By NewChurches.com: In Episode 606 of the NewChurches Q&A Podcast, Daniel and Todd discuss what it looks like to build back better in regards to team development.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

Why you need a structure to team development
How to create an environment that engages feedback

 Shareable Quotes (#NewChurches):

“This is a great opportunity to audit your roles and audit the individuals in those roles.” – @toddadkins
“In retooling, it is a great time to take a step back and look at everything you do from the actual ministry that you do to the strategies, systems, and structures of it, to the volunteers and people themselves.” – @toddadkins
“Having a culture of development where people are learning and growing is important.” – @danielsangi
“The key factor is simple structure and systems that will help distribute the weight.” – @toddadkins
“Something as simple as a one page job description can really help you on your way to retooling.” – @toddadkins
“I recommend that all of your volunteer roles are only one year commitments and that way it forces you to do feedback.” – @danielsangi

Recommended Resources:

Listen to Episode 602: Remote Work
Listen to Episode 604: Staffing
Learn more about Ministry Grid

Help us Multiply the Mission:

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This Episode’s Sponsor:

Downline Ministries’ mission is to encourage a restoration of biblical discipleship in and through the local church by equipping men and women to know God’s Word and make disciples. 

The primary way we partner with churches is through the Downline Institute, a 9 month biblical discipleship training program that walks students through the Bible (Genesis-Revelation), biblical manhood/womanhood, and key discipleship lessons. Listeners can receive $100 off tuition cost by using the code LIFEWAY when you apply at www.downlineministries.com.

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Source: Episode 606: Team Development

The post Episode 606: Team Development appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Shaping Your Worship Culture

The post Shaping Your Worship Culture appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: I admit it, I can be a little sensitive to criticism.

Whenever I’m finished giving a sermon or talk, you know what I really want to hear?

You crushed it.

That was world-class.

Best message ever.

That was spectacular. Show me the secret sauce.

Okay that’s over-the-top, but isn’t that kind of what you want to hear too?

Underneath that, of course, if you drill down a few levels, is a lot of insecurity. And some fear.

I’ve literally spent decades trying to figure out how to become more secure and how to receive honest feedback. It’s a learned behavior not be defensive and to welcome feedback.

So how do you do that? Well, that’s what I want to help you with today.

Because the truth is, leaders who only want praise never get better and they never grow.

Not only do you not hear what you need to hear, people stop telling you what they want to tell you because, well, you’re just not open.

Leaders who only want to hear praise never get better and they never grow.Click To Tweet

Even if you protect your little feelings and solicit nothing or hear only praise, everybody actually has an opinion about your message. Trust me, they’re talking about it/not talking about it in the foyer, on the ride home or at lunch.

So even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.

As a result, every preacher should get an accurate assessment of how the sermon went. And that’s hard too.

By the way—speaking of getting better— The Art of Better Preaching, a 12 part course I developed with Mark Clark, lead pastor of a rapidly growing megachurch in Vancouver BC. The course is open for just a few more days at current pricing if you’re interested in getting the best resource on communication I offer.

Over 1000 leaders have taken the course and we just made it easier than ever, adding a 3 part payment plan to make taking the course even easier (it’s still a fraction of the price of any seminary course you’d take). One of the big questions from participants is “Where was a course like this when I was in seminary?”

Check it out here.

But back to our key question: how do you get an accurate, helpful assessment of your message in a way that doesn’t crush you?

Here are 5 tips that have helped me. (I saved the best for last.)

Click To Tweet

1. Get Over Your Natural Defensiveness

Great sermon evaluation starts with you. More particularly, it starts with how open you truly are to the truth.

So here’s some truth. There’s a part of me that wants everyone to tell me that I knocked it out of the park every single time I talk. That I crushed it. That I’m the best preacher they’ve ever heard preaching the best message they’ve ever heard.

Except, of course, that’s not just not true. It can’t be true.

If I don’t check that part of my spirit, people will tell from a mile away. Because your sermon evaluation process will consist mostly of you fishing for compliments.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies. Nobody wants to burst your bubble or make you feel bad about yourself, so they won’t tell you the truth.

Which is why you need to get over your natural defensiveness and seek honest, real feedback.

Thank the messenger, don’t shoot them. If it hurts, grieve privately. Go for a ride and get it out of your system. But always thank people for whatever they have to tell you.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts. Sometimes especially when it hurts.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts.Click To Tweet

2. Don’t Settle for What. Discover Why.

Now that you’re working on your defensiveness, you’ll discover that you get all kinds of feedback casually.

Think about the foyer. Most people will tell you it was a good message if they liked it. And I usually go out after a service and find some core staff or volunteers and ask them what they thought. We also have a Monday evaluation meeting with staff where I try to get feedback. So I’m actively seeking feedback.

Here’s the problem with that though: most people will only tell you that they liked your message or didn’t like your message. They’ll say it was good or not so good.

And the conversation almost always stops there (even with staff and team members who are not preachers)—which makes it rather unhelpful.

When you get that kind of feedback (even through casual conversation or formal evaluation), go one step further and ask the person this simple question: why? 

Why was it good? Why was it not my best? Tell me more….I’m open.

Do that, and you’ll learn a ton.

Maybe some of your ideas didn’t flow logically. Or your passion level was low. Or your delivery was too fast/too slow. Maybe one or two of your points weren’t clear.

That’s helpful feedback. And if you’re going into another service, it will help you do a mid-course correction.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why. Why is helpful. It’s where the real learning comes.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why.Click To Tweet

3. Watch Yourself. Listen to Yourself.

I’m well aware that most non-narcissists hate the sound of their own voice. I have spent most of my life getting used to my voice and thinking “Do I really sound like that?”

Want to make it even worse? Watch yourself on video. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought I actually do that? Man, I look so awkward.

So I get the natural inclination most of us have to not listen to ourselves or watch our messages back. And that’s a mistake.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to. You should never expect hundreds or thousands of people to watch you if you won’t watch you.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to.Click To Tweet

You’ll learn so much. From verbal ticks (um, ah), to annoying habits (why do I always touch my glasses or put my hands in my pocket?) to moments in the message that just didn’t work, you’ll see yourself more accurately.

But it’s not all negative. You’ll see what worked too. You’ll see what connected and what didn’t.

I have learned so much listening back to my messages and watching myself on video, even though every time I have to make myself play the message back.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.

So endure the pain, and watch and listen.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.Click To Tweet

4. Watch and Listen with a Friend

I haven’t done this as much as I should, but whenever I have done this it’s so helpful.

Watch and listen to yourself with a friend you trust who will give you honest, accurate feedback. Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

You might think you’re moving around awkwardly and they’ll say that actually you’re not. That it’s fine or endearing. Conversely, you may think you’re as smooth as butter and they may tell you that all your slouching or weird arm movements take away from the message.

The combination of your own commitment to self-improvement by watching and listening back and doing the same with a friend from time to time will improve your preaching immensely.

5. Get A Peer Who’s Better Than You To Review It

Saved my favorite and most valuable tip to last.

You know who the best evaluator your preaching will be? Another professional communicator who will tell you the truth.

The challenge with getting a non-communicator to evaluate your communication is that they will be hard-pressed to tell you exactly why something worked or didn’t work and how to get better. They don’t do what you do, so their ability to help is limited.

Imagine knowing nothing about race cars, heading to a track and trying to advise a pro racer on how to shave 2 seconds off his lap. I mean what would you say? Go faster? You just don’t have the expertise to give meaningful advice.

I just submitted the first draft for my fifth book to the publisher, and I had the opportunity to have a multiple New York Times Best Selling author read it as well. Her feedback was hands down some of the best feedback on my writing I ever got. Sure, she was very affirming, but she told me what was missing, told me what worked and didn’t work for her and told me specifically what she’d love to see more of.

Guess what? The second draft is going to address every single one of her points. She should know. She’s sold millions of books.

You may not get a world-class preacher to review your sermon, but you can find someone to do it. And when they do, listen.

A fellow preacher (who’s even a bit better than you) can be your best evaluator. He or she can tell you why something worked or why it didn’t, why your treatment of the text was solid or why you got lost in the first century and didn’t bridge things well for the 21st century. What you should deliver less of and what you could do more of. In the same way, another preacher can help you brainstorm on better application examples, better intros, better endings.

They’re practitioners. They have studied both theology and the craft of preaching.

Don’t have anyone on your staff who can fit that bill? Ask a colleague or preacher across town. Even doing that a couple times a year can immensely improve your speaking.

Your best sermon evaluation will always come from a colleague who understands the craft.Click To Tweet

Get the Art of Better Preaching Before the Price Goes Up

Ever wish someone could come alongside you to walk you through the finer points of the art of better preaching?

That’s exactly what my good friend Mark Clark and I do in our course, The Art of Better Preaching. We’ve even got a full unit on how to leave your notes behind the next time you give a talk.

And for just a week more, it’s available at current pricing.

Every week, Mark and I preach to thousands of churched and unchurched people, Mark at Village Church in Vancouver BC, and me at Connexus Church north of Toronto. We have very different styles, which means this course is not a preach-just-like-me approach to preaching.

You can customize it to help you preach better messages, and it draws from the rich tradition of different approaches that actually connect with unchurched people. Plus, we share our best secrets on how to craft the best messages we know how to create.

In the course, Mark and I cover:

The Why and How of Preaching
How to Preach to the Unchurched
How to Give a Talk Without Using Notes
How to Craft a Killer Bottom Line So People Remember Your Talk Years Later
How to Stay Fresh over the Long Haul

And much more.

We’re so excited to help you become the best communicator you can be.

Sunday’s coming. Boost your ability to connect!

Get the Art of Better Preaching at this low price before it’s too late! 

What’s Helped You Get Better?

How do you solicit criticism that helps you grow as a communicator?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Ways To Get Feedback On Your Preaching Without Crushing Your Feelings appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Ways To Get Feedback On Your Preaching Without Crushing Your Feelings

The post 5 Ways To Get Feedback On Your Preaching Without Crushing Your Feelings appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: One of the worst feelings any preacher has is finishing up a message and having no idea how it really went.

I mean you have your own subjective opinion, but we all know ourselves well enough to realize that sometimes we thought our message was awesome when it really wasn’t, and sometimes we thought it was awful when it was actually great.

Ugh.

Making the problem worse is the fact that everybody actually has an opinion about your message. Trust me, they’re talking about it/not talking about it in the foyer, on the ride home or at lunch.

So even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.

So, then, every preacher should get an accurate assessment of how the sermon went. And that’s hard too.

It’s hard because while everyone has an opinion, they’re just not able to give you the kind of meaningful feedback that helps you get better.

By the way—speaking of getting better—I just launched my brand new course, The Art of Better Preaching, a 12 part course I developed with Mark Clark, lead pastor of a rapidly growing megachurch in Vancouver BC. Each weekend for years, Mark and I have preached to thousands of post-modern, post-Christian people.

Hundreds of leaders have already jumped in on the course and (thanks for the suggestion!) we just made it easier than ever, adding a 3 part payment plan to make taking the course even easier (it’s still a fraction of the price of any seminary course you’d take). And one of the big questions from early participants? Where was a course like this when I was in seminary?

Check it out here.

But back to our key question: how do you get an accurate, helpful assessment of your message? I mean that would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Because that’s how you grow.

Here are 5 pro tips.

Preachers, even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.Click To Tweet

1. Get Over Your Natural Defensiveness

Great sermon evaluation starts with you. More particularly, it starts with how open you truly are to the truth.

So here’s some truth. There’s a part of me that wants everyone to tell me that I knocked it out of the park every single time I talk. That I crushed it. That I’m the best preacher they’ve ever heard preaching the best message they’ve ever heard.

Except of course, that’s not just not true. It can’t be true.

If I don’t check that part of my spirit, people will tell from a mile away. Because your sermon evaluation process will consist mostly of you fishing for compliments.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies. Nobody wants to burst your bubble or make you feel bad about yourself, so they won’t tell you the truth.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies.Click To Tweet

Which is why you need to get over your natural defensiveness and seek honest, real feedback.

Thank the messenger, don’t shoot them. If it hurts, grieve privately. Go for a ride and get it out of your system. But always thank people for whatever they have to tell you.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts. Sometimes especially when it hurts.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts.Click To Tweet

2. Don’t Settle for What. Discover Why.

Now that you’re working on your defensiveness, you’ll discover that you get all kinds of feedback casually.

Think about the foyer. Most people will tell you it was a good message if they liked it. And I usually go out after a service and find some core staff or volunteers and ask them what they thought. We also have a Monday evaluation meeting with staff where I try to get feedback. So I’m actively seeking feedback.

Here’s the problem with that though: most people will only tell you that they liked your message or didn’t like your message. They’ll say it was good or not so good.

And the conversation almost always stops there (even with staff  and team members who are not preachers)—which makes it rather unhelpful.

When you get that kind of feedback (even through casual conversation or formal evaluation), go one step further and ask the person this simple question: why? 

Why was it good? Why was it not my best? Tell me more….I’m open.

Do that, and you’ll learn a ton.

Maybe some of your ideas didn’t flow logically. Or your passion level was low. Or your delivery was too fast/too slow. Maybe one or two of your points weren’t clear.

That’s helpful feedback. And if you’re going into another service, it will help you do a mid-course correction.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why. Why is helpful. It’s where the real learning comes.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why.Click To Tweet

3. Watch Yourself. Listen to Yourself.

I’m well aware that most non-narcissists hate the sound of their own voice. I have spent most of my life getting used to my voice and thinking “Do I really sound like that?”

Want to make it even worse? Watch yourself on video. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought I actually do that? Man, I look so awkward.

So I get the natural inclination most of us have to not listen to ourselves or watch our messages back. And that’s a mistake.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to. You should never expect hundreds or thousands of people to watch you if you won’t watch you.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to.Click To Tweet

You’ll learn so much. From verbal ticks (um, ah), to annoying habits (why do I always touch my glasses or put my hands in my pocket?) to moments in the message that just didn’t work, you’ll see yourself more accurately.

But it’s not all negative. You’ll see what worked too. You’ll see what connected and what didn’t.

I have learned so much listening back to my messages and watching myself on video, even though every time I have to make myself play the message back.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.

So endure the pain, and watch and listen.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.Click To Tweet

4. Watch and Listen with a Friend

I haven’t done this as much as I should, but whenever I have done this it’s so helpful.

Watch and listen to yourself with a friend you trust who will give you honest, accurate feedback. Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

You might think you’re moving around awkwardly and they’ll say that actually you’re not. That it’s fine or endearing. Conversely, you may think you’re as smooth as butter and they may tell you that all your slouching or weird arm movements take away from the message.

The combination of your own commitment to self-improvement by watching and listening back and doing the same with a friend from time to time will improve your preaching immensely.

5. Get A Peer To Review It

Saved my favourite and most valuable tip to last.

You know who the best evaluator your preaching will be? Another preacher who will tell you the truth.

The challenge with getting a non-communicator to evaluate your communication is that they will be hard pressed to tell you exactly why something worked or didn’t work and how to get better. They don’t do what you do, so their ability to help is limited.

Imagine knowing nothing about race cars, heading to a track and trying to advise a pro racer on how to shave 2 seconds off his lap. I mean what would you say? Go faster? You just don’t have the expertise to give meaningful advice.

That’s why a fellow preacher (who’s maybe a bit better than you) can be your best evaluator. He or she can tell you why something worked or why it didn’t, why your treatment of the text was solid or why you got lost in the first century and didn’t bridge things well for the 21st century. In the same way, another preacher can help you brain storm on better application examples, better intros, better endings.

They’re practitioners. They have studied both theology and the craft of preaching.

Don’t have anyone on your staff who can fit that bill? Ask a colleague or preacher across town. Even doing that a couple times a year can immensely improve your preaching.

Your best sermon evaluation will always come from a colleague who understands the craft.Click To Tweet

Some Practical Help…Instant Access

Another way to quickly improve your preaching is through my new course, The Art of Better Preaching.

I teamed up with Mark Clark, lead pastor of Village Church, a growing mega-church in post-Christian Vancouver, and in the course Mark and I share everything we’ve learned over decades of preaching and communicating at conferences and events around the world.

So what do you get in The Art of Better Preaching? You get 12 video training sessions, a comprehensive, interactive workbook that will help you create, write, and deliver better sermons and numerous bonuses (cheat sheets, game film of Mark and I breaking down how we teach and much more).

This is the complete course you need to start preaching better sermons, including:

7 preaching myths it’s time to bust forever
The 5 keys to preaching sermons to unchurched people (that will keep them coming back)
How to discover the power in the text (and use it to drive your sermon)
The specific characteristics of sermons that reach people in today’s world
Why you need to ditch your sermon notes (and how to do it far more easily than you think.)
How to keep your heart and mind fresh over the long run

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity.

We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Don’t miss out! Check it out today and gain instant access. Special introductory pricing is time-limited, so don’t delay.

And we just introduced a payment plan to make jumping in the course even easier. Hurry while the pricing is the lowest it will ever be. The price increases tomorrow (Thursday, June 28th) at midnight.

What Helps You?

What helps you improve as a preacher? Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback

The post 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: One of the most challenging tasks of leadership involves sorting through seemingly endless opinions you hear almost every day about pretty much everything. Some of the opinions are crazy. Even the ones that aren’t are conflicting.

Think about it:

Your inbox is filled with polite and not-very-polite suggestions about what you should be doing that you’re not doing, and all the things you need to stop doing.

The five people on your board or leadership team all have different ideas about where to head next.

A few people have ideas about your sermon could have been better.

Everyone in your church or organization has views on pretty much anything. Just ask them.

Most days it’s enough to make your head swim.

On the one hand, you don’t want to be closed to what other people think. On the other hand, you’ve thought about never asking again because the sea of conflicting voices just seem so overwhelming.

What do you with all that?

How do you figure out which voices to listen to?

How do you know which comments contain the gold and which are distractions?

What do you do when no one agrees with each other?

While your job is to lead people into the future, there is no shortage of opinions on how to do that. And that’s where all the frustration seeps in.

There are great ways to use feedback, and not so great ways to use.

Knowing the difference can help you immensely.

Your job is to lead people into the future. There is no shortage of opinions on how to do that.Click To Tweet

The Problem With 4000 Opinions

I was reminded recently of  how challenging opinions can be as we selected the final cover design for my next book (which I’m so excited about! It releases September 4th, 2018!)

Choosing a cover isn’t an easy process.

The dialogue on cover design started like many things in leadership do: with a conversation between my editor, me, my agent and few people I invited into the dialogue

My editor, agent, team and I could have just picked our favorite, but I thought I’d test what we thought were the three final designs with a select group of my readers and listeners.

I got over 4000 responses.

The good news about having 4000 opinions is you have the insights of 4000 people.

The bad news, of course, is that you have 4000 opinions.

When you ask for opinions, you hear from people.

And along the way, guess what I heard?

Tons of conflicting opinions. And negative comments galore. All of that despite getting a 73% positive rating on the final cover direction.

At times I had to work hard not to get upset, or discouraged or frustrated. Just like you have to work hard in leadership not to just throw in the towel and declare you’re giving up.

Here are back to back opinions on the SAME design (made on the same day in exactly the same minute, may I add).

What do you do with that?

Someone takes an artist’s hard work and a team’s best efforts and simply says “ugh”. And in the very next breath someone else says “best one yet.”

No wonder leadership is hard.

Opposite opinions were everywhere in the surveys.

Check out the back to back comments below:

Plain. Stereotypical. Awesome. All about the same design.

So whether you have 40 different opinions or 4000, how do you decide?

We’ll get to that in a minute, but in the meantime…here’s the winner (which I love, and which readers made better with every revision).

And the Winner Is…

Getting user feedback may have been a bit challenging, but it was so rewarding for reasons I’ll explain.

In the meantime, many of you have asked what the book is about, so here’s a quick summary.

A lot of it springs out of my journey in life and leadership. Didn’t See It Coming is really about the personal ups and downs we all experience as people and leaders, and the stuff that just blindsides us.

Think about it. No one dreams of becoming cynical, disconnected, or burned out. Yet it happens daily as our lives collapse under the weight of pride, compromise or even moral failure. Unprepared and unaware, we lose hope, give in, and give up.

What’s shocking is how these catastrophic collapses often come as a surprise, even to good leaders. The question is – were there warning signs or clues along the way that could have prevented such heartache, loss, and pain?

The answer is a resounding YES. You don’t have to be blindsided again.

That’s what the book’s about. You can see most of it coming, and I share how to avoid the pitfalls that sink too many of us.

So what did I learn from 4000 opinions, and from 23 years of listening to a bazillion opinions in leadership about where to go next, how to do it and what we were doing right/wrong?

Here are five keys that can really help.

1. Take The Opinions Seriously, But Not Personally

How many times have you left a meeting upset over what someone said, or checked your inbox only to want to chuck your laptop out the window, or lay awake at night replaying a hurtful comment over again and again in your mind?

Yep. Too often.

And there were times where pouring over the comments on cover design I felt a bit upset too.

It’s hard not to feel a little hurt when you someone’s comment is simple ‘ugh’, and it’s also hard not to shoot back with sarcasm and say “Well, what does the cover of your book look like?”

But don’t miss this: just because you feel negative emotions doesn’t mean you have to act on them.

Wise leaders never act on their negative emotions.

Leaders, just because you feel negative emotions doesn’t mean you have to act on them.Click To Tweet

So how do you do that? How do you not let the negative comments bother you for more than a few minutes?

Over the years, I’ve had to learn to take people opinions seriously, but not personally.

Taking them personally is what keeps you up at night.

The best way to NOT take opinions personally is to pray about it, get some perspective, go for a walk, talk through the ones that bother you with a friend, smile, learn and move on.

Don’t dismiss them, learn from them.

If you take things personally, you’ll always dismiss the offending comment. Which means you’ll never learn from it.

When you take things seriously, but not personally, your leadership will improve significantly.

When you take things seriously, but not personally, your leadership will improve significantly.Click To Tweet

2. Listen…Even If You Hate What They Have to Say

Look, you’re going to hate what some people have to say. You’re human. They’re human. You’re just not always going to agree. And sometimes they won’t say it in a nice way.

You may be tempted to dismiss or ignore what someone has to say when you don’t agree with them.

Wisdom would suggest that you should listen.

There’s almost always a kernel of truth in what someone is saying. And even if they’re wrong, you can still learn.

I remember congregational meetings in my early days of ministry where people were angry at the changes we were making.

It was hard to hear them disagree, and hard not to try to shut them down or rebut what they were saying.

But I can’t tell you how many times people would come up to me after someone ‘ranted’ at a meeting and told me that the angry person lost credibility and I gained credibility by not shutting them down.

And even when the criticism doesn’t come at your publicly, listening can provide valuable insight into how other people are thinking, the insight you need to do a better job moving everyone into the future.

We took all the feedback—positive and negative—and threw it into better designs.

As a leader, the truth is your friend. Even if you don’t like the truth.

As a leader, the truth is your friend. Even if you don’t like the truth.Click To Tweet

3. Consider the Source

So what about the ranting, toxic person who loves to clog up your inbox?

That’s where the job of discernment gets easier.

In the anonymous survey I did for my cover, I had no idea who held what opinion. So it was impossible to consider the source. That’s what can easily happen in a large organization or when processing information online.

But in much of your decision making, the input isn’t anonymous. You know exactly who said what, which helps.

If the person in question has a history of being toxic, well, that tells you something. And you likely don’t need to spend a lot of time changing the future because of what he or she has to say. In fact, you should try to limit their influence everywhere (here are 6 signs you’re dealing with a toxic person).

That said, only a small percentage of people are toxic. Most aren’t.

So how do you know you should weigh their opinion?

Here’s a question that has helped me a lot: ask yourself: Is this the kind of person I can build the future of the church (or my organization) on?

For some reason, that has served as an extremely filter for figuring out how to weigh differing voices.

To drill down further, I ask myself three questions:

Are they aligned with our mission?
What are their friends like?
What’s their trajectory?

I wrote a full post about using those three questions to filter leadership here.

If you listen most closely to the voices that will help you build the future, you’ll have a better future.

If you listen to the voices that will help you build the future, you’ll have a better future.Click To Tweet

4. Look for the Trends

It’s really easy to get lost in specific details when you’re assessing feedback.

That can be as simple as saying “Well, she said X at the meeting, but he said Y.” Or you can get lost in the comments or in an inbox and before you know it, your mind feels like mud.

But there are always trends.

In the end, that’s what our team looked for.

Which cover had the most positive ratings?

Which had the most negative?

What did the comments tell us about design revision for the next round?

We kept refining and making it better, and as we did, the winning cover design eeked out more and more positive ratings.

At the end, it had only a 9% negative rating, a 73% positive rating, and an 18% neutral rating.

Good enough for this side of heaven.

If you don’t look for trends, you’ll let the 9% of negative voices drown out the other 91%.

You’ll keep revising and revising hoping to hit 100%, which you won’t.

Too many churches and organizations let a tiny percentage of negative voices snuff out a positive future.

Too many churches let a tiny percentage of negative voices snuff out a positive future. Click To Tweet

5. Make the Call, and Look for Consensus Later

The best buy-in happens after a decision is made.

There’s rarely a consensus around courage. Courage requires too much brawn to be popular.

Courage almost never finds consensus before a decision is made. Consensus around courage always happens after, when people see the results.

The best buy-in happens after a decision is made.Click To Tweet

Whether it’s a phone with no physical keyboard, a ride-sharing service (What? You think people would share their own cars???) or video locations (people will never go to a church and watch a screen), consensus usually only forms after courageous steps are taken.

Too many leaders look for consensus on the front side of courage, which they will never get. And if you do get consensus, chances are you’ve already watered down your decision enough that it’s no longer courageous.

The Israelites always want to go back to slavery after they’ve been released. The desert is too hard, and the Promised Land is too far off.

You’ll never find consensus on the front side of courage. So just be courageous.

You will never find consensus on the front side of courage.Click To Tweet

What Are You Learning

What are you learning about sifting through the many opinions you hear as a leader?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

The post 5 Keys To Sorting Through The Crazy and Conflicting Opinions You Hear As A Leader appeared first on CareyNieuwhof.com.

Source: 5 Keys To Sorting Through The Crazy and Conflicting Opinions You Hear As A Leader

The post 5 Keys To Sorting Through The Crazy and Conflicting Opinions You Hear As A Leader appeared first on Passion for Planting.