One of the very first mistakes a quorum president makes is choosing their right-hand-man as the first counselor. The secretary position is sometimes looked at as the training position – somewhere to put the guy that doesn’t have much experience in a presidency. They soon find out the secretary should be the guy that never lets you down. When you need someone who is persistent in making the phone calls or dealing with a difficult situation it many times ends up being the secretary. The counselors have room to make the mistakes. As for the secretary of the presidency, he has to always be on his game. Let’s look at this from the perspective of the bishop’s executive secretary.
You are the True First counselor
Once you, the executive secretary, understand you are more than a counselor, step up to the task. Push the bishop or quorum president in a direction you feel would be most worth his time. He doesn’t need you to be the “yes man”. He needs you to step back, analyze the situation, and help him decide how to best use his time.
You are the Bishop’s Office Bouncer
Each appointment slot the bishop has is as valuable as the people you feel them with. It’s frustrating as a bishop to have someone step into the office and ask for something one of the counselors could have done. Qualify each person to meet with the bishop. Of course, you don’t want to become the gate-keeper for the Bridge of Death nor do you want them to give you confidential details about what they want to discuss with the bishop.
For example, the bishop might determine all church welfare requests to first go through the Relief Society or elders quorum. Or temple recommends for members who have lived in the ward over a year can be done by one of the bishop’s counselors. The executive secretary could then ask, “Is this appointment about a temple recommend, something financial, or something personal?” This simple question can save a lot of time and allow someone else with a much more pressing need to meet with the bishop sooner. There are many other examples of appointments that are not using the bishop’s time effectively. You can avoid this by asking a few broad questions.
Set the Pace
Every executive secretary knows that his calling includes a lot of waiting. A 15-minute appointment can quickly turn into 1 hour and 15 minutes. There are many times when this is necessary but other times the bishop cannot seem to get himself out of the appointment. A light knock on the office door at the end of the scheduled appointment allows the bishop to indirectly communicate to the interviewee their time is up. Of course, you don’t want to give the feeling of a busy doctor’s office but it encourages the person to get to the point and reminds them they are not the only person trying to meet with the bishop. Discuss this strategy with your bishop and he will decide what he prefers.
Also be sensitive to those waiting for their appointment. Many times the bishop’s schedule will get behind and a simple phone call to future appointments letting them know of the bishop’s delay is well received.
Be the Catch-All
With so much on the bishop’s mind, it is nice to have a secretary to gather thoughts so he doesn’t worry about forgetting something. A simple thought, “Don’t forget to visit Brother and Sister Struggling” can nag the bishop’s mind until he takes action. Help put these thoughts and promptings at peace by being available to gather them and to help the bishop follow up. This can be done through a simple text or email.
What qualities do you look for in a secretary?
I am having a calling as a stake executive secretary now , after reading this article , I really felt that my calling was from our dear heavenly father , I am really called of God at this time and the very moment.
Thank you so much for posting this article , its an answer to my prayer.
I am a new Young Bishop of 25 years old with no experiences. Thank you for this message.
I’m serving as a stake clerk right now. A good friend of mine is an executive secretary. Both of us share a lot of responsibilites together.
I think – one of the biggest challenges i see in the stake and in our wards – how to separate these two positions – clerk and an executive secretary. Russian language (I live in MOscow, Russia) doesn’t have a good translation for “clerk” so it’s being translated as “secretary”. So there are “secretary” and executive secretary.
A lot of times it feels to me that bishops don’t see a lof of difference between those two and assign all sorts of various things to both.
Is there an advice for a leader how to clearly divide responsibilities between executive secretaty, clerk and clerks assistance (if avialable)?
I don’t have any official answer on this question regarding Clerk and Secretary division of labor, but I’ll answer with what we’ve decided as a new bishopric. A clerk should be taking care of things that have happened…keeping minutes, lists of speakers/prayers etc. Dates of setting-aparts, etc. Things that have transpired; they are record keepers.
The Exec. Secretary, on the other hand, is for forward thinking, planning and scheduling things. He makes up agendas for meetings, schedules appointments, maintains the Bishop’s schedule (as mentioned in the post above) and is that ‘repository’ for the thoughts the Bishop wants to follow up on. A pro-active Secretary can look at the Action and Interview List and set up youth interviews before being asked to schedule someone for their semi-annual interview.
It seems a simple way to divide a large set of tasks, but it has been working very well. I’d love to hear other thoughts on this!
I’ve been both Executive Secretary and Ward Clerk. The best beginning advice I was given was “Everything in the now and future is Executive Secretary territory. Everything in the past is Ward Clerk territory.”
Of course asking your bishop what he wants you to do supersedes this advice. Success to you!
Thank you so much for clarifying this position to me. There are times that I really do feel like the “bouncer” at the bishop’s office with people lightly demanding time with the bishop. There are times when I will have to reschedule people and there have been tense moments when scheduling gets pretty demanding. And then there are times when the promptings of the spirit gets so strong that you then have to reschedule “as the spirit dictates”…and the blessings of the rescheduling becomes evident as the schedule clears up. Being assigned tasks and time sensitive assignments by the bishopric have taught me how to work “on the lord’s time and promptings” and later when you see the out comes and blessings you really do know that the Lord does direct his church.
I am a fairly new executive secretary. I am fairly tech savvy, and coming as a counselor in the bishopric in another Ward where we used technology quite extensively I’m having a hard time. Mainly because my present Bishop is not very up on Tech, he texts and has a phone of course but Google Docs, Google Calendar, Etc are not part of his makeup. How do I schedule appointments and make a effective calendar when there’s no way to share this other than in person?
Hi,
thanks very much for this article. I just got my calling today as an Executive Secretary in our ward and am now looking for information to better understand what is to be done. I appreciate the info you give here.
I am also looking for an option to buy the Handbook Guide for Executive Secretary, which i found on the official site of the church. Since I prefer reading on paper I would like to buy the book. Can anybody tell me where I can order it?
Thanks!