It Can Happen to You
April 27, 2009
No failure is more devastating to ministry leaders, their followers, and their families than moral failure. Ministry leaders represent God, and are therefore expected to be honorable in personal relationships. Ministers are (or at least used to be!) trusted to be morally pure and represent a standard of moral purity. We have positions of power and influence in our communities, and certainly within our churches or ministries. We often work with people when they are most vulnerable. When leaders in positions of spiritual power exploit those vulnerabilities, the results are catastrophic.
Surely, there is more to personal purity than sexual or moral fidelity. But this problem is so significant among ministry leaders it deserves a special focus. Building moral purity and protecting it over a lifetime is essential for your present effectiveness and positive leadership legacy. And, don’t think moral failure can’t happen to you!
“I can’t believe another Christian television minister has confessed to immorality,” I lamented. My friend, a guy about my age, and I were commiserating about another fallen minister. “That guy is such a jerk. What he did, I would never do. It could never happen to me.”
Those words snapped my friend to attention. He leaned across my desk and said, quietly but very clearly, “Jeff, those are the most dangerous words I have ever heard you say. If you think it can’t happen to you, you are more vulnerable than you can imagine. It can happen, and it will happen, unless you keep up a careful guard.”
His intensity startled me and made my blood run cold! He had nailed me. My arrogance was showing. This crack in my character could become a fatal flaw that would destroy me. That night I realized I was more vulnerable to moral failure than I had been willing to admit. I determined to become wiser about immoral temptation and develop some specific strategies to strengthen my moral purity.
The hard reality to face is moral failure can happen to anyone. Don’t be arrogant and think it can’t happen to you. That is the first step toward your downfall in this area. Be on guard. Stay humble. Manage your moral life well.
There is nothing that damages a leaders effectiveness and legacy more than moral failure. So, be wise about how it happens, what it will cost you, and what you can do to prevent it. We will look at this important subject for the next few weeks.
Adapted from my book The Character of Leadership
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Communicate availability
April 20, 2009
As a leader, your team is looking to you for guidance and direction. They are also sensing from you, from your tone and attitude, more about you and your organization than you imagine. It amazes me how closely followers observe their leaders and what they interpret or interpolate from those observations! While you may think the answer is for people to be less speculative, you are whistling in the wind if you think you can stop it. The better response is to strategize how you can influence your followers more effectively.
The best strategy is to make yourself available, in formal and informal settings, for your team members to interact with you. Let’s talk about these two categories.
You communicate availability in formal ways by establishing and enforcing an “open door” policy. I have this at the seminary. Any employee can see me about anything. That does not mean every employee’s problem becomes my problem! In healthy organizations, information flows freely but decisions flow through structure. For example, when an employee comes to me with a problem my response is, “I will speak to the vice-president in that area” who will then follow up with the appropriate director or supervisor. An open door policy does not abrogate the chain of command in an organization.
An open door policy doesn’t mean anyone can see me anytime. They usually need an appointment – not because I don’t want to see them, but because I do! An appointment says this meeting is important to me. You might assume there is a constant line of people wanting to see me. In reality, it happens very rarely. Team members want to know they “can” see the president. Just knowing they can see me is enough for most people to feel more connected to me as a leader. They also respect my time. Don’t fear an open door policy will become a time drain for you. Just the opposite is true.
You also communicate availability by practicing informal communication strategies. One of the best of these is “management by walking around.” Every few days, just take a walk through your organization. Stop at different offices or desks and ask how things are going. Stop people in the hall and ask about their project. Be careful to do this when things are going well, as well as when there are problems or challenges. Don’t let your informal presence only be associated with negative situations.
Another informal communication strategy is to eat lunch in the lunch room or common area. In one organization, the administrative assistants all ate lunch together in a lunch room every day. Some days, I ate with them (along with several other employees). This kind of informal conversation (not usually about work) communicates interest and availability. You can also share lunch with senior team members, perhaps taking them out one-on-one or in small groups.
Being with your followers, letting your team members rub shoulders with you, is an essential strategy for communicating the tone, attitude, and demeanor you want in your organization. In this area, more is “caught” than “taught.” A memo won’t do. Your team wants to feel connected with you and wants to have a sense of organizational identity. Both are facilitated by your presence and availability.
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Have fun at work
April 13, 2009
One leader once told me, “At our place, we are serious people doing serious work in serious times.” While I appreciate the sentiment, I can’t agree with the tone this leader is attempting to create in his work environment. People spend too much time at work to be that serious! We often say the seminary is a “production facility, not a retreat center.” We are here to get work done. But, while emphasizing productivity, we also want to have some fun! These are not counterproductive or contradictory goals.
In fact, creating a work environment people enjoy increases productivity. When people enjoy their teammates – laughing with them and sharing enjoyable activities – they will work harder and get more done. Over the past ten years, here are some of the things done in various ministry-related work environments to have fun at work.
First, have a contest every year related to the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Everyone enters at one of the online portals for free bracket management. At the end, I give dinner for four to the winner. This sparks a lot of good-natured banter over the three weeks of the tournament. And it’s free (except for the cost of dinner that comes out of my pocket!).
Second, have various kinds of clubs that meet during the lunch hour. At different times we have had a Garden Club (common plot on some spare ground), Weight Loss Club (rough on to admit you need to join), Scripture Memory Club (met weekly for accountability), and a Witnessing Club (also met weekly for accountability and prayer for the lost). Again, all of these were free. They met at lunch so there was no time lost at work.
Third, celebrate holidays. We have had a big Christmas dinner, a Christmas pot-luck, or attended a Christmas show. We have celebrated birthdays in various formats. In one small organization, I simply took each person out for lunch on their birthday. In a larger organization, we organized the birthdays by month and had one party per month for everyone who had a birthday that month. In another larger organization, we allowed departments to have small birthday celebrations during break time. It is also a good idea to discourage or limit gift giving among employees, not to be stingy, but to keep these celebrations simple.
Fourth, have fun at lunch. At one organization, we had a lunch cookout twice a year. We grilled the meat and everyone brought salads and desserts. We would couple this with employee recognitions or celebrations of significant achievements in the organization. In another organization, we had a “lunch choir” that rehearsed once a week and then sang periodically in chapel. Another group would share lunch and Bible study once a week. Again, all of these were free (or very inexpensive).
Finally, celebrate organizational wins. When you achieve a goal, complete a project, pull off a big meeting, or otherwise excel – take time to celebrate. It can be a simple as an affirmation meeting to publicly thank people for their work to something more significant like bonuses and paid time off. When people have done a good job, take time to have some fun celebrating their success.
Next week – a final installment on improving relationships at work!
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Improving Staff Relationships
April 6, 2009
Many people in ministry leadership roles have supervisory responsibility. Before you say, “Well, not me. I serve a small church” – think again! While you may not supervise a large number of employees, you do have a volunteer team who look to you for leadership. In every organization, there is a cadre of workers – elders, directors, managers, assistants – who form the leadership team or staff. How those people get along goes a long way in determining organizational effectiveness.
As a leader, there are some principles and strategies you can implement that will facilitate stronger staff relationships. Here are some suggestions:
First, focus on staff members as people – not employees. Remember, the people who work with you share the same hopes, dreams, problems, distractions, and challenges all people share. Do simple things to communicate your awareness of the personhood issues faced by your teammates. For example, learn each person’s name and the name of their spouse and children. Ask about their family from time to time. Mark major family events – births, graduations, illnesses, deaths, etc. with an appropriate acknowledgement. Large gifts are not required. A congratulatory note or stopping to talk at someone’s desk is often sufficient.
Second, focus on staff members as people to develop and promote. One of the most rewarding aspects of leadership is developing people until they exceed the requirements of their present position. Sometimes, this means they will leave your organization for a promotion to greater responsibility and opportunity somewhere else. Other times, it means you can promote them within your own organization. Either way, it is satisfying to develop people toward their full potential. Right now, I am mentoring an employee who will likely leave us. That’s okay! My focus is on developing each person to their full potential. When we do this as leaders, we engender greater loyalty and passion among employees – not less.
Third, remember your staff members are flawed people who will make mistakes. When you work with competent people, it is easy to be surprised by their mistakes, misjudgments, or other shortcomings. Unrealistic expectations of team members can lead to frustration and anger. While I expect the best from people who work with me, I also try to temper those expectations with a dose of reality. People make mistakes. Most mistakes aren’t the end of the world. How you handle mistakes by teammates is critical. Forgiveness, coupled with fair accountability, creates loyalty. Find the balance and you will find even the mistakes people make become a means of greater team performance.
Next week, more on this important subject – from a totally different perspective!
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