiest person in the group. But if you\u2019re doing all the work, you\u2019re setting yourself and your group up for failure.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not your responsibility to do all the work \u2013 it\u2019s your responsibility to make sure all the work gets done.<\/p>\n Who\u2019s writing the rituals? Who\u2019s taking part in them? Who\u2019s maintaining the website and Facebook page? Who\u2019s showing up for the roadside trash pickup?<\/p>\n Now ask yourself who\u2019s overloaded and needs help? Who\u2019s ready for more, and needs to be given more opportunities? And who needs nurturing, so they can handle more in the future?<\/p>\n Getting as many people involved (to the extent they want to be involved) without overloading anyone is key to a healthy group.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not talking about who you think is decent and honest \u00a0\u2013 that\u2019s assumed. If you\u2019ve got someone who\u2019s not decent and honest, that\u2019s a problem you need to deal with, but that\u2019s not what we\u2019re talking about here.<\/p>\n Rather, whose counsel do you trust? Who can you bounce ideas off before presenting them to the entire group? Who will tell you \u201cI think that\u2019s great, but you\u2019ll have to convince Jane or it won\u2019t fly\u201d? Who will tell you \u201cI think that\u2019s the worst idea you\u2019ve ever come up with\u201d \u2013 and still be your friend and co-religionist afterwards?<\/p>\n Sometimes this is an experienced elder. Sometimes it\u2019s a new person who doesn\u2019t know all the dirty laundry from the past. Most times it\u2019s someone who\u2019s intelligent, observant, and who\u2019s completely dedicated to the group and its mission.<\/p>\n Some Pagans still fetishize consensus. That can be a good way to make sure everyone is heard, but in large groups it can be unwieldy, and it allows any one person to hold up a decision, even though they may not be heavily invested in the decision or even in the group.<\/p>\n If your group has by-laws (and if it doesn\u2019t, it should) they will specify how major decisions are made. But leaders have to make impromptu decisions all the time. Who will you consult? Who will you allow to veto your decisions?<\/p>\n There are many ways to run a group, from highly democratic to highly autocratic. No one way is the best way in all circumstances. You can\u2019t know what decisions you\u2019ll make before you have to make them, but you can understand the process you\u2019ll use to decide.<\/p>\n Whether a leader makes a command decision or a group makes a democratic decision, that decision has to be communicated to the rest of the group.<\/p>\n Change the date of a ritual? Decide to use group funds to buy a new statue? Invite non-members to what was supposed to be a closed event? Everyone who wasn\u2019t there when the decision was made needs to be informed.<\/p>\n This is partly a technical question: are you going to use e-mail, phone calls, Facebook, or something else? But mainly it\u2019s a reminder that all decisions have to be communicated so the group remains on the same page.<\/p>\n A good leader is more than a bus driver who can read a map. A good leader has an idea of where the group should go when they get on the bus \u2013 and sometimes that\u2019s places that aren\u2019t on the map<\/a>.<\/p>\n What are you doing now that you need to do better? What should you stop doing? What should you start doing? What are your long-term goals?<\/p>\n Growth is good, but just getting bigger doesn\u2019t necessarily make things better. Does getting bigger allow\u00a0 you do serve more people? Or does it just strain the handful of people who are doing all the work?<\/p>\n Does your group need to broaden its focus? Do you need to stop being so Celtic-focused and do something Norse or Hellenic for a change? Or do you need to narrow your focus and just be a Gardnerian coven? There is no one right answer. Consider the needs, desires, and skills of your group, its mission, its members, and the wider community.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/11\/Southern-New-Hampshire-Pagan-Pride-Day-2017.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1. Who do you serve?<\/h1>\n
2. What is your mission?<\/h1>\n
3. What\u2019s on the calendar?<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/11\/calendar-11.02.18.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. Can you do it all?<\/h1>\n
5. Who does the work?<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/11\/18-131-ADO-Spring-Equinox.jpg\")
<\/a>6. Who do you trust?<\/h1>\n
7. How will you make decisions?<\/h1>\n
8. How will you communicate decisions?<\/h1>\n
9. What\u2019s your vision?<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2018\/11\/path-10.20.18.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n