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Resume Updating: 5 Reasons for Clergy

Resume Updating: 5 Reasons for Clergy

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Resumes are an opportunity to tell a story to yourself and to others. As a result, I believe it is good practice for clergy to update your resume every six to twelve months. I think there are five great reasons to do so and none of them is because you’re planning to be leaving your job. Let me say it clearly: updating your resume does NOT mean that you are planning to or going to be leaving your job.  Of course, if you are leaving your job or preparing for a job search, you have to have your resume updated. But just because you are working on your resume is not a sign to itself that you are searching. Instead, I believe that it is a good thing to be…
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Productivity for clergy in the age of COVID-19

Productivity for clergy in the age of COVID-19

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash There is so much pressure right now to be masters of productivity. Zoom meetings on the hour, an unending stream of emails, family responsibilities, and the overall anxiety pervading society are like a tidal wave and all we have are little arm floaties. And yet, there is the very human desire to be productive. We want to feel like we're contributing. We want to feel a sense of control over our surroundings that comes with leadership. But we can't have that. No one can. Instead we're stuck at home, like everyone else, spinning our wheels, hoping to get traction. So what does productivity look like for us, members of the clergy, pastors, imams, for me as a rabbi, in this era? In order to be productive, we…
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15+ Self Care Ideas for Rabbis

15+ Self Care Ideas for Rabbis

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Self care and your mental health must be a priority. Rabbis have incredibly complex jobs. In particular, it requires analytical skills, emotional intelligence, empathy, and lots of time reading email. As a result, it can be exhausting, especially if you are the only rabbi. You can get pulled in a million directions and as such, self care is essential to your mental health and your success. I'm going to continue to update this post as I receive ideas, so make sure to check back! Last updated: September 28th, 2018 Here's a list of self care ideas that can help rabbis like you who might be facing some burnout. 1. Get ice cream after funerals. A rabbi I know once said that he gets ice cream after funerals as a way…
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Your Rosh Hashanah Success

Your Rosh Hashanah Success

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Your Rosh Hashanah service, conversation, teaching, community event was a success. I don’t need to know anything about it to know this. The seating in your congregation might have been not as full as you’d have liked or maybe too full. You might have had a chaotic kid oriented experience or perhaps perfectly smooth. Your people might have talked through your sermon or it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Either way, it was a success. How do I know? Because there is only one real measure that matters. Did you make one person’s life better? More meaningful? Did you impact them? The answer is yes. Unequivocally, I know that you did. Because that is what we do. It is what we live and breathe. Being a…
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Ten Personas to Help You Innovate

Ten Personas to Help You Innovate

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Taking on new personas has helped me think more creatively and have improved my impact.  When I was first going through the job process, I spoke to a friend and colleague, Rabbi Elan Babchuck who suggested that I read a few books for inspiration. Little did I know how impactful those suggestions would be in the long term. One book, the Innovator’s Dilemma, I’ve already discussed here. The other, is called The Ten Faces of Innovation. In the introduction, we learn about the Devil’s Advocate, a persona that we’ve all encountered. Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman, of IDEO, say this about someone who claims this mantle: “Having invoked the awesome protective power of that seemingly innocuous phrase, the speaker now feels entirely free to take potshots at your idea, and…
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What Does it Take to Succeed? Understanding Power and Status

What Does it Take to Succeed? Understanding Power and Status

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
Let's get things done. We desire the feeling of accomplishment. We want to be able to say that we achieved our goals, we lived our mission, and manifested our vision. However, it is rarely so easy to get there. We must understand the difference between power and status in order to be succeed. This balance is true regardless of institution, whether you are in a synagogue or a school, in a non-profit, or in any type of leadership situation. The dynamic between these two ideas, power and status, is something I read in Adam Grant’s book, Originals.  What is power? Power is the authority to do something. I have the authority, for example, to run my program’s the way I want. On the other hand, I do not have the…
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The Two Types of Innovation You Need to Consider

The Two Types of Innovation You Need to Consider

Blog, Self-Improvement and Awareness
As humans, we LOVE new things. The newest gadget, the newest car, or the newest piece of gossip. However, when we want to do new things, it is a little more challenging for us. That is why understanding the two types of innovation is essential. They are: sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. First, let’s define innovation: Merriam-Webster defines innovation as: 1 : the introduction of something new 2 : a new idea, method, or device : novelty Innovation is the process, method, and introduction of something new. Something that ideally, brings value to whomever is engaging with that innovative thing. Clayton M. Christensen, a brilliant business author, wrote an impactful book on the subject, The Innovator’s Dilemma, which was first released in the 1990’s. In this book, he explains the…
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