Great leaders ask a different question first: “Why do we need this accomplished?”

Things are often moving quick and we often need to rally our volunteers to address the issues ahead. Unfortunately, we can get stuck in the ‘how’ mode and forget to ask ‘why’ before we launch into the next project.When we ask ‘how’ first, we are automatically accepting that the ‘why’ is valid. In fact, we are often blindly following someone else’s ‘why’ without understanding it fully. Here is what happens next:

We figure out the ‘how’, push our volunteers to get it done, then are faced with an unhappy leadership because it doesn’t address the core issue.

We then have to ask our volunteers to do more, since we didn’t address the original issue.

Worst case, we don’t ask ‘why’, we complete at least half of the work, and then are told to stop and move to something else because it is more important.

Instead of getting into this situation over and over, start to ask ‘why’. Here is what can happen if we do that:

Asking ‘why’ allows us to focus on the end result, not a series of tasks.

Asking ‘why’ allows us to offer alternative solutions that may be easier or faster to complete.

Asking ‘why’ allows us to challenge the priority of the goal against other priorities, preventing a lot of half-completed projects from burning out your volunteers.

Next time someone asks your team to jump onto a new project, simply ask the ‘why’ questions before you commit. It will help your team stay focused and reduce the strain on your volunteers. Plus, you’ll be a happier leader!

I’m led by leadership book authors, my mentors, leaders immediately around me, and by leaders at work.

There is one type of leadership I could not do without – the leadership of the Holy Spirit through prayer. It is during my daily prayer time where God speaks to me. He leads me on what I should be doing for the day. He leads me in developing good habits and calling me on the bad ones. He leads me through His relationship to me.

Failing to build this relationship on a daily basis through His leadership in prayer causes me to lose perspective. Worse, it causes me to focus on what I want, not what He wants.

If we aren’t leading as if Jesus makes a difference in our life, then we aren’t leading for our local church. This requires us to have an ever-growing relationship with Him in prayer.

We all must be led. Who is leading you?

It is during these one-time serve opportunities where you must be intentional about your leadership:

• Intentionally create opportunities to allow fresh faces to join in the activities
• Intentionally know those getting involved
• Intentionally follow-up with them once the holiday season is over

As the leader, it is up to you to ensure that your team is prepared to handle these new people after the holiday or special event. This will require you to spend time working on how to communicate the event (”we need you” instead of “we need [xyz] skills”), coordinate signups, and follow-up a few weeks after the event with a personalized thank you note.

Don’t let this holiday season pass you by too fast and miss the fresh volunteers you’ll likely see. Get intentional with the way you handle these one-time serve opportunities.

We were only married for about 8 months when it all happened. I was offered an opportunity to move to another town for an unknown amount of time and build up a new client for my consulting company. Sounds like a good opportunity right? I thought so. In fact, I thought it was such a great opportunity that I told my co-founder that I would go without talking with my wife.

Yep, that’s right. I chose to move myself without even talking to my newlywed of 8 months. But that’s not the worst part.

I would encourage you to read it and pass it on for others that may be too focused on their church staff role, job, or hobby and may be in jeopardy of losing their spouse – perhaps without realizing it!

Visit www.IShouldBeDivorced.com

How is it that we can go from excited to overwhelmed in just a few days? Easy – we don’t establish a perimeter around our lives and our leadership. For some reason, we all jump into the role of hero during the holiday season. We go from being grounded to be crazy. We go from being in control to letting things get out of control.

Here is a thought for this holiday season: unless you can tell at least one story of helping minister to someone that is hurting (emotionally or physically) or a story of leading someone to Christ, then you are most likely not focused on the right thing this holiday season.

If this is the case, first slow down and reassess your priorities. Next, regroup yourself (and your team if necessary) and identify one thing that you can make a positive and immediate impact on. Finally, go do it. The rest can wait until after Christmas.

Turn it off and take time to pray and listen.

Turn it off and take time with the family.

Turn it off and take time to give back to others.

Be willing to “Turn it off” this Christmas season. You’ll most likely be glad you did, or regret that you didn’t.

Through all of the difficult circumstances, they are being broken and tested. Some have done well, maturing in the Lord and continuing to minister to those around them while they are being ministered to themselves. Others are not handling it so well, allowing themselves to be used to hurt and sometimes destroy those around them.

Are you seeing this around those you care about? How are they handling it? How are you handling it?

Right now may be a time to be in a “pressure cooker” season of your life. Are you prepared? Are you ready to deal with difficult circumstances by being broken and tested?

Are you prepared to minister to others that are experiencing difficulties, perhaps even giving some of your time to disciple them in an effort to help them grow in the Lord?

Your focus determines where you are headed and where your volunteers are headed.

If your focus is on your goals, then you are steering your team toward a vision that is based only on what you can do.

If your focus is on getting things done, then you are headed toward completing a checklist while seeing others as cogs in the machine.

If your focus is on where God is working, with people that are focused on God’s direction, then you will complete God’s tasks with God’s people for God’s purpose.

Instead of recreating the same thing every 6 months due to staff turnover or new hires, why not continue to refine what you have? Here are some further thoughts on refining your processes:

1. Refining your processes allows for learning from your mistakes. The more times you recreate a process, the more likely you are to repeat the same mistakes again. This is quite common when processes are recreated after a new staff member is added or the staff is reorganized. The same mistakes are made and the same volunteers complain about the same problems that never get fixed.
2. Refining your processes provides stability for your volunteers. Rather than learning the process flavor of the month, they can focus on getting better at the processes in place. If a change is required, it can be rolled out as minor changes that ease the transition and allow everyone to catch up, get used to it, then adjust again as needed. Just be careful about changing too much at once, as this produces the same problems as recreating your process
3. Refining your processes makes it easier to recruit new volunteers. Potential volunteers have a great sense for stability – constantly changing processes create problems for your existing volunteers, which makes recruiting new volunteers more difficult.

The next time you need to develop a new leadership plan, discipleship plan, or some other kind of plan, consider refining what you already have rather than starting with a brand new process.