What happens when a leader stops micro managing his or her team?

Either:

• They fail
• Nothing changes
• They shine

What’s the net effect?

• If they fail, the team starts over and tries again.  Some of the best recoveries come after failures.
• If nothing changes, no harm, no foul.
• If they shine, the team rejoices, they are eager to try again, and the leader reaps the lasting rewards.

Which do you choose?

What are your thoughts?

For more thoughts on Innovation, click HERE.

Do you harness the greatest power in your organization?  The best assets of your church, business or non-profit never appear on your balance sheet.

The truth is that any organization is only as good as the people within it.  Take the greatest idea and put the wrong people behind it and little progress will be realized.   With the right people, even average ideas can achieve tremendous results.

Are you taking the advantages of human capital?

Are you relying on the knowledge, insight and experience of everyone on your team to make the organization better?

Here are a few quick ways to capitalize on the people value of your team:

Brainstorm – Have assigned times periodically where everyone on the team gets to give input into the organization’s future.

Allow mistakes – Create an environment where team members are willing to take risks without fear of repercussion if things go wrong.

Ask questions – Genuinely seek help from those around you.  Recognize the fact that others may know more than you know about a particular subject.

Don’t pre-define – If you want help solving a problem or planning for the future, start with a clean slate.  If the leader always has the answer, team members are less likely to share their input.

Be open to change/new ideas – The leader must genuinely desire the involvement of others.  If team member’s suggestions are never implemented, they eventually will stop sharing them.

How are you currently taking advantage of human capital?

For more ideas on creating an environment of innovation click HERE.

There is one incredibly important characteristic of a successful team or organization. It is inherent and cannot be trained or programmed. With this trait a team can weather the storms of life together. When this is an attribute of an organization, regardless of the struggles it encounters, the vision can be accomplished.

Leaders need to understand the importance of SHARED VALUES…

It could be spiritual belief…it could be a cause…it could be a sense of well-doing…it could be an organizational philosophy or structure or simply the joy of belonging to a certain team, but there is a power of the heart connection among employees that cannot be overlooked as a reason for success in an organization. There is strength in believing in what you do and your role in accomplishing the vision that is more powerful than talent, skills, or sometimes, even product.

Identifying the people who can share the values of your organizational structure is a critical part in hiring and retaining team members. For those wishing to join an organization, an important consideration should be if you share the same values with the people on your team.

Do you recognize the shared values within your organization?

I am not a big fan of job titles.  We have had some staff additions and changes in the last couple of months and one of the most frequent questions has been “What’s their new title?”  Frankly I do not care!  I am fine with people picking their own title and would rather spend my time concentrating on the work we need to get done.

I suppose my dislike of titles has to do with one of my philosophies of work.  I think when an organization has a vision, operates as a team, and strategically sets out to accomplish it, that everyone’s job on the team is to see that the vision is accomplished, regardless of a person’s title.

Titles to me are too specific. They seem to indicate a defined area of focus.  I realize some people need that for clarity and I understand the need for specialization around an area of work or skill sets, but I prefer a job description to a title.  I like for a person to understand the goals and objectives for the position, and even more than that, the overall vision of the organization and for them to realize how they are a key part of the organization’s success. That is hard to capture in a specific job title.  Job titles tend to lead to the phrase and thought, “That’s not my job.”

I realize job titles are cultural, so we will keep using them, but I do not have to like something just because everyone else is doing it.  I almost wish we could start calling everyone “Team Player” and if they need a big title to feel good or to dress up a business card, maybe we could title them “Director of What’s Required”.

Do you like job titles?  Does your title truly capture the entire role you play in your organization?

Taylor, one of my 18 year-old son Nate’s best friends, is going to Wheaton University this fall. I am excited that he will be an hour away from Nate who will be at Moody Bible College.  I wrote a blog post about their friendship a couple months ago. Read that post HERE. I had coffee this morning with Taylor, because he is leaving this weekend for an extended and unusual college orientation.

Wheaton offers an optional wilderness experience as a preparation for incoming freshman to the university. Students explore a Christian worldview and get college credit in exchange for an extreme outdoor adventure with other students, professors, and experts in wilderness adventures.  Someone at the university told Taylor, “If you can survive 12 days alone with someone in this experience then you can last a lifetime together.”

I love the concept.  I am wondering if it would work in other settings:

• Incoming staff people…
• Premarital counseling…
• Potential leaders…

Do you think this would build healthier teams?

Who in your organization/family would you like to send on a 12-day wilderness experience so they will be a better team player?

I write a lot about leadership principles.  The bookshelves are full of leadership books.  There are wonderful principles about leadership that can help a person be a better leader.  I would encourage every leader or aspiring leader to continually learn from great leaders and attempt to develop and grow their leadership skills.

One principle of leadership that must be understood, however, is that every leader must develop his or her individual leadership style.  All leaders need to have a style that is unique to them.

Leaders should not use individuality as an excuse for inadequacy and excellence should be a standard for all leaders. There are key leadership principles, especially Biblical principles that no leader can ignore, but the goal should never be to carbon copy another person’s leadership style.  Just as every individual is unique in his or her personality, every leader will have uniqueness in his or her leadership style.  Great leaders figure out the style that works best for them to produce the greatest results.

Have you been trying to be someone else with your leadership style?

I decided my 18 year-old son’s latest post was important enough to steal it from him. I only wish I had written this first.  Great thoughts.  Nate has led in our student worship area for the last couple years and done an amazing job.  Our church is going to miss him this fall as he begins his college days at Moody Bible College in Chicago.  You can follow Nate’s thoughts at his blog Moons from Burma.

Here is Nate’s post on Creating Systems for Worship Teams:

For any organization to maximize its potential, GREAT systems have to be in place. You can have poor systems and still reach your potential, but your potential will just not be very potent.

One of the most important areas of church world is the worship team. If a church wants to maximize the potential of their worship environment, then it obviously makes sense that a GREAT system would have to be in place. The problem is this: the system builder types are typically not on the worship team. Usually the worship team consists of extremely abstract/creative people and people that simply want to help setup and tear down stuff. Both are vital to the team, but neither is especially gifted at building systems.

The temptation is to just let the worship environment take care of itself, because after all, creative ideas are probably flourishing already. However, creative ideas are not a system. If your goal is to maximize potential, you need a great system; which means you need a system builder. You need someone who can sit down and figure out how to get every part of the worship team on the same page; someone who can build a framework in which the creative ideas can be executed. Every second of the worship time needs to have been thought through with an ultimate purpose in mind.

The reality is that most worship leader positions are filled based on musicianship and vocal ability, not on LEADING ability. There are multiple types of leading that must be done in order to truly LEAD worship, and I would argue that the majority of it takes place behind the scenes on Monday and Tuesday, not on stage Sunday. So, if you are going to really take your church somewhere in terms of worship, you need a system in place. What that ultimately means is that you need a leader in your worship area… in addition to an artist.

Systems can be hard to build for a group of abstract/unstructured people, but ultimately there needs to be a great one to maximize your potential. You need structure to succeed, which also means you need a structured person on the team.

How does your church systematize its worship environment?

Every organization needs change to occur to continue to grow and remain healthy.  Change is hard for some people and is often rejected or rebelled against.  Learning to lead change successfully is important for any leader.

Here are seven principles that can help you think through leading change in your organization:

• Lead change from a pre-established trust in your leadership.  New leaders should be careful not to implement a lot of change early in their leadership unless that change is vital to the organization.  Change will be easier if the leader is trusted.
• Introduce change as early as possible.  People need time to warm up to the change that is coming.
• Prepare people along the way by keeping them informed of progress during a change period. Include the good news and the bad news of change in these updates.
• Get buy-in from as many people as possible.  Sometimes leaders have to lead alone (For those times read this post on the loneliness of leadership), but wherever possible include others in decisions concerning change.
• Follow through on commitments made.  The quickest way to lose trust is to say one thing and do another. Likewise, do not make commitments you cannot keep.
• Be consistent.  You will keep people’s trust through the change if it is easier to figure out where leadership is at and what they will do next.
• Do not make change a rare occurrence in the organization.  Build a culture of healthy change in the organization so that change will be more naturally accepted.

What advice do you have for leading change?  Have you ever been in an organization that lead change poorly?

Strengths Finder 2.0 has proven already to be a great tool for my leadership. We are going to use this instrument with our staff in the coming months.  I have been using Myers-Briggs Type Instrument for years and still plan to, but this is now another tool I plan to use to help build a healthy team.

Once you take the online assessment you are emailed your strengths.  The following are a summary of my strengths according to this indicator are:

Relator
Relator describes your attitude toward your relationships. In simple terms, the Relator theme pulls you toward people you already know. You do not necessarily shy away from meeting new people—in fact, you may have other themes that cause you to enjoy the thrill of turning strangers into friends—but you do derive a great deal of pleasure and strength from being around your close friends. You are comfortable with intimacy.

Command
Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others.

Strategic
The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity.

Achiever
Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations.

Analytical
Your Analytical theme challenges other people: “Prove it. Show me why what you are claiming is true.” In the face of this kind of questioning some will find that their brilliant theories wither and die. For you, this is precisely the point. You do not necessarily want to destroy other people’s ideas, but you do insist that their theories be sound.

Have you taken the Strengths Finder assessment?  Feel free to share your strengths here.

In a previous post I listed 9 Bad Bosses I have experienced in my working career.  In that post I stated that I was looking for Bad Boss number ten.  In the follow up feedback to that post I have been reminded of perhaps the worst boss of all and he or she is a combination of a couple of the ones listed.

Qualifying for perhaps the biggest “bad boss” award, but certainly qualifying for a number 10 slot:

The never say anything one-way or the other and you never know where he or she stands on anything, so you keep doing the best you know how and then one day, seemingly out of nowhere, he or she has an issue with the entire project you have been working on boss.

Have you ever known that boss?

Leaders, here’s my advice.  If you have a problem with the overall direction of a team member’s activities, tell them early in the project.  If you suspect a team member is not a good fit for the team, do not pretend they are until they have unknowingly settled into the position.  Consistent and constructive feedback is critical to a healthy team.

I am not suggesting you become a nagging leader, but I am suggesting that a surprise attack is never fair, seldom effective, and usually disruptive to a pleasant working environment.

Do you have a worse example of a bad boss for me to consider?