Driving a Team

Pulling a group of diverse individuals is hard enough. Driving them to overcome an obstacle is all the more difficult. However, it must be done. You need to tap the creative thinking that a team can provide. You leadership will be shown in steering the solution, implementing the correct approach, assigning the action items and rewarding the team members that make it happen.

Here are some tactics that may help you motivate and direct the team response.

1. Share as much information as possible. People do not work well in the dark.

2. Work with the willing. Even with an "A" team assembled, not everyone on the team will be the star player at any given time.

3. Provide the right amount of guidance. People who are more capable than you will still look to you for your leadership.

4. Work side by side when necessary. in the noise of confusion, your presence in the midst of doubt will do more to help clarify thoughts than anything else.

5. Stretch your people beyond their current talents and abilities. You will be amazed at how effectively they will work when they see growth in their own thinking and abilities.

6. Make it fun, actionable, and highly visible. Most of us grew up and enjoyed a puzzle or a challenge. Reframe the solution as a challenge that will be fun to discover. Bring a picture of my mouse to the meeting.

7. Let them feel the weight of the challenge. Fun is... well, fun. It can help us to motivate. However, at the end of the day, the task is serious. Let them see what rests on a favorable solution.

8. Reward them. When the wall has been scaled, get them together, and do something special. Recognize the one(s) who drove of the solution. Our drivers are our most important assets. Empower them for the next time around.

Silver Lining

Times are difficult. Churches are reducing staff and trying to figure out what to do to avoid collapse. Fear is building and pessimism is the flavor of the month. Still, when I look at the horizon I see great things. Then again, I have never been one to despair. Sure, I have had troubles. I have made bad decisions. Yet, the mistakes that have been most detrimental are not mistakes that I have overtly made. Without exception, all of my greatest mistakes occurred when I moved too slowly in a given situation. In other words, they were mistakes of inaction.

If one had the tools, one could capitalize on the times for future prosperity. If I had $200,000 burning a hole in my pocket, I tell you what I would do. I would put a down payment on ten new homes, buying them as rentals and sit on that investment until the market turned around, making the most of market opportunity. However, most of us do not have $200,000 burning a hole in our pockets. We do have skill sets however, and to sit idly by—in this market—and do nothing to invest in the church is a grave error. Why, because you have the tools and the market is right.

There is no question that the game has changed for your people. The attention that was so readily given to your church is now given to worries, opportunities for income, longer hours and just making ends meet. In a perfect world—you know as well as I—our people would not forget their first love for their troubles. The reality however, is that they do. I want to share with you three priorities for your church that I think need to be considered immediately so that you do not make the mistake of inaction; strategies for driving growth, priorities for managing talent, and ideas for improving relationships.

Our best churches will do far more than just survive this difficult time, they will flourish. Your people are hurting and questioning everything from their financial stability to their faith. The question is, will you respond in a way that increases their confidence, or drive them away by your inaction?

Strategies for driving growth:

Our best pastors will recognize the unique opportunity that the financial crisis affords. Many have served in fear of initiating change for worry of backlash. Now is the time! Our people—more than ever—may be ready for change. Our boards, committees, ministries, strategy groups, whatever one calls them these days, see the crisis and desire for something to be done about it. This is where you, pastor, can seek the face of God and find out how you can bring the change that He wants to your ministry. The fields are ripe for change. Be a catalyst. Spark new ideas as you convey what Father is placing in your heart. A bunker mentality may serve to get you through, but not to prosper. There are souls to be won and the need for effective change is an urgent one.

Priorities for managing talent:

Remember the days of soccer practice (fill in your sport). You would drop off your kids, catch up on some shopping or whatever small tasks you needed to do, and then pick the smelly kid up and take him home.

Two questions. Why didn’t you stay for the practice? And, what factor enabled you to leave? The first answer is “because you didn’t have to stay.” The second answer is “responsible adults were there to watch and train you kid.” Now, I want you to think of the one person who was not the coach, yet was always there. Who was she and why did she never miss a practice or a game? She was the Team Mom, and she was there because she was given the “responsibility” to be there. Bingo!

In this difficult time, you cannot afford to do it all yourself. Your people love you and will live to your expectations of them. “Ask and you shall receive.” There is great talent out there, ready to help your church prosper, but they are out “doing those little tasks.” I bet, if you empower them with kindness and reward their efforts with recognition, you will have a team mom that shows up to all practices, all games, and makes the team better by far. You can only truly manage a few tasks well. Empowering others and building leaders offers a replicable process that creates speed and flexibility in the church. If you do it well, you will get things done.

My final thoughts are ideas for improving relationships.

Define the crisis. Not the global crisis, not the church crisis, but the individual’s crisis. You are the pastor and your people need you. When was the last time you sat with your members, or (as stated above if you have a large church) empowered leaders to sit with your people, and respond to their crisis. Hear this! Your people will return to the fountain that provides water when they are thirsty. In the past, we would lose people to other churches. In a sense, while that was unfortunate, at least they were not leaving “church.” In these times we are losing people all-together. They are leaving the church because they are finding nothing there to help their crisis. I am not going to give you ideas on how to remedy that, that solution is as individual as your people, your geography and your church. But I will tell you one thing, if I was losing members because they are losing jobs, I would surely be irresponsible if I did not build relationships by having a job fair, or retraining ministry.

Yes it’s work. But hard work will prove for some to be the difference between a new future and closing the doors.

Overcoming Obstacles

Vince Lombardi is famous for saying: "Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal."

Take a look at the picture to the right. This little guy is one of my heroes. In fact, this picture sits on my desk to remind me of my need to be a problem solver. Most success is directly related to the leader's ability to solve problems. In the case of the mouse, his ability to take a bit of a hit as well. Make no mistake, as you lead, you will take the hits. Mitigating the severity is a key to great leadership.

Determination is another key. It sets the relevant leader apart. It's what makes the difference. At times the solution is found in the "grit." You just need to hunker down and get over the wall, plow the field, or do the task. However, if the obstacles involve people (which they usually do) the strategy changes. To overcome you will need to devise strategies to minimize the resistance. Effective strategies that minimize resistance will make the difference between making headway and bouncing back.

Higher Standards

One thing that is increasingly evident today is that there is no lack of moral failure in our society. We need only think of recent sports figures, politicians and others who have destroyed their lives because a pattern of decreasing moral standards was allowed to continue unabated. Surely, these same individuals knew what the consequences would be, didn’t they? Yet, still they continued until it all fell apart.

Wake Up Call

As spiritual men and women, ones who lead and drive spiritual organizations, we must be on guard against declining standards. Unless we consciously set higher and higher moral standards, we will continue to slip the other direction… In other words, there is no middle ground. Lack of progression equals decline.

The same goes for your organization. It has been said that the greatest hindrance to tomorrow’s success is today’s. We naturally tend to settle. We cannot allow this to happen. The dynamic organizational leader will reward the success of today, and set new goals for tomorrow.

“You don’t understand, that will burn out my people! After all, this is only a volunteer organization.”

Let me say this as gingerly as I can; “Stop your excuses.” The reality is that people want progression. They want to be a part. If you are losing them, they either fail to see value or they are not feeling rewarded or recognized for the incremental accomplishments.

A Word of Warning

Driving success means celebrating success. Many leaders set the vision high. Rightly so. However, many of them make a terrible error by setting the celebration for accomplishment at the same level. This is wrong. We need to see the vision as the distant place we want to arrive, but we need to reward and recognize the steps to get there.

Come with me to Paris. I was standing at the base of the Eiffel Tower, and told my family to “look up!” I said, “we’re going to climb the stairs to the top!” “What!?!” came the reply. It was drudgery, until I began to count out the steps in increments of fifty. “Fifty… One Hundred… One Fifty…” Soon everyone was calling them out; “Two Hundred!!!” What started as drudgery, became excitement as we celebrated each fiftieth step. “Two Fifty!” Before we knew it, we were at the top! Six hundred and seventy four steps!

Had we waited until we came to the top to celebrate, I would have had to listen to requests to take the elevator the entire way up! Perhaps one of my kids would have broken ranks and headed the other direction. Maybe mutiny at step number Three Ninety Nine. Or, having made it to the top, faced a family who--for their anger--failed to appreciate the spectacular view from the top.

Celebrate each and every landing on your organizational journey, and set the next highest standard when you arrive.

Lead the System

If you were driving on a dark country road, and you saw the sign, Bridge Out, What would you do? Would you continue on to your own peril, or would you change your direction? Many leaders are continuing in the same direction they always have... to their peril. They continue to work in the system, managing everything and everyone, and all the while the road is falling out beneath them. The signs (unlike the one to the right) were there a long time prior to the road's collapse, yet through seasons of delay and a general lack of ideas on how to change their reality, the leader--and the organization--fall.

So, How do you stop managing and start leading? If we could answer this question in one simple paragraph, the sky would open, the songs of a thousand birds would fill the sky and rose petals would fall upon our path. The reality is that the answer to that question is as unique as your specific gifts and talents, and your ability to leverage them to act and think differently. In other words, you need to begin the downplay of using your gifts and talents and start leading others in (not with) your gifts and talents. We may not have your answers, but we do have some starting points.

1. Provide Context
The first step is to be completely clear about what you or the organization requires. Framing the work within the broader context gives clarity to the recipient. They must be clear how the work contributes to the overall success of the organization.

2. Delegate Authority and Responsibility
Delegating responsibility to complete a task it relatively easy; "Get it done!" Delegating the authority to accomplish it can be another story. It requires confidence and trust in the individual. It also requires you to let go! Without the ability to make a decision that you will support, people will never be (or feel) empowered to complete the tasks that they are given. They will move forward in fear. Jethro advised Moses to relinquish his authority and impart it to others (Exodus 18:13-26).

3. Support don't Abdicate
Leading the system is just that, leading. It does not mean that you delegate and forget. Especially in the early stages of a project. People need your support and encouragement. They may need your skills. They may need you to push them when they feel they cannot and you know they can. If you abdicate your authority you will leave your people feeling alone and discouraged.

4. Only Delegate When Appropriate
Make sure that those to whom you delegate have the necessary skill to carry out the task. If not, they will be frustrated, you will be frustrated, and the work will not be completed.

5. Look at Team and Sub-team Structure.
Map it out. Keep all parts of the team communicating with each other. Check for consistency, effectiveness and overlap. Make sure that all areas of overlap have clear owners in terms of responsibility. The ultimate goal is a streamlined team, not a one-on-one manager to direct report relationship.