The word "team" elicits various responses depending on whether we have served on truly healthy and synergistic teams. At its most basic level, there are four elements to a strong and healthy team. Minus any one of these four and the team will not be healthy, nor a joy to serve on.
Healthy Leaders
Good leadership is a function of healthy individuals who are committed to develop, empower and release their team members. Health includes good Emotional Intelligence (EQ), a commitment to develop their people and to release them in meaningful ministry - empowerment within clear boundaries. Healthy leaders stay connected with their team, remove barriers for them, ensure that there is synergistic work taking place, develop their staff and ensure that the team is focused on the right things.
Right People
Teams are made up of the right people (right people, right seat) where the chemistry of gifts, talents, and personalities come together to accomplish the mission of the team. This results in cooperation, synergy, effectiveness, productivity and unity. The true payoff comes from staff who are energized and fulfilled in their work. It takes just one wrong person on a team to create chaos or lack of unity and effectiveness.
Missional Clarity
Healthy and strong teams have unity around a clear vision, purpose and strategy. They are all on the same page, know where they are going and how they intend to get there. There is a clear direction to their work and while team members may be doing many different things, they are all focused on the same missional goal. The missional agenda is the north star of all that they do. This is the opposite of everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.
Healthy Environment
Healthy team environment creates an atmosphere that maximizes creative endeavor. This is a culture where fresh ideas can be put on the table, there is the ability to disagree and engage in the conflict of ideas, best practices can be explored and there is an enjoyable, collegial atmosphere of trust and cooperation.
If you lead a team or serve on a team, which of these characterizes your team and where do you need to become stronger and healthier? Create health in all four areas and you have team glue that is strong and enduring. To go deeper in developing healthy teams, Leading From The Sandbox: How to Develop, Empower and Release High-Impact Ministry Teams can help.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Three keys to people development
The development of staff is one of the most important responsibilities of leaders at all levels. That development involves three important skills.
Critical analysis
This is the ability to evaluate staff members and identify areas of strength, weakness, EQ (Emotional Intelligence) health and areas where EQ growth is needed. In addition, evaluation of how they interact with others, lead others, respond, do team, and ability to produce results are all important factors. Critical analysis is not about being critical. It is about the ability to objectively evaluate a staff member in order to appropriately coach them for personal and professional growth.
I find that many leaders in the ministry arena are not skilled at critical analysis of their staff. We tend to over emphasize strengths and under emphasize weaknesses - especially of our own staff. This may be Christian nice, it may be a sense of loyalty that causes us to gloss over necessary areas of growth or it may just be an underdeveloped skill. However, if we cannot do critical analysis of our staff we are unable to coach them for growth. Glossing over areas of needed growth is a disfavor to our staff.
Coaching for growth
Helping staff grow is one of the marks of a leader who serves his or her staff. It is also painfully absent in many organizations and teams. This coaching often comes in the form of an ongoing dialogue with a staff member based on our critical analysis. It is designed to help them maximize their God given potential and is a deeply intentional process to help a staff member grow.
Coaching for growth requires a level of courage to provide honest feedback where behaviors or responses are problematic. Supervisors who want to be best buddies with their staff will not go here and it is one of the downsides of a needy supervisor. But without honest feedback our staff members will not grow. This can be done diplomatically and with sensitivity but honest feedback is the only way any of us become aware of areas of necessary growth.
Positioning for effectiveness
Jim Collins popularized the term "the right seat on the bus." We often pay too little attention to the positioning of staff so that they are most effective. Often, a staff member who is struggling in one seat shines in another. Again, this is where critical analysis is so important because it is in understanding the unique wiring and strengths of a staff member that we are able to position them best for effective and fulfilling work.
While there are often things that we prefer not to do it does make sense to minimize the areas where staff are working from weakness rather from strength - if it is possible to do so. Staff should be working a minimum of 60% in areas of strength in order to be effective and the optimum is 80%. The right seat on the bus does matter - a lot.
Take time to ensure that your leaders and supervisors are able and committed to these three keys to people development. It is a great loss to leave potential on the table because we are not serving our staff in this area.
Critical analysis
This is the ability to evaluate staff members and identify areas of strength, weakness, EQ (Emotional Intelligence) health and areas where EQ growth is needed. In addition, evaluation of how they interact with others, lead others, respond, do team, and ability to produce results are all important factors. Critical analysis is not about being critical. It is about the ability to objectively evaluate a staff member in order to appropriately coach them for personal and professional growth.
I find that many leaders in the ministry arena are not skilled at critical analysis of their staff. We tend to over emphasize strengths and under emphasize weaknesses - especially of our own staff. This may be Christian nice, it may be a sense of loyalty that causes us to gloss over necessary areas of growth or it may just be an underdeveloped skill. However, if we cannot do critical analysis of our staff we are unable to coach them for growth. Glossing over areas of needed growth is a disfavor to our staff.
Coaching for growth
Helping staff grow is one of the marks of a leader who serves his or her staff. It is also painfully absent in many organizations and teams. This coaching often comes in the form of an ongoing dialogue with a staff member based on our critical analysis. It is designed to help them maximize their God given potential and is a deeply intentional process to help a staff member grow.
Coaching for growth requires a level of courage to provide honest feedback where behaviors or responses are problematic. Supervisors who want to be best buddies with their staff will not go here and it is one of the downsides of a needy supervisor. But without honest feedback our staff members will not grow. This can be done diplomatically and with sensitivity but honest feedback is the only way any of us become aware of areas of necessary growth.
Positioning for effectiveness
Jim Collins popularized the term "the right seat on the bus." We often pay too little attention to the positioning of staff so that they are most effective. Often, a staff member who is struggling in one seat shines in another. Again, this is where critical analysis is so important because it is in understanding the unique wiring and strengths of a staff member that we are able to position them best for effective and fulfilling work.
While there are often things that we prefer not to do it does make sense to minimize the areas where staff are working from weakness rather from strength - if it is possible to do so. Staff should be working a minimum of 60% in areas of strength in order to be effective and the optimum is 80%. The right seat on the bus does matter - a lot.
Take time to ensure that your leaders and supervisors are able and committed to these three keys to people development. It is a great loss to leave potential on the table because we are not serving our staff in this area.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Self Knowledge and leadership
Few skills are as critical for a leader as that of accurate self-knowledge. I stress the word accurate because all of us have a view of ourselves but that view is not always accurate. When it is not accurate we often get in the way of ourselves.
What does self knowledge entail? First it means that we know what our strengths are. Each of us has two to three strengths where we shine and everything else is a weakness. If we can identify our strengths we have also by default identified our weaknesses (everything else). Humility is knowing how God designed us and giving him the credit. And, understanding how badly we need others to compensate for our weaknesses.
Second, self knowledge means that we understand the shadow side of our strengths. Every strength has a shadow side. Three of my five strengths identified by Strenghfinders are strategic, maximizer and achiever. They are a powerful combination. However, their shadow side can include a lack of patience and irritation when others don't move as quickly as I would want them to, or "get it" when the answer seems so simple.
Understanding our shadow side allows us to manage it. We cannot change how we are wired but we can manage our attitudes and behaviors so that our shadow side does not impede our leadership by negatively impacting those around us.
This goes to the third area of self knowledge - understanding how we are perceived by others and how our wiring impacts them. One of the ways that leaders get themselves into trouble is when they don't understand how others perceive them. They may think that they are decisive, for instance but others read them as arrogant. They may want a harmonious relationship with everyone but it is read as lacking clarity because different things are said to different people in order to please them.
The gap between our perception of ourselves and others perception of us is what we need to be aware of. Often we can learn something from testing where both the strengths and shadow side are identified which can give us clues to how others might see us. Feedback from others whom we trust is also a critical factor which means that we must be open and non-defensive about that feedback. The smaller the gap between our perception of ourselves and others perceptions of us, the better we can lead.
The fourth area of self knowledge is understanding our vulnerabilities to sin and when they are most likely to show up. We are vulnerable in different ways and different circumstances and a keen awareness of those ways and circumstances allows us to put in place safeguards to keep us from the "roaring lion that seeks to destroy us."
Self knowledge requires introspection and a desire to understand ourselves fully. Some won't go there because it makes us uncomfortable. Henry Nouwen said that the reason many of us don't like silence is that it is in that place we see the scaffolding of our lives the most clearly - and there are parts of that scaffolding that we don't like. Yet, the path to health is understanding our dishealth as much as our strengths.
For leaders, self knowledge is a high priority. It impacts themselves and those they lead.
What does self knowledge entail? First it means that we know what our strengths are. Each of us has two to three strengths where we shine and everything else is a weakness. If we can identify our strengths we have also by default identified our weaknesses (everything else). Humility is knowing how God designed us and giving him the credit. And, understanding how badly we need others to compensate for our weaknesses.
Second, self knowledge means that we understand the shadow side of our strengths. Every strength has a shadow side. Three of my five strengths identified by Strenghfinders are strategic, maximizer and achiever. They are a powerful combination. However, their shadow side can include a lack of patience and irritation when others don't move as quickly as I would want them to, or "get it" when the answer seems so simple.
Understanding our shadow side allows us to manage it. We cannot change how we are wired but we can manage our attitudes and behaviors so that our shadow side does not impede our leadership by negatively impacting those around us.
This goes to the third area of self knowledge - understanding how we are perceived by others and how our wiring impacts them. One of the ways that leaders get themselves into trouble is when they don't understand how others perceive them. They may think that they are decisive, for instance but others read them as arrogant. They may want a harmonious relationship with everyone but it is read as lacking clarity because different things are said to different people in order to please them.
The gap between our perception of ourselves and others perception of us is what we need to be aware of. Often we can learn something from testing where both the strengths and shadow side are identified which can give us clues to how others might see us. Feedback from others whom we trust is also a critical factor which means that we must be open and non-defensive about that feedback. The smaller the gap between our perception of ourselves and others perceptions of us, the better we can lead.
The fourth area of self knowledge is understanding our vulnerabilities to sin and when they are most likely to show up. We are vulnerable in different ways and different circumstances and a keen awareness of those ways and circumstances allows us to put in place safeguards to keep us from the "roaring lion that seeks to destroy us."
Self knowledge requires introspection and a desire to understand ourselves fully. Some won't go there because it makes us uncomfortable. Henry Nouwen said that the reason many of us don't like silence is that it is in that place we see the scaffolding of our lives the most clearly - and there are parts of that scaffolding that we don't like. Yet, the path to health is understanding our dishealth as much as our strengths.
For leaders, self knowledge is a high priority. It impacts themselves and those they lead.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
A father's blessing
What is it about fathers that makes them so special if we had one that we loved and admired? And for those whose father failed that test, why is there such a hole in the heart of longing and sadness? Why are our emotions around our fathers often so conflicted: Love, admiration, longing, sadness where they failed us - emotions that can run strong because there is something special about fathers.
I wonder if much of these conflicting emotions come down to this: We need, long for, have been blessed by or desperately wished for our father's blessing and acceptance. How many people are still trying to gain their father's blessing and acceptance long into life when that blessing or acceptance was withheld? Is this the reason that emotions around our fathers remain strong for all of our lives?
Fathers who withhold blessing and acceptance from their children leave a legacy of longing that never fully goes away. Those who give this gift are easily forgiven their many failures because this gift is so powerful!
I believe that a father's acceptance and blessing is really a spiritual longing and mirrors our need for God's acceptance and blessing. God is the father none of us fully had for He is the perfect father and He bestows on us full acceptance, divine blessing and loving encouragement. He knows us fully and still loves us fully. His love is unconditional and cannot be earned. His favor is upon us even when He lovingly disciplines us.
For those of us who are fathers, our example for fatherhood is the character and person of our God. For those of us who long for a father figure they never had, God is their ultimate father! Seek His blessing for He freely gives it!
To all fathers: Never withhold acceptance and blessing from your children. It is what all children need from their fathers - as youngsters and as adults. We can fail at many things but if we fail at this we will leave a deep hole in the hearts of our offspring.
I wonder if much of these conflicting emotions come down to this: We need, long for, have been blessed by or desperately wished for our father's blessing and acceptance. How many people are still trying to gain their father's blessing and acceptance long into life when that blessing or acceptance was withheld? Is this the reason that emotions around our fathers remain strong for all of our lives?
Fathers who withhold blessing and acceptance from their children leave a legacy of longing that never fully goes away. Those who give this gift are easily forgiven their many failures because this gift is so powerful!
I believe that a father's acceptance and blessing is really a spiritual longing and mirrors our need for God's acceptance and blessing. God is the father none of us fully had for He is the perfect father and He bestows on us full acceptance, divine blessing and loving encouragement. He knows us fully and still loves us fully. His love is unconditional and cannot be earned. His favor is upon us even when He lovingly disciplines us.
For those of us who are fathers, our example for fatherhood is the character and person of our God. For those of us who long for a father figure they never had, God is their ultimate father! Seek His blessing for He freely gives it!
To all fathers: Never withhold acceptance and blessing from your children. It is what all children need from their fathers - as youngsters and as adults. We can fail at many things but if we fail at this we will leave a deep hole in the hearts of our offspring.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Enemies of a leader's heart
Our hearts have enemies that would like nothing less than to sabotage our personal lives and ministry effectiveness. We ignore them to our peril. Which of these enemies are you ignoring?
Out of control schedules that leave too little margin for the feeding of our own souls. A starved heart cannot give life to us or to others.
Substituting professional knowledge of God for the inner transformation of our lives from God: A subtle shift that makes all the difference in the world.
Leadership success that causes us to increasingly rely on our own wisdom than being dependent on God's Spirit and power.
Professional and personal spiritual pride that keeps us from listening to God and to others around us.
The seduction of position and power that convinces us that we are different and entitled. Power and position without intentional safeguards breed deceived hearts.
Deceit which comes from the seduction of position and power allowing us to think the rules don't apply to us and to skirt ethical and truthful boundaries.
Arrogance that keeps us from listening to God and to others leaving our hearts exposed to its enemies.
Isolation which robs us of the natural accountability of close friends or others we are accountable to. Lack of accountability is a precursor to personal failure.
The praise of others which exaggerates our spiritual and professional health and underestimates our depravity and sinful tendencies. We believe it to our peril.
Using a ministry mission as a platform for a personal mission that is more about us than it is about God - hidden behind a spiritual facade.
What are the enemies of your heart and where have those enemies breached your walls and threaten to harm you? Be aware, be vigilant and guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.
Out of control schedules that leave too little margin for the feeding of our own souls. A starved heart cannot give life to us or to others.
Substituting professional knowledge of God for the inner transformation of our lives from God: A subtle shift that makes all the difference in the world.
Leadership success that causes us to increasingly rely on our own wisdom than being dependent on God's Spirit and power.
Professional and personal spiritual pride that keeps us from listening to God and to others around us.
The seduction of position and power that convinces us that we are different and entitled. Power and position without intentional safeguards breed deceived hearts.
Deceit which comes from the seduction of position and power allowing us to think the rules don't apply to us and to skirt ethical and truthful boundaries.
Arrogance that keeps us from listening to God and to others leaving our hearts exposed to its enemies.
Isolation which robs us of the natural accountability of close friends or others we are accountable to. Lack of accountability is a precursor to personal failure.
The praise of others which exaggerates our spiritual and professional health and underestimates our depravity and sinful tendencies. We believe it to our peril.
Using a ministry mission as a platform for a personal mission that is more about us than it is about God - hidden behind a spiritual facade.
What are the enemies of your heart and where have those enemies breached your walls and threaten to harm you? Be aware, be vigilant and guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Moving from fear to friendships with Muslims
Westerners have a caricature of Muslims that is largely based on media hype around radical Islamists, 9/11, the politics of Iran, Bin Laden, our wars in Iraq and the threat of Iran - all of which tend to breed fear, a desire to keep our distance and frankly a dislike and even disdain for Muslims.
Here is the problem. First, when it comes to the majority of Muslims, none of our caricature is remotely true. Second, Jesus loves Muslims with the same degree of which He loves non-Muslims which leads me to three: we are called to love and minister to those Jesus loves and who (like us) were made in His image.
Stereotypes are almost always the result of a lack of relationship with those we marginalize and stereotype. So the antidote to the caricature we have of Muslims is to actually engage with them in friendship. If every American evangelical had one Muslim friend the attitudes of the same would be vastly different.
I have met many Muslims and interacted with them on numerous ocasssions in the United States and internationally. Somali Muslim kids wave to me from across the street every morning and their basement is furnished with furniture that we outsourced. My taxi drivers and airport workers in Minneapolis are largely Muslim. I have had lengthy conversations with Muslims in my travels.
While Muslims have a different mindset than we do they have the same dreams, aspirations, struggles, family issues and so on that we do. They are ordinary people who want to live their lives in peace, make a living wage, and negotiate life as well as they can. And most of them welcome a friendship with an American and separate American politics from friendship with American individuals. And because of the hospitality culture they come from once you are a friend, they will be intensely loyal.
As in all cases, friendships are the key to killing stereotypes and opening doors for the Gospel. As it relates to Muslims, the church in the United States must move from fear to friendship with their Muslim neighbors. In doing so our stereotypes will die, real friendships will emerge, the door will be opened to the Gospel and bridges built. Ironically you have more in common with Muslims as an individual than you have that separates you from them. But one does not know that without a friendship.
In fact, the premier curriculum for helping evangelicals understand Muslims and share the Gospel with Muslims is called Bridges and is available from the Crescent Project.
Certainly there are radical Muslims I don't want to associate with and Bin Laden when he was alive never invited me for a cup of tea and had he done so it might have ended badly. But truth be told there are people who call themselves Christians that I don't want to associate with as well (Westboro Baptist Church for instance). As any Baptist would point out, they don't represent Baptists but their own radical agenda. Radicals of any persuasion are not my cup of tea (including in the evangelical sphere) but they also don't represent most others.
My challenge for Christ followers is to develop at least one friendship with a Muslim and see how God uses that to change your heart and perhaps their heart. It will also help us move past our fear to something even more important: friendship - where the Gospel usually starts.
Here is the problem. First, when it comes to the majority of Muslims, none of our caricature is remotely true. Second, Jesus loves Muslims with the same degree of which He loves non-Muslims which leads me to three: we are called to love and minister to those Jesus loves and who (like us) were made in His image.
Stereotypes are almost always the result of a lack of relationship with those we marginalize and stereotype. So the antidote to the caricature we have of Muslims is to actually engage with them in friendship. If every American evangelical had one Muslim friend the attitudes of the same would be vastly different.
I have met many Muslims and interacted with them on numerous ocasssions in the United States and internationally. Somali Muslim kids wave to me from across the street every morning and their basement is furnished with furniture that we outsourced. My taxi drivers and airport workers in Minneapolis are largely Muslim. I have had lengthy conversations with Muslims in my travels.
While Muslims have a different mindset than we do they have the same dreams, aspirations, struggles, family issues and so on that we do. They are ordinary people who want to live their lives in peace, make a living wage, and negotiate life as well as they can. And most of them welcome a friendship with an American and separate American politics from friendship with American individuals. And because of the hospitality culture they come from once you are a friend, they will be intensely loyal.
As in all cases, friendships are the key to killing stereotypes and opening doors for the Gospel. As it relates to Muslims, the church in the United States must move from fear to friendship with their Muslim neighbors. In doing so our stereotypes will die, real friendships will emerge, the door will be opened to the Gospel and bridges built. Ironically you have more in common with Muslims as an individual than you have that separates you from them. But one does not know that without a friendship.
In fact, the premier curriculum for helping evangelicals understand Muslims and share the Gospel with Muslims is called Bridges and is available from the Crescent Project.
Certainly there are radical Muslims I don't want to associate with and Bin Laden when he was alive never invited me for a cup of tea and had he done so it might have ended badly. But truth be told there are people who call themselves Christians that I don't want to associate with as well (Westboro Baptist Church for instance). As any Baptist would point out, they don't represent Baptists but their own radical agenda. Radicals of any persuasion are not my cup of tea (including in the evangelical sphere) but they also don't represent most others.
My challenge for Christ followers is to develop at least one friendship with a Muslim and see how God uses that to change your heart and perhaps their heart. It will also help us move past our fear to something even more important: friendship - where the Gospel usually starts.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Generous churches
Is it possible that many churches see little fruit because they live selfishly? By that I mean that they exist primarily for themselves rather than for those who do not yet know Jesus.
They would never say that about themselves of course. But the number of people who come to Jesus through their ministry are few, and they have little or no impact beyond the edges of their parking lot.
Generous churches, like generous people, see beyond themselves and their mission is not primarily about themselves but about impacting lives and communities with the Gospel. They give away their time, energy, resources and love so that the name of Jesus is lifted high and His name becomes well known. They love on their community, they love on the unloved, and they love on the unsaved. So much so that whole communities know that they are a congregation of love.
Generous congregations love when people come to them but they are focused on going to others, meeting them on their ground and ministering to them on their turf. They look for ways to meet needs, share truth and love people in the name of Jesus. They don't wait for people to come to them but find ways to go to others.
Life is not about us but about Jesus. It is true for us personally and it is true for congregations. Just as many Christ followers don't get that, so many congregations don't get that. But those who do see the fruit of their generosity as people and communities are impacted with His love and we are energized by our Christ centered actions and God's smile on our lives.
How do we know whether we are a generous congregation? Here is the test. Would those in our area say we love on the community? Do they even know we are there or are we a non-event because our influence stays inside the boundaries of our parking lot? Are we living generously or selfishly?
They would never say that about themselves of course. But the number of people who come to Jesus through their ministry are few, and they have little or no impact beyond the edges of their parking lot.
Generous churches, like generous people, see beyond themselves and their mission is not primarily about themselves but about impacting lives and communities with the Gospel. They give away their time, energy, resources and love so that the name of Jesus is lifted high and His name becomes well known. They love on their community, they love on the unloved, and they love on the unsaved. So much so that whole communities know that they are a congregation of love.
Generous congregations love when people come to them but they are focused on going to others, meeting them on their ground and ministering to them on their turf. They look for ways to meet needs, share truth and love people in the name of Jesus. They don't wait for people to come to them but find ways to go to others.
Life is not about us but about Jesus. It is true for us personally and it is true for congregations. Just as many Christ followers don't get that, so many congregations don't get that. But those who do see the fruit of their generosity as people and communities are impacted with His love and we are energized by our Christ centered actions and God's smile on our lives.
How do we know whether we are a generous congregation? Here is the test. Would those in our area say we love on the community? Do they even know we are there or are we a non-event because our influence stays inside the boundaries of our parking lot? Are we living generously or selfishly?
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