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Leading From the Second Chair

Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams
Warren Schuh | Outcomes, Jan/Feb 2006

Many capable, idealistic, servant-minded people find themselves in "second chair" management and leadership roles within Christian organizations and churches across the country. For many, this is a positive, fulfilling experience while for others it is frustrating and sometimes even painful.

Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson, co-authors of Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series), have done Christian leaders everywhere a real service by identifying the factors that can make the difference between frustration and fulfillment for "second chair" managers and leaders.

At the same time, they have provided significant insight for all who occupy the "first chair" and those who report to "second chair" leaders. Teams will be stronger and more effective if they understand the principles identified in this book.

So what is a "second chair" leader anyway? This book defines the role this way:

"A second chair leader is a person in a subordinate role whose influence with others adds value throughout the organization."

This is a person who reports to someone else occupying the first chair and is therefore in a subordinate role. But it's a role that, in the context of team, significantly influences the overall organization. The resulting value added by the second chair makes the organization much better than it otherwise would be.

Through multiple interviews with second chair leaders around the country, Bonem and Patterson identified three significant paradoxes that all second chair leaders must understand and learn to balance.

Paradox I

Subordinate-Leader

"The subordinate-leader paradox is challenging to successfully balance because it is relationally intensive and partially dependent on another person: your first chair. It deals with how you as a leader are interfacing with and following the lead of your senior leader. Some first chairs are a pleasure to work with, and some are not. Some are concerned about the personal lives and careers of their subordinates, and others seem detached or self-absorbed. Some give their second chairs ample room to lead while others are much more controlling. At the end of the day, the second chair can do little to change the first chair. A second chair leader's most valuable tool for promoting change is his or her own attitudes and actions.

"This does not mean that the second chair is to be a mindless robot, obeying whatever commands the first chair issues. Second chairs are leaders. Our definition makes it clear they are not content to sit back and wait for someone else to take action. This is the tension of the paradox. It is not easy to be a subordinate and a leader. We recognize that some circumstances may not allow a second chair to lead at all. But in most circumstances, you can discover the genius of the and as a subordinate and a leader." (See page 25.)