Tag: Leadership (Page 2 of 3)

Are You Improving?

This is a blog I wrote for the Vision Room, published in July, 2015.

People often ask how the ministry is going. It is a simple question, and often garners a simple answer like, “Fine”, “Busy”, or “Growing”. Those answers are OK to start the conversation, but they really don’t provide much insight. When digging into why we get those pat answers, I discovered it was because people didn’t really know how their ministry was doing. Many pastors knew how they felt about the ministry, or how they felt about themselves, but a rare few measured and monitored performance of their church or their ministry team.

Performance Matters

As church leaders, we have the most important job in the world, with current and eternal significance. If we believe so strongly about the job, then that job deserves the best performance we can muster. So how do we define and measure performance in a ministry? More importantly, how do we improve? In order to truly improve our performance requires three key steps – Define what good looks like, Monitor performance against that standard, and finally Execute change to improve.

Define what good looks like

A key cause of poor performance is poorly set expectations. Setting expectations for performance must happen at the individual level, through a job description, and a ministry team level through a mission statement and business plan. A quality job description includes three sections – the purpose of the role, the activities and tasks the individual is directly responsible for, and how success in those activities will be measured, both objectively and subjectively.

A ministry team must have an idea what they are trying to accomplish, within the context of the church’s mission. If the team is new to mission statements and business plans, I recommend starting with the resources at Building Champions. This organization provides great guidance for how to create your mission, and a simple business plan to move you forward.

Monitor Performance

Setting expectations is a great start, and now it is time to monitor how we are doing against that standard of excellence. I suggest three types of metrics for each ministry team or leadership role.

  • Track some hard numbers. How many baptisms did we do this year? What percentage of attendees are in small groups? How many people in our church gave money each month in the last year? These are the types of things you put on a graph and publish to the team.
  • Trust your intuition. The graphs are great, and only tell part of the story. How you feel about the ministry, or how others feel about it, is equally important. Do we look forward to coming to work every day? Is the team getting along well, or is there tension? How would you rate the level of collaboration in your team?
  • Get an assessment. There is great value in getting an unbiased assessment of your ministry, based on an objective standard of excellence. Your numbers might be stable or even improving. You might feel good about your ministry operations. However, we are all blind to the things we don’t do well. It is common in an assessment to discover things we didn’t even consider as important are the lynchpin to taking the ministry to the next level. Church Community Builder offers assessments of four key leadership roles: Volunteer Coordinator, Connections Pastor, Finance and Generosity Leader, and Executive Pastor.

Execute Change

You have set clear expectations for performance, and now you have your assessment results and your metrics trending on a nice colorful graph…now what? The purpose of all this is to know what behaviors need to stay the same and what needs to change. If the metrics you track can’t change your behavior, stop tracking that and find something meaningful. When using metrics to drive behavior change, we examine the data in three sequential steps.

  1. What – What is the data telling us? What is included in this data? How was it calculated? As an example, “we had 560 people on Sunday.” Does that mean in the main worship service? What about kids, or youth, or volunteers? Before we can make a judgement about the data, we must understand what the number represents.
  2. So What – What does the data mean to us? Is that more or less than last week or last year? How does it compare to our goals? This is the time you make a personal judgement about what you see. This is good, bad, indifferent. In church we often talk about not judging, and this is the time to do it. We are not judging the character value of our team, we are forming an opinion about our performance. This is the time to be very clear and direct. To learn more about the power of being direct, read this article from Rob Cizek.
  3. Now What – What are you going to do differently tomorrow, next week, and next month? Is this a behavior you can change on your own, or do you need to demonstrate some expert change management in the team or church-wide to make it happen? How long will it take to make the change? Then, how long until you expect results? If we are trying to increase visitors, we might place radio ads on the local station. That will take some time to create the ad, then they will have to run a few weeks before we know if it worked. Lastly, are the metrics we are tracking going to tell us if we made the right decision? Add “I heard it on the radio” to the connection card to know how people heard of you.

Your Next Move

There is a lot involved in tracking and improving performance in your ministry team. It would be logical to start at the beginning and revisit job descriptions and mission statements. However, I recommend you start with metrics. Start tracking the data you think is important. You may not get the metrics just right, but they will likely be close. Then, you can watch the trend while you are working on the business plan and job descriptions. In addition, starting with metrics tends to reveal the quality of our data, which is likely to become a metric in itself. Start tracking and iterate on your thinking with your team.

The Ugly Side of a Big Vision

Last week, I wrote about how a project with a big vision brings people out of the woodwork to help, and that is wonderful. However, there is a downside to having a big vision people want to rally around. Here is what to watch out for.

The Wrong People

When you declare to the world you are going to set off on an amazing adventure, lots of people will want to join, eventually. It often starts with derision and questioning, but eventually people want to join in. That can be very confirming and relieving to the leader, if they are the right people. Here are three people to send packing.

  • Hangers On. People who want to be involved so they can look cool and feel included. Those things are not bad in their own right, but can represent dead weight if that is the only reason they are there. If you have a mission to accomplish, you need people to carry their own weight.
  • Rabbit Holes. People who sign on to support your vision, then “suggest” we also include other things in the adventure. One church I worked with was really investing in the homeless in their town. People signed on to help those folks get food, clothing, bibles, and so on. Then, a late-comer to the project distracted the whole ministry down their rabbit hole of resources for orphans in another country. Here is the challenge: that ministry idea is great, and needed. However, it is not our vision, so it is a distraction. As a result, both ministries attempted to function in parallel for a while, but neither were very successful.
  • Credit Hounds. Everyone deserves credit and accolades for the work they do and the help they provide. For many those accolades are fuel to keep them fighting the good fight – so hand them out early and often. However, when you find people fighting for credit (arguing who “really” did that work, elbowing into the camera shot on TV, etc.) they have lost the desire for the mission and are now fighting for themselves. That is destructive to the group, and usually diminishes the actual work they are getting done.

The Media Hype

When big things happen in our world, the media often gets involved. That can be very helpful if it generates some awareness, excitement, and even funding for the adventure. However, a few things the media can bring that are less helpful…

  • Wrong Information. Media professionals used to fact-check anything reported. In these days of quick reporting, the accuracy of reporting has gone downhill. For example, in this homeless ministry. The church visited downtown and fed about 100 people each week, and had done it reliably for about three months. The reporter was excited on the news, “…they feed over 1000 each week”. Umm, not so much but thanks for trying. Help them out with a fact sheet they can read from on the news.
  • Shooting Star. Media attention is fun, but fleeting. Often times, the media is most interested right before or after a “big event”, not the long haul it takes to make a vision happen. For example, in that world record, the media was very excited around the launch, then pretty quiet for the flight, then had a huge amount of activity right after the landing. That is all great stuff. However, for the people doing the work, it is dangerous to get caught up in that media and forget there is still work to do. After the cameras left, it was still necessary to recovery the equipment, ship it home, file the paperwork for the record, get it approved, and so on. The media attention fades, your attention should not.

Your Next Move

If you are working on a big vision project, evaluate who you have on board. If you have any of the wrong people, clean house a little and your speed and accomplishment will likely improve. Feel free to let the media be involved, but don’t let them distract you from your vision.

By the Way – the balloon flight was a HUGE success. Two world records, safe landing, and a bunch of great memories for the whole team!

Setting a World Record

Right now, I have friends working on setting two world records. The Two Eagles Balloon Team has launched a helium balloon in Saga, Japan headed for North America to break the distance and duration records in gas ballooning that were set more than 30 years ago. It is a very cool adventure and worth tracking to see how it turns out. What has been really impressive is how many people around the world are tuned in and want to help out. Ballooning is already a pretty close-knit group, and it is still impressive to me. So, why do people rally around something like this?

Do Something Big

I think people like to help out on projects that are big. Bigger than they have ever done, or may ever do. It is very unlikely I will ever attempt or hold a world record at anything. That is OK with me. It is a great privilege for me to work with people who are doing big things. In fact, although I don’t really do much, it is still a great ego boost to say, “I helped with that.”

The same is true of our workplace; people like to join something big. As you lead your organization, is your vision big enough to rally the troops and get them fired up?

Leading is Lonely

We often hear that leadership is lonely. As we blaze a trail into the unknown, we feel like we are on our own. I think that is true when we have a really big vision. It is big because nobody has done it before. If we wanted to feel comfortable we would join the masses and do something mundane.

However, I think the loneliness can also come when we shrink from that big hairy audacious goal and pick something easier. If you are feeling lonely, I suggest two things.

  • Gather a Tribe. There are others like you trying to change the world. Find those folks and gather a tribe to support each other. Even if you are in different parts of the world, relating challenges with peers can bring great comfort, support, and insight. In fact, we think this is so important for church leaders that we started a whole section of our company dedicated to Tribes.
  • Get a Bigger Vision. While leading the pack is genuinely lonely at times, you should also expect people to come out of the woodwork and ask to join. I am getting calls and emails every day from people who want to support this balloon flight. If you are not getting that support, consider that your vision isn’t big enough. Is it really amazing enough for people to pause and reflect, then ask to join?

Your Next Move

Go do something big. It is ok to be afraid and second guess the path; and do it anyway. If you are feeling all alone on this adventure, then make sure you are really doing something big enough to be worthy of you. You are amazing, let your work reflect that. Once you are convinced you are on a big enough adventure, then gather a tribe. They are out there, go connect.

Let’s Talk about Money

talk about money
Money seems to be a very touchy subject in polite conversation. How much do you make, what does this job pay, what does that thing cost, can I buy a new pair of shoes? In our personal lives, and in our business communications, money does not need to be a sensitive subject. In my role at work, I coach church leaders about money frequently. Most often that includes how to communicate about money with the staff and congregation.

Talking about money at home

In my experience with business and church leaders, if they are not comfortable talking about money at home, they won’t be comfortable talking about it at work. I was once taught, “money is the primary cause of conflict in marriage.” At home, it is important to talk about money to ensure both husband and wife are clear about the situation and results of income and expenses. Although I could go into detail about this, I want to focus on money discussions at work.

Talking about money at work

Money is what makes business run, whether it be a “regular” business, or a non-profit. To quote a great leader I know, “Money is like blood…it is not why we work, but it makes work possible.” So, if it is so important, how does a leader learn to discuss money?

  • Learn the lingo. Learn the basics of accounting vocabulary. You can get this from your accountant, or an online course pretty easily. Take the time to understand terms like revenue, expense, COGS, profitability, net income, fixed costs, variable costs, and most of all – learn to read a simple P&L statement.
  • Get over the fear. People think about money a lot, so it is ok if some of that is out loud. Feel free to mention money and how you need it, how you use it, and how you give it away. I recommend starting in a safe relationship and discussing something on your mind. If you initiate a discussion about money, the other person is often relieved, not panicked. This is especially true when you are hiring people.
  • Define your boundaries. In your business, what about money is discussable and what is not. Is it ok to talk about what the company makes and profits? How about what you take home, or what we pay Julie? Then, feel free to declare those boundaries out loud. Just recently, we had a staff member ask about monthly profit and what appeared to be abnormally high expenses. As it turns out that particular expense was out of bounds, and they were told clearly, “Yes, we had a single extra expense this month but I can’t share with you what it was.” Perfect answer. Much better than dancing around it avoiding the conversation.

Your Next Move

Next time you find yourself dancing around the money subject, dive in. Break the ice with something like, “I want to discuss the financials of this situation. Would that be ok?” Have faith – it gets easier over time!

Simple or Simplistic?

In these days of swirling technology and overall busy-ness, many of us want our lives to be simpler. The Simple mantra is becoming the rallying cry of churches, businesses, families, and individuals. But what does that really mean…”Simple”?

Well, I decided to consult the oracle of Google and I learned Simple is defined as

Easily understood or done, presenting no difficulty.

Don’t we all wish life were that way?

Is it Simple, or just Simplistic?

On the contrary to having a simple, clean, elegant solution to a problem, we often resort to simplistic solutions. By definition, Simplistic is to treat a complex issues and problems as if they were much simpler than they really are. Another thing that caught my eye was a synonym of simplistic… “superficial”. I have recently read a couple books on being simple, like Insanely Simple and Getting Real. Both books celebrate, and even idolize, the goal of being simple.

What’s the Difference?

If you are motivated to create simple solutions or simple processes, you might be tempted to go the simplistic route instead.

  • Simple is complete and elegant, Simplistic takes short cuts and leaves major things out
  • Simple is often the result of that “Aha!” moment, Simplistic is the result of fatigue
  • Simple is beautiful and catches on quickly, Simplistic is met with tons of questions like, “what about…”

Your Next Move

Next time you have a desire for Simple, but find yourself cutting corners, feeling fatigued, or ignoring other’s challenges, stop. Stop and listen to their input, take some time to refresh, and design a complete and useful solution. Once a solution is complete, then the Simple will be revealed.

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