Insights

I recently helped build a website for the guys over at West Metro Community Church in Yukon, OK. Great guys and a great build process. Thanks to Pastor Hank for calling. Three weeks ago I started getting all this mail for some people at their church, or so I thought. As I began reading the emails I realized that they were meant for employees at West Metro Fire in Lakewood, CO. The difference here is only four letters, FIRE, but for West Metro Fire it could be the diference between making a sale and not or providing great customer service and dropping the ball.

Here is the lesson: too many times the difference between the results we want and the results that we end up with are only a few words. The issue is those few words either escape our mind or don’t seem that important. It is better to over-communicate your expectations than to leave them open to interpretation.

Don’t just tell people WHAT you want done, tell them WHEN you want it done by.

Dont just tell someone they did a good job, tell them what actions that they took went above and beyond. In the future they will begin focusing on perfecting each step in the process rather than just getting the job done.

You can make a little bit go a long way, but a little bit more may increase that distance exponentially.

What are a few ways you may be miscommunicating or under-communicating to those around you? What few words can you add to your communications to help people under your expectations?

I spoke in my last post about some problems that I was having with my radiator. I would have never discover what the real problems were with my system if Darren Herdman had not brought his pressure tester to my house. Having the right tool for the job will not only save you time but it will help you do the job right the first time. Here is a list of the things that I did before discovering the real problem:

1. Put the slipped belt back on
2. Put the slipped belt back on
3. Put the slipped belt back on
4. Changed the alternator
5. Put the slipped belt back on
6. Changed the upper radiator hose
7. Put the slipped belt back on
8. Changed the overflow hose
9. Put the slipped belt back on
10. Changed the belt tensioner
11. Put the slipped belt back
12. Put the slipped belt back
13. Threw my hands up in frustration

Tonight I need to say a big thanks to my friend Darren Herdman. Sydnie’s van has been throwing the belt since this past winter and leaking anti-freeze. Darren was able to come over to the house and sort out our car troubles in a matter of minutes. It turned out that my radiator cap was bad and wasted capable of holding the 16lbs of pressure required. Because the pressure wasn’t correct I was unable to discover the crack in my radiator that was causing my anti-freeze to leak.

When I took over the role of administrator of our Early Learning Centers here in Harrah and Choctaw I went from managing a a little over a hundred volunteers a week to overseeing a staff of 70 plus employees and hundreds of volunteers. I have been working on fine tuning the amount of pressure that needs to exist within our organization in order for it to operate in a healthy manner that ensures the best possible product. If you don’t apply enough pressure then you are too soft on people and they will take advantage of you. Apply too much pressure and you become Gordon Ramsey. Because I work for a church I can’t run around dropping the F-Bomb, yelling at people and telling them they are too weak of a person to do us any good. Ok…I mean I shouldn’t do those things. You have to find a balance.

Do you feel that you are being too soft or too hard?

Remember, when you are too soft on those who report to you you will increase the amount of pressure on yourself. Dial it in and figure how much pressure you need to maintain in your environment and make sure that you are achieving it. Don’t worry about increasing the pressure. This problem is like boiling a frog. Do it slowly and he will never notice. Do it all at once and he will jump out of the pot.

Share the Win. Share the Work. Accept the Gift. When people want to be generous towards you don’t turn them down. They enjoy giving. Did you know that giving is a spiritual gift? You wouldn’t keep someone from suing their gift anywhere within your church so don’t keep a giver from exercising their gift. There could be numerous warnings here about people only giving to gain authority over you or people that do it as a means to let you know that they are good givers, but don’t miss the opportunity to let someone bestow a blessing on you or your ministry. God has used a lot of people to bless me in my ministry and the relationships and gifts have helped me become the leader that I am and God has used these people to shape me for the ministry that I now have. If I had turned down the gifts I would never had attended seminary, or read so many great books, gone on the ministry trips I have been, had lunch with such wise people or had the money to pay a bill that I had no idea where I was going to get the money for. Giving your blessing to the blessing and you will become a blessing to the blesser.

Something that I see time and time again, especially in younger workers, is the inability to delegate tasks to others. If you are new to ministry and looking to to impress me it wont be by making yourself look like a superman. I am looking for people who can delegate tasks, ensure that they get done with quality and speed and know how to make volunteers feel appreciated. Harrah Church does a LOT on a LITTLE. We are a church of over 700 with only TWO full-time staff members. This is a volunteer led church and we wouldn’t want to change that ever. What happens at Harrah Church is incredible. Sharing the work helps more people share the win. Sharing the win helps give purpose to people within your organization. Hogging the work means that you get fewer good things done and none of it will be getting done in a sustainable manner. If you leave and the ministry you lead dies then you were a terrible leader. Remember, if you think you are leading and turn around and nobody is following then you were just taking a walk. Not sharing the work is like walking.

Focus on building teams and not your resume and you will never need a resume. Let the quality of your work and the relationships that you build speak for you. I really have no idea what Pastor Kevin did day-to-day in his former role at Westmoore Community Church, but I can tell you by the quality of the relationships that he built while there and his ability to share the work that he is an incredible leader without having to inspect his resume. In church leadership you will find that we are looking at HOW you did something and not WHAT you did. This deals directly with your ability to create processes that create wins and not about your ability to work your butt off.

What can you do this week to begin sharing your work and building a team around you? Remember to think outside your “go-to” people too. You will limit your potential by finding and developing new talent. I never miss a Membership here at Harrah Church because I want to be the first to discover new talent and enjoy helping other find their fit.

I love seeing people win. This morning I had the chance to walk around the church and observe so many of our volunteers at Harrah Church. We had a new volunteer running our environmental screens today. He was up and ready to go after about 5 minutes of training and totally ripped it. He was in the zone. One of our Worship leaders, Amanda Coffee seemed to be singing from a different place in her heart yesterday. She is an amazing singer but I heard things in her voice yesterday that just seemed so authentic as she sang the words. Powerful stuff. Our Men’s Ministry luncheon went incredible. The food tasted great and they had so many people show up that they had to cook more.

It is tempting sometimes to focus on ourselves and our chase afte glory, but if you are going to lead a dynamic ministry you have got to learn to share the wins of those around you with people. God is doing stuff in and through your volunteers and you have got to discover those stories, share them and celebrate what is happening. If you are just telling your story them you are missing the bigger picture, which is what God is doing through the CHURCH. Your grandma was right when she called you something special, but when you join in the collaborative effort of the CHURCH we create something that is hard to put into words. Share the win.

You also must learn to allow others to get the win. Think of our race as a relay. If you are lusting after being the person who crosses the finish line every time you may be stealing from your teammates. Allow others to cross the finish line and reap some of that win. Sure everybody contributes to the success, but some roles attract more attention. Are you hogging all the attention roles? Share the win.

Find a way to help someone in your organization share the win and watch how the joy of helping others win becomes the win for you.