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Leading Up: Part 2
When it comes to my “romantic life” with my wife, she reminds me that “my approach matters.”
If you’re trying to lead up, your approach matters.
Let’s suppose you have a great idea. But you’re fairly certain your leaders are resistant to change. Here are some thoughts on your approach:
- Pray. Pray like crazy. But don’t list your idea as a “prayer request” in your church bulletin. This should be private prayer rather than campaigning with the church body disguised as prayer.
- Meet with decision makers. Ask for time with the highest decision maker you can meet with. If you can meet with the senior pastor or senior leaders, try that. If that meeting isn’t possible, make sure you are meeting with someone who has the authority to decide and make things happen.
- Avoid tough days. For example, pastors are typically recovering on Mondays. Don’t schedule a meetings on days that are naturally tough.
- Avoid accusatory language. Check your heart before the meeting. Don’t come into the meeting explaining why everything is wrong and you can make it right.
- Avoid politics. Don’t try to gather support for your cause. If you do so, you’ll be perceived as rebellious.
- Plan you presentation. Come in with a well thought out proposal. Anticipate what questions will be asked. Plan your answers.
- Don’t demand a decision. You have been processing this for days, weeks, or months. They won’t likely “buy in” wholly in 30 minutes. In many instances, it would be wrong to ask for an immediate decision. You might say something like, “Would you pray about this for a week and then we could talk again.”
- Respect your leader’s decision. Recognize that your idea might not be a good one. If your leader turns you down, it could be because your leader has more wisdom and experience. Or it could be a good idea at the wrong time. Get back to ministry with a great attitude and praise God you get to do what you do!
Read the last thought again.
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Craig,
I like the comparison between effective communication in your relationship with your wife and the idea of “leading up” and communicating your ideas skillfully and effectively with those in authority over you.
In the early years of our marriage, my wife would constantly say to me, “It’s not so much what you say, as how you say it…”
To my mind, the greatest communication skill in learning how to “lead up” effectively, is the ability to communicate an idea and yet make the team feel as if it was their collective idea. This is often only achieved through some of the suggestions you gave above in the approach to communicating those ideas.
I think those are great ideas.
I also think that those of us who are at the top need to make it easier for our associates to bring ideas to us. I was with our Next Gen pastor yesterday and we think so much alike. I told him he has my permission to be frank and honest and tell me when he thinks I’m out in left field.
I think I became this way because I never felt like I was allowed to give my opinion when I was leading up or my ideas were considered crazy.
When I was associate at a large church in Atlanta about 9 years ago I gave our pastor an idea for a Friday Night service. He looked at me and said, “That’s what I want out side the lines thinking, inside the box.”
I laughed for weeks. But it is why I eventually left.
Joseph,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Kevin,
You are absolutely right when you say, “those who are at the top need to make it easier for our assocaiates to bring ideas to us.”
As our staff grows, it takes more work to keep communication lines open. I often wonder how many great ideas don’t make it off the ground because we make it too hard for people to lead up.
This blog is thick…..
My background is in consulting and internal control evaluation. Some of our BEST recommendations came from the front line people. We spend so much time understanding the processes and just listening to the people. They have great ideas, but rarely know how to present or sell those ideas to management.
For some reason, management is more likely to listen to a highly paid consultant than listening to the people on the front lines.
Having this perspective, if you really want to know what’s going on, meet in small groups with people on the front lines (clerks, supervisors, associate pastors, administration staff) on a period basis (a group lunch for example). If they know their ideas will be heard, they will be more likely to bring them to you. Most importantly, we are all called to love others as we love ourselves and unless you know the people that work for you, can you really love – KNOW what is going on in their lives!
My husband implemented this to the extreme (in business world)…he has 500 people in his down reporting line. They started a Joys and Concerns spreadsheet. I don’t think I would go to a spreadsheet extreme. He now dedicates 1-2 working days a month to lunches, walking around the buildings passing out candy bars and talking with people. He found many people suffering in their personal lives – sick, lost or many other family trials.
From what they learned in this process, the company started an “emergency fund� to help families with illnesses or in times financial trouble. Any employee, vendor or customer can apply for financial assistance from this fund in a time of trouble or trial.
In addition, his personal understanding of the work, knowing the people personally (open door policy), and by celebrating with individual accomplishments, it has lead to a significant improvement in turnover.
Consultants are still helpful. We need jobs too!
I recently spoke to a leader, here at LifeChurch and felt the whole idea of listening , or recognizing good ideas, is not part of the mindset of this leader, any how. A friend of mine and I are excited about a particulr mission work that has been on-going for some time now. After serving for a few months now, we reached the conclusion together that this is a great work, with so much potential for reaching lost souls. We also, almost simultaneously, said, but it needs some help to make it better. We noticed significant weaknesses and wanted to do some things to improve a great work.
We believe, that if something wears the name of LifeChurch, it needs to be the best it can be. It shouldn’t be acceptable to do second, or even third-rate. My friends remark, right or wrong was, with Craig’s background in marketing and passion for doing what we do well, even the best possible; he would never accept this if he came here in person.
Many of the suggestions you made for presenting ideas, were used to approach the leader of this work. Especially, we communicated how we liked this idea and were excited it was happening. We are thankful for the vision and committment to this work, of the leader. For what it’s worth, we are not young folks either. We have the desire to do the work that will improve what we do at this mission. We have also been approached by others who have served here, wanting to make things better.
We tried hard not to come accross in any of the negative ways you describe, but the response we got from the leader was almost like being pushed aside.
We came away with the notion that if staff doesn’t create the idea, or promote it, it is not going to be used. The idea that their position is on the line and so it must be what they see as best, came through. We pray that’s not the case at LifeChurch. If we are to reach 50 in 5, we are going to need allot of people to do it. If the reputation is, we use people up, it will be difficult to get the people we need. I guess I’m saying that the suggestions you give, only work when the leaders are taught to look for what they have. This church has many resources, it may not even be aware of, and as you say, it may be hard to see it, if we aren’t trained to see it.
We still love LifeChurch and the mission, and have no intention of quitting either, but if things can improve in any area shouldn’t we be geared to go for it? Is the leadership encouraged, even trained to look for what they have around them, in terms of gifts, abilities, and wisdom? Age isn’t everything, we know only too well, but it’s not nothing either. Is age and experience something the church leaders are encouraged to take special note of in any way? We know, old folks can be rebels as much as the young, but scripture does teach us to put age in a certain mindset, or maybe better said, maturity. Thanks for anything you might want to respond to, Tony.
Thanks for all the input on Leading Up - I liked the idea to present the idea well the most, and doing your homework before presenting it
On a side note, I do think that while “frontliners” need to lead up properly, staff and leaders need to know how to deal with these leadups properly, as in Tony’s case - I guess that comes with maturity and age.
Tony,
I’m sorry you had a negative experience with a staff member trying to lead up.
You are right in saying that the church has many resources we’re not aware of.
I pray God continues to use you to do great things for HIS glory.
Thank you for your heart to reach people!