Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

144 THE PASSIONATE STEWARD
Expectation Management
In addition to keeping the campaign grounded in stewardship,
leaders must pay careful attention to expectations. Parishioners will
inevitably import a kaleidoscope of previous campaign experiences,
and attitudes towards stewardship, into their unspoken assumptions and
expectations regarding any proposed campaign. Hence, it is important
clearly to define the campaign’s goals and objectives, and equally, to
establish timelines and benchmarks for various campaign activities.
Failure to do so may allow anxiety or concerns arising from previous
experience (or no experience) to intrude upon the current campaign.
Managing expectations needs to begin at the planning stage.
Leaders must not only understand what is expected of them, but
when and how. Volunteers, too, are entitled to, and respond best to,
clear expectations and objectives. Likewise, the parish as a whole
needs to be kept “in the loop.” Naturally, each of these
constituencies will have different needs, depending upon the
intensity of their involvement in the total campaign plan. For
instance, a campaign chair will have to be far more informed about
timelines for volunteer recruitment, and such benchmarks as
printing deadlines, than the small group who will be asked to
manage the celebratory party at the end of the campaign.
Information needs to delivered with the specific needs of the
recipient in mind.
Therefore, not only what information is disseminated, but how it
is disseminated, is important. Parishes that publish a complete timeline,
including preparatory meetings and deadlines which concern only a
few people, risk having people believe that the campaign is
interminable. Moreover, minute detail, widely distributed, invites
minute criticism, widely offered—despite an ignorance of how various
details may fit together. This must always, however, be balanced
against the need for transparency, and access to information. Generally
speaking, it is better to have a complete campaign plan available for
inspection in the parish office, and someone appointed to brief