By Shawn Lovejoy: Of all of the tensions you will face as a leader, the tension you will have the most self-doubt and inner turmoil over is the tension around the people you lead.

I am talking about Team Tensions!

Ever felt those?

Thought so. So have I!

While I can’t give you the entire system for building a killer team without killing yourself or your team, I can give you one simple step towards what I call “fostering togetherness” on your team.

In fact, a couple of years ago when the NBA relaunched in the bubble to complete their season during the pandemic, Phil Jackson made the statement, “The team that emerges from the COVID-19 NBA bubble as winners will be the team that has the strongest sense of ‘togetherness.’”

Togetherness is the competitive advantage of effective teams in today’s culture; the ability to foster it is the superpower of today’s most effective leaders.

Here’s your simple step:

Schedule Strategic One-on-One Meetings with everyone who directly reports to you. 

Are you already having these meetings? Great! This article will help you get better at them by giving you a simple system.

Are you not having these meetings? You should be! Don’t beat yourself up, just make the adjustment and add them to your calendar.

(Do you have too many people reporting to you? We would love to coach you through that, but you can start the process toward narrowing that focus in our free teams course.)

Let me give you a simple focus and formula to get you started having deeply impactful one-on-one meetings with your team.

First, when meeting with the individuals on your team, be sure to…

Build People Rather Than Institutions. 

Maximize the potential of people and team around you. Not programs, productions, problems, processes…people.

This meeting is the time to get to know them personally. Ask about their family, their hobbies, their dreams. Share about your family, what you did over the weekend, the things you dream of.

Humanize this meeting and your team will begin to approach you with more trust and honesty.

Next, during your meeting…

Create a Simple, Predictable Agenda.

What is happening to predictability on intensely competitive, rapidly changing teams (especially in a virtual environment)? It is being destroyed.

The practices that leaders are adopting to make their teams more competitive often ignore the human need for predictability.

Many leaders I coach are frustrated by this, but the truth is, unpredictable meetings lead to erratic results and eroded trust.

Every one-on-one meeting should include space for asking good questions, listening, getting updates on projects, coaching and accountability.

Here is a short list of 4 good questions to ask in every one-on-one meeting with your team:

1. What’s working?

If your team is filled with high capacity leaders, they naturally focus on what needs to be fixed. Force them to start by identifying where they’re winning. Celebrate with them and celebrate them.

Hearing what’s working also gives you perspective. You learn what your team thinks is most important, which helps you coach or be in the mind of your team. You also learn of what could be potential competitive advantages for your organization.

2. What are you challenged with?

Word this question right. Don’t ask what isn’t working. Ask what is challenging them personally. This opens you up to more honesty and for them to share more from their personal lives. When trust is high you should hear about work challenges and private challenges organically in the same conversation.

3. What do you need from me?

Availing yourself to serve your team is more than just symbolic leadership. Leaning into one issue someone on your team is having for just a few minutes can possibly fix a problem they have spent hours on, not to mention the value you add to them simply by be present in their problem.

4. How can I pray for you?

I am a spiritual person. That means I am a spiritual leader. You may not be. If not, this question may not be for you. For me, I want to pray with my team. In some instances, we pray on the spot. In the right setting, this is a valuable tool to help those on your team be valued at the highest level as human beings.

One of our coaches would love to walk you and your team through our process of building healthy one-on-one meetings, but first, let’s start by discovering how coaching could best serve you and your team on a Strategy Call. Schedule a call today!

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— We JUST Launched THE COURAGETOLEAD PODCAST with Shawn Lovejoy SEASON 2 —

SEASON 2 of the podcast is filled with practical coaching from myself as well as interviews with seasoned leaders like Bill High from SIGNATRY: a Global Christian Foundation, Derwin Gray from Transformation Church, and Elizabeth Dixon from Chick-fil-A!

Episode 1, titled “The #1 Thing That Keeps Me Awake at Night” just dropped on May 18th.

Subscribe today!

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Source: How To Lead Better One-on-One Meetings

The post How To Lead Better One-on-One Meetings appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By Shawn Lovejoy: On every team I have ever led, we have sought to maintain the “The Last Ten Percent Rule.”

The Last Ten Percent Rule states that most people say ninety percent of what they are thinking, but they hold back that last ten percent out of fear of rocking the boat, causing conflict, getting fired, or whatever.

Growth doesn’t come from some elusive “silver bullet.”

Healthy growth emerges from the teams who best practice honesty.

That said, honesty is not something that just happens on any team.

Honesty has to be cultivated in your culture.

I wrote this article highlighting our framework for facilitating honesty on your team and giving you one of your best opportunities for growth.

7 Ways To Create A Last 10% Culture on Your Team:

Mine for Total Honesty.

Truly listening to to those closest to us gives us our best opportunity to grow. As a leader we should always push our team for that last ten percent. That’s where the gold is!

That last ten percent gets us into what people are really thinking, how they really feel, and gives us our best opportunity to gain rapport with those closest to us.

However, people are people. Defensiveness and insecurity run rampant among leadership teams. Don’t get me wrong, most teams have a deep desire to grow and get better, but for some reason, they have a hard time listening to the feedback, critiques, and heartfelt honesty.

Your job is to facilitate honesty among your team, keep it at the forefront and normalize what it means to share the last 10%.

While honesty is not natural for many on your team, your job as the leader is to make honesty normal for everyone on your team.

Promise Safety.

Most people on your team likely care about the people they work with and want things to get better. They also like their job!

If you, as the leader, are over emotional or reactionary when people are honest with you, you may not get honesty out of them.

Communicate a culture of honesty and then model they way by receiving it with maturity. When the leader is mature, the team feels secure. You want a culture of honesty, not a culture of walking on eggshells.

Be Quick to Listen and Slow to Speak.

When someone offers any type of honest feedback, our temptation the entire time they are speaking is how to explain ourselves or defend our behavior. Don’t give in to that temptation!

Listen carefully. Process what they are saying. Be teachable. Be coachable.

Model teachability for your team. When the leader is teachable, the team will be more teachable.

Don’t Argue Intent.

I had a marriage counselor tell me a long time ago, “It doesn’t matter what I meant. It matters what was received.”

Don’t try to explain what you meant or what your intention was. Just apologize for any wrong signals you might have sent.

Arguing or being defensive about intentions is crippling to a culture of honesty.

Take Responsibility.

It really doesn’t really matter if you’ve been at fault or not.

Consider this: If we are only 5% responsible for a conflict, we are 100% responsible for our 5%!

Just say “I’m sorry” and take responsibility.

Distinguish Between a Critique and a Criticism.

Criticism comes from the critics and naysayers.

Critique however, comes from someone who loves us and just wants to help us improve and improve the quality of our relationships. Why would you not listen to that person?

You don’t have to listen to everyone, but you had better listen to those closest to you. If you don’t it will negatively affect your influence, your relationships among the team and the level of honesty in your culture.

Thank People for Their Candor.

Simply respond with, “Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I don’t know my blind spots unless someone helps me see them. This will help me get better.”

Your response gives permission and language for your team to receive honesty in a similar fashion.

Need another example? Try this response: “I really appreciate you sharing this with me. As a matter of fact, if you ever have something come up like this again, don’t be afraid to come and talk to me about it. I appreciate it more than you know!”

Wish honesty was part of your culture?

Long for a team that talks TO one another rather than ABOUT one another?

Eager for a system to help you facilitate a “Last 10% Culture?”

We can help…and, frankly, it’s all too much to do alone. That’s why at CourageToLead we believe, “Every Leader Needs a Coach”…because no leader can do it all alone!

Let’s set up a call with one of our coaches to talk through leading your team and organization to discover a “Last 10% Culture.”

It’s simple, click the button below, schedule a time that works for you, fill out a brief application and show up to your call…we’ll handle the rest!

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Source: How To Create a Culture of Honesty on Your Team

The post How To Create a Culture of Honesty on Your Team appeared first on Passion for Planting.

By: Brandon A. Cox

Source: Time Management Matters in a Pandemic More Than Ever

The post Time Management Matters in a Pandemic More Than Ever appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Shawn Lovejoy: Meetings are used for many things. One missed opportunity I see in many meetings is failing to communicate, clarify or rally around vision. In my book Be Mean About The Vision: Preserving and Protecting What Matters, I reveal the most crucial vision questions; and I’m giving them to you here. Use these in your next meeting (or as the entire meeting) to re-infuse your team with a sense of purpose and direction!

Why are we here?

Vision is not WHAT we do, it’s WHY we do it. Use meeting time to remind your team of the WHY. Why do we exist? Why were we created? What is our mission? Use stories of success and wins to illustrate the reason everyone is putting so much effort into your organization’s endeavors.

Where are we going now?

Leadership begins by defining reality. Take time in meetings to own where you are and what will happen if you maintain the same course of direction. Answer questions like: If the current direction remained constant, where would we end up? Where is the organization currently headed? When everything is headed in the right direction, use this time to encourage and refuel the efforts of your team. In the moments when a course correction needs to be made, this is the chance to adjust and set a new path of execution.

Where do we want to go?

After you determine where you are and where you’re headed, there is space to adjust your aim. Asking questions like: “What is the desired destination? What is the win? What is our goal? How will we know if we have been successful?” all help define where you’re wanting to go next. As the leader, this provides you the opportunity to cast fresh vision or add life to what may have grown stale.

How do we take everyone there? 

Now that we know where we are and where we need to go, how will we get everyone aligned around it? During this time, logistics and planning matter. How and when will we communicate it? How will we make the leaders stakeholders of it? How will we get everyone else onboard? What meetings need to begin to happen, when, and with whom?

 Don’t overcomplicate this. Don’t procrastinate. Begin asking these questions in your meetings today with your team and watch the temperature begin to change rapidly! Don’t wander around in the wilderness. Where there is no vision, people cast off restraint and go their own way. Where there is vision, there is life, health, and growth! And meetings are a great way to lead through vision.

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Source: How Meetings Can Clarify Vision

The post How Meetings Can Clarify Vision appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Stan Rodda: This past week has been a great week of learning for me. From staffing conversations all the way down to volunteer roles at my campus. I have learned a lot this past week.

Over time I think we all let up on the gas pedal a little bit. We delegate away influence that we really need to maintain. Maybe it’s just that we’re tired and need to be more intentional about resting. Maybe it’s that we need to take next steps and develop our own leadership.

Regardless of the reason, there are some non-negotiables when it comes to building a strong and healthy team culture. I am learning and relearning multiple lessons when it comes to this conversation. Here are a few I have been reminded of recently.

There is no substitute for a face-to-face meeting!

Once again, email is not your friend. Stop using it to send communications that would be best handled face-to-face. I sent what in my opinion was a really strong, vision casting email recently. What I intended to communicate was not heard. What was heard was that maybe this person wasn’t the right person for the role.

While that may be true, the reality is that email did not accurately convey what I intended to come across. As a result, I will have to slow down, go back and retrace those steps with this person. Do the hard work of sitting across a table with the people who are working closest with you to pour vision into them. You will save yourself time and energy.

There are some things only you can do – do those things!

Don’t delegate away your influence. There are certain elements of developing the team culture you envision that only you can communicate to your teams. It doesn’t work to hope they catch it by osmosis, through a sermon or by breathing the air in your church or ministry. There are some things only you can do as the leader and you need to prioritize those things for the health of your team and ministry.

There is no shortcut to developing your team’s culture!

No one at my campus has developed a deep understanding of the team culture we are trying to create without the hard work of digging in and getting their hands dirty. They have to wrestle with priorities of time and financial resources. They have to be willing to dive into prayer, Scripture reading, sacrifice and availability.

If you are looking for a silver bullet your to your culture questions at your church or ministry…STOP! It doesn’t exist. You hav etc do the hard work of developing people. Helping them to discover what specific purposes and plans God has designed them for. Then help them live them out at a high level. There is no shortcut around this intense personal and spiritual development.

There are many lessons for me yet to be learned when it comes to developing a healthy team culture at my campus. What are some of the lessons you have learned about developing a healthy/strong team culture in your church or ministry?

Tweet them to me here.

Source: 3 Lessons Learned To Develop A Healthy Team Culture

The post 3 Lessons Learned To Develop A Healthy Team Culture appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by unSeminary: You’ve been there, in that never-ending meeting where all you can think about is the fact that the next thing on your to-do list is yet another meeting!

You’ve thought it before, “There has got to be a better way of doing meetings at the church.”

A few years ago, I considered how much time our church was investing in meetings and how that regular rhythm was costing our team. Everywhere I looked I saw meetings happening around our organization, including meetings for:

Weekly service reviewsKids ministry pre-gameAdmin team workflow check-insService planning Small group brainstorming Lead team discussions…and the list goes on

While meetings can be an useful tool to push the mission of your church forward, sloppy meetings can be a total waste of time for your team and for the church as a whole. Some common problems that I’ve seen creep into churches with too many unfocused meetings are that:

Rather than focusing on the critical issues, they become a time for people to wander from topic to topic.The wrong people are in the room for the issues at hand, while the right people are sitting through endless conversations that don’t require their input.The inspiration of your team can be tapped out as people sit in useless meetings on a regular basis.Meetings can be never-ending, meaning that the people who can last the longest get their way in the organization.

Every meeting should be a time and place where decisions are made. There needs to be inherent tension as people are presented with options to choose from. The worst type of meeting is informational where no decisions are made, and people are simply brought up to date on what’s happening in the church. Avoid meetings that are purely informational.

Effective church leaders look to root out useless “information sharing only” meetings and find other ways to keep the team aware of what’s happening at the church. As such, you need alternative strategies to keep your people aligned. Here are eight meeting alternatives for your team:

Regular Email Rhythms

Write a regular email that is fun and helpful, and your team will read it. I promise. Pack the email with information that they will actually want to read. Send it regularly enough and it will cut out the need to pull your team together to keep them informed. Make sure each email follows the V.I.P. approach:

Vision // Remind people why you are doing what you do as a church.Information // Make your emails the primary way your team receives the data they need about the ministry. If it is helpful, they will open it!Personal // Don’t write your emails like you are addressing a mass of anonymous people; write them as if they are being sent directly to a friend.

Project Management Software

There are many tools that teams can use to track tasks, goals, and projects. Project management software provides a great way for teams to stay up to date without needing to gather everyone together. This type of software is not free, but it is an easy-to-use tool and scales well over time as the demands of your team increase.

In many ways, the weekend is one big, continuous project at your church. Many churches have found Planning Center to be vitally important for communication and collaboration for the organization of weekend services.

Other examples of project management software include:

Basecamp // This software with a collaboration focus is available for $99 per month. Sweet Process // Based on a checklist approach to interaction, this software is $115 per month.

Send a Voice Memo

Another way to connect on an even more personal level is to send a voice memo. You can email the memos to people so they will hear directly from you. Most phones have a standard voice recorder app, which makes it easy for you to record something for your team.

Bonus Idea: You could also use an automated phone service like Phonevite to send the voice memo to large groups of people in your community. (Think of including every team leader in your church!)

5 to 10 Minute “Standing” Meetings

I know some churches have found great success with regular quick team meetings designed to briefly share information with each other. The goal of these meetings is to focus on the highlights of what is happening and to identify “sticking points” that need to be followed up on in certain areas. These meetings are typically held at the same time every week and they are often actual “standing meetings” where participants stand in order to encourage the conversation to move along.

Outlines of quick standing meetings for your team:

1 to 2 minutes // Quick “high fives” for areas where team members are succeeding. 3 to 6 minutes // Each team member answers, “What is the one thing I need to get traction on this week to move the mission forward?”7 to 10 minutes // Each team member has the chance to answer, “What information do I need to help make progress on a project this week?”

Private Facebook Group

Almost everyone is on Facebook; rather than fighting it, use it! Invite people to a private Facebook group where you can post photos, provide updates about what’s coming up, and have discussions about what’s happening in your church. It’s also a great way to celebrate “wins” and share upcoming events.

3 tips for using a Facebook group to communicate with your team:

Make sure that everyone turns on the “show all” setting for group posts so they will see everything posted in the group.  Assign someone (other than the supervisor/group admin) to curate and encourage conversation. Develop 2 to 3 regular check-in points that people are encouraged to post about, such as:Monday Wins // What happened over the weekend that you want to celebrate?Wacky Wednesday // What is something funny that people have seen online this week?Thursday “Pre-Game” Need to Know // What does everyone need to know before the weekend?

Open Project Documents

Something as simple as a shared Google Doc can also be a great place to track with your team. The spreadsheet feature allows you to set notifications, so if the information is changed in a range of cells, you’ll receive sent an email. This is a great strategy when multiple people are contributing disparate pieces of a project.

Types of open documents your church could use include:

Agendas // Allow people to guide the conversation about any upcoming meetings that your team might still have to attend. Brainstorming // Ask a question and then have people submit their ideas online to a single document. Process Review // Considering changing the way something is done at your church? Draw up a flow chart online and have your team comment on it!

Instant Messaging

For quick check-ins with your team, use an instant messaging service like Slack. These platforms allow you to receive quick updates and provide the shortest feedback loop possible. I’ve met a number of teams that swear by instant messaging’s capacity to dramatically reduce their dependence on emails or meetings.

4 tips for encouraging wide adoption of instant messaging with your team:

Training // Don’t just tell people you’re using it; take the time during a team meeting to train people to use the tool and walk them through its features. On the Phone // Encourage your team to install the app on their phone and make sure the notifications are turned on. Reward Participation // Notice who is leveraging the tool well and make sure you publicly praise them. Find Boundaries // Push conversations to the instant messaging platform to show people how it will make their lives easier!

Weekly Performance Check-Ins

I’ve been using a weekly check-in rhythm with my team that asks them three questions:

What are your goals for next week at work?How did you do with the goals you set for this past week?What can I do to help you?

These three questions frame a weekly conversation with my team where they are able to give consistent feedback on how they are doing. They also provide a level of accountability for me as a supervisor to stay connected to where my team is at and where it is going. This process has a way of focusing our teams on performance and next steps. We use a tool named 15Five; however, you could also use this strategy by sending regular emails and/or forms to your team.

How are you reducing needless meetings at your church?

We need fewer meetings that waste our people’s time and more communication and collaboration focused on making decisions and moving the church forward. What are some other methods you have found helpful in reducing needless meetings at your church? Share these strategies in the comments below.

More resources to help structure the meetings at your church:

5 Healthy Meeting Habits in High-Performance Church Teams8 Ways Meetings are Killing the Mission of Your Church (Great discussion starter about the purpose of meetings in your church!)11 Ideas for Adding Fun to Boring Church Team Meetings

Source: 8 Alternatives to Calling Another Team Meeting at Your Church

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