Leadership
We can do Better
11:51 AM
I love getting feedback from the people around me. Whether
good or bad I think of it as a win anytime someone feels comfortable enough
with me to come and tell me something they think we can improve. The other day
I was having a conversation with someone and they were talking to me about
something that they would like to see us improve. It was a great conversation
and I got some fantastic perspective. (For post on fresh perspective go HERE or
HERE)
In the course of the conversation she said something that
was so simple yet so profound. She said, “we are doing good, but I just think
we can do better!” This is an area that we have been working on for a while. In
some ways we have been making it entirely too complicated. It was great to hear
from someone else on a couple of easy solutions on how to make what we do
better. For me, anytime someone is bought in to what we do enough to help us
improve it is a win!
I think in some ways good can often be a hindrance and
blindfold that holds us back and keeps us from seeing the steps to get to
great! In my experience it is very rarely an intentional thing.
Right now I am having some great conversations with our
Family Ministry Leadership about things that we should do better. Those
conversations have produced so much excitement amongst that team. The people
around you have a good perspective; we have to be willing to slow down enough
to hear it. Simple questions like “how
do you think we can improve this?” are huge.
Always assuming we know best will inevitably lead us to be
stuck in the trap of good and keep us from pushing through to great. If we
believe, as the church, that our job is the most important one then we owe to
our organization and to the people who have not yet encountered to be GREAT!
3 ways to press through to great!
Listen – Listen
to everyone that gives you feedback. Without question there will be
circumstances where you cannot fix it or you wouldn’t because it goes away from
the mission and vision of your organization. Always be intentional to listen to
everyone that wants to give you feedback. Especially if they are NOT like you.
If you only listen to people that are like you or people who tell you what you want to
hear you will only reach people like YOU!
Involve – Involve
people in the decision making process. Encourage critical thinking NOT
criticism. Guide conversations to lead people to come to you with solutions not
just problems. You may or may not act on what you are told, but value comes in
conversation that leads somewhere. Frustration comes when we act as though we have
let them register a complaint and then never make anysteps to “correct” it. People
will become bought in when they feel like you value them enough to say, “how
would you correct that?” It may also give you an opportunity to unpack vision a
little more and walk them through why you do some things a certain way!
Intentionally
Evaluate – Try to avoid using evaluation as a buzz phrase! Actually
evaluate what you are doing. To intentionally evaluate you will have to create parameters
to measure success. Then have intentional conversations about what was or was
not done to meet those goals. At oneChurch.tv we try to do everything with the
guest in mind, but if we are not attracting guest then we need to process
through everything we do that does not reach a guest. This makes getting to the
heart of issues a quicker and more visible process.
We may be doing good, but I know we can do better! What
steps do you need to take to get there?
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