Stepping Up to Supervision

3

Sessions

2025 Dates Coming Soon

Start Date

9

Contact Hours

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Developed from working with hundreds of congregations and denominational bodies across the US and Canada, Susan Beaumont’s training series “Stepping Up to Supervision” is the comprehensive source to equip you in the everyday and long term needs of supervising others. Whether you are a seasoned clergy person, manage a church office, or work in other ministry areas, this course will help you navigate the specific challenges of supervision within a faith-based context.

“Stepping Up to Supervision” offers a unique blend of theological reflection and practical strategies empowering you to become a more effective supervisor. You will learn best practices for hiring the right candidates, conducting performance reviews, and taking corrective action—up to termination—when necessary. In addition, this material will help you fit your everyday tasks of supervision to the mission of your faith community.

Join the waiting list to be the first to hear about our 2025 offering. All sessions are recorded with one year of access to the materials to return to as your supervision and leadership needs change.

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The resources are wonderful. The content is great and the format reshapes our ideas of how we behave as a group of church people coming together to do God’s work.

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In Stepping Up to Supervision, you'll experience hands-on training and practical wisdom that includes:

  1. Supervision in a Congregation – What’s Unique About That? Explore the tension between covenantal relationships and employment relationships within a faith-based context. Understand the roles of supervisors, boards, and personnel committees in effective performance management.
  2. Setting Performance Expectations: Learn to clarify essential functions, core competencies, and annual performance goals for your team members. Discover the significance of a well-designed job description to hold expectations.
  3. Crafting Feedback Conversations: Emphasize the importance of feedback conversations in performance management. Develop skills in regular check-ins, quarterly goals reviews, and annual performance appraisals.
  4. The Annual Performance Appraisal: Explore the developmental and evaluative aspects of annual performance reviews. Learn to conduct review conversations and solicit feedback from others effectively.
  5. Hiring Right So Managing is Easier: Identify and avoid ten predictable pitfalls in the hiring process. Learn best practices for conducting interviews and using behavioral-based interviewing techniques.
  6. Progressive Discipline and Termination: Understand the process of shaping a performance improvement plan and managing employee dismissal when necessary. Explore elements of “just” termination and managing congregational reactions to employee exits.

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Session Breakdown

Session 1

Supervision as Performance Management

Supervision within a congregation begins by understanding the tension between employment relationships and covenantal relationships. We’ll also explore the need for a performance management system and clarify the three unique sets of expectations for every staff member.

Session 2

Feedback: From Daily Practice to Annual Reviews

In our second session, we’ll discuss the ways in which feedback impacts your performance management system. From daily check-ins and quarterly goal reviews to the all-important annual appraisal process, you’ll learn how to craft your reactions and responses effectively.

Session 3

How to Hire and Fire Well

Your congregation is vulnerable to 10 pitfalls in the hiring process. Do you know what they are? Hiring the right people makes supervision easier and more enjoyable. Even then, it will be necessary to end some employment relationships. Learn the right way before it happens.

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Join the waiting list to be the first to hear when we schedule the next session of Stepping Up to Supervision.

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NOTE: By filling out this form, you will be notified before we open registration to anyone else, and may even receive an exclusive discount code!

Meet Your Instructor

  • Susan Beaumont

    Susan Beaumont is a consultant, coach, author and spiritual director.

    Susan has worked with hundreds of congregations and denominational bodies across the United States and in Canada. She is known for her ground-breaking work in the leadership dynamics of large congregations.

    Before establishing her own practice, Susan worked for nine years as a Senior Consultant with the Alban Institute. Susan has also served on the faculty of two business schools, teaching graduate level courses in leadership, management and organizational behavior. She has corporate experience in human resource management and organizational development. She currently teaches at Wesley Theological Seminary.

    Susan is the author of How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going: Leading in a Liminal Season, and Inside the Large Congregation. She is co-author of When Moses Meets Aaron: Staffing and Supervision in the Large Congregation.

    Rev. Beaumont is an ordained minister within the American Baptist Churches, USA.

    Susan’s educational background includes a M.B.A. from Northwestern University and a M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary. She is a graduate of the Shalem Institute Spiritual Guidance program.

    Susan is known for engaging the best of business practice, filtered through the lens of careful theological reflection. She moves easily between discernment and decision making, and nurtures the soul of the leader along with the soul of the institution.