Any successful church or organization is built on a good team. In fact, an organization can only go as far as the strength of the team. With a good team that is unified, anything is possible. Complicated things become simple, and the team rallies around the cause to make things happen. With a disjointed team, even simple things become complicated, and it becomes very difficult to move anything forward in the right direction. As a leader, your job is to build a team culture that is encouraging, attractive, cooperative, and moving together towards accomplishing the same goals. Here are 7 Tips for Ministry Team Building:
1. Build a Relationship with Each Team Member
It’s hard to lead a team you don’t know. It’s impossible to build trust when you don’t know someone. As a leader, you need to take the time to build a relationship with each individual team member. Get to know their story. Ask them questions about their past, present, and future. Know their family situation. If they are married and have kids, get to know their spouse and children. Know their strengths, weaknesses, insecurities, fear, dreams, and ambitions. When someone knows you care about them, they will, in return, care about you and the things you care about. This takes intentional time and may require sacrificing other jobs or tasks, but the payoff is worth it.
Make sure to talk to your team consistently. You may need to schedule weekly 1on1s and track when you meet with who. It doesn’t matter how this happens, just make sure it is happening regularly. Be present in their lives and get to know each team member.
2. Remind Them Often of the “Why”
One key to ministry team building is making sure that everyone is running towards the same goals. If you have multiple team members running in different directions or pursuing different goals, it will be impossible to get anywhere. Remind your team of the “Why” behind the church, ministry, or organization. Share stories of how the purpose of the ministry is impacting people’s lives. Talk about it every time you meet, both individually and corporately. If your team is annoyed by you repeating why the ministry exists, you are just started to get somewhere with them. Keep reminding them. This ensures that everyone is pursuing the same things and the right things.
One exercise you can do in order to know if your team understands the “Why” or not is to have each team individually write down why your church or ministry exists and then compare the answers. If everyone writes down the same thing, then you know you’ve done a good job reminding them of the why and you know your team is running in the same direction. If your team writes down different things, then you know you have work to do in the area of reminding them of the “Why.” Communicate why the church or community exists and remind them often.
3. Appreciate Your Team
It’s important to take the time to thank your team for all the work that they do. There are many ways to show appreciation. How you do that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you intentionally do it. This should be done regularly. Thanking your team lets them know that you see the hard work and effort they’re putting into their job which will encourage them to continue to work hard for you.
You can thank them privately, publicly, writing a thank you card, or by giving them a gift. Everyone receives gratitude in different ways. Know what would mean the most to them, and thank them in that specific way. Thank, recognize, and appreciate your team often.
4. Celebrate The Wins Loudly
You get more of the things you choose to celebrate. If you want a certain behavior from your team, celebrate when you see those behaviors lived out. Talk about the wins and what those wins mean to the team, ministry, and church. People want to be on a winning team. Talk about the good things that are happening. Make it personal by sharing specific stories of individuals and how their lives have been positively impacted. Celebrate when an event or project your team has been working on goes well. Celebrate individual accomplishments and team accomplishments. The team feels like a team when everyone knows they are winning and what they are doing is making a difference. See it and say it.
5. Reinforce Team Culture
If you want a team moving in unity, you need more than just the “Why” or purpose of the ministry and church. You need a specific culture and you need to reinforce that culture often.
Culture is the things you celebrate and the things you keep people accountable for. Know what your desired culture is and reinforce it over and over again. Good team culture will make up for bad systems or strategies. However, bad team culture will still hurt good systems and strategies. Talk about your cultural values, define them, celebrate them when you see it, and correct those that don’t honor it. This will keep your team on the same page working towards the same desired outcome throughout the entire organization.
6. Communicate A LOT
One of the worst things you can do as a leader is forget to communicate with your team or to be unclear with your communication. The lack of communication and lack of clarity creates confusion and unnecessary tension between you and your team. It can also create tension between team members and negate any previous ministry team building that you did.
Communicate often and communicate clearly. If you have a new initiative, make sure every team member knows about it. What you’re saying should be so simple and clear that your team can regurgitate what you’re saying almost word for word. If you have fresh vision, talk about it. Be intentional about communicating with each team member. Let them know what’s coming up and where you’re going. Say it in meetings, write it in emails, and make sure to include it in any other internal communication tools you use. Your team will feel like a team if communication is clear and consistent.
7. Have Fun
Make sure to create a fun environment. The last thing you want is an environment where people are afraid to make mistakes or speak up. Yes, there are times to be serious and get down to business, but there should also be intentional times to let loose and have fun.
Create fun moments in your meetings. Have inside jokes with your individual team members. Skip that weekly meeting and take your team out for lunch or to the movies. Do things outside of work hours where the purpose is simply to have a good time. A strong team is a team that enjoys life together. Create those fun moments within your team.
Just like a building is completed with intention and purpose, your ministry team building plans need to be built with intention and purpose. The more your team is working together, the more your team can accomplish. Follow the tips above and watch your team accomplish incredible things together!
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