Leadership

By the spring of 2017, I was worn out. We had just finished the remodeling of our facility, a process that took about six months and “allowed” me to learn much more about finance, construction, and door jams than I ever wanted to know. Mark Scott, one of our former teaching pastors, had returned to the college classroom in 2014. This created a pastoral vacuum that largely went unfilled until we hired Dan Hettinger in 2015. In 2013, we went through a very difficult senior pastor transition that ended in our elders asking for our senior pastor’s resignation. Prior to that, I had battled work-related discouragement for most of the first four years as my competence was under constant attack. This led to an erosion of my confidence for the first time in nearly 30 years of ministry. I was 47 years old and knew and I had to start…

No one wants to follow a whiner. No one wants to hire or date a whiner. Most normal people don’t even want to be around whiners. If you want to be a winner instead of a whiner, it starts with having a winning mindset. Which brings us to our last healthy team commitment: We are committed to living on the solution side of every issue. Rather than blame factors beyond our control (circumstances, culture), we focus on solutions that are within our control. I once worked for a boss who could never accept responsibility for why our organization was underperforming. When numbers lagged, it was the result of competitors moving into our territory – although they had moved in years before and we had been doing quite well during that time. When our revenue decreased and necessitated spending cuts and eventual lay-offs, it had nothing to do with overspending or…

Thankfully, we no longer live in the day and age when workers were thought of as cogs in the wheel. If one cog broke down (literally or figuratively), then another cog was ready to take its place. Over the course of my work career, organizational theory and sound business practices have begun to take into account the well-being of employees. This shift has manifested itself in different business strategies, employee benefits, and work environments. Here is the next commitment healthy teams make: We are committed to the principles of self-care. The idea of self-care is more common, and talked about, than ever before. Overall, I believe this is a good thing. As long as the result isn't increased selfishness or narcissism, we should all be concerned with taking the best care of ourselves as possible. During 2019, I wrote about this idea of self-care. Here is part of what I…

Teams are more than just a collection of individuals doing individual things. But even they are working together, growing teams require growing individuals. In other words, a healthy team is not built with unhealthy individuals. Which brings us to the next commitment that healthy teams make: We are committed to being teachable and to take personal responsibility for our own leadership growth. No healthy leader ever stops learning, adjusting, and growing. Unhealthy leaders reach a base of knowledge and refuse to entertain new ideas or dissenting opinions. Those leaders are dangerous. They might be stuck in the past or blind to new opportunities. But even more dangerous than that, they won't attract (or keep) the people they need to be successful. When a teammate refuses to grow, they are putting the team at risk. If all they have to do is shovel dirt from one hole to another, maybe not.…

It sounds silly, but a healthy team is more than one person acting alone. That is called an individual action, not a team effort. As we are exploring what makes for a healthy team, I believe one of the most important commitments we can make is this: We are committed to helping each other succeed, because our individual effectiveness is directly related to our overall effectiveness. Teams are comprised of individuals with a variety of skills, abilities, and backgrounds. But this alone does not guarantee a high-performing, healthy team. That requires individuals to function like ... are you ready ... a team! Think about professional sports. Imagine an athlete that is only concerned about individual achievements or records. Every move is based on what will allow them to accomplish more. They decide not to do things that are outside their self-interest. If the athlete is a golfer, bowler, or singles…