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Friends and Colleagues,
In my three previous
newsletters I introduced you to Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team.
I asked you if members of your leadership team (staff and lay leaders)
trust one another and know how to fight effectively? Do your team members own your decisions? Are they accountable to each other? If so, then you can seek real results. See the main article below.
The other article reflects on the importance of balance in your life, of being anchored.
My goal is to help
pastors be better leaders. And I've been coaching some clients who are dealing with other life issues like figuring out family or career issues. If you find
something here that's helpful, great!
Please forward it to a friend.
(and if you do so, please do it with the forward button on this
newsletter - that helps reduce spam!).
Should you be
interested in some coaching, please get in touch. Send me an email or give me a call. I'd love to explore possibilities.
I hope your autumn is off to a good start.
Peace,
Bob
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Building an Effective
Leadership Team: Step 5 - Getting Results
Patrick
Lencioni, in his book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team identifies five
characteristics of dysfunctional teams:
- Lack of personal
commitment
If you didn't receive the newsletters in which I dealt with the first four dysfunctions, please email me and I'll send them to you.
What's next? No Results.
In a business, results are fairly easy to identify and measure. You count the number of cars or ice cream cones you sold. You calculate the profit or loss.
Results are more difficult to decide on in churches. My wife and I are just back from a trip to Central Europe. We saw magnificent cathedrals that took centuries to build. One Abbey in Austria, Melk Abbey, is resplendent with gold - our guide said that it had more gold than the Vatican! Yet it had only 15 monks and no novices. Clearly a magnificent edifice isn't a sign of spiritual vitality.
So what might church leaders measure? Attendance? Membership? Spiritual growth?
There are a number of excellent resources that address signs of church vitality. Some I like are Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase, Natural Church Development by Christian Schwarz, Beyond the Ordinary - 10 Strengths of U.S. Congregations by Woolever and Bruce, and Christianity for the Rest of Us by Diana Butler Bass.
These books and other suggest that leaders might measure
- attendance (are we fulfilling the Great Commission?)
- amount spent helping others (fulfilling the Great Commandment)
- number of people in small groups (fulfilling commands to love one another and also to love the Lord with our minds and heart)
The key is for leaders to discuss possible metrics. What do we want to emphasize? Then decide and develop strategies.
One church I worked with decided to set a goal of increasing its attendance 12% in a year. That led leaders to focus on:
- being more attentive to how welcoming they were to newcomers
- assessing the quality of the nursery and childcare
- encouraging members to be in worship more often
- encouraging members to invite friends
- reviewing the bulletin and liturgy from the perspective of a newcomer
Their attention paid off. They achieved their goal within 8 months.
Whatever result you're shooting for, it is important to keep it simple. Can members understand it and support it?
So what results does God yearn for you to achieve? What might they look like? How would you measure success or failure? How might you achieve these results?
I encourage you to
get and read The Five Dysfunctions of a
Team and the companion workbook.
Call or email me
if you'd like me to coach you as you build up your leadership team. I'd love to work with you.
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Anchoring Yourself
When you become dizzy with the hurricanes of life, what anchors
you? What is your foundation, your cornerstone, your anchor? If you
aren't well anchored the winds will blow you every which way!
When
Bill Clinton had his fling with Monica Lewinsky in November 1995, the
government was shut down. Clinton had correctly bet that letting the
Republicans shut down the government would make them look like the bad
guys. With the shut-down, Hillary and many of his key staff members
were out of town. So when Monica Lewinsky acted seductively, Clinton
gave in to his hungers. I don't need to rehearse what came after
that. It's hard to guess what he might have done had he been solidly
anchored emotionally and spiritually and not given in to his
appetites. (for more detail see Heifitz and Linsky's fine book Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading - pp 177ff)
Practically
every week there are leaders in the news who, because they weren't
anchored, made some really dumb decisions. Think Enron. Think
speculators in real estate. Think Pastor Ted Haggart. Think
Governor Sanford and Senators Ensign and Edwards.
The question is: how do you anchor yourself?
Do
you anchor yourself in solid relationships? Do you have a spouse or
other family or good friends who will tell you when they think you are
full of baloney? (Or full of yourself or something else?) Are there
appropriate checks and balances in your church to ensure that you hear
other points of view?
Take some time and reflect on who and what helps anchor you?
What is your spiritual foundation? Are you solidly anchored to it?
It
is easy to become so busy doing whatever that you don't take time to
engage in study, prayer, or meditation. Even pastors have this
problem. We pastors can let ourselves be seduced by the idea that
since we're doing God's work, then we don't need to take time to
nourish ourselves from the spring of living water.
I find that
starting the day by singing some of the chants from the Taize'
community really helps me. I have often done that as I drove to my
church. This sung prayer reminds me whose I am and who I serve. It
gives me inner peace and helps me focus on what is important. Daily
Bible reading using one of the online helps also helps
me. I use a simple approach. I read the passages and try to be open
to which verse or phrase jumps out at me. How is God speaking to me
through this text? How is God making me more aware of myself, my
church, or my community? How is God pushing me to be or act
differently?
Keeping a journal is another form of anchoring.
Writing out your reflections on what is going on in your life -
challenges, possibilities, temptations, fears - and commitments you
make to deal with these is really helpful over time.
I have found that paying attention to how I am anchored gives me strength, peace, and perspective.
How well are you anchored? What might you do to make your anchors more solid?
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Future Issues (monthly)
- Personnel Appraisals
- Getting Helpful Feedback
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I hope you have found this newsletter informative and helpful. Please subscribe to continue receiving it (or unsubscribe to stop). If you'd like to explore coaching, please email or call me.
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Bob
Robert Harris
Harris Coaching and Consulting
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