On Leading Up: Do Well With What You Have

The easiest way to lead up is to do a great job with what you’ve been entrusted with.  I’ve known several people who are confused about why their great idea or new project/plan is seemingly being ignored by their leaders. Regardless of how insightful the idea might be, it’s hard to give more influence or receive significant input from those who are not being responsible with what they have been given. I know my ability to lead up or have influence can be significantly reduced if I’m not leading well in my areas of responsibility.

Have you faced seasons where it’s been difficult to do well with what you’ve been given? How did you work through that time? What was the outcome?

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Sense of Humor

Bill Hybels wrote about the 3 “C’s” in Courageous Leadership. He said you should hire someone with character, competency, and chemistry. Many people overlook the “chemistry” part in hiring.

If we don’t enjoy each other, we won’t likely do a good job together. That’s why we ask questions to see if a person has a good sense of humor.

• Tell us one of your most embarrassing moments.
• What is one of your favorite jokes?
• What is one of the funniest things that you’ve seen in the church world?

These questions can be a little tough on the spot. Even if a person is nervous and can’t immediately come up with a funny joke, in an hour interview, he or she will certainly show signs of having a sense of humor or not.

At the end of the interview, if you don’t enjoy the person at all, you might look elsewhere.

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Humility

Humility is a challenging value to ask questions about. (Hasn’t the person who claims humility immediately lost it?)

Since humility is—in many ways—the opposite of pride, we listen for pride in every question and interaction with a candidate. For us, pride is a deal-breaker.

Here are a couple of questions you can ask that should help:

• Tell us about a time your boss corrected you? Did you deserve it? What did you learn?
• Are you the best person for this job? (This one is tough and can tell you a lot about a person.)

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Interviewing for Work Ethic

Many people have tremendous talent, but lack drive. While probing to discern someone’s work ethic is slightly challenging, it is not impossible.

Here is a combination of a few questions we might ask:

• Describe your typical work week.
• Tell me about your most significant work accomplishment.
• Tell me about a time you went above the call of duty to get something done.
• Describe your approach to work.

It is important to ask the right questions and then listen carefully to the strength of the answer.   For example on question three above, was the answer working 10 extra hours in one week, or was the answer many hours over an extended period of time to accomplish a significant objective?  Both will sound okay in an interview unless you know what you are looking for.

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Interviewing For Values

Some ask, “How do you infuse LifeChurch DNA into your new staff members?”  The answer is we don’t.

DNA is fundamental; it is the “operating system” that drives who we are. If a person doesn’t already have your DNA in them, it is unlikely you can put it there, no more than you can change a person’s eye color.

When we interview prospective staff members, we first make sure the person has the capacity to do the job, spiritual maturity, and devotion to Christ’s church.  Once the fundamentals have been established, we use a set of values to guide us through the process.

We ask questions to discern:

• Is this person teachable?
• Does this person have a strong work ethic?
• Is this person resilient?
• Do they exhibit the value of humility?
• Do they have a good sense of humor?
• Is this person flexible?
• Is this person relevant to the culture?

This week, we’ll walk through how we interview toward these values. (I’ll post a couple of times on some days to cover all the material this week.) How do we determine if a person’s values match the values of the organization? Let’s start with teach-ability.

No matter how talented or spiritually mature a person is, if they aren’t teach-able, they will not likely succeed in our environment.

We might ask one or more of these questions:

• What is something you’ve learned recently?
• What is something related to this ministry opportunity that you’re currently working on (or developing)?
• Who is currently mentoring you? (If they name someone, we’ll ask them to elaborate on what they’re learning. If they don’t name someone their answer tells us a lot.)
• When is the last time you failed and what did you learn?

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Merry Christmas!

We wanted to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

We will be taking a break from blogging over the next week and a half to spend time with our families and friends. We may have a couple of posts, but look for us to be back in full swing on Jan 6th.

Also, I want to thank our awesome team of staff/volunteers here at LifeChurch.tv. They rocked a total of 99 worship experiences in the last 5 days so that tens of thousands of people could hear the Good News. The team really is awesome!

Again…we wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Tags: Christmas

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Right Hand Team

Many leaders have a right-hand-man (or woman). To maximize your leadership effectiveness, I would suggest a right-hand-team.

For years, many churches that grew large enough had a senior pastor and his right-hand-man, the executive pastor. In my opinion, this is a dated and limited model of church leadership.

I suggest breaking the traditional “second spot” into two to four roles. I can’t tell you what those roles will be for you, but I’ll offer some broad suggestions.

Serving alongside the leader, you’ll probably want two to four team members that cover these roles:

• An administrative player. You’ll want to ensure someone is capable of building systems, structures, and accountability.
• A relational player. Hopefully you’ll have someone who is very good with people. This person could be an expert in recruiting, team building, pastoring, relational problem solving, or some combination of the above.
• An innovative player. In the best environment, you’ll have someone who is an idea-person. This team member is often young (but not necessarily). You’ll want to make sure this innovative mind isn’t rebellious and is a team player. When you find a person like this, she’ll be a great asset to your team.
• A stabilizing player. Most good teams have a person who can rise above the details and see the big picture. This person may not be the most visible, but is often one of the most important. He is someone who can bring objectivity and stability in the middle of challenges.

Jump into the discussion!

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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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