How I Lead as Elders Quorum President | An Interview with Ben Sabourin

Ben Sabourin has over 25 years of experience managing people in various industries in the for-profit and nonprofit business worlds and was most recently employed by the second-largest health information management company in the U.S. as Director of Accounts Receivable. Currently, he is a Certified Life Coach, a Real Colors Certified Facilitator, and is back earning his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from BYU-Idaho through the Pathways Program. Ben has served as an assistant ward clerk, elders quorum president and counselor, and a ward mission leader. Ben served in the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo East Mission, where his love for the Spanish language, culture, and people was fostered. He is now a high counselor assigned to serve the Spanish Branch in the Green Bay, Wisconsin Stake. Ben and his wife Cindy have been married 23 years and have two children and three grandchildren. Highlights 02:30 Introduction to Ben Sabourin and his backstory 13:50 Leadership opportunities Ben has had outside the church 14:30 After 14 years of inactivity Ben came back to the church. He talks about his path to come back. 21:30 Getting called as elders quorum president 6 months after reactivating. It forced him to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ faster. 24:00 Ben knows how to meet people where they are because he himself has been there 25:00 Starting out as elders quorum president and what Ben needed and learned 29:30 As elders quorum president, Ben noticed that the men were very guarded and it wasn’t easy to be vulnerable and talk to each other about their struggles. His goal was to create opportunities to fix that. 30:45 Service is the way that we build a bridge to unity. We have to be friends besides just the hour that we are at church. 32:00 Ben shares his ideas for socials for men and things that worked for him. Socials became a way that Ben was able to help create unity in his quorum. 36:25 Don’t wait for people to ask for a blessing. Ask them if they need one. People, especially men, have the tendency to say, “I’m fine.” 39:00 Love, share, invite. People don’t care unless they know how much you care. In order to teach and lead the people, you have to love the people. 41:50 What Ben has learned from his time on the high council serving in the Spanish ward You are there to love, share, and invite, not dictate Make yourself available and earn trust After you’ve earned trust, do what you say As a high councilman, stay out of their way and let them know what their resources are and that you are available to them 50:45 Ben’s final thoughts and what he has learned from being a leader Links “Love, Share, Invite” by Elder Gary E. Stevenson TRANSCRIPT coming soonListen on YouTubeGet 14-day access to the Core Leader Library The Leading Saints Podcast has ranked in the top 20 Christianity podcasts in iTunes, gets over 500,000 listens each month, and has over 10 million total downloads as part of nonprofit Leading Saints’ mission to help latter-day saints be better prepared to lead. Learn more and listen to any of the past episodes for free at LeadingSaints.org. Past guests include Emily Belle Freeman, David Butler, Hank Smith, John Bytheway, Liz Wiseman, Stephen M. R. Covey, Julie Beck, Brad Wilcox, Jody Moore, Tony Overbay, John H. Groberg, Elaine Dalton, Tad R. Callister, J. Devn Cornish, Dennis B. Neuenschwander, Anthony Sweat, John Hilton III, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Blair Hodges, Whitney Johnson, Ryan Gottfredson, Greg McKeown, DeAnna Murphy, Michael Goodman, Richard Ostler, Ganel-Lyn Condie, and many more in over 500 episodes. Discover podcasts, articles, virtual conferences, and live events related to callings such as the bishopric, Relief Society, elders quorum, Primary, youth leadership, stake leadership, ward mission, ward council, young adults, ministering, and teaching.