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I Quit But Forgot to Tell You

By Stephen Blandino on September 2, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

I quit, but forgot to tell you. That’s the title of Lee Colan’s second chapter in his book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of all Your Employees. Colan says:

As a leader, the challenge is that an employee departure is only the most visible and final phase of disengagement. It’s a gradual process. It’s more like a dimmer switch than an on-off switch that regulates our engagement. The danger in this gradual process is the interim phases–the ones I call, “I quit but forgot to tell you.” It’s there where disengagement is a silent killer, a cancer that is growing under the skin of your team.

Whether you work with volunteers or employees, the “I quit but forgot to tell you” scenario is very real. In fact, Gallup has found that only 26% of U.S. employees are fully engaged at any time while 19% are actively disengaged–costing more than $300 billion per year.

I believe an organization’s culture has extraordinary impact on employee engagement. So how do you create a culture that significantly reduces the disease of “I quit but forgot to tell you?” In their book, Follow This Path, Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina have identified twelve courses to follow to create a great workplace environment. In great organizational cultures, employees can emphatically say:

1. I know what is expected of me.

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.

3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.

5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

7. At work my opinions seem to count.

8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.

9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.

10. I have a best friend at work.

11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

12. This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow at work.

What are the employees in your church or organization saying? What about your volunteers? Colan observes that, “Disengagement is simply the result of unfulfilled needs.” And the symptoms of disengagement include:

  • Increased turnover
  • Missed deadlines
  • Low morale
  • High burnout rates
  • Complacency
  • Finger-pointing and name-calling
  • Lack of accountability and responsibility
  • Increased absenteeism
As leaders, it is our responsibility to keep our finger on the pulse of employee or volunteer engagement. Are you seeing any of the symptoms of disengagement? How would your team respond to the twelve statements above? Rather than speculating, why not set up a system that will help you capture feedback to each of these “conditions of a great workplace.”

Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Employees and Volunteers

By Stephen Blandino on September 1, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Business management guru Peter Drucker has observed that leaders must treat their employees like volunteers. Leading volunteers is the true test of your leadership because you do not have a paycheck to use as a leverage point. At anytime, volunteers can walk out the door. It is your ability to engage the hearts and minds of people–whether volunteers or paid employees–that will often determine their commitment to the organization and the quality of their performance. In fact, research indicates that employee satisfaction is more important than customer satisfaction.

One study of 4,700 customers and employees of 63 businesses–conducted by professors at Manchester Business School–revealed that company growth was more likely to take place if employee satisfaction exceeded customer satisfaction. The study further noted the impact of employee attitudes on customer attitudes. As Management expert Tom Peters once said, “If your company is going to put customers first, then you must put employees more first.”

In his book, Engaging the Hearts and Minds of all Your Employees, Dr. Lee J. Colan notes that, “Engaged minds build employee performance, and engaged hearts ignite employees’ passion.” Engaged minds are the result of a blend of achievement, autonomy, and mastery. Engaged hearts stem from a mix of purpose, intimacy, and appreciation. Passionate performance is the end result of engaged minds and engaged hearts. Colan defines passionate performance as, “strong, sustained intellectual and emotional attachment to one’s work.” When you can engage your employees, or volunteers, on an intellectual and emotional level, their performance will increase.

Questions: What have you found to be the most effective ways to intellectually and emotionally engage employees or volunteers? When have you personally felt most engaged in an organization, church, or company?

 

How to Lead Change

By Stephen Blandino on August 11, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Leading change is one of the true tests of leadership. Harvard Business professor, John Kotter, is perhaps one of the best thinkers in this area and presents a great process for creating change in his classic book, Leading Change. Kotter’s 8-stage process includes:

Stage 1: Establish a Sense of Urgency - The first stage involves understanding reality and identifying and discussing crises, potential crises, and major opportunities. If a leader cannot create a sense of urgency that change must happen, they will never go any further. See my post on “Urgency” for more details.

Stage 2: Create the Guiding Coalition - With a sense of urgency established, leaders must then assemble a group of people with enough influence to lead change. This group must work together to become a team. It’s my belief that the best teams have a mix of influencers, innovators, investors, and initiators.

Stage 3: Develop a Vision and Strategy - Next, a clear vision needs to be articulated along with executable strategies that will generate progress toward the vision.

Stage 4: Communicate the Change Vision - Using every communication strategy possible, the new vision and strategies must be shared with the entire organization. Furthermore, the guiding coalition must take the lead by modeling the behaviors expected by employees.

Stage 5: Empower Broad-Based Action - This stage involves the removal of obstacles, making changes in systems or structures that undermine the vision, and employing risk-taking and innovative ideas.

Stage 6: Generate Short-Term Wins - Making progress is essential and therefore planning for improvements and recognizing and rewarding those who generate wins is essential. Small wins open the door for greater change. By celebrating the small wins you make the big wins possible.

Stage 7: Consolidate Gains and Produce More Change - The credibility gained from positive change should fuel the pursuit of more change as well as the hiring of people who can implement more change.

Stage 8: Anchor New Approaches in the Culture - Finally, the culture should reflect better performance, an orientation toward productivity, connections between new behaviors and organizational success, and appropriate succession planning.

Each stage to leading change can also be flipped to reflect the errors to creating change. For example, allowing too much complacency is the opposite of creating a sense of urgency. Declaring victory too soon is the opposite of consolidating gains and producing more change. Kotter asserts that a successful change transformation is 70%-90% leadership and only 10%-30% management.

Again, the ability to successfully create change is the true test of leadership. While the book is a classic, the principles in Leading Change are very relevant today. This book is a must read for any leader.

Question: Which stage of change do you need to give attention to right now?

 

How Church Leaders Deny Reality in Turbulent Times

By Stephen Blandino on July 2, 2009 in Church, Leadership with 1 Comment

The great management legend, Peter Drucker, once wrote, “A time of turbulence is a dangerous time, but its greatest danger is a temptation to deny reality.” Consider that quote carefully. I find it particularly disturbing as it relates to the local church. What would cause a leader to deny reality in turbulent times. Although the reasons could be endless, let me share two ways I’ve seen the denial of reality play out in the church world:

1. A Church Denies Reality Until They Encounter Financial Turbulence – Have you ever noticed that churches can be completely content not reaching people far from God, not seeing life-change, and not seeing growth? But the moment the money starts to run out, everybody becomes very discontent. What does this say about us? Is the turbulence of money more important than the turbulence of mission? Why was the reality of mission turbulence ignored for so long? For some churches, a financially turbulent season could actually be the best thing that could ever happen to them. It might actually wake them up, and bring the church back to a mission-centered focus.

2. A Leader Denies Reality When External Opportunities Overshadow Internal Turbulence – How many times have you seen a leader become so preoccupied with the outside speaking invitations, networking opportunities, and external ego boosts that they conveniently lose the pulse on the church’s health? As a result, internal turbulence goes unchecked until its ugly head surfaces in such undeniable force that the leader has no option but to hit the brakes and look under the hood. Does the turbulence have to turn into a full-blown crisis before it gets our attention? How long can a leader deny reality as he travels the country sharing his success? Jim Collins calls this, “Hubris born of success.”

In both cases, turbulence and denial of reality peacefully co-existed until one of two things happened: either the turbulence gave the ADD leader whip lash or the turbulence touched a raw nerve in the church that could no longer be ignored. So how do you ensure the denial of reality won’t infiltrate your church or organization? Consider five things:

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Learning How They Think vs. What They Do

By Stephen Blandino on June 27, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth with 2 Comments

Most leaders with a bent toward growth spend their time asking other leaders “What do you do?” They constantly focus on the programs, activities, and strategies employed by others to make their churches and organizations grow. At a conference I recently attended, Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv said, “Find someone one or two steps ahead of you and learn how they think. Most want to learn what they do–not how they think.” After pondering this statement, I came up with a few ideas that might help you uncover “thinking” vs. “doing” when you’re interacting with other leaders.

1. Ask About Principles Rather than Practices – Rather than asking another leader about their ministry or organization’s practices (program questions or how-to questions), ask them what principles drive their decision-making, program development, and organizational strategies. Our tendency is to ask leaders about their programs rather than the principles that drove them to develop those programs in the first place. The why behind the what always leads to better thinking. When you avoid the why (the principle behind the practice), the tendency is to duplicate a practice that may not be the best practice for your ministry. Understanding the why helps you create your own practice that is better suited for you setting. Question to ask: “What principles, values, or framework drives your decision-making about (fill-in-the-blank…program, strategy, etc.).”

2. Ask About Assumptions — Assumptions are very powerful and have an extraordinary way of blinding leaders. Sometimes the barriers that prevent us from discovering best practices are our assumptions about the past, our traditions, or our current church or organization’s reality. Challenging assumptions is the first step to removing the guard at the gate to innovation. Question to ask: “What process do you use to regularly challenge your assumptions about programs, strategies, practices, and traditions?”

3. Ask About ON Rather Than IN – It is so easy to get focused on the IN (doing the ministry) that we forget to spend time with the ON. ON requires that you go to the 30,000 foot level of your church and organization and focus on the big picture issues such as mission, strategic planning, direction, values, evaluations, etc. Ask leaders how they maintain this balance. While you will likely get some “how to” responses, you’ll be uncovering how the leader thinks about issues that affect the overall direction of the organization. Question to ask: “How do you maintain a focus ON the organization, not just IN the organization?”

4. Ask About Personal Growth – Ask the leader what they’re learning as a leader, what they’re reading, what conferences they attend, who is coaching them, and what God is teaching them. You’ll uncover some valuable nuggets through this process. Questions to ask: “What have been your greatest leadership learnings in the last 12 months? How and what do you use to feed your personal development?”

5. Ask About Past Mistakes - We often learn a great deal from the mistakes of others. Ask leaders what their greatest leadership mistakes have been, how they navigated them, and what they learned through the process. Learning from others’ mistakes will help you discover which filters you need to put in place to insure you don’t make the same mistakes. Question to ask: “What have been your greatest leadership mistakes, how did you navigate them, and what did you learn?”

6. Ask “When You Were” – If you’re talking with a leader that is one or two steps ahead of you, they should be able to reflect back to the time when they were sitting where you are now. Describe to the leader your current situation and then ask them to share with you the changes they had to make to move forward. Question to ask: “When you were sitting where I am now, what changes did you have to make in your thinking to get where you are today?”

I once heard somebody say that understanding why is more important than understanding what. Those who understand what always work for those who understand why. That’s a thinking issue. Start asking thinking questions and soon you’re thinking will align itself with higher capacity leadership.

The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping

By Stephen Blandino on June 25, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Change! Every ministry, church, and organization faces the challenges associated with creating change. The big question is HOW. Brad Powell articulates some good thoughts in his book, Change Your Church for Good: The Art of Sacred Cow Tipping. Rather than giving you a roadmap on how to change, I want to give you three valuable “change thoughts” from Powell’s book that are especially helpful for more traditional settings:

1. “You’ve got to kill what’s killing you, but you can let what isn’t killing you die of natural causes.” This is a great insight. Sometimes the best strategy for creating change is to step back and watch the “program” die on its own. Powell says, “If something’s hurting the church, it must be removed. On the other hand, if something’s not helping the church, it doesn’t need to be so aggressively eliminated. It can be left to die on its own.” Change the things that are killing the church or creating a negative impact.

2. “While it’s true that the church must establish points of relevance for outsiders, it is not true that every point of relevance for insiders should be removed.” In the midst of change, insiders need a certain level of security. Not changing everything at one time can facilitate a sense of safety. At the same time, some areas don’t need to be changed because they are not off-mission or irrelevant. Change what must be changed. One example Powell gave–they changed their Sunday morning service but left their adult classes alone.

3. “Change doesn’t happen when you announce it. Change grows.” Leaders must always be thinking ahead by planting “seeds in the present for future change.” Powell planted many of these seeds when he was being interviewed for the job. And when he became pastor, he continued planting seeds for years. Powell states, “Though not always possible, the general rule is that the bigger and more difficult the change, the further ahead the seed should be planted.”

Questions: Which of these three thoughts is most helpful to you? Why? What other change strategies have proven beneficial in your leadership journey?

Connect Small Group Ministry Coaching

By Stephen Blandino on June 22, 2009 in Church with 0 Comments

This Wednesday, June 24th I’m launching a new “Connect Small Group Coaching” series. This is a series of 7 one-hour coaching calls on Wednesdays at 10:00 AM (CDT) designed to help you launch or grow a healthy small group ministry. The sessions includes:


  • Developing and Refining Your Small Group Model
  • Recruiting and Developing Small Group Leaders
  • Connecting People Into Small Groups
  • Mobilizing Your Groups to Serve
  • Developing a Coaching Structure
  • Strategic Planning for the Future
  • One personalized one-on-one session scheduled at your convenience

The Connect Coaching Community includes access to all seven coaching calls featuring training and Q & A, one personalized coaching call, 15% discount on all product, a 90-day subscription to ChurchTeams.com online small group management system, and an exhaustive list of recommended small group resources. Multiple people from the same church can participate in each call to maximize the impact. To learn more or to sign up, click here.

One-Sentence Job Descriptions

By Stephen Blandino on June 17, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Today I came across a blog post from Kem Meyer–Communications Director at Granger Community Church. Her post is titled, “We Scrapped Our Job Descriptions”, and in it Kem articulates the following exercise that helped each staff member on their team summarize their job description in one sentence.


1. Answer the question: “At the end of the day, if I’ve done this, then I’ve done my job.”
2. In your answer, remember to demonstrate the benefit to others trumps the task.
3. Keep your answer simple and short enough to easily remember and recite.
4. Include your individual strength theme to help maximize impact.

As a result, Kem and the team came up with this great one-page list of everybody’s job descriptions summarized in one-sentence along with their top five Strengthsfinder talent themes. Really good stuff. Check it.

Evaluations: Moving Beyond Beautiful Strategies

By Stephen Blandino on June 8, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 0 Comments

Evaluation is an important, yet often neglected, part of organizational life.  When an infatuation with strategy blinds a leader’s ability to evaluate outcomes, the organization drifts to the edge of irrelevance.  British prime minister, Winston Churchill once said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” For leaders who thrive on activity, the time it takes to evaluate existing programs, products, systems, and strategies can feel like an emotional beating.  But without evaluation, how well can you steward the time, resources, and mission God has entrusted to you?  It’s during the evaluation gaps that our organizational results are less than stellar.

What type of evaluations should you conduct to move beyond beautiful strategies?  I would encourage you to practice three organizational evaluations.

1.  Mission Evaluations – If your mission defines the reason your church or company exists, it would be missional suicide to never evaluate your progress.  When mission fulfillment isn’t evaluated, the mission begins to creep toward muddied complexity.  The company’s abundance of activity dilutes the potency of its mission.  Mission evaluations serve as a tool to drive constant organizational focus.  What measurable progress has been made in the fulfillment of your mission?

2.  Program Evaluations Based on Original Intent – Why we create programs and why we continue programs are often not the same. Consequently, organizations find themselves misaligned.  If the original intent for the program is no longer being fulfilled by the program, why does the program still exist?  Are your programs accomplishing the purpose for which they were created in the first place?  What evidence would support your answer? How effectively and efficiently is the purpose being achieved?  When programs depart their original intent, the organization’s purpose becomes the protection of its programs rather than the fulfillment of its mission.

3.  Systematic Staff Evaluations – Staff should be evaluated on a systematic basis.  In other words, staff reviews should be built into the organizational calendar as a normal expectation for all team members.  We conduct quarterly reviews with our staff to measure personal growth, organizational goal performance, and to measure key leadership competencies.  In addition, we conduct annual reviews to evaluate overall performance, job satisfaction, work environment, and to conduct 360 degree evaluations.

Question:  What do you evaluate?  How?  How often?

Developing Your Ministry or Organizational Model

By Stephen Blandino on June 3, 2009 in Church, Leadership, Organizations with 1 Comment

Many leaders today are working hard to identify and create a ministry or organizational model that will produce meaningful impact.  Bookshelves are loaded with the latest strategies, ideas, and models for building a thriving church or business.  Books like Simple Church by Thom Rainer, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry by Andy Stanley, Reggie Joiner, and Lane Jones, and Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal are great tools for helping you think about your model.  Every model on the planet is unique and each model has its strengths, as well as its weaknesses.  So how do you create a model that’s right for you?  Do you simply replicate the model that’s most in step with your values and organizational culture?  While there’s nothing wrong with studying the models of other churches and organizations (which I encourage you to do), ultimately your model needs to address three key components–Mission, Methods, and Measurements (as illustrated below):

Mission – The development of a model must begin with the organization’s mission.  Failure to do so results in the tail wagging the dog.  The mission is the organizational trump card to all strategies, ideas, and opportunities.  Without mission, the core of organizational identity does not exist.  What is your mission (why do you exist)?

Methods – Once the mission is clear, appropriate methods should be developed that will drive progress toward the mission.  When methods are adopted that do not align themselves with the mission, organizational drift occurs.  The tendency of many churches and organizations is to create methods (programs, strategies, etc.) without considering the mission.  It tends to happen most in two scenarios:  First, when an organization views itself as invincible (because of current and former success) and therefore engages in the mindless pursuit of “more.”  Or, second, when the organization has stopped growing, and out of a sense of panic, irrationally pursues “the next big thing.”  This “organizational attention deficit disorder” embraces opportunity without any sort of filter.  However, great leaders understand that methods detached from mission are nothing more than black holes for time, money, and resources. What are your methods and do they fulfill your mission?

Measurements – This is the real test–the one that gets overlooked too often.  You must ask, “How do we measure the effectiveness of our methods to fulfill our mission?”  This is not easy.  In church world we tend to measure the ABCs (Attendance, Buildings, and Cash).  While it’s okay to measure these, they reveal very little about your effectiveness in fulfilling your mission–unless your mission is to attract large crowds, build lots of buildings, and make a bunch of money.  Our mission is more about life-change, which is not as easy to measure.  And just because people are showing up does not mean they are growing.  Willowcreek is making some progress in this area through their “Reveal” research (www.willowcreek.com) and Reggie McNeal’s book, Missional Renaissance provides some good insight on developing a new scorecard for the church.  The key is to determine what to measure and how to measure it (which will likely look different for each church and organization) and then turn your measurements into specific questions.  The questions you ask reveal what’s most important to you, and, ultimately, what you’re measuring.  What are you measuring?  Are there gaps in your measurements?  What questions have you developed that are tied to your measurements?

Mission, methods, and measurements are essential to identifying and developing a ministry or organizational model. Once that model becomes clear, work carefully to find a creative yet simple way to communicate it.  
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