I had the opportunity to teach at the church leadership conference this past weekend in Colonial Heights, Va. My topics - "Building a Dynamic Team for Ministry" and "Creating Environments & Creative Audio Visual in Worship."
Here are my thoughts on Building a team:
DON’T DRESS FOR WHERE YOU ARE, DRESS FOR WHERE YOU ARE GOING!
PROCESS OF BUILDING YOUR TEAM:
• Identify potential in the lives of your people
• Get the right people on the bus and then get them on the right seat on the bus
• Meet with them, spend time with them, learn them
• Give Clear Direction and Expectations
• Empower – people look to the highest leader in the room
ENCOURAGING YOUR TEAM:
• Celebrate the wins
• People want to be on a winning team
• Affirm your volunteers and give them positive feedback publicly
• Getting church done kills people – you need to empower them and give
LEADING YOUR TEAM:
• if you say one thing and do something else trust is gone and people question your character and you lose credibility
• Don’t over commit and under-deliver
• if you want people to be concerned about something you need to be concerned about something
• when you don’t tell people what is important they guess
• When we create an environment in which these people we have now engaged where they willingly invest themselves fully
• Helping volunteers figure out what their good at and making them the best at it
• When you allow someone to be in a role they are not good at, you do them a disservice
• You must trust your team 100% and they must trust you
• God didn’t call you to fill someone elses shoes, He called you to fill yours…
• Speak into the lives of your team – invest in them
• Be professional – have a printed agenda with time frames by each item and stick to the agenda
• Avoid creating monsters that you will have to kill later
• Speak vision into your team every time you meet
• A team will never outgrow or out lead its top leader!
• There is huge difference between simply managing managers and leading leaders
ALLOWING YOUR TEAM TO CHANGE:
• If a team member talks to you about stepping down, encourage them to do so
• Open yourself to the constructive criticism of your team
• Always avoid sideways energy
• Always keep the lines of communication open
• If you want to continue getting the results you’ve been getting then you continue to operate the way you have been… but if you want to move forward then you have to be willing to change
• Progress is always preceded by CHANGE!
• Always be willing to adapt, change, and cast vision for the future
• Be willing to ask brutally honest questions and constantly reinvent yourselves as leaders
IN EVERYTHING YOU MUST HAVE THE ELEMENT OF FUN!
