Most church staff members I’ve met are faithful people, creative people, and decent leaders, but they are poor managers. …of time, of people, of talent.
Few pastors receive management training in seminary. Nobody shows a pastor how to organize their week, let alone their day. Most come into the ministry with little or no experience managing people and employees. They just sort of make it up as they go, or learn it, for better or worse, from another pastor. Solo pastors have it worse, they have no one to learn from. There is a difference between “being a pastor and preacher” …and “being a good manager of people, programs and staff.”
Many of the deficiencies I’ve witnessed in church offices and in terms of church leadership can be traced back to this fundamental lack of management skills. Pastors go to seminary to become preachers and spiritual leaders. So my best advice to churches, personnel committees and staff: READ. There are many good “management” books in the library.
For example, have you read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” …by Steven Covey? It’s a classic. If you’re not on staff, give this book to your staff. If you’re on staff, read it together and talk about it.
Google the term “leadership qualities.” There’s some good stuff out there. And then make sure you are tapping into your management talent within the congregation. Ask your administrators and business people to look at how your operation is run. Take the most organized person you know TO LUNCH.
And take advantage of resources… they are everywhere you turn…
Randy Pausch has a great free video about Time Management posted on Google Video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5784740380335567758 His lecture starts to roll about 2 minutes into the video. Some of his best office advice happens about half way through the lecture, such as, ‘how to deal with interruptions.’
Some other Pausch tidbits:
“The typical office worker wastes two hours a day because they are disorganized. “
“Being successful doesn’t mean you manage your time well. However, managing your time well can make you successful.”
“Do the ugliest things first.”
“Do the important things that are due soon, then do the important things that are not due soon. Rather than doing the unimportant things which are due soon!” (This is Pausch’s version of Steve Covey’s “To Do List” heirarchy from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
Pausch says we need to do the RIGHT things right, rather than waste time doing the wrong things right.
“Nobody looks to see if you’ve polished the underneath side of the banister.” He points out that many of the things on our “to do” list don’t produce the results we need -even if they’re done well, and thus, should be taken off the list. He likens this to the 80/20 rule in sales: “80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your customers, -so focus on the 20% for best results.”
Neil Observation: In church parlance, this means doing VISITATION ahead of sitting in your office by the phone, -because VISITATION is a ”revenue producing customer!” It recapturing some of the time we waste on too much paper pushing. One of my favorite targets of “waste” are those “talent surveys” and “evaluation forms and surveys” churches craft and crank out. It is so easy to get sucked into this kind of “office work” when we really should be calling people to talk, and meeting them face to face.
Then there are the “interruptions” during the staff day. Randy Paush thinks the phone is such a great time waster that he recommends getting a good speaker phone so you can multi-task while waiting on the phone, or talking about mundane things. (I use a headset so my hands are free. I’ll even clean my desk a bit while talking -if the subject is merely about business.) Certain members devour more than their fair share of the staff’s time too. The point: Not every call in the church office is weighty, and not every visitor to the office needs your undivided attention. Manage your availability -to give yourself more time to be available for more important things.
Confession: One of the things I wish I had done more of when I was on staff in the church, was to call more people to help with the minor details of the programs I was regularly leading. I frittered away too much time on “scut work.” Sunday Night, rather than getting to the church 30 minutes early, I’d find myself at the store picking up snacks for the group. I should have asked someone else to do that. Or I’d be the one cleaning up after an event, rather than hanging with the kid or leader who needed to talk.
Pausch has a lot of other very good tips for people to use their office time more efficiently. And remember the POINT: being efficient and well-managed gives you EXTRA TIME to do the things that really matter.
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If you are on a Personnel Committee, or are the Senior Pastor, you should be aware of how well your staff members are ORGANIZING their days, -what they’re devoting their time to, and what needs to be changed. Begin by doing this: simply ask them to bring in their calendar from last week and go over it with them.
In my own seminars and conversations with staff, I’ve encouraged them to TRIAGE their calendars and clear away tasks and meetings that simply don’t produce much “ministry.” Clearing away unproductive programs, meetings, and other time-suckers will give you time to do OTHER things that might produce better results in your ministry. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard came from a fellow pastor who’s boss once told him that EVERY YEAR he needed to decide what he was going to STOP doing, what program he was going to kill, what ‘thing he had been in charge of doing’ that he was going to GIVE UP.
You’ll see in another post in this thread, that I have suggested an artificial way to organize different days of the week to MAKE SURE different goals get accomplished. “RUBRICS” are the “way we going about something.” Rubrics can simply be the GOOD habits we repeat like clockwork, -on a specific day and specific hour …to ensure that they GET DONE.
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The Corollary to being a better manager is leading better meetings. See my post on this in this thread. You may also like to read my post in this thread about “leadership development.”
* Randy Pausch is the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon with terminal cancer who has written the famous book, “The Last Lecture” ….which I recommend in my BOOKS posting in this blog.
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The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch / Hyperion BooksWhat would you say if you knew you were going to die soon? What life-lessons and advice would you give? Randy Pausch, professor of Computer Science and Design at Carnegie Mellon University, asked himself this question when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “The Last Lecture” is his answer to that question. Gathering from years of experience as a professor and mentor, Pausch gives advice on pursuing your dreams, making the most of your time and focusing on what matters. Let his last words inspire you to live more fully and embrace the time you have. |