5 Essential Steps to Develop Your Team
Want to raise your team productivity levels? Are you wondering how to foster a strong, better, more efficient team spirit? A team is only as strong as its coach, or in your church’s case, the pastors and leaders.
Most teams, especially when just starting out, are not strong, to begin with. This is because it takes challenging situations to bring out the best (or worst) in people.
If you are blessed with strong teams, it’s likely that you have been working for a long time together. Congratulations! If you are just starting out and noticing particular weaknesses in several areas, read on.
(For more tips for pastors and church leaders, check out our blogs on the intensive subject.)
Five steps to building a more productive and effective team
Let’s now explore five ways that you can improve team development:
Step 1: Foster trust through honesty
How do leaders assert authority? They gain the trust of their followers, set boundaries, and show the way. They don’t just preach sermons but truly live them, showing genuine concern for their congregation. As a leader of a non-profit, you must be honest with your teams. Tell them exactly where you are at and where you need to go.
Transparency is especially important when leading on financial matters. Once your teams trust you and you trust them to do the job even when you are not looking over their shoulders, your church will be more productive and effective.
Step 2: Work on building professional relationships
Don’t expect your teams and members to function like robots. Get to know each individual and find out their likes and dislikes so that you can motivate them. Leaders who want their staff to do a better job know how to motivate them.
These types of leaders treat their teams with maturity and respect them — both as professionals, and individuals. Encourage cooperation and development of team-working skills by respecting everyone’s opinions and giving room for feedback.
Step 3: Support team-building activities
Your teams may work together better if you focus on building bonds of trust and friendship between them. Allot days for relaxation together, such as a company sports outing, a dinner with all church members present, or appreciation evenings for individuals on your team. Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or other special days together. This makes them see and feel your care.
Try to make brainstorming during meetings a positive experience. There may be multiple problems at hand, but if you work together to find solutions, you grow and mature as a team.
Step 4: Focus on communication skills training
Good relationships thrive when you create a culture of communicating better in the workplace. If you have found that there are conflicts, problems, or misunderstandings within your team due to communication, see how you can assist. Does everyone have what they need to do their jobs? Maybe your teams need better digital tools? More efficient platforms for online meetings and decision-making?
Do whatever you can to make communication across all levels fast and efficient. Perhaps you have people who do not speak English as a first language. Consider how you can help them understand better, and what tools you might employ to help them achieve their goals.
Step 5: Step out of the way so they can work
As leaders, this last step may be the hardest. Sometimes, we are reluctant to delegate matters and end up taking the extra burdens and responsibility on our own shoulders, leading to burnout. But once you know you can trust your team members, try to step back and give them space. Let them prove that they can handle the responsibilities you have given them. Test their team working spirit by allowing them to decide together.
Delegate when and where necessary, showing them you value their autonomous skills. It’s no use spending investments and time in training your teams and not giving them the playing field. True, there may be pitfalls and setbacks, but this is all part of learning to be a team.
For more tips on what to do when leading remote teams, read our blogs for leaders and church managers who lead from digital spaces.
How DonorWerx Can Help
When you know what steps you need to take to get to your goal, the journey is less daunting. At DonorWerx, we provide the tools, resources, and updated material to suit your church team’s needs. We also focus on another important aspect of church growth: your donors. Find out how you can generate more resources for the church, reach your fundraising goals and grow long-term support for the church.
Contact us today for a free consultation, or simply have a look through our blogs on the subject of team management in the church.
