“Culture” has almost become a cliché term in today's business climate. It can be the key to having a better and more successful business than your competitors. Everybody wants a healthy one, but few really know how to get there. Are you supposed to create it? Embrace it? Grow it?
But as my senior pastor often says, “You can't build culture. You can only become culture.”
In essence, a healthy organizational culture doesn't come from having the right meetings, or having the right core values, or having the right motivational posters on the wall. It comes from how well the life and values of the leadership are represented in the behavior of the team or the organization. Healthy leader behavior leads to healthy team culture.
Maybe that's why the idea of a healthy culture can sometimes get taken for granted in a ministry climate. Every church should be led by healthy, Godly leaders, and their integrity and values should be present through every layer of the church, right? While this is undoubtedly the goal, I think it can be easy to presume that the values of the leaders above me will filter down to the team below me.
But I have a role to play, too.
If you're a tech person who's anything like me, you're probably pretty good at working with things. Fixing equipment, managing processes, executing events and focusing on details. Often, it can be easy to allow the natural inclination of our personality to then become a crutch. “I'm not a people-person,” we say. Yet ministry is a people business.
When we use our process- or engineering-mindedness as our defense, we are essentially claiming that the only influence our team needs is that which is coming from the church's senior leadership. It's their vision, values, encouragement, and appreciation that will ultimately carry my team.
In reality, though, I have a greater influence on my team than probably anyone does, including the senior leaders of the church. I'm with the staff every day in meetings and with the volunteers every service in the booth. My life may end up being their greatest leadership influence out of anyone at the church.
Are you more focused on having people fulfill your agenda, or helping them find the purpose for which they were created?
Am I OK with that?
If we don't watch out, our lack of attentiveness to the people around us can lead to a toxic culture among our team. Spending more time invested in processes instead of people leads to neglect and lack of appreciation among our teams. That can translate to a lack of clarity of vision and decreased passion, which will ultimately lead to their burnout.
As a leader, my team will follow where I lead and how I lead them. So how do I ensure that I am embodying a healthy team approach that will ultimately lead to a healthy culture and healthy team?
Have fun
There's nothing that sucks the life out of a team more than staying focused on work all the time. People need mental breaks, if nothing else. But when all I ever talk about are endless to-do lists, planning meetings, and minute details that need to be corrected in order for a service to be more “excellent”, I will wear my team down and make serving the church a chore instead of something fun and exciting. Organize team meals. Take advantage of your auditorium's huge screens and massive sound system and bring people in for a video game tournament or a movie night. Have designated “fun” days of the week to wear ugly Christmas sweaters or to grill out on the loading dock.
When I take the lead in having fun, then serving on my team becomes a fun place to be. Psalm 122:1 (NLT) proclaims that “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.'” I don't want my team being mad or sad to be here, I want them glad!
Tell stories
As ministries get larger, the staff and volunteer teams will grow. With that growth, there can be an unintentional disconnect to the history of the organization or the team itself. Reminding my team of their roots, whether they were the “good ole' days” or a nightmare of trials and tribulation, will help them better understand how we got to where we are today.
It can get easy to spend time talking about a wish-list: more gear, more people, or more money. But how often do we approach our current situation with an attitude of gratitude, thanking God for how he has brought us into this season from where we used to be? Constantly focusing on what we don't have can lead to a lack of appreciation for what we do have.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were repeatedly commanded to tell stories to future generations of all of the amazing things that God had done for their tiny nation. This would ensure that no matter what situation they faced down the road, they would always be able to look back and be reminded of where God had brought them from and how he had always been present to guide their journey.
Understanding history is a great way to celebrate victories and practice contentment and appreciation for the growth that has been accomplished.
Help others find their purpose
One of the greatest mistakes that is made in the church today is the approach that we take towards our volunteers. Too often we communicate that their role is to simply fulfill whatever project or mission that the church leadership wants to undertake, yet can't achieve without the team's willing sacrifice. But 1 Peter 4:10 (NIV) says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others.” My job as a leader is to use my giftings to serve others by helping take them on a journey to find their purpose and the fulfillment that comes from using that gift to serve the Kingdom.
So am I more focused on having my people fulfill my agenda, or helping them find the purpose for which they were created?
I can't just look at my team as a group of people who execute tasks for me on a Sunday. I have to look at them as individuals who were called to do great things, and it's my job to help them find what their calling is. It has to be less about “where I need the help” and more about what they were made to do.
Selfless leadership is the best kind there is. When a team sees that its leader is more focused on the success of the people than his own advancement, the team will do more than the leader ever thought possible.
To bring it all full-circle, a healthy culture is the byproduct of a healthy team, and a healthy team can't exist without a healthy leader living a life worth modeling.
So how healthy are you?
