Lambeth - Bishops' spouses flock to management sessions

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Lambeth Daily
Bishops' spouses flock to management sessions
Posted On : July 29, 2008 5:02 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
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Mrs Chitra Kovoor talks to us about the very well 
attended sessions she’s been leading in the 
Spouses’ Conference on management skills.

Why do bishops’ spouses need training and management skills?

When they become bishops’ spouses they are 
automatically projected into these roles where 
they are expected to do all these management 
tasks, for example, lead meetings, look at 
balance sheets, accounts and expenditure, plan, 
organise 
 and they’re supposed to know it all. 
That’s a terrifying place to be without any 
training! They have found these sessions to be 
valuable, to be with each other and identify with 
each other and their similar fears.

What preparation is there for a bishop’s spouse in those roles?

There is little or not training. They are thrust 
into this role and expected to get on with it. We 
were talking [in one session] about managing 
people - even the skills required there are so 
complex, how you manage different behaviours in a 
meeting, the technicalities of running a meeting, 
agendas and so forth. Being able to give the 
spouses a few down to earth practical skills that 
will work is the objective of this process.

How have you gone about teaching those things?

I thought it would be quite dry to just have 
management theory, plus there was the challenge 
of language and different cultures. So we have 
been using the Old Testament story of Esther. 
Each session is based on each letter of her name.

The first is looking at life experiences, how 
leadership and management comes out of our 
experiences, and how God uses our experiences for 
us to become effective managers and leaders.

Secondly we were looking at role of the bishops 
spouse. We tried writing a job description of a 
bishop’s spouse, and they learned how to write a corporate mission statement.

The third session was teamwork around managing 
people, behaviours, and meetings. We looked at 
team roles, management theory, personality types, 
and hurdles in leadership and the difficulties in 
power politics. We had a good laugh, but these 
were deep issues that were very real to their situations.

Later this week we’ll look at executing 
strategies, and the rewards of leadership.

How does the story of Esther relate to the skills you are teaching?

When we looked at Esther’s early life 
experiences, and how those experiences had an 
impact on her, [we saw that] she took that 
leadership position, and that those early life 
experiences shaped her for leadership. Women 
could really identify with that as a lot of them 
have informal or even traumatic or difficult work 
experiences. Esther had no clue she was going to 
step into this role, or what it meant to be 
stepping into a role where she was just a beauty 
queen, but then became a queen of significant 
influence who then saved her people. She only 
seemed to be an appendage but actually she moved 
into a significant leadership position.

Does there need to be a program for bishop’s 
spouses to access if they require this kind of training?

There is a crying need for training, and it is 
our responsibility as a Communion to provide that 
for the spouses. I talk to bishops, who say 
jokingly, “what about us?” And I say, “At least 
you get training, where often your spouses don’t have the opportunity”.

Chitra Kovoor has worked with the Church of 
England in management theory and training. She is 
a member of the Spouses’ Conference Implementation Group.