3 Interview Guidelines for Finding the Best Next Hire for Your Church

by: Bryan Rose

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Mistakes are most often made when hiring is based on surface characteristics like stage ability, resume experience or fashion sense, rather than on the foundation of church culture. Your values define your church’s culture. Therefore, values should form the basis of your staffing logic, whether the prospective leader is paid or unpaid. Well thought-through interview questions, based on values, could be the difference between a perfect match and the perfect storm.

The best values-based interview questions are those that do three things: 1) Hide the “right” response, 2) Reveal practice not thinking and 3) Mine for specifics. Let’s take a look at each technique and provide a simple illustration for each one.

#1 Hide the “Right” Response

Let’s imagine one of your church values is “Risk-Taking Faith.”

• Ask…  If you knew that God would meet or exceed one goal you have right now, what would you ask for?
• Not… What was the last faith risk you took?

Why? Because the natural tendency when being interviewed for a position you want is to frame the answer to what you think the interviewer wants to hear. Questions that state the value up front, don’t allow the candidate to reveal how the value is present – or not present – in their life and ministry.

#2 Reveal Culture in Practice, Not Thinking

Let’s imagine one of your church values is “Evangelistic Ethos.”

• Ask… What do you know about your 5 closest neighbors (geographically) ?
• Not… How important is evangelism to you?

Why? Because it is easy to talk about how things should be, and avoid talking about how things are. Questions that allow the potential staff member to speak to a value from experience not ideas, separate mere affinity from life application.

#3 Mine for Specifics, Not Answers

Let’s imagine one of your church values is “Doing Life Together.”

• Ask… What was the last tough conversation a close friend had with you?
• Not… Who are you doing life with?

Why? Because simple answers that are easily given leave little room for follow-up and become fairly useless in determining cultural alignment. Questions that generate responses with multiple follow-up possibilities (why don’t you have close friends? how did you respond to their criticism?) can produce a multi-dimensional understanding of the person in context of the church value at hand.

So remember, experience is important, but programs will change. Stage skills are huge, but presentation can be developed. Fashion is fleeting, but skinny jeans will eventually go out of style… we pray. When you hire by values, culture becomes the glue that holds your staff together.

Read more from Bryan here.

Tags: Bryan Rose, Leadership Engine, New Staff Position, Staff Culture

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5 Words Toward a Stronger Esprit de Corps

by: Dan Reiland

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The hallways often reveal more than the boardroom.

What you hear in the hallways is often a better indicator of the spirit of your team than what is said in the boardroom. I’m not suggesting that your team isn’t honest in your meetings. But they are more relaxed in the hallways, in the break room, or anywhere a cup of coffee is shared where you work.

How is your team doing? Are they happy? Are they energetic? Are they productive? Do they face adversity well? Do they get along? Your answers give insight to the level of Esprit de Corps.

Esprit de corps is a cool word. Not just because it’s French and I can’t spell it without looking it up. But because it says so much! It embraces the idea of a sense of unity and of common interests. It carries the notion of common responsibilities of a group committed to a goal together. It’s about a team of people connected not just to a goal but real relationship with each other.

Esprit de corps is closely connected to the idea of morale. A team’s ability to maintain high morale reveals commitment to a deep belief and mission, even in the face of difficulty or hardship.

> Generosity

We often think of money when it comes to generosity, and that is part of it. But a spirit of generosity reaches much farther than finances alone. It’s a way of living. It’s about time, faith, love, and kindness and more. Generous people think differently than those who are takers by nature. Generous people think larger, believe bigger and possess a positive attitude. Generous people love to give, but they also see it strategically. Generosity is not all about goose bumps and emotion, but making wise investments into people’s lives with intentionality.

When you lead your team with generosity you lead with a spirit of giving more than taking. Some leaders are takers, they want more from you than they pour into you. That diminishes morale. I remember one leader saying to me, “But I pay them! I expect them to show up and get their work done!” He did not have a spirit of generosity! It’s reasonable for him to expect his staff to show up and work, but he had a demanding spirit rather than a developing spirit.

> Trust

I have been part of the team at 12Stone® Church for twelve years. I have served as Executive Pastor under Senior Pastor Kevin Myers. From day one Kevin has trusted me fully. That is critical, without it I can’t lead. Trust is different than respect. Respect must be earned, but trust needs to be extended as a gift from the beginning and removed only if it is broken.

Trust is essential to a positive sense of esprit de corps. If you don’t trust your team, it’s as if you are holding back the oxygen they need to lead. They just can’t breath! It’s as if you put them on a short leash and tied them up to their desk, they can move, but not much! If you find it difficult to trust people, I encourage you to reflect on why. Have you trained and developed your team? Have you been hurt by someone? Do you have control issues? Are you a perfectionist? What would it take for you to trust? Without trust, empowerment cannot exist, let alone thrive.

> Empowerment

Trust is where empowerment begins. The first component of empowerment is to trust with responsibility. Connecting this principle with a spirit of generosity allows us to see that empowering isn’t dumping work on someone, it is trusting them with the responsibility of accomplishing something that is important.

No one wants to be micro-managed. “Small” leaders attempt to keep power and control, they “meddle” and some even have a heavy hand on everything. Empowering leaders set people free. It’s not about letting people do whatever they want. Empowerment is the right mix of freedom and guidance. It involves communication, goals, and training. These things allow us to free people up so they can grow, excel and achieve more!

> Alignment

Your team loves the trust and freedom that comes with empowerment, but they also love, need and want boundaries. People hate chaos, and they know that if everyone “does their own thing,” nothing of significant impact will be accomplished. High morale is experienced teams that work together and head in the same direction. A sense of productive esprit de corps comes to a team that enjoys being with each other and wins together. Independence breaks down alignment. In contrast, organization and agreement of goals builds alignment. I love track and field in the Olympics, and I really enjoy the relay races. Can you imagine if each of the four runners on the team ran whenever they wanted, in whatever direction they wanted and never handed the baton off to the right person? Alignment is essential!

> Caring

The impact of simply caring is staggering. At times I think it’s becoming a lost art. Please don’t misunderstand. I believe that church leaders care. They really do, but sometimes the demands of a busy schedule can result in an inability to keep up with everything. You have a finite amount of energy, in fact, you run out of energy to demonstrate that you care. You are so busy making things happen, (and getting things done), that your relational bandwidth runs thin.

The good news is that the remedy is often simple, and as long as it’s from the heart you are good to go! It might be a hand written note of encouragement, a public expression of appreciation for a job well done, a quick phone call, or a cup of coffee with someone just to see how they are doing. It could be as simple as a thank you card with a Starbucks gift card inside. It’s usually just not that complicated. We just need to do it!

I pray these thoughts encourage, guide and inspire you and your team to a greater sense of esprit de corps!

The Pastor’s Coach is written by Dr. Dan Reiland and is available via email on a free subscription basis. You can subscribe by clicking here.

Tags: Dan Reiland, Staff Culture, Volunteer Culture

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Snuffing Burnout: Rick Warren’s Advice on How to Discover a Healthy Working Rhythm and Energize Your Team

by: Rick Warren

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The quickest way to destroy a team is to burn them out. And you don’t have to look around the field of ministry very long to realize that the ministry is filled with burned out leaders. But it’s possible to find a healthy working rhythm and ultimately increase the effective energy with which your leaders serve without causing them to burnout.

Every minute of every day we are using up energy, and every person has a limited amount of energy. If we keep the pace high all the time, we use up the energy people have to give like the way a car with its lights left on will wind up with a dead battery.

This is especially true in times when your ministry is growing. Growth brings change, change brings problems, and problems consume a lot of emotional, physical, and spiritual energy from your leaders.

Here are seven ways to discover a good working rhythm and raise the energy level of your team.

1. Don’t expect every leader to work at the same energy level all the time.

We are all unique, and every leader serving in your ministry is wired differently. Some need more quiet and rest than others. Some work better in organized chaos while some need no chaos at all. At Saddleback, we try to hire workaholics and then force them to calm down and find a rhythm.

2. Be sensitive to external drains on energy and compensate appropriately.

Sometimes leaders have big issues and seasons of transition in their personal lives that affect the amount of energy they’re able to pour out. From health crises to marital crises to pregnancy and new babies, leaders often need time to concentrate on specific family issues.

3. Plan your year in energy cycles.

At Saddleback, we typically move through two major growth campaigns in a year. In the spring and in the fall, we set aside around eight weeks per year when we really focus on adding more small groups and really pushing people to invite their unchurched friends to some big days. Easter, Mother’s Day, and Christmas are all big days for us, as well as special events that surround some of the global issues we’re addressing.

Between campaigns and holidays, we regroup. Most years, we close our offices between Christmas and New Year. Newspring Church and Northpoint Church usually cancel their post-Christmas Sunday services to give their thousands of volunteers a breather. It’s okay that some weekends are intentionally designed to consume less energy than others.

4. Allow staff members to have flexible schedules.

We don’t watch the clock. We watch results. When staff members travel for church-related events, we want them to take a day of rest afterward. When they have evening meetings, we want them to come in later the next day. My mentor, Peter Drucker, said, “Empasize results, not activity.” Some of our Pastors work four or more services per weekend, so we want them to have a day off during the week.

5. Work smarter, not harder.

Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen its edge, then one must exert more strength; however, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success.” (HCSB) There are tools, techniques, and new technologies that streamline the way we do ministry. Use them. And learn from mistakes and failures to avoid wasting energy on what doesn’t work.

6. Focus on the long haul.

James Collins wrote a famous leadership book called Built to Last. Of the 12 values he articulated he found in companies that survived through three generations, ten are found in Saddleback’s original vision statement which we have had since our first year of ministry. Your church can be a mushroom, which springs up overnight, or it can be an oak tree that grows larger and stronger over time with deep roots.

7. Make the work fun!

People rarely succeed at jobs they don’t enjoy, which explains the success of companies like Google, known for their fun and creative atmospheres. The most successful people get paid to do what they like to do anyway! Saddleback Church receives thousands of phone calls every day and hundreds of thousands of emails every year, and we try to give everyone an appropriate response if at all possible. So, we keep things light.

Over the years, we’ve done Taco Tuesdays as a staff. We’ve hiked around our property during a staff meeting. Once we closed the office and we all went surfing even though none of us knew how. We’ve purposely dressed tacky on the same day. We often send the staff home after a staff meeting just for the fun of it, and I’ve been known to start a food fight or two over the years.

The kingdom of God is going to last, and your church needs to be built to last, which requires a healthy rhythm of hard work, proper rest, and a good energy consumption pattern for all the leaders involved.

This is a busy time of the year for your church; ask yourself how you can lead your team to find rest and cultivate joy so that you can head into this year of ministry stronger than ever.

Read more from Rick here.

Tags: Healthy Staff, Rick Warren, Staff Culture, Staff burnout

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Less Can Be More: How Ruthless Calendaring Will Make Your Work More Productive

by: Philip Nation

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Here are two words that you do not expect to read in a single phrase: “ruthless” and “calendaring.” But, I hope that by the end of this post, I will have made them make sense together for 2014.

Recently, I spent an hour with the managers and publishing team leaders in my area to discuss our schedules. By virtue of working in a company, meetings are necessary. At least that’s what we think most of the time. What I have found is that some of our meetings have a less than necessary reason for existence. In order to order my life better, here is some major planning for 2014. Here’s is why I plan to do it and what I hope to accomplish.

1. Curb the pop-in-the-office meetings. I am incredibly guilty of this behavior and it causes everyone in our company to have permission to do the same. I hope to stop just popping into other offices unannounced. My leaders are gracious and don’t act as if they mind it. But I think it makes for too many spur-of-the-moment decisions and just eats up time. A better schedule will help us be more intentional with our conversations.

2. Establish the major conversations. In my calendaring for the next year, I am establishing the major conversations that will take place each week and/or month with others. For my core leadership, we will meet each week. For a group of my peers where I lead a “matrix” meeting across our adult ministry work, we will meet once a month. Without a doubt, there will be emergencies that arise that will require a meeting, but a pre-planned conversation will help us know when the conversations can be most fruitful.

3. Schedule conversations. A great part of leadership is relationship. I don’t want my relationships with our team to feel contrived but I know that the vast majority of our interactions simply revolve around our assigned work. The only way for me to spend any personal time where we talk about life, faith, family, and the things we enjoy is to schedule those conversations. It will take the form of walking to a coffee shop, going to lunch, or a planned break from the up-tempo pace of our work life.

4. Show patience. When it comes to work, I can be a hard-charging personality. I don’t know that I have this natural inclination or if it is a learned behavior. I guess it does not matter… it is who I very likely am at work. By holding to my scheduled meetings and conversations, it will help me practice patience. Rather than giving in to the impulse to rush around and force conversations and decisions, I hope that my calendaring will allow me to settle down. At least a little bit.

5. Establish a reason for every meeting. My coworkers know that I hate two things about meetings: when they are long and when we leave without a reason for having met. By doing this planning ahead of time, I hope to also establish a reason for every meeting to occur. It means that each meeting will not only a reason but also a plan for discussion and/or delegation.

6. Own your calendar by refusing to let others own it. We all work off of Google Calendar where others can search for an open spot on your schedule and send an invitation. I’ve decided that just because I have “white space” does not give others permission to own it. It is okay to say “no” to a meeting or delay it to another time.

I will likely have a mixture of success and failure in all of these areas. I’ll let you know how it goes along the way.

So… what are you doing to make this year more productive in your work?

Read more from Philip here.

Tags: Meetings, Philip Nation, Staff Culture, calendaring, effectiveness

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10 Guidelines to Help You Find Staff and Build Culture

by: Tim Stevens

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Recently I had the opportunity to teach at Exponential West. There were leaders from all over the country, churches small and large, and we talked about how to build a great team, and then how to keep a great team by paying attention to culture.

Here is the short version of what we talked about (and you don’t even have pay!)…

When Looking for Staff… 

1. A Resume is Worthless — most of what matters in hiring someone is not found on a resume.
2. You Can’t Train Character — Give your life to helping people find Jesus and reform their character. But when you are hiring, you need people who have proven integrity, especially with their tongue, money, and sex.
3. Social Media is Your Friend — I’m giving you permission to stalk your next employee! If it’s on the internet, it is public. Look at their online persona to see how they think, what they think is funny, and how they treat others.
4. Hire From Within — You know what you are getting; you know they understand your vision and philosophy; you know that the “chemistry” question has already been answered.
5. Find Fresh Eyes — Occasionally you should not hire from within because you need a fresh infusion of ideas.
6. Find Leaders, Not Doers — You have limited dollars, so you should typically spend your staff dollars on leaders who can build teams, inspire followers, and reproduce themselves over and over again.
7. Pay Well — you don’t want people to come because of money, stay because of money, or leave because of money.

Building a Great Culture… 

1. Make Time for the Three S’s — every week, carve time with your staff or leadership team to do three things: A) Tell Stories of what God is doing through His people, B) Spotlight an individual to let them get to know them and celebrate their unique contribution, and C) Give inside information (Stuff) or training that will add value to your team.
2. Offer Employees Flexibility — Some positions need set hours (i.e. facility care shifts or preschool teachers). However, most positions should be flexible, focusing on outcomes (did you accomplish your job?) and not on specific hours (how long did you sit at your desk?).
3. Being Fair is Not a Priority — Make decisions based on your vision and priorities–not based on fairness. News alert: I spend more time with my wife than any other woman. Why? Because she is my priority.

What would you add to either of these lists?

I’ll be expanding on each of these topics in my upcoming book (to be published by Thomas Nelson in July 2014). 

Read more from Tim here.

Tags: New Staff Position, Staff Culture, Tim Stevens

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