Our volunteers generally want to succeed. It's the tech director's job to help set them up for success.
Despite church tech ministry being full of equipment and electronics, it’s still a people business. No matter how great the gear, there will always be a need for people to actually help prep, format and maintain that equipment.
As we all know, increasing the presence of technology doesn’t necessarily mean that we will eliminate mistakes. After all, technology is still prone to failure.
Whether professionals or amateurs (volunteers), mistakes are always going to be made.
Working with people isn’t easy, either. We all know that we’re imperfect, and failure is inevitable. Whether professionals or amateurs (volunteers), mistakes are always going to be made.
As leaders, we should always be willing to look at mistakes that are made and determine why they were made. The last thing we want is a persistent habit of failure that leads to continuing distractions and issues in a service environment.
So, any time someone falls short of expectations, our job as a leader is to examine the cause to determine where there is an opportunity to improve. Did someone miss the mark because they can't get it right, or because they won't?
Here are three tips to help you get it right after something goes wrong.
1-Review my AVAILABILITY
When those we are leading make mistakes or miss the mark, our first job as a leader should be to look at ourselves to determine whether we did all we could to set that person up for success.
If someone can’t do what I’m asking, the first question should be whether whether the right resources were available to them.
Were they properly trained? Did I explain things fully and clearly? Were expectations set so they had an accurate picture of what success looked like? Did I have the right tools available for them to use during their particular task?
Did I explain things fully and clearly? Were expectations set so they had an accurate picture of what success looked like?
Often, we think we’ve done a great job as a leader setting up others for success. However, sometimes the harsh reality is that what exists in our head didn’t necessarily translate to those below us. Perhaps the vision wasn’t communicated as clearly as we thought it was, or perhaps we didn’t train them as thoroughly as we'd hoped, or we didn’t give them ample opportunity to practice their skills or ask questions.
Sometimes, my own lack of availability is the issue. I wasn’t present so that someone could watch me model the correct behavior, or they couldn’t find me to ask questions or get clarity. Or, early in the process, I wasn’t available to check in and provide coaching or instruction, and the process got so far off track that it wasn’t fixable in the moment of a service or event.
Our volunteers generally want to succeed. It’s my job to help set them up for success.
2-Consider APTITUDE
Every now and then you have a potential team member who has a passion for ministry and a genuine heart to serve. They may even love technology and think that they’re perfectly suited for a certain role. They’ve asked questions, they’ve gone through training, and they’ve spent hours of their own time reviewing other resources online.
But then they get to the moment of truth during a service, and they’re still awful. Maybe they don’t have an ear for mixing, no matter how hard they try, or their reflexes are too slow, no matter how often they practice on camera.
Sometimes, people’s abilities don’t fit their desires. The heart is there, but the results aren’t.
Sometimes, people’s abilities don’t fit their desires. The heart is there, but the results aren’t. For many of us in ministry leadership, it can be easy to want to help those people try over and over and over, knowing that we don’t want to hurt their feelings by having a difficult conversation.
But just as Jesus shared the Gospel with a mix of grace and truth, we must be willing to do the same for those on our teams who are struggling. We must show grace to allow for their heart and passion for ministry, all while validating their value as a person, but we must pair it with the truth that this particular role may not be the ideal fit for them.
Perhaps there’s another role on the team that would be a better fit. Or perhaps there’s another ministry team altogether that will suit them better. Either way, when people are operating out of a natural aptitude or talent, results will naturally come and bear fruit. If that’s not the case, it may be a sign of a bad fit.
The truth can sometimes hurt, but our job as ministry leaders is to help people find the area where they’re best suited to make a difference, regardless of the team.
3-Evaluate ATTITUDE
Sometimes the desire to succeed is there and people just need help getting over the hump.
However, other times the results aren’t there because people simply don’t have the heart or desire to put in the necessary effort to achieve those results. This can be a sign of a heart or attitude issue.
Granted, as outlined above in the first point, we should initially pursue the angle of ensuring that we’ve done our job to clearly communicate expectations for a role. Maybe even adding extra clarity and emphasis allows someone to vocalize the reason why they’re always late is due to a work conflict, and maybe there’s a mutual decision that this may not be the best season for them to serve in a certain role due to the time commitment required. So, there’s certainly opportunity for people to have commitment issues that aren’t due to a nefarious underlying cause.
When someone is confronted about an attitude issue or a persistent bad habit, their response is often the indicator of the internal root cause of the external problem.
But whether it’s insecurity, pride, rebellion, fear, or something else, when people are unwilling to put in the effort to follow their vision or directives of their ministry leadership, there can be other reasons that go deeper than “I just didn’t want to show up to rehearsal on time.”
When someone is confronted about an attitude issue or a persistent bad habit, their response is often the indicator of the internal root cause of the external problem.
As a leader, we then have two choices. If that confrontation is met with humility on the part of the team member, there’s probably an opportunity for me to help pastor them through this season of challenges, even if it means temporarily taking a step back from active service.
However, if we address a shortcoming and it’s met with an angry or defensive response, that could be an issue that ends up poisoning the rest of the team if I allow this particular person to stay part of the active roster.
My first goal should always be to help guide and pastor people through their challenges. But it’s a two-way street, and if the other person isn’t willing to be part of a healing or reconciliation process, then I need to be willing to let them go.
People are going to make mistakes and fall short, and that’s why we should be willing to show them the same level of grace and mercy that our leaders have shown to us through all of our missteps. But identifying whether it’s a “can’t” or “won’t” issue gives me clarity on next steps I should take to help rectify any potential problem and minimize the chances of it recurring again in the future.
