3 steps to developing your team and building a leadership culture

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Few churches have an established culture of Leadership and Staff Development. There are a lot of reasons why this happens but; it’s primarily driven by a natural drift that takes place from leading people to doing ministry. Once that shift takes place developing people takes a back seat to getting tasks accomplished and it becomes a downward spiral. Below is a 3-step process that you can begin to use to build a culture of Leadership Development on your Team and break the vicious cycle:

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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what every team wants from their leader

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Do you know what your team wants from you? Do you know what they need from you? In this 4-part series of articles below we’ll unpack the concepts and principles behind what every team is looking for from their leader. Want to be successful as a leader, then give your team what they’re asking for.

Part 1 1.0 Leadership vs. 2.0 Leadership

Peter Drucker once said that, “The leader of the past was a person who knew how to tell. The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.” While there is a time and a place for an autocratic style of leadership, a younger generation entering the workforce is longing for more than just direction and dictatorship from their employer. This new generation entering the workplace is demanding 2.0 Leadership.

Part 2 Building a Culture

“I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.” Lou Gerstner, former President & CEO of IBM. If it’s true that the culture of the church over time reflects the personality of the Senior Leader, than focusing on that first level of cultural transference from yourself to your Staff must be intentional and strategic.

Part 3 What is my Team asking of Me?

Through my experience of being on both sides of the desk, hiring, exiting, and leading a staff; there are 5 simple yet at the same time monumental questions that have continued to come up that are placed squarely on the shoulders of leadership to answer for the team.

Part 4 How to Train-Wreck your Team

Generally speaking people want to do a good job. Particularly when it comes to church world, your staff has submitted not only their soul to the Lord but their career as well. They are literally spending their lives for the sake of the Gospel. But your Staff is guaranteed to fail if as the Senior Leader you don’t provide them with the following…

Posted in Leadership, Staffing

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chic-fil-a leadercast angela ahrendts

Monday, May 7, 2012

These are my notes and take aways from John Maxwell’s interview of Angela Ahrendts, the CEO of Burberry.

Culture trumps vision
Trust is needed to make change
The task of leadership is to create culture
Building a culture of mission focus keeps ego at bay
Intuition is the greatest output of trust and strong culture
Burberry values feeling over knowing
“I grew up in a physical world speaking English, but my kids are growing up in a digital world speaking social”
Building a culture of trust frees people to act on their leadership intuition which results in innovation and the ability to move at a fast pace

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Fighting the Sin of becoming a Boring Church Part-2

Broken Window Theory is the idea that your environment tells you to act. That is to say, if you live in a community with run down dilapidated buildings, with broken windows, graffiti, and trash on the streets it affects your ideas, feelings, and ultimately your behavior. In the 1980’s New York City was at the height of one the worst crime epidemics in its history. In particular perhaps one of the worst places to be, was on the New York Subway. As a result, in the mid 80’s the New York Transit Authority hired George Kelling as a consultant to help with the problem. He urged them to go about combating crime in a unique manner. Clean up the subway, literally. Get rid of the trash and the graffiti. Then they began going after fare beating, people who jumped the turnstile to sneak onto the Subway without paying. Two incredibly small, non-essential, seemingly inconsequential items when you’re talking about fighting an epidemic of crime. But guess what happened. The environment of the Subway changed and with it so did the criminal behavior on the Subway.

We all know that the environment we place people in matters. And when we’re dealing with heaven and hell and not simply selling more lattes, cars, clothes, or fast food it matters all the more. Below are four simple criteria to consider when building your environments:

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Creating a Healthy Leadership Culture in your Church

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Culture can be defined as the defining set of values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of any one group. It is something that is usually unnoticed, unspoken, and unexamined, particularly in Churches. As a result, few churches ever take steps towards intentionally defining and building a desired culture; instead it usually happens by default. It’s very common to see churches fall into ruts and get stuck in the familiar traps of, “Just preach the Word,” “Just reach people,” or “Just build disciples.” The problem is building a healthy culture in a church; particularly a healthy leadership culture is never “just that easy.” As the leader you have to define and create the culture. If you don’t it will default to the strongest personality or loudest voice in the room. So here are four steps you can take that will help you to begin building a healthy leadership culture in your church.

Posted in Leadership, Staffing