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Team Dynamics
In the early stages of ministry, I suggest you never make anyone a permanent member of a leadership team. Things change too quickly. Determine limited time periods for a leader to serve. You can always ask her to rejoin easier than you can ask her to leave.
When you’re building a team, you have to remember a team takes time to build. (When you determine you have a “wrong” player on the team, you must remove him sooner rather than later.)
You must be willing:
- To fight together. A team that can’t work through conflict will never be a team.
- To be loyal to the death. Even though you can fight behind closed doors, you ALWAYS stand together publicly. Disloyalty is never tolerated.
- To be transparent. If you can’t be brutally honest about everything, you don’t have a team.
- To care for each other. A team that is “all business” will eventually deteriorate. A ministry team must become a family.
- To have fun together. I always know a team is not healthy when I don’t hear them laughing often.
Thoughts?
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Craig: I appreciate your thoughts on this. But perhaps you or someone else can help me out. When I came here there was already a staff member here. At this point I am 56 and he is 29 which by itself lends itself to some interesting dynamics. But he is also very “close-mouthed.” I want to be there and want to establish a connection but he told someone once, “bill & I will never be the close friends you want us to be.” How do I deal with that? I don’t think it is because he was here beforehand. I am just wondering if it the age factor or a different era factor. :) Do you have any advice on how to overcome that?
Amen, Amen, Amen… I wouldn’t have it any other way. Caring for each other is paramount!
All of your points are really healthy reminders. The point about caring for each other is so important. I have been in leadership situations that were on both ends of the spectrum. One were I was over the edge cared for and I gave my life for the vision of that church (I worked two jobs to be there - because the care was there). The other one, the care was in word and not deed — it was a shorter relationship.(even though the pay was better and the church was larger)
The spiritual, emotional and physical cost is high in ministry. We must care for one another. We need to make sure we are healthy.
For the leaders who are driving their teams to produce and not caring for them, stop now. Work hard and care hard — you will be amazed at the team dynamic that is produced.
Brandon, Well said.
Bill, The age barrier certainly doesn’t have to be a barrier, unless the 29 yr old is very immature. If he is, he might think he knows better than the older guy about ministry and miss out on tremendous benefits from getting close to you.
Can anyone share wisdom that might help Bill?
Bill,
I would see if I can arrange a private face to face meeting with this guy. Be very open and try and find out where he is coming from. It may be that he is unwilling to be open but at least maybe ya’ll can clear the air. It may very well be that your relationship doesn’t change and you won’t be close but that’s o.k. too. We don’t have to be best friends with everyone we serve with. Sometimes we just learn to work together for the common good and leave it at that. Best wishes and God Bless my friend.
Bill,
One more thing. Continue to pray for this man. You may see a change in him personally but maybe not but if you continue to pray for him it will help you be more forgiving toward him when he isn’t open and perhaps difficult to work with.
I have seen these all at play in the ministry team I lead. Sometimes people don’t see the need for the “family” and “fun” aspects of team building and get frustrated and think we’re wasting our time. It’s been great to see how these have become huge values for our team over the years as we’ve meshed together and become stronger. I really believe that these all speak to building community, one of the most necessary ingredients for a truly successful team.
craig - you nailed it once again! brandon - your iteration on this issue of care is so vital, right on, brother!
i love the idea about limited terms on leadership teams - that prevents so many issues like entitlement, superiority complexes, oppression, stagnation, tunnel vision - i have watched all of these first-hand in ministry on “teams” that were set in stone.
bill - maybe you can determine what your gift mix is and what that of your 29-year old cohort is. from that point you can enter a discussion about how you can partner your experience and wisdom with his enhusiasm and passion. if you can move yourselves from being opponents battling out the issues to partners solving problems together with your broadened perspective you will probably find working together a much more pleasant and effective experience. i hope this helps - we will pray for your courage and success in this. just make sure you are not devalueing him for his age or limited experience.
Bill, fire him…jk. Actually I like what Jason had to say. I think you have a huge opportunity here. If you do find out how to connect with this guy, no one will be able to stop you guys. You’ll have history together…history of working out differences and success.
Andrew, Will, jason & Craig: thanks for the perspective. We have a pretty good working relationship in the sense that “he does his job and I do mine.” it is not adversarial. And we get along on a personal level. It is just that his idea of spending time together and mine seems to stop at eating lunch together or going to a hospital before someone’s surgery. I think he prefers to be with someone more his age. :) I do like all your advice and will write it down and start to really pray about it. Thanks again for your time.
[...] Team Dynamics [...]
Hi Bill!
I’m a 28 year old staff pastor and our lead pastor is 54. I’m in my 5th year at the church and he is in his fourth month here. We already have a great relationship both in and out of the office. A few things that have been keys for us:
1. We have an open door policy…we both can ask anything about the other person’s ministry and know that what is said is safe and confidential
2. We interact regularly about things that have nothing to do with church (i.e. our hobbies and families)
3. We do things for each other’s kids (he randomly bought birthday presents for ours this year)
4. We’re very direct but loving in communication
Like Craig said, the age barrier shouldn’t hinder communication if he’s mature. Perhaps you could have him and his family over for dinner sometime soon. I would meet with him and tell him how much you would value a good friendship with him because you care about him, not just because it will make you both more effective.
He’s very fortunate to have a pastor who cares. Ultimately, if he’s too immature/arrogant/whatever to build a quality relationship with, I’d question whether he’s the right person for the job.
Forming a healthy leadership team is critical! The challenge for a senior leader of the church or ministry is to form this team both to meet the realities of present ministry and to meet future demands. My add to Craig’s thoughtful post is to look for leaders who will be able to help lead and navigate into the future. Hiring someone or positing someone in leadership with an eye for only your present needs sets you up for the possibility of future failure (or hard conversations at the least). Don’t settle when forming a leadership team!
Bill,
Print out this entire blogpost and put it on his desk. Tell him how important a relationship is to you.
Hi Craig,I appreciate your thoughts,very helpful
The fun factor is very important and the caring aspect
I am a firm believer if you do these well ,it makes the pressures and challenges of ministry so much easier
I lead a team of point leaders… This is invaluable information… thanks!
Very well said. I also want to reiterate what @Brandon said:
“For the leaders who are driving their teams to produce and not caring for them, stop now. Work hard and care hard — you will be amazed at the team dynamic that is produced.” This is fundamental truth and maybe not-so-common sense! Thank you for saying this Brandon.
If you’re having problems in your team dynamic, perhaps the “wrong” person on the team is not really “wrong” afterall…perhaps it may be HOW they’re being led. As leaders, we must be willing to ask ourselves (constantly) if we are meeting the five criteria Craig mentioned. People work harder for praises than for raises…if you don’t care about the people you lead, you will be a lousy leader and never have the “right” people or a healthy team dynamic.
(just food for thought) :)
Craig I would ask one thing…when you say short term leadership…what does that look like? Project based or one year or what? “Determine limited time periods for a leader to serve.” What does that look like? Thanks for this weeks topic! Such a need in my leadership!
[...] Team Dynamics [...]
I am in the process of developing a marketing team - or as Seth Godin would call it… a tribe. Right now, it’s only 4 of is and the vision behind what we’re trying to do is to promote different causes by rallying college students to get engaged and get involved. We’re like a think-tank group that develops creative ( purple cow) initiatives and campaigns on college campuses. We’re still in the early stages of development, but we all share a common burden to “reach people no one else is reaching by doing things no one else is doing”. I just finished reading the book “Tribes” that I got from the Catalyst Conference and I’ve just started reading “Purple Cow”.
Craig, your insight on teams is exactly what I need right now. I will definitely be bringing up some of your latest posts in our Together-Tuesday meetings.
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