Live Blog From ReThink Conference – 53 Leadership Quotes From Dan Reiland

For the next three days, I will be live blogging from the ReThink Leadership Conference in Atlanta, GA.  ReThink, open exclusively to senior pastors, campus pastors and executive pastors, is a unique gathering of church leaders who are committed to solving the biggest challenges facing your church and the Church.

Injoy Stewardship Solutions has dispatched me to attend this amazing event as a way to invest in your growth.  They also want to invest in your leadership by offering you our latest FREE ebook How To Raise Big Money For Big Projects by clicking HERE for your complimentary copy.

Today’s breakout speaker was the incredible Dan Reiland.  Dan serves as Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church® in Lawrenceville, Georgia. He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church in San Diego, then as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.

His session was entitled 5 Essential Elements To Lead Your Staff Well.  I could not miss this!  The following are 53 leadership quotes I captured during his informative session:

1. In firing, you know what to do. You just don’t want to do it. In hiring, you don’t know what to do but you want to do it.
2. 5 Categories Of Hiring – Culture. Selection. Development. Performance. Teamwork.
3. Culture is who you are, what you value, and how do you get things done.
4. Culture determines how you see staff. How you see staff determines how you treat staff.
5. I see staff as a group to be developed.
6. Lead with vision, not job descriptions.
7. I sometimes get caught in the busyness of the ministry (The What) I miss the mission (The Why).
8. Trust is the foundation of empowerment. Micromanagement and control kills trust.
9. If you make the same mistake twice, you’re not learning.
10. Great staff want to be trusted.
11. Pay attention to morale.
12. Let the staff play and breathe.
13. In selection, you want to know what you want and know what you have to offer.
14. Wild-Eyed, No Plan B Vision – on why people love working at 12Stone
15. Leadership development – the second reason on why people love working at 12Stone
16. What you get people with is how you keep them.
17. When you can’t recruit with vision you have to buy them.
18. Never lower your standards. Establish a hiring criteria.
19. It’s better to go without than hire the wrong person.
20. Feed the mission, not the machine. It’s human nature to try to hire to relive pressure. Hire as a growth engine.
21. You’re not hiring an administrative assistant to make your life easier. You’re hiring an administrative assistant to make you more productive.
22. A great assistant will actually make you work harder.
23. Chemistry wins the day. Assume competence. Identify competence before the conversation gets serious.
24. Resumes are two-dimensional at best.
25. What chemistry do I need on my team?
26. You want to hire people who make things happen. We say, ‘Somebody just showed up.’
27. Embrace the 2X Factor. Pour twice as much in as you expect out. You do this because you care.
28. You can’t develop people well if you don’t care. Not everybody cares.
29. Caring isn’t automatic and it’s not natural. You can’t teach somebody to care.   If you ask God to help you care, He will help you.
30. You can’t fake caring.
31. Teach leadership with simplicity and consistency.
32. Coach people to win. You’re helping people become better, not different.
33. We’ve made coaching to complicated. The secret to being a great coach – Pay Attention.
34. A simple plan is one thing.
35. Champion progress, not performance.
36. Don’t apologize for accountability. You have created or allowed your current circumstances.
37. Great teams are not afraid to have high standards.
38. I’m amazed in church how we avoid tough conversations. Most churches are one tough decision away from a breakthrough.
39. Most church leaders with their redemptive hearts know what they need to do. They just don’t want to do them.
40. Trust is the core, the epicenter, the bedrock of teamwork.
41. We have 20 infusions of leadership a year with our team.
42. I took staff, ministry architecture, and ministry development when I came on staff.
43. Equipping is training people for a specific ministry task. Developing is pouring into an individual so they become bigger, better person. Equipping is on the church’s agenda. Developing is on the person’s agenda.
44. Get a group. Pick a book. Ask two questions. What did you learn? How are you applying what you learn?
45. The person test of who can lead a cohort is who can gather cohorts.
46. What makes this work (cohorts) – A catalytic leader, a hungry group, the presence of the Holy Spirit.
47. Absolutely we tend to hire young. Half the staff is under 30.
48. The most stability at 12Stone is in senior leadership.
49. We hire according to our value. We feel part of our calling is to raise up the next generation of leaders.
50. If I’m working harder for your growth than you are, do you want to be on the team?
51. No one gets hired on a campus staff unless the campus pastor says, ‘Yes” but I can veto it.
52. When we (Dan and Senior Pastor Kevin Myers) have it right, the staff can run as fast as they can.
53. If you don’t keep leadership simple, you’ll quit.

What an incredible session by a great leader, Dan Reiland!  Up next is will be today’s closing session.

As previously mentioned, INJOY Stewardship Solutions would like to offer you the FREE resource How To Raise Big Money For Big Projects.  Click HERE or on the image to the left for your complimentary copy.