Building a high-impact church staff team is worthy of your best skill and effort and leadership.
There are a lot of foods that are good by themselves, but when you combine them with just the right culinary item, the flavor goes to a whole new level.
- Peanut butter and jelly
- Cookies and milk
- Chips and salsa
- Apple pie and ice cream
- Macaroni and cheese
- Burgers and fries
- Eggs and bacon
- Chocolate and ANYTHING
When you combine those two great things together, the result is exponential. There is synergy.
Synergy is also what happens when teams are able to be both healthy and high-performing. Health by itself is good and helpful. High-performance by itself is fruitful and productive. But bringing health and high-performance together creates exponential possibilities.
The best teams are both healthy and high-performing. They get along well and they get stuff done. There is a life-giving culture and a result-producing outcome. There is minimal dysfunction and maximum production. They focus on relationship AND results.
You can’t have a truly great team without both health and high-performance. Therefore, we need a bifocal perspective.
You can’t have a truly great team without both health and high-performance. One without the other will lead to a distorted view of team and ultimately less impact. Click To TweetWe need to be focused on the health of the team, and we also need to be focused on the performance and productivity of the team. One without the other will lead to a distorted view of team and ultimately less impact.
It is likely that one part of the bifocal lens is more comfortable and easier for us than the other. For some of us, our dominant skill is building health. Our nature is to be loving and nurturing toward our teammates. We find it easy to care for our team, but we may find it hard to manage toward results.
People who are wired this way don’t have any trouble having a “caring conversation,” but they avoid like the plague having “courageous conversations.”
For those of us wired on the health side of the equation, the key word is relationship.
For others of us, organizational leadership comes easy. We are usually driven and achievement oriented. We love reading business books about leadership, and we naturally drive toward results, but we may find it more challenging to provide personal care and development for those on our team.
Becoming a high-impact team is worthy of your best skill and effort and leadership. Click To TweetFor those of us wired on the high-performance side of the equation, the key word is results.
If you have ever been part of a great team, you know it is something special. When there is good chemistry, and everyone is operating from their sweet spot, and the objectives are clear, and kingdom progress is being made, it is incredibly fulfilling and fun.
On the flip side, we are also acutely aware of what happens when there is dysfunction in the team:
- There is stress, tension and frustration.
- There is high turnover.
- Rather than focusing on kingdom priorities, there is sideways energy spent on trying to manage the dynamics and dysfunction of the team.
- We end up squandering opportunity, time, resources, and talent.
- Bottom line: It’s not much fun for anybody on the team, and it distracts us from our mission.
Dysfunctional teams remind me of something I witnessed in a Major League Baseball game. It was a Sunday afternoon and the Washington Nationals were playing the Phillies near the end of the season. The Nationals were no longer in contention for a playoff spot. It was the 8th inning, and Bryce Harper hit a routine fly ball that was an easy catch for the outfielder. He didn’t hustle and run out the play until he knew the ball was caught.
He slowly started to jog toward first base, and then just turned to go into the dugout. His teammate Jonathan Papelbon got angry and spouted off at Harper, apparently for not hustling. They got into an argument and went to blows right there in their own dugout. It was not exactly a great team moment.
That incident was a poignant reminder to me that just because you’re wearing the same uniform doesn’t mean you are functioning as a team. Your staff or key volunteers might all be wearing the same uniform of “ministry,” but that doesn’t mean they are an effective team.
I love the words of Paul in Ephesians 4:16 (NLT):
“He [God] makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
When you think about it, this verse is a beautiful portrait of a great team.
“Each part does its own special work…”
There is clarity around what people are supposed to do. Everybody knows their job, and they actually execute. Each part “DOES” its special work. They are getting stuff done and making progress. And, as each part does its own special work, they are contributing to the success of the Whole.
“It helps the other parts grow…”
There is synergy and partnership. There is not a silo mentality. On a great team, people are not solely focused on themselves and their job or department. All great teams possess a collaborative and unselfish spirit.
On a great team, people are not solely focused on themselves and their job or department. All great teams possess a collaborative and unselfish spirit. Click To TweetThen Paul wraps up the verse by identifying the end result.
“So that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
The result is health and growth and love. It’s not just health. And it’s not just growth. The end result is health and growth in an environment marked by love.
Spend a few moments thinking about the kinds of teams you have been a part of. Think of the best team you’ve ever been on. What qualities made it a great team? What were some of the intangibles? And then think of the worst team you’ve ever been on or led. What made it unhealthy? Unproductive?
But I don’t want you to linger too long over the past. Make note of the lessons and then turn your eyes toward the future. Pull up from the day-to-day grind of “what is” and have a vision for “what could be.”
- Are you more wired to focus on health or high-performance?
- How does your natural wiring help your team?
- How can your natural wiring be a challenge in “doing” team?
- What is one thing that you have seen or experienced that can create dysfunction in a team?
Use your sanctified imagination and complete the following statement:
“I would love to be part of a team that…”
I would challenge you to write down some of your thoughts. Create a few bullet points that would flesh out the kind of team you would dream of.
Becoming a high-impact team is worthy of your best skill and effort and leadership.
This is an excerpt from High Impact Teams by Lance Witt
More on Building High Impact Church Staff Teams
We’ve gathered some of our best, most comprehensive content to help you build high-performing, healthy teams, equipped to close the gap between vision and execution.
PODCAST
Sometimes churches get stuck because of the staff team. Either the team is high-performing, but there’s interpersonal and leadership dysfunction. Or the team is but there’s a significant execution gap. But, it really matters for you to be strong in both.
You get to choose your culture. And, if you don’t have the culture you want today, you can absolutely shape the culture your team will have in the future.
Bad meetings are one of the biggest time-wasters on any team—but church staff teams seem particularly prone to meet and meet and meet to the end of reduced productivity for everyone. In this episode, we’re talking about three questions will radically improve your meetings.
OTHER RESOURCES
No matter how big an organization, we all do ministry with a team, whether paid or volunteer. Anyone who has been part of a great team knows it’s something special.
When there is good chemistry, everyone is operating from their sweet spot, the objectives are clear, and kingdom progress is being made, it is incredibly fulfilling and fun
On the flip side, we’re painfully aware what happens when there is dysfunction in the team–stress, tension, politics, and posturing. It’s not much fun for anyone, and we end up squandering our divine assignment.
Lance knows what it takes to keep teams functioning at the highest level of impact. He shows leaders how to build next-level teams that are spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy and productive and high-performing.
Don’t let culture and performance issues get your church stuck in 2020. Some really great leaders are joining me for a practical conversation on how your church staff can build a culture of action and get more done.
We’ve found many church staff teams operate in one of two extremes: They get along with each other but struggle to execute plans… or they are impressively productive but unhealthy and dysfunctional.
But great teams focus on relationships and results.
ARTICLES
The greatest multiplication and impact of your ministry will be through the people you develop. “More time spent with fewer people equals greater impact.” That certainly was the strategy of Jesus.
I think it is time that we see management and leadership as complementary–not contradictory. No one is gifted enough to do it all alone. That’s the beauty of the body of Christ. And we need both gifted leaders and effective managers.
Church leader, what are the questions you should be asking yourself about leadership and ministry? I’ve listed eleven.
Whether you are operating a church, non-profit or business, these 6 questions about creating a healthy structure will certainly apply.
Life and ministry feel anything but simple these days. We must be proactive and preemptive in guarding our lives from complexity.
Meet a new member of The Unstuck Group—Lance Witt. Lance joins us as our Unstuck Teams Director and is excited about launching a new strategy to help your team exceed expectations.
