High Impact Church Leaders Do This
by Mark Tidsworth, Founder and Team Leader
This one activity stands far above the rest, dramatically increasing impact.
This one activity is among the 8 key practices described in our training called Cultivating Cultures of Excellence in Church Leadership Teams. Through presenting this material repeatedly with church staffs and lay leadership teams, it’s become clear this key practice is perhaps the most challenging, while also the most impactful for the church. So, here it is – here is the activity that will raise the impact of your leadership teams to a much higher level.
Vigorously debating inside, while speaking with unified voices outside.
Inside = Team meetings, discussions, explorations, and problem-solving. Anytime the team is working collectively.
Outside = When the team is sharing the outcomes of their internal work; communicating about their team efforts beyond the team itself.
When staffs or lay leaders can put this key practice into action, the church moves forward in mission ministry since the leadership is unified in voice and action.
So, who are the teams who can do this? They are those who base their team working on the following five expectations and beliefs.
They expect each team member to bring one’s best effort to team working.
— Since you are on this team, this means this church believes in you. Thus, we expect you to bring your best passionate advocacy for your perspective.
— When disagreement happens during team meetings, effective teams are not overly concerned.
— Arguing one’s perspective is expected and invited in team meetings, knowing this eliminates the need to argue one’s perspective outside the team meeting (hallways or parking lots).
They accept the benefits and limitations of team working, trusting the process.
The Emotional Intelligence research tells us that well-functioning teams make better decisions than the smartest individual. They know they are better together.
At the same time, these teams accept the limitations of team working. They don’t expect to get their way 100% of the time. When their input is heard and respected, they willingly let go of insistence that their view must be adopted. Rational and reasonable people, with some level of maturity, accept this limitation of team working. They certainly want to be heard and taken seriously, yet they don’t expect to always get their way.
They don’t publicly talk about who was for/against decisions, recognizing this would set up parishioners for taking sides.
In some ways this is subtle… people naturally give a blow-by-blow account of the discussion.
Two destructive effects of this approach:
One, the strength of the decision or outcome is diluted. When we give the blow-by-blow, we lower the power of the ultimate decision by introducing doubts into the thinking of the hearers.
Two, listeners are set-up to feel like they must choose a side. This is like when parents disagree on an issue without resolving it in front of the children (not meaning anything paternalistic or patronizing here). Of course the children then engage the parent who represents their preference regarding this issue. We don’t want to present parishioners with the perception they must support any particular church leader.
They cultivate an environment of trust and respect, vigorously debating the issues without attacking or criticizing the person.
When do people bring their very best efforts to the work at hand? When do people step out of their comfort zones, growing innovative? When they are safe. This means cultivating an environment where one’s input and comments will never be used against us. This means debating the issues at hand, but never attacking the person. This means relating in such a way that we remain colleagues and church together after the discussion is completed. This means speaking the truth, in love. When we cultivate the working environment to include these ingredients, then our best work is free to rise up and take shape in our collective efforts.
They coordinate messaging regarding the outcomes of their team working.
It’s strange really. We were all there in the meeting, participating in the same experience, yet our descriptions of the outcome can be so different. So rather than assuming we are united regarding what we will say, it’s worth five minutes to review what we accomplished in this meeting. Then we are positioned for coordinating our messaging. Your church as a whole needs to know what you as a leadership team accomplished and decided. When you all are speaking the same language, describing the meeting outcomes in similar ways, then communication effectiveness rises. This minimizes the likelihood of miscommunication while strengthening the power of the meeting’s outcomes. We want to speak with a unified voice externally, meaning we must unify our voices in order to do so.
OUTCOMES:
Avoids confusion, miscommunication, and splitting for disciples.
Makes messaging far more powerful.
Strengthens the team.
Strengthens each individual’s ministry.
Overall strengthens your church.
Certainly practicing this one key practice takes discipline and focus, while the potential outcomes are huge when it comes to impact. Isn’t raising our effectiveness in church leadership that important, worth the effort?