Mistakes to Avoid in Building a Team, pt3
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 061
Get Work Done
You want to train people that if they are going to be part of an idea team, they are also part of a work team. The biblical principle: Where there is authority, there is responsibility. While the pastor or the business owner is the final authority, when you give someone a voice, you are giving them delegated authority.
The purpose of a team is to work. It is to get things accomplished. Not just to identify problems or come up with great philosophical solutions. That is PART of what the team does. But the goal result of a team is to get the work done.
If someone wants to have a voice, they need to have feet. You need to be training your team that when you give them an audience, at some point you expect them to walk some of those things out.
A very unhealthy scenario is when everyone brings ideas and dumps them at the feet of the pastor. When someone from the church gave me an idea, I would ask them to write it down. Very often, I would never hear about it again. For the few that did write it down, if I thought it had merit, I would have a meeting with them. If it didn’t have merit, I would still get back to them and tell them that it won’t work right now and why. If you do not get back with them, you will stifle input.
But You Also Have to Lead
A few years ago, the Lord raised my antenna as I was teaching on leading. People were telling me what they DID, but there was someone in the crowd who talked about what they LED. You don’t want your leadership team to just do things; you want them to lead. You don’t want them to just be doers, but also team builders. If they can lead one thing, there is a chance they can lead other things. If they only do one thing, there is a chance they can’t do multiple things.
Review. Review. Review.
Leadership positions can be for an appointed time. You should regularly be reviewing you’re your leaders are doing and what they are leading. Not just looking at their input, their wisdom, if they are a preacher or teacher, etc. What did they accomplish? What and how are they leading?
What this does is help people focus. It communicates that there is room for people on this team. It also gives people a gentle exit when it is time for them to exit. Sometimes in our churches, the only way high-level leaders can blend out is to leave the church.
Review also helps redirect people back into their calling. People can do something excellent that isn’t their calling and then get stuck in that venue. Years go by, and what they do well could be holding them back rather than being released to do what they would be fruitful in, what they are excited about, what they can multiply. Have a review. Ask good diagnostic questions. What do you want to do this year? What do you want to do during your next term? What’s getting you excited? The answers will change year-to-year or season-to-season. People get bored doing the same thing every day for five years. Boredom sets in, and passion leaks out. This review helps push our leaders to develop more leaders.
Let’s not have leadership teams whose only obligation is to give an opinion, but teams that understand that they are part of the DOING team. That when all hands are called on deck, that they are the first guys to show up. That they are leading not just by wisdom, which is obviously great, but leading by example.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
