Staff development: Build a system and culture where success is inevitable rather than merely possible

 

We often say that our organization is only as good as our staff. It is a value that most leaders would embrace but one that many ministry leaders often ignore. Developing staff requires that resources, people, and energy be devoted to that development, and many organizations are too busy or have too many other priorities to see it happen.

The cost of a lack of development is that we eventually lose our best staff, pay a price for a lack of engagement, and leave a ton of talent on the table. My organization wants to surround people with so much development and support that their success is inevitable. In other words, the very culture creates an environment where success is inevitable rather than merely possible. 

Five areas of development are essential for every staff member. Five areas of health: Physical, emotional, spiritual, relational, and skill. Each of these domains has implications for how successful one will be in the work they are called to. Deficits in each of these five areas can keep otherwise brilliant individuals from success and, indeed, set them up for failure.

In addition to these five personal areas, three leadership areas require attention. Self-leadership - how individuals give leadership to their own lives; Team leadership - how those who lead others lead healthy teams, and Organizational leadership how higher-level leaders lead from a perspective of the whole rather than their particular area. All three are vitally important to a healthy organization, but they don't take place by themselves. In fact, if one desires an aligned culture, having standard practices and training in all three areas is critical.

There are five realities to keep in mind in any development process.

First, someone has to own and give direction to staff development. Creating a culture where success is inevitable rather than merely possible means we have a comprehensive plan, a delivery system, and buy-in at the highest levels. This means that a senior member of the organization gives leadership since they have the authority and influence to ensure a plan, along with buy-in and cooperation from all supervisors. In some organizations, this is called the Chief Culture Officer.

Second, this is an art as much as a science. People learn differently, have different areas of strength and weakness, are all wired differently, and come to the workplace with various areas of experience and personal baggage. 

Thus, while there ought to be a common framework around critical areas of testing, learning, and growth, it is also an individual process that requires unique conversation, dialogue, and coaching. That means that not only must there be a plan at the macro level, but there needs to be personal coaching with individual staff members on an ongoing basis. 

Unless the plan includes both standard pieces that all participate in and individualized dialogue and attention, you are unlikely to see the results you desire. 

Third, accountability for personal development needs to be part of the picture. A culture where success is inevitable rather than merely possible means that development is not optional but the responsibility of all staff. Like any other job responsibility, staff members need to have their own plan and be accountable for that plan. In other words, this is not optional, but development is raised to the highest level in any list of job responsibilities - for all staff. 

The development issues should be wrapped into that process for the growing number of organizations that use scorecards and 90-day win cycles. 

Build a system and culture where success is inevitable rather than merely possible with an ongoing paradigm for staff development and growth. You will never regret it.

The Unmasking of Evangelicalism by Scott McKnight

 

The Unmasking of Evangelicalism

Scott McKnight

You may or may not agree but this is a cogent article on the state of evangelicalism as the SBC meets this week in Nashville and conducts its business for all the world to see. 

Questions to ask your staff - and yourself

 

There is a wealth of information at the fingertips of leaders if they would take the time to ask their staff key questions. They know things you don't know and they can help your organization get better - much better if you and your leaders will take the time to ask key questions - and listen to the answers. Those questions can lead into rich dialogue, suggestions, ideas and insights that can literally change your organization. Here are some of the questions that I ask.

What is your happiness faction on a scale of 1-10 in your job. Follow up and pay close attention: What would make it higher?

If you could change three things about this organization, what would they be?

Are their things that you could be doing that you are not?

Are their any individuals in the organization who you believe are not positioned properly or who create significant issues for others?

What are the things that bring you joy and fill you?

What are the things the deplete you?

Tell me what a perfect day looks like for you?

If you were a consultant to this organization, what suggestions would you make and why?

How would you define the culture of our organization? Follow up: What would you like to change about our culture? Follow up: What are the best pieces of our culture? What are the worst pieces of our culture? Are their any pieces of our culture that you would define as toxic and unhealthy?

Is there something that you have always wanted to talk to a leader about but never had a chance? 

What would be the perfect role for you? How does that role compare to what you do currently? 

If a ministry: What do you think the spiritual temperature of our organization is? What would you recommend to see the spiritual temperature higher? 

What is your greatest joy in working here?

What is your greatest frustration in working here?

If you were advising me, what would you want me to know?

Do you believe that we are a highly empowered organization where people have the freedom to act without permission, or highly controlled where you need to ask permission before acting?

Do we have a culture where we can have honest and gracious conversation or are their issues that we cannot broach?

How innovative and entrepreneurial so you think this organization is? Give examples.

Why getting people into their right lane matters

 

Too often, especially in ministry and non-profit organizations we are lazy in ensuring that people are in their lane of gifting and wiring in terms of their job responsibilities. The end result is a significant loss of energy, joy, effectiveness and return on mission. Often the individuals at issue are bright and competent but we have placed them in a position where their brightness cannot be utilized and their competence is equally lost. We are only competent in the lane we were made for.

I believe this happens for three reasons. First, we don't take the time to really understand our staff: Their wiring, effectiveness or lane. Rather we take good people and slot them into a role that we need (in our minds) to fill. We put them in our lane, not in their lane. The result, ironically is that we don't get what we could get if they were positioned properly, and they live with responsibilities that don't bring them joy.

Second, we don't engage in honest dialogue with our staff to understand where they are and where they want to be. One of the basic jobs of supervisors is to understand people's wiring and gifting and ensure that they are in the lane where they will be most effective. This takes extended dialogue and trust but in my experience, leaders are not willing to give this kind of attention to their staff and everyone loses. In many cases, bright people don't even stay with the organization because of their ongoing frustration. Such conversations take time and honest dialogue and that is an investment that many leaders are not going to make.

Third, we have forgotten that in any organization the most important decision we make is getting the right people on the bus - in Jim Collin's words. This comes before we slot them into a specific task, or define their actual job description. In hiring, the order of sequence is "right people" and then "right seat." We often reverse that order and pay the consequences.

Ironically, when a bright individual is not in their correct lane, those around them often either know or sense this to be the case. The fact that they see it and their leaders do not is a function of the second issue above. We may have to change the org chart or reposition others when we need to position individuals properly. Better that if you have a highly competent individual rather than ignoring the issue and losing either the person or the competence that they could be bringing to the organization.

In my experience, it is the highly entrepreneurial and innovative organizations or ministries that get this issue right. They are flexible and nimble and able to revise the org chart in order to take advantage of the skills of key people. Of course, these are the organizations that great people gravitate to and which will make the greatest difference in their mission. Bright people will take a chance on highly entrepreneurial organizations because they see the will to get things done and the flexibility to find and retain good people by getting them in their lane. 

Don't underestimate the power of getting good people in their lane. It is where they will make the greatest difference for your organization. And if you wonder whether someone is in their lane, all you need to do is initiate a conversation.

A theology of time and patience

 

I meet many individuals in ministry who are in a hurry! A hurry to make their mark. A hurry to have influence. A hurry to prove something to someone that they are somebody and something. In their hurry, they often get out in front of God, circumvent what He wants to build in their lives, and end up being less of what they could be had they been patient and waited for God to do His work in them.

While we are often in a hurry, God is not. He is more concerned with what He wants to build in our lives than He is about what we can build for Him. We are focused on what we can build for Him, while He is focused on what He wants to build in us. Those are two very different concerns. 

Consider the characters we read of in Scripture. Jacob, for instance, who was impressed enough with his abilities and dreams that he angered his brothers, who sold him into slavery. Once in Egypt, he ignored the advances of his master's wife and ended up in jail - for a long time. He, who would become second only to the Pharaoh of Egypt, lived in obscurity for many years as God built him into who He wanted him to be. He was in a hurry when he was young, but God was not. And what God built in his heart during those years was amazing.

Moses was a guy in a hurry when he was young, and his encounter with an Egyptian slave master whom he killed caused him to run for his life at forty. For the next forty years, he tended his father-in-law's herds till at 80, he was ready for his greatest assignment. By then, Moses was not in a hurry, but God knew he was ready and drafted him over his many objections.

This week, I heard of a pastor who, years ago, took members of the church he pastored to start another church. He was not patient enough to work hard to bring all his people along, so he split. Today he says this. "I was in a hurry when I should have been patient. These past years have not gone well, and it is all my fault. Had I waited, things would have worked out in the original church, but I had something to prove, and it didn't work out well." He had tried to get ahead of God and in a moment of humility, admitted that he should have waited and allowed God to work. His new church never worked out well, and they will probably not survive much longer. 

Don't try to outpace God. Even Paul, after his conversion, had some years of obscurity as he was coached and prepped by God for his major assignment of spreading the Gospel among the gentiles. 

When we are in a hurry, we miss out on what God wants to do in our lives. Depth takes time. It cannot be hurried! Many leaders mistake short-term success for long-term effectiveness. This is often true of highly gifted ministry leaders who are so driven to prove they can succeed that they do not take the time to develop a deep core. They settle for surface wins.

We may be in a hurry, but God isn't, and His timetable is the one that will allow us to have the greatest impact. 

Five attitudes that need to be addressed with staff for a healthy culture

The culture of your staff will determine the health of your organization. Culture eats everything else for breakfast. Poor culture creates poor everything else. Healthy culture creates healthy organizations, relationships, and outcomes.

We often think there is not much we can do about staff culture, but that is not true. In fact, leaders control the culture of their staff through the training they do, the messages they convey, the example they set, and the honesty of their interactions. You can train your staff toward health, and you can remove staff who will not cooperate as their dishealth spoils the health of the rest of the team. That act in itself sends a very clear message about one's commitment to health.

Five attitudes need to be addressed with staff if you want a healthy culture.

One: Cynicism

Cynicism is deadly to a healthy culture because cynics stand outside the team and throw grenades into the team with snide comments that question the motives, direction, and decisions of others without contributing anything productive to the conversation. 

Cynics stand outside the circle and criticize those inside the circle. How do you counter it? You call it out and declare cynicism to be an anti-value because it does not build but detracts from what the team is trying to do. It is OK to say, "Look, we believe in robust dialogue, but we won't put up with cynical attitudes." The former is constructive, while the latter is destructive. Call it for what it is and declare it illegal on your team.

Two: Lack of buy-in 

These characters also stand outside the circle and refuse to give their wholehearted energy to what the organization is trying to do. Essentially, they withhold key parts of their energy, emotion, and heart from the organization's mission. I often tell staff, "If you cannot serve here with a happy heart and a clear conscience, you must find another place to serve." It's that simple. Those who withhold themselves from fully embracing the mission and vision of the your ministry don't belong there. Say it, have a conversation, but don't allow it to go unaddressed. It is a spirit that kills.

Three: Those who always see the downside

It is good to know the unintended consequences of what one does. It is good to plan for various eventualities. Still, those who always go to the downside and the negative literally rob the rest of the team of joy, possibility, mission, and enthusiasm. 

If you want a healthy culture, you must help those who would throw cold water on new ideas that it is unacceptable behavior.  Innovation, risk, and new paradigms are the coinage of healthy organizations, and they require staff who see possibilities rather than all the negatives in a new idea. There is always a reason not to try something, which keeps organizations from moving forward. Can you help those who always see the downside to see the possibilities? Sometimes. But, if not, they don't belong on a healthy team because they won't produce healthy culture.

Four: Complainers

There is a difference between those who offer constructive observations and those who merely complain. Constructive criticisms are observations that come with a potential solution, while complaints offer no solutions and are simply shots at someone or something. Constructive criticisms are vital to a healthy organization, but complaints as an attitude are deadly to organizational health. Here is a principle to consider. Unless you have a solution, don't come with a complaint. 

Five: Idealists

This one may surprise you. After all, don't you want idealists on your team? It depends! Some idealists exhibit traits of the first four of these attitudes because the team does not meet their expectations. As such, they can resort to cynicism, and complaints, reserve their full buy in and focus on the downside. In good organizations, there are always gaps between what we want to be and who we are. An idealist who won't live with the reality of those gaps actually becomes a liability to your culture. That is what to look out for. Idealists who help you get where you want to go are great. Those focusing on the "gap" will not contribute to a healthy culture.

What keeps leaders from confronting these five attitudes? Fear! We ought to be direct, honest, and clear about the culture we are building and the kinds of people we need on the team to build it. And to be willing to say. "If you don't want to fit our culture, you are in the wrong place. We will help you succeed only if you want to be here and contribute fully to health." It's that simple.