I posted this a long while back with a focus on boundaries as an activist, and I included it in my book The Leader Within, but this is a fairly good general primer on boundaries for leadership. It's essential for anyone in a leadership position to understand the concept of boundaries and to work with their own issues around this; ultimately, I think that the only way we get healthier groups is if everyone involved in a group is working with their boundaries.

A lot of activism and leadership begins with changing your self and your own life so that you can begin to effect change in the world around you. Some of this kind of personal transformation work can be very difficult.

In Part 1 and Part 2, we looked at Team Intrepid as it began an event planning process for a Pagan event without creating any structure for decision-making or establishing any goals, and diving right into minutia of the event. And making the wrong decision first can have a lot of impact on later planning.

Event Venue Choices

Let's say Team Intrepid assumes we'll be doing the event at Green Tree Park. They aren’t making this decision for any strategic reason, it's just that the team leader lives near the park and is familiar with the park. 

In Part 1, we looked at Team Intrepid as it began an event planning process for a Pagan event without creating any structure for decisionmaking or establishing any goals, and diving right into minutia of the event. And this process can work as long as everyone agrees on everything. 

I recently wrote two articles on how to give--and how to receive and work with--feedback, particularly as a ritualist but also in general as a Pagan group leader. I mentioned feedback sessions and a few folks asked me what's a good way to run one of these. It's a good question, because getting useful feedback is difficult, and the details are often in how you facilitate the session.

This is part of a longer series on feedback. The links to the previous posts are at the bottom.

This is part of a longer series on feedback. The links to the previous posts are at the bottom.

Hearing Feedback

There can sometimes be an emotional difference between getting feedback from an event participant directly, or via email, and getting feedback sitting in a group of your peers and mentors. Whether you're getting feedback on an event, on ritual facilitation, on your volunteering work or on teaching a class, hearing feedback can sometimes be difficult. I try to be very sensitive when offering feedback, particularly to new volunteers and ritualists. By far, the most common feedback I offer to facilitators is, "I had a hard time hearing you." That's a good, concrete feedback that they can work with, and I can help them to learn to project.

I'm not going to give a new facilitator deeply nuanced or nitpicky feedback about their engagement of the group, their body language, or their word choices in facilitating a trance journey. Of course a new facilitator will have nervous body language, of course they will stumble over some words, of course they'll have a harder time making eye contact, and a dozen other rookie mistakes. I'm going to bring those up slowly over time as the facilitator gains the confidence to know that they can do this. Some of those mistakes will shake out naturally as the facilitator learns and gains confidence.

There are times when I may have to offer specific feedback on something like chanting, drumming, or trancing. Sometimes someone will be so eager to step in as a ritual drummer, and then it becomes clear during the ritual that they have no sense of pacing their drumming to the energy of the group--they are used to setting the pace. Some people want to lead the chant, and they have difficulty keeping the chant's rhythm, or they forget the words, or they are singing off key. Or someone steps into leading trancework and they are so quiet, so tentative, that they aren't audible at all. Or they're talking too fast, or their voice isn't pitched low and rhythmic for trancework, which makes it hard for the group to get into a trance state.