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Team Leadership

Positional Versus Relational Authority

By Business, Church Planting, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

I was sitting with a staff member recently who presented me an idea. I had reservations about the idea instantly. It was actually a “red flag” idea and I knew it. I love ideas, however, and I’m consistently encouraging our staff to dream, take risks, and improve upon what we are doing. So I listened intently and we discussed the pros and cons of the idea. The next day this staff member came back to tell me he had thought about our discussion and had changed his mind and was going a different direction. I was thrilled with “his” decision.

In that instance I used relational authority….

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7 Ways to Prepare for More Effective Meetings

By Business, Church Planting, Encouragement, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

Successful projects and teams require meetings to accomplish goals and objectives of the organization. Busy leaders, however, are usually somewhat anti-meetings because of the interruption they appear to be in getting actual work done. I have found, however, that much of the frustration is found in the lack of proper preparation prior to the meeting. Although, when done well, the time spent in meetings can actually make projects better and strengthen the work of the organization. A large part of making meetings better is found in the preparation prior to the meeting.

Here are 7 ways to prepare for more effective meetings:

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How is Your Organization Handling Conflict?

By Business, Change, Church Planting, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

Recently the staff at Grace Community Church talked through conflict and its benefit for us. Sometimes an organization can become too polite with each other and conflict is avoided or ignored in an effort to protect the relationship or to avoid the tension conflict creates. Other times one person tends to control a situation without allowing other people’s input, either for selfish reasons or to keep conflict from developing. The problem with these approaches is that some of the best ideas are never implemented because we don’t push through the messiness of conflict to get to the right answers.

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Planning for Sustainment Within an Organization

By Business, Change, Church Planting, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

I think where I have landed, at least for now, is that bigger than the issue of evaluation, is the issue of continuance.  The fact is that I really do believe growth is occurring in individual lives, not just in the total numbers of people. We are accomplishing our objective to “make growing disciples of Jesus Christ”.  I still want to consider ways to validate that belief, and I have some ideas I’m working on there, but the key word for me now is sustainability.  I want us to be able to continue doing what we’ve been doing.

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Informal Evaluation Process

By Business, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Leadership

We are not a very formal organization at Grace Community Church. As our church and staff have grown, however, we have recognized the need for more structure. I try to keep an open door policy of leadership and frequently ask for input and try to provide feedback. I realize, however, that communication is one of the areas I continually need to improve upon, especially as our church grows larger.

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