Set your staff, volunteers, teams, groups and department members up for success:

1. Don’t micromanage. It may ruin your goals or vision.

I have seen this both in the sacred and secular communities. It is an unhealthy form of leadership. It can be viewed as disrespectful, often hinders the growth of the staff or volunteer member and can drive people out of the door. While there is a healthy balance in leadership to oversee, set boundaries, develop and cast vision and so on, micromanagers seem to have a need to control everything. They often don’t leave room for the ideas or feedback of others. This can be very damaging to the cohesiveness of the team, group or department. It can create gossip among peers, frustration for the person or people enduring it and consistent turnover. I’m reminded of Jesus telling the disciples not to lord over people. [Matthew 20:25-26] Lording over can be a form of micromanaging.

Help is often needed for the serious micromanager to address the underlying reasons for that mindset and behavior as they can often be people who think they are doing what’s best for the people and for the cause when in fact they may be harmful to it.

2. Be clear about the role and the responsibilities.

When you are interviewing someone to serve/work on your team, group or within your department, make certain that YOU are clear on the responsibilities of the role, salary or non-paid, and so on. I can hear you saying, Lisa, that goes without saying. It should. One of the #1 situations I hear as a credentialed coach from people ready to transition out of a job/career or out of a non-profit is what they said in the interview is not what they experienced.

As a detailed person I ask questions and pray before saying yes to anything. I want to be sure that I am clear on what I am being asked to do so that I can pray about it and make the right decision. While this has always worked, I was once on the receiving end of a position that was not clearly defined. I asked questions, advised of the concern I was having, made suggestions as to how to fix those concerns and was often left unanswered. It was a difficult and frustrating situation to be in. Clarity of role and responsibilities, in addition to some tweaking would have stopped this from happening.

3. Be specific in your gratitude not just a thank you.

When I was the President and Founder of a non-profit I had a great group of people working with me. I would not only say, Thank you and give gifts but I was specific in outlining the ways they served that benefited the organization, was a blessing to me personally and ways that I saw their continued growth in taking on new challenges and so on. People appreciate a Thank you but when you go a step beyond the verbal thank you and an appreciation gift (books, candles, gift cards and such) and you actually list out the contribution(s) they made that made a difference, that helps them to continue to serve at their best and to know that you, as the leader, really do SEE them.

4. Address issues privately not publicly.

Address the group but when it comes to specific concerns with a person, address them privately not publicly in doing so you will maintain respect and order. I was asked to pray about joining a particular board. After meetings with the organizational head, I asked to sit in on a board meeting while I was in the process of making a decision. This meeting was being lead by the person I would be working more closely with as a board member. I was concerned to hear this person publicly address another member about a personal concern that created their absenteeism from the last board meeting. It was not a conversation to be had in front of all of us. While I am a person who believes in addressing problems up front, I am not for disrespecting people. Reminds me of Matthew 7:12. None of us would want to receive an unnecessary public rebuke.

5. Proper placement of people is critical

This is one of the biggest pitfalls leaders can make. I have been there so I know this firsthand. I grew from that mistake determined never to do it again. Often there are shortages of people to serve/work in various areas and as such leaders find themselves putting people in roles they may be qualified to do on paper but lack in character. Or, people who lack in healthy communication or other soft skills. They may have some helpful skills but those skills and spiritual gifts don’t align with the role they are being asked to do. All of this creates significant problems. That problem can create havoc on your teams or one-on-one with the leader and that individual. I believe that if you don’t have the RIGHT person for the role then you may need to hold off on starting that area until you do, or temporarily working it yourself. Better to wait then to place the wrong person and end up with major problems such as other people leaving.

6. Be available for feedback and questions

Any leader worth their salt will be open to feedback. Everyone will not agree with your decisions and there will be one or two that may not even like you. But always be open to hearing feedback and to people asking questions. Those questions may be for clarification but they may also be because they disagree with you. Either way, a good leader can handle receiving feedback and questions. I can tell when a leader really doesn’t want to be asked a question because he or she really views it as being questioned rather than being asked a question. Did you get that? Receiving feedback can stop a potential problem in the making. Being asked questions will make the people serving/working under your leadership, even better. It helps them to be successful.

I hope these are great reminders for current leaders. I hope this is encouraging for emerging leaders. No one gets into anything hoping to fail. All over the Word of God we see people God used and they wanted to do well, to succeed; to bring glory to God.

Cheers to humble, imperfect leaders desiring to do their best,