Focus (2010.08): Clarify team purpose
16/08/10 21:38 Filed in: Focus
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1-2-14 Shinkawa Cho, Higashi Kurume Shi, Tokyo 203-0013
How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?
Your client is talking about what’s happening with his goal to plan more effectively. You easily relate to this—a few years back you had a similar goal. Since then, you’ve done research on planning, coached 27 clients who are working on planning, and developed a 5-phase planning framework.
As you listen to your client, you think, “He’s at phase 2.” Your client pauses, and you hear yourself say, “As best I can tell, you’re in phase 2—you’re working and you have a plan. Since you don’t yet have a good documented plan, you follow your gut more than your plan.”
Then you recognize that you just described your client’s reality—something you don’t want to do. Because you want your client thinking, and when you describe your client’s reality, he’s not thinking.
Question: How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?
Leaders, pursue excellence
You’re grateful for what God has done for you. So, you want to serve God, in part by pursuing excellence for Him. As a ministry leader, you know that one type of excellence you want to pursue is organizational excellence. Good.
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence? Here are 4 things you can do:
(1) Make sure staff are cared for. To care for staff on a personal level, demonstrate interest in them, have fun together, and provide life coaching to help staff balance work/home. To care for staff on a professional level, demonstrate interest in their ministry, encourage them to reflect, and provide support, encouragement and accountability.
(2) Make sure staff participate in professional development. What kind of professional development? In professional development that addresses current job responsibilities and that helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals. In professional development that involves staff in reflection and follow-up. In professional development that helps your staff do ministry more effectively.
(3) Make sure staff meetings target mission achievement. Make sure each meeting’s purpose is documented, targets mission achievement, and is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda. Have those attending the meeting collaboratively develop meeting guidelines that define desired meeting dynamics. And schedule separate meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.
(4) Make sure staff understand, are involved in, and are focused on organizational improvement. How can you do this? By explaining organizational improvement, encouraging ownership, involving staff in developing improvement plans, and providing the support and accountability staff need to carry out improvement plans. Here's the acid test: If ministry leadership dropped of the planet, would the plans still get implemented? If so, then you have an effective organizational improvement plan.
Bottom line: Pursue excellence.
Clarify team purpose
To help team members work even more effectively, clarify your team’s purpose. To do this, you can do 3 things:
(1) Assess your team's purpose statement. How? By rating the items below. Use the following scale: Yes • Maybe • No
Our team purpose statement...
___ Was developed by the team.
___ Is documented.
___ Identifies the team name.
___ Targets mission achievement.
___ Identifies how the team contributes to mission achievement.
___ Is understandable to those on the team and those not on the team.
___ Uses active verbs.
___ Uses precise wording.
___ Is user-friendly.
___ Is 25 words or less.
(2) Use your assessment data to enhance your team's purpose statement. Here’s a pattern you can use: The [Team Name] contributes to achievement of [Organization Name]'s mission by...
(3) Use your purpose statement to identify 5 things your team addresses and 5 things your team doesn’t address.
Help your team target mission achievement. Clarify your team's purpose statement. Today.
1-2-14 Shinkawa Cho, Higashi Kurume Shi, Tokyo 203-0013
How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?
Your client is talking about what’s happening with his goal to plan more effectively. You easily relate to this—a few years back you had a similar goal. Since then, you’ve done research on planning, coached 27 clients who are working on planning, and developed a 5-phase planning framework.
As you listen to your client, you think, “He’s at phase 2.” Your client pauses, and you hear yourself say, “As best I can tell, you’re in phase 2—you’re working and you have a plan. Since you don’t yet have a good documented plan, you follow your gut more than your plan.”
Then you recognize that you just described your client’s reality—something you don’t want to do. Because you want your client thinking, and when you describe your client’s reality, he’s not thinking.
Question: How often do you refrain from describing your client’s reality?
- Consistently?
- Usually?
- Sometimes?
- Rarely?
- Remembering that my client is the expert in his life—not me. He knows his reality.
- Remembering that my goal is to get my client thinking about his reality.
Leaders, pursue excellence
You’re grateful for what God has done for you. So, you want to serve God, in part by pursuing excellence for Him. As a ministry leader, you know that one type of excellence you want to pursue is organizational excellence. Good.
What can you do to pursue organizational excellence? Here are 4 things you can do:
(1) Make sure staff are cared for. To care for staff on a personal level, demonstrate interest in them, have fun together, and provide life coaching to help staff balance work/home. To care for staff on a professional level, demonstrate interest in their ministry, encourage them to reflect, and provide support, encouragement and accountability.
(2) Make sure staff participate in professional development. What kind of professional development? In professional development that addresses current job responsibilities and that helps individual staff members achieve their annual growth goals. In professional development that involves staff in reflection and follow-up. In professional development that helps your staff do ministry more effectively.
(3) Make sure staff meetings target mission achievement. Make sure each meeting’s purpose is documented, targets mission achievement, and is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda. Have those attending the meeting collaboratively develop meeting guidelines that define desired meeting dynamics. And schedule separate meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.
(4) Make sure staff understand, are involved in, and are focused on organizational improvement. How can you do this? By explaining organizational improvement, encouraging ownership, involving staff in developing improvement plans, and providing the support and accountability staff need to carry out improvement plans. Here's the acid test: If ministry leadership dropped of the planet, would the plans still get implemented? If so, then you have an effective organizational improvement plan.
Bottom line: Pursue excellence.
Clarify team purpose
To help team members work even more effectively, clarify your team’s purpose. To do this, you can do 3 things:
(1) Assess your team's purpose statement. How? By rating the items below. Use the following scale: Yes • Maybe • No
Our team purpose statement...
___ Was developed by the team.
___ Is documented.
___ Identifies the team name.
___ Targets mission achievement.
___ Identifies how the team contributes to mission achievement.
___ Is understandable to those on the team and those not on the team.
___ Uses active verbs.
___ Uses precise wording.
___ Is user-friendly.
___ Is 25 words or less.
(2) Use your assessment data to enhance your team's purpose statement. Here’s a pattern you can use: The [Team Name] contributes to achievement of [Organization Name]'s mission by...
(3) Use your purpose statement to identify 5 things your team addresses and 5 things your team doesn’t address.
Help your team target mission achievement. Clarify your team's purpose statement. Today.