Leadership Skill: Team Building

Category: Leader Skills

As a leader one of your responsibilities is to steer the Body in following God's design and
purposes for the Church. This is accomplished by modeling it in your own ministry, by
structuring for it to happen, and by equipping others to align with God.

Biblical Basis for Teams in Ministry:

Just as the varying parts of the human body need each other to best accomplish its work, so
the Body of Christ needs to function interdependently, like a team. (Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor.
12:12-27). God so designed the Church that it "grows and builds itself up in love, as each
part does its work" (Eph. 4:16).

By following God's design you will:

 accomplish more than if working on one's own in terms of possibly both quantity and
quality

 have varying perspectives brought to the table that help one see more clearly

 bring a sense of accountability to individuals that help them and the whole Body grow

 affirm and encourage one another in their walk with God

Leaders, due to personality and background some of you might tend to want to go it alone.
You are either a more independent type or a perfectionist who is threatened by people
wanting to do things a different way than what meets up to your standards. For others, you
will tend to thrive on this kind of group endeavor. You are a people person or the type who
looks more at the big picture. Regardless of your bent, you need to remember that God
designed the church to operate this way.

Think About It:

How can you better line up with God's design without losing the uniquenesses He built into
you?

Biblical Principles to Guide Teamwork:

1. Assess and utilize the unique strengths/gifting each member brings to team and pull on
that (personality, spiritual gifts, experience, previous training, etc.).
 ... It's not about losing ourselves to gel into a homogenous entity. (1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4:16)

2. Accept differences of opinions as a valuable asset, not a liability.

... As you work through differences, you have a greater potential of arriving at what is
best for all. (Phil. 2:1-4)

3. Assume attitudes of servanthood.

... It's not about one person rising to the top and controlling, although you often will have
someone who facilitates the process to keep you on track, but that is not a hierarchy in
action. (Phil. 2:5-8)

4. Acknowledge God in all you do.

... Pray and worship together so as a team you are trusting God for direction in all you
do, not depending on yourselves. (Prov. 3:6-7)

5. Align with the plan and purposes to which you believe God has brought you.

... Keep it about God, not you. Seeking to align with God over conforming with one
another is the greatest deterrent to infighting or letting egos get in the way. (Isa. 48:17)

When you follow these principles you build:

 comradeship centered around the Lord, not what you have in common or because you
all agree

 communication based on honesty, not to appease or avoid conflict or manipulate people

to one's point of view

 collaboration aimed at finding what's best, not merely compromising to fit individuals'
agendas or get something out of it for one's self

This is a team that makes a difference for they have learned to adapt for the glory of God
and the advancement of His work.
 Leadership Team Building
In order to have an effective leadership team, you must maintain unity within the group.
Dennis McCallum

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X enos Christian Fellowship's home churches (small groups) are each led by

teams of leaders instead of a single leader. Team leadership has a number of

advantages, but can cause problems as well. A successful home church (group)
must maintain the unity of its leaders. Disunited leaderships are nearly always
incapable of leading home church growth. The strength of relationships among
leaders directly affects the quality of home church meetings. Strong home churches
nearly always have leaders who are skilled encouragers and visionaries and possess
the maturity to work as a team. For all these reasons, it is essential that home church
leaders learn to deal with their conflicts maturely and quickly.

When working with fellow leaders, the following considerations are helpful:

1. Encouraging fellow leaders

a. Can you name personal characteristics you admire in each of your fellow leaders? If
not, you need to spend time with God pleading for a more realistic and fair
assessment of your colleagues.

b. Can you name other leaders' accomplishments you appreciate? Again, pray for your
eyes to be opened, and for the humility to admit others' value to the ministry.

c. Have you articulated any of these points to your fellow leaders in person during the
past couple of months? If not, they will find criticisms and advice hard to accept from
you if you are weak in encouragement.
 d. Pray for vision for each of your fellow leaders. Ask God to show you the importance
of their unique contribution. Then look for an opportunity to express your vision to
each in a non-showy and realistic fashion.

e. Pray together for each other. Make your prayer times opportunities to review what
God has bestowed on the church through each of your leaders, not just a time for
fretting and problem solving.

2. Resolving Personal Conflicts

a. Take time to spell out and resolve conflicts as they arise. Help each other resolve
personal problems.

b. Encourage each other whenever possible. Controversy needs to be balanced with

encouragement, kindness, and approval.

c. Take time for positive social relating with other leaders. Spending time with your
fellow leaders should be a priority

d. If an irresolvable problem arises, seek help from your group's supervisor, coach, or
pastor.

e. Leaders should agree on a realistic, hardworking standard for home church

leadership. Leaders who are not living by such a standard should be confronted face-
to-face, rather than critiqued behind their back, and challenged to step up.

f. If you feel you must offer criticism to a fellow leader, your perception of any
shortcomings on the part of other leaders should be objective, and serious. Avoid
picking at each other for unimportant issues, which will lead to a critical atmosphere.

g. Observing the principle of the "man on the Spot".

1. You should exercise extreme caution when you encounter negative thoughts
regarding another leader's ministry work, especially if that work is carried on
outside of your own cell. This is because the man (or woman) on the spot is
the one who is usually best able to judge what is happening.

The value of other leaders in this situation is mainly that of questioning the
situation, rather than defining it. In other words, through a questioning
process, the other leaders should bring out any doubts that they have about
the ministry of the one on the spot. However, if the answers given are
sensible and correspond with objective fact, they should be believed. Also, if
a leader contradicts an account given by a member, we should be disposed
to believe the leader over the member, according to I Timothy 5:19. The
passage actually speaks of elders though, and other evidence may cause us
to believe the member over the leader. We should certainly report any
suspicious incident to our overseer.

It will often be necessary to re-assess your impression after talking to the one
on the spot. If doubt lingers, you should usually keep it to yourself until the
situation is completely clarified.

We as leaders should be wary of tendencies found in most people to second

guess other workers and to feel that "I know best." We should be reluctant to
 meddle in the decision making process of the leadership of another cell
beyond questioning those leaders.

2. All leaders should submit to questioning of their ministry by other leaders—

even questioning of a close nature. It is by being questioned that we
reexamine our own position, and thus benefit from other leaders.

A leader who refuses to be questioned, or who takes offense at being

questioned, is displaying an immature attitude that contradicts team
leadership. Such refusal becomes an issue in itself, and must be resolved
before a reasonable level of cooperation can be expected. While any leader
may react defensively at first, we have no excuse for continuing in such a
posture. Ultimately, refusal to be questioned by fellow leaders is grounds for
dismissal from leadership.

Don't withdraw from a leader who flares up when questioned. This problem
won't go away, and must be resolved at any cost. Get help from the coach or
pastor if needed.
h. Commitment to success. Each home church leader should commit himself to the goal
of seeing real success in the work of all of the other leaders. Unless we can honestly
affirm that this is our goal, nothing we say is reliable.

i. Communicating Respect. Other leaders should be viewed as colleagues, and treated

with all due respect. There should be an assumption of basic competence, and this
should be communicated in the demeanor and the words used in a Home Church
leaders' meeting. How is respect communicated?

3. Large Leadership Meetings. It is usually a good idea to have a home church leaders'
meeting chaired by one of the older leaders. Chairing a meeting does not connote any
superiority of position; it is only done for the sake of order and direction in the meeting.

a. Focusing the ministry. Unless the leaders are all focusing the majority of their
attention and efforts on work that is needed and effective, frustration and
negativity will inevitably result. Ascertain whether the bulk of leaders' and
workers' time and effort are being used to focus on problems, or on positive,
strategically sound ministry. (See Clinton or Lawrence's quadrants)

1. Urgent and Important

2. Important but not urgent
3. Urgent but not Important
4. Neither urgent nor important

Ineffective leaders' meetings tend to focus on Quadrants 1 and 3. Sometimes, we waste

time dwelling on Quadrant 4. We should make sure to prioritize Quadrant #2.

Follow the principle of focusing on the responsive field. Within each ministry sphere, identify
the most promising and responsive people at this particular time. Avoid the three most
common errors in this area:
i. Trying to force feed a believer (or non-Christian) who doesn't want it.
ii. Ignoring good growing Christians, because they are doing alright.
iii. Greasing the squeaky wheel—expending all of the work of the church (and all of the
discussion time in leader's meeting) on people who demand and complain the loudest,
without considering others who may demand less, but who are more promising.

4. Dealing with Negativity. Every leadership team and every leader has to deal with
negativity and defeatism from time to time. These attitudes are damaging in the extreme to
the morale of the Home Church and the workforce. When dealing with negativity, remember
the following.

a. Distinguish between negativity and realism. The admission of authentic problems is

essential before they can be resolved. Every problem area, however, should be
appraised without exaggeration, and the power of God to work through the situation
should be expressly admitted. Considering the power of God, if our admitted
problems are leaving us depressed and defeated, have we realistically assessed the
situation?

b. Leaders need to remind each other that Christian work, like all war, is full of reversals
and unexpected misfortune. Yet there are unexpected victories as well! The setbacks
we see today should be seen in the light of the overall history of God's working with
the Home Church. It is usually easy to see that there have been periodic reversals,
but overall progress.

c. Negativity regarding other leaders' ministries is particularly suspicious (see VII,A,2

above—the man on the spot).

d. We should try to verbally balance negative facts with positive ones in the leader's
meeting. It is common to have most of the people in the Home Church earnestly
seeking growth, but to focus on the few who are uninterested or in defeat.

e. A leader who is projecting negativity and defeatism in the leaders meeting should be
reminded to express faith in God.

f. When real problems arise, are the leaders only bemoaning the situation, or are they
also creating steps to correct the situation? If no steps are possible, why spend much
time discussing that particular situation? While we may need to mourn together at
times, we also need to move on to the positive agenda of the church.

When your leadership team is unified and focused on needed ministry, accountable to each
other, well-motivated, and trusting God to act, you can expect good things to happen. If any
of these things are missing, you need look no further when wondering what's wrong with
your group.

10 Steps to Developing a Powerful Team

Leadership means influence.
Effective leaders know they influence by intentionally equipping and empowering
others. Ephesians 4:7-13 clearly calls leaders to equip (empower) people so the
body of Christ can grow to maturity.
In Developing the Leader within You, John Maxwell says: "The one who influences
others to follow only is a leader with certain limitations. The one who influences
others to lead others is a leader without limitations." Equipping or empowering
people changes followers into leaders.
While they see the importance of empowering others, many leaders struggle with
how to put the Word into practice. Here are 10 steps to equipping people and
developing a powerful team.
1. Define and communicate responsibilities that challenge.
Communicate the big picture and how people fit into it. It is much easier to put a
jigsaw puzzle together if you can see the completed picture on the puzzle box. It is
important for people to have a clear picture of the goals and objectives and how they
fit into the plan.
Next, communicate specific responsibilities to the team members. What do you
expect from them? Provide a clear ministry description and allow their input. A good
ministry description states specific responsibilities, how much authority the team
members have, who they are accountable to, what benefits they have, and the
length of time they are to serve.
Help them take ownership of the goals, tasks, and responsibilities. Encourage their
input and provide the opportunity for them to set their own goals as part of the total
plan.
The goal of the leader should be to encourage common people to accomplish
uncommon things. People who are challenged to become great–and are given the
opportunity to do so–usually succeed.
In The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, Edward
Lawler III and Patricia Renwick list several factors that contribute to people's
excitement and motivation:

1. The chance to do something that makes you feel good about yourself.
2. The chance to accomplish something worthwhile.
3. The chance to learn new things.
4. The opportunity to develop new skills.
5. The amount of freedom you have to do your job.
6. The chance to do the things you do best.

In the same book psychologist David Berlow speculates that people find meaning
and enthusiasm when opportunities provide the following:

1. A chance to be tested, to make it on one's own.

2. A chance to take part in a social experiment.
3. A chance to do something well.
4. A chance to do something good.
5. A chance to change the way things are.
2. Give authority equal to the responsibility.
One of the most frequent complaints of team members is that they are given
responsibility without corresponding authority. Leaders need to be willing to trust
those they ask to do a job by giving them the authority necessary to do the job. How
much authority should be given. Enough to get the job done. This authority should be
communicated to those with whom the leaders work.
Once you have given the job and the authority, you must not short-circuit the
process. Do not permit those under the team member to come directly to you. This
will only frustrate team members and set them up to fail.
Increase authority when performance earns it and responsibility requires it. As
people increase in skills and effectiveness, increase their authority. This will raise
morale and increase the effectiveness of the team.
3. Establish standards for excellence.
Every team should have a set of realistic operating standards. Some specific
standards that will increase team effectiveness might include these:

1. We honor our commitments.

2. We believe in being people of character and integrity.
3. We are faithful to our responsibilities.
4. We are wise stewards of our time, talents, and resources.
5. We work together as a team.
6. We agree to disagree, but not disagreeably.
7. We are committed to ongoing training and development.
8. We are committed to excellence.
9. We are committed to results, not just performance.

As a leader, you must set the example. The standards will become team standards
only when they see you maintaining them.
4. Train workers in the skills necessary to meet the standards.
Make training and mentoring a priority. Training is the key to an effective team. No
team wins without training and practice. A good leader never does the job alone.
Churches that are in decline have leaders who see their jobs as doing the ministry
for the people and vice versa. However, in growing churches, leaders equip and
mobilize people for the work of ministry.
Use a variety of methods to make training an ongoing process. Training can be done
by mentoring, on-the-job training, in the classroom, in team meetings, to name a few.
The essence of the training process is:

 I do it.
 I do it, and you watch.
 You do it, and I watch.
 You do it.
 You do it, and train someone else.
5. Provide the knowledge and information people need to succeed.
They need information about organizational goals, plans, and changes. Workers are
motivated when they know what is happening in the organization. It makes them feel
important and valuable, helps them desire to do a better job, and enables them to do
a better job. Without information, people cannot take responsibility, will not be as
creative, and will not be as productive.
6. Provide appropriate, positive feedback. Regularly reinforce positive performance.
Compliments, cards, notes, rewards, and advancement are some ways to reinforce
excellent performance. Feedback should be tailored to the person, performance, and
situation. Morale and effectiveness increase when people receive regular feedback.
When it is necessary to confront or clarify feedback, keep in mind these guidelines:

1. Confront privately, not publicly.

2. Deal with the situation as soon as possible.
3. Address only one issue at a time, and be specific.
4. Discuss only what the person can do something about.
5. Direct your criticism to the action, not the person.
6. Avoid sarcasm and anger.
7. Try to get the person to admit responsibility.
8. Sandwich criticism between compliments.

7. Recognize and reward efforts and achievements.

You get what you reward. Make heroes of your people. Public recognition and
rewards are essential. Shine the spotlight on accomplishments. Pictures, awards,
speeches, plaques, and newsletters are just a few ways to recognize
accomplishments. Everyone has an invisible sign hung around his neck that says,
PMMFI (pum-fee) -- Please Make Me Feel Important.
Recognition does that and builds a better team.
Guidelines for recognizing and rewards efforts and achievements:

1. Tailor recognition to the person and the achievement.

2. Make recognition timely.
3. Recognize people, as well as their accomplishments.
4. Recognize them as members of a team, as well as individuals.
5. Make sure the recognition conveys sincere appreciation.

8. Trust your team.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Trust men, and they will be true to you; treat them
greatly, and they will show themselves great."
Building trusting relationships is essential. A leader can demonstrate trust in many
ways:

1. Be sensitive to needs, interests, and concerns.

2. Listen to ideas, dreams, and plans.
3. Delegate, or trust, with significant assignments or responsibilities.
4. Share your dreams, visions, and plans.
5. Allow the team to be a part of the goal-setting and problem-solving process.
6. Be honest and open about your own mistakes and vulnerabilities.

Distinguish between trust in character and trust in ability. Some have strong, mature
character but little ability. Others have less mature character by great ability. Trusting
people at the highest degree possible helps them develop a higher level of both
character and ability.
9. Give permission to fail.
View failure as a growing experience. The only failure is one we do not learn from.
Establish some guidelines for failure: It is OK to make a mistake. It is OK to fail if we
are doing our best. When we fail, we can talk about what went wrong, what we can
learn, and how to do better.
When team members know they are expected to succeed but that it is OK to fail,
they are more creative and risk more. This is a positive environment for a team.
When people experiment and take calculated risks in their responsibilities, morale
increases and results are greater.
10. Treat others with respect.
Treating team members with respect increases motivation. People work best when
they feel valued and respected. Demonstrate your commitment and loyalty the same
way you expect others to be committed and loyal to you as the leader.
In Diane Tracy's 10 Steps to Empowerment: A Common-Sense Guide to Managing
People, J.C. Staehle lists–in order of importance–primary causes of discontent
among workers that leaders can avoid:

1. Failure to give credit for suggestions.

2. Failure to correct grievances.
3. Failure to encourage.
4. Criticism of employees in front of other people.
5. Failure to ask employees their opinions.
6. Failure to inform employees of their progress.
7. Favoritism.

A leader can show respect for team members by asking for their suggestions,
keeping them informed, treating them fairly, encouraging them, and acknowledging
their accomplishments.
Begin today to put these 10 steps into practice, and your team will become a team
that wins!
Clancy Hayes is training coordinator and district liaison for the Sunday School
Department, Springfield, Missouri. Sunday School. All rights reserved. Used with
permission.
Replicating Jesus’ Team-Building Strategy
Annual leadership development retreat

Build an annual lay-leadership development event into the church calendar. Encourage everyone
to attend.

Put lay-leadership development on the agenda

Invest one-half hour of each monthly business meeting in lay development. This will pay rich
dividends for years to come.

Preach lay-leadership development

Scripture offers many examples including Jesus, Moses, Joshua, Joseph, John, Peter, and Paul.

Share personal testimony

Speak often in the pulpit about how God is shaping you as a Christian leader. Personal testimonies
are even more effective when shared in small groups.

Give books away

Some will read books and profit from the experience. Others will not get around to reading the
books you give them. Still a book in their home, office, or business serves as a reminder that
leadership development is expected and appreciated.

Tear sheets or quotes

Tear or photocopy sheets out of magazines and newspapers. Mail them to people and watch them
respond positively. Send quotes by e-mail.

Spend time with the inner circle

Regularly schedule meetings with key players. When you are with them, share ideas, programs,
and dreams. One hour at lunch can often revolutionize persons and cause them to support a
project.

Check your strategies

In this article reread the section “Cherish the Uniqueness of People” which deals with walking the
walk, talking the talk, and the walking the talk. A leader leads, especially in character and faith.

See potential

See and express your ideas about the potential of persons in your decision group and throughout
your church.
Train, mentor, coach, and ask for support

Occasionally have personal conversations with every member of the decision group. Explain the
need and plan for lay development.

Promote service as an opportunity to grow

The many personal benefits of Christian service are seldom discussed. Many servants of the church
have never been reminded of the benefits and satisfactions.

Practice Jesus’ development model

Jesus used every conversation and ministry event to develop the disciples. He practiced the idea
that every situation has potential for learning something new about ministry.

Grow your soul as you develop others

Teaching, leading, and preaching provide incredible learning opportunities for yourself. Use them
and let your people know.

Emphasize synergism and ownership

Synergism means two can do more than twice what one can. Ownership means persons work on
an idea until they feel they have a vested interest in a plan or project.