Your staff members are responsible for assisting you in leading your church and ministry. These are individuals that most likely feel called to ministry and are fully behind you and the vision of the church.
Some may come in with a lot of work or ministry experience, and some may be young and eager to learn and grow. No matter where your team is, your job as the leader is to help your team grow, thrive, and succeed, no matter what background or education they bring. Here is How To Pull Out the Best in Your Staff.
1. Know Your Staff Well
One way to pull out the best in your team is to know each individual staff very well. Get to know their personality type and what makes them tick. Find out about their strengths and weaknesses. Learn about their past experiences, pains, joys, and future hopes and dreams. Know their family history and where they come from.
When you take the time to get to know your staff, they will know that you care and in return they will care about your ministry and bring their best every day.
2. Be a Servant Leader
Jesus said in Matthew 20:28, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (NIIV). Jesus modeled servant leadership and served the Disciples and the people around Him. You as the leader need to do the same.
There are several ways model servant leadership: Take care of your team’s needs. Be generous towards them, as much as you can. Take the time to appreciate them and thank them. You can do things like provide child care and gift cards to your Youth Pastors favorite restaurant so that he can take his wife out on a date night. You could bring in a car detailer and have all your staff’s cars washed and detailed. Try giving them a random day off to spend with their family and friends.
Whatever you do, when you serve your team they will feel seen, honored, and valued and they will go the extra mile for you and your church.
3. Set Clear Expectations
Set clear expectations with your team so that they know exactly what it is that you want them to do. This could mean creating clear lanes for their scope of responsibilities and influence, creating specific targets for their department, or setting personal goals. Whatever outcome you want to see from your team, make sure you communicate it clearly, loudly, and often.
Be very specific on what you expect from them. Write down the expectations and make sure they fully understand what they are supposed to do and where they need to focus their time, energy, and resources. This will keep your staff focused and help them to give their best to the most important things.
4. Keep Them Accountable
Setting clear expectations is pointless if you don’t also keep them accountable to those expectations. If your staff is hitting their goal, let them know about it. If your team is off course and missing the mark, let them know about it. Don’t wait until something is way off before saying something. If you notice things moving in the wrong direction early on, make sure to say something so that they can course correct before going too far down the road.
Be specific with your feedback and make sure to use examples. You do need to be careful not to micromanage your staff. This is a great way to kill your team’s motivation. If you are going to correct a staff member, make sure that you’ve praised and encouraged a lot before and after. When mistakes are made, give a lot of grace, coaching, and direction. This lets them know that you’re working alongside them and that you’re in this together.
5. Be Their Biggest Cheerleader
Ministry can be hard, discouraging, and stressful. This is why it’s important to be your staff members biggest cheerleader. Encourage, encourage, and encourage. They need to know that you see their effort, wins, good ideas, and strengths. This makes it easier when it comes time to point out their failures and weaknesses. Even when you need to have a hard conversation with your staff, make sure to include specific things they are doing well and getting right.
Cheerleaders are loud and want the public to know who they are cheering for. Whenever you can, brag about your team in public settings. When you’re in front of others, point out the things your staff is doing well and how they are making a difference. Let the church know how thankful and blessed you are to lead an amazing staff.
It’s important to be fully sincere and not to over-exaggerate when encouraging your team. Those words of encouragement will keep your team inspired to want to give you their best.
6. Give Them the Right Resources
If you want your team to give you their best, you need to set them up for success by giving them the right resources. This might mean giving them a fair budget so that they can accomplish that project or fulfill a vision they have for their area of ministry.
Resources aren’t just dollars and cents. It could mean sending one of your staff to a conference to learn and to network, or it might mean signing up a staff member for a specific course to work on an area of weakness. It could also be giving your staff certain books to read in order to push them to learn and grow. There are so many great leadership resources out there, like podcasts or specific youtube videos that can help your team develop and grow. By giving your team the right resources, you’re investing in their potential and helping them grow and improve, which will inevitably bring out their best.
7. Pair Them With a Mentor
Sometimes the greatest way to pull the best from your staff is by having an active mentor or coach in their life helping them along the way. Find mentors that you can pair with each staff member. This might be an elder in the church that has strong leadership qualities, or someone you know that’s from a different church or ministry that has been where the staff member currently is.
The reality is that sometimes your staff members will get tired of hearing from you. Pairing a staff member with a mentor gives them a fresh voice to speak into their life and job. It would be a bonus if you could pair them with someone who is successful in their current role and position in another context. Pairing your Kids Director with a Kids Director that’s leading a killer children’s ministry will help give them specific ideas and ways to make their area better. Having your Worship Director meet regularly with a worship director that’s been leading for a decade will inspire your worship director to be better.
We all need coaching. Giving your staff mentors they can learn from will only make them better and pull out their best work.
There are many ways you can pull out the best in your team. The important thing is to remain relational, patient, and consistent. When your staff knows without a doubt that you value them, not just as an employee doing a job but as an individual with a beating heart, they will give you their best. And when your team gives you their best, they give the church their best, which makes everything and everyone around them better. Follow these suggestions and watch as your team produces outstanding results!
