Most church leaders received little or no training on how to build a healthy staff culture. This starts with being a healthy leader, but also speaks to hiring for culture and knowing how to identify someone who is toxic to your culture.
Tim Stevens has spent 35 years leading in ministry settings—and has been involved in hiring more than 200 people. He served for 20 years as Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church, then 6 years helping pastors all across the country with staffing issues in his role at Vanderbloemen. He has recently moved to Chicago and is the Executive Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church.
As part of the Thrive Conference, a FREE 3-day online church conference, Tim shared the following are 22 Principles For Getting, Building, and Guarding a Great Culture. Whether you lead a business, athletic organization, non-profit, or church, these principles are timeless and help you lead more effectively.
- There aren’t any eggshells.
- There is strong communication.
- You are welcome to change… People are more open to change because they’ve seen it well-managed in the past.
- Living A Life Of Margin… Margin gives us a chance to breath.
- Know yourself. Know what breaths energy into you. Know what drains energy from you.
- You have to be able to control your calendar… Put the priority items first.
- So often the things that are priority in our life don’t get priority on our calendar.
- If you don’t have margin, you can’t lead from a place of grace and a life of love to the people around you. And if you can’t lead from a place of grace and love you can’t lead a healthy team.
- Hiring from within (vs) hiring from without. There’s solid reasons to do both.
- Hiring from within offers fewer surprises.
- When a ministry area is stuck or in decline, don’t hire from within because you’re likely to repeat what is already not working.
- Outside hires are more annoying than inside hires because they ask questions no one else is asking… Sometimes when someone is asking questions, the reason the area has not been growing is because no one asked those questions.
- I pretty-much ignore resumes… Resumes are incomplete.
- You can’t quickly change someone’s character.
- Stalk your next hire on social media… what they’ve made publicly available… it predicts future job performance… it is more useful than interviews or resumes… How they represent yourself on social media is likely how they will represent your church.
- Have a once-a-week meeting with the entire staff focused on building culture… No decisions but has 3 parts – 1. Stories (Wins). Makes you think bigger than your own area. 2. Spotlight. Spotlight one person and spend 5 minutes to ask them anything. Then, have people tell them why you’re glad they’re on the team. 3. Stuff. The biggest breakdown in church culture is lack of communication… It feels devaluing when staff members don’t have information or advanced notice… Information makes you feel valued.
- This one-hour, very expensive meeting was the important thing we did to build culture.
- Where are we unclear and where can I bring clarity?
- Culture shifts are hard. People stay where they are because it’s comfortable.
- You can’t mandate culture. You can protect it.
- Really good leaders, good managers listen to their people.
- Culture is built by modeling.
To watch more sessions with leaders like John Maxwell, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Simon Sinek and more, click HERE to watch and enjoy the conference.
My book Timeless: 10 Enduring Practices Of Apex Leaders is available for purchase. If you have ever wanted to become the leader God created you to be, this book is for you! By combining leadership lessons from biblical heroes like Jesus, Daniel and Joseph, along with modern day leaders like Bill Gates, Nick Saban, Kobe Bryant and multiple pastors, Timeless will equip and inspire you. This book is not to be read alone. Discussion questions are included in each chapter allowing you to develop those in your circle of influence. Click HERE or on the image provided and order your copies TODAY.