GinaMcClain.com

The Art of Leading Up: Leveraging the Influence of your Senior Pastor

This is my contribution to the Children’s Ministry Telesummit on June 21 & 22.  Don’t miss this unique, “out of the box” event.  Register here if you’re planning to attend.

When I think of turning a tide, I imagine a series of consistent movements in the right direction that create momentum.  A sage lesson learned from Jim Collins in Good to Great.  With each turn on the fly-wheel momentum builds and the effort required to push decreases as the strength of the forward motion increases.

Momentum gets you over the hurdles.

Momentum pushes through the obstacles.

Momentum becomes a magnet that draws people in.

When an area of your ministry is headed one direction… I don’t believe there is a single event, stage announcement, talk notes ‘blurb’ or video promotion that will cause an about-face.  It isn’t one right thing that will solve the problem, but a series of right things.

Not a single step to walk a mile, but a series of steps.

Not a single scoop of ice cream to make sundae but a series of scoops.  okay… that didn’t make sense… but ice cream sounds good right now.

back on track

You can’t create change without forward momentum.  And momentum is a multi-step process.

For example, when in a volunteer “slump”, a single volunteer connection event will not meet our needs entirely.  A single bulletin note will not effectively communicate the opportunities to serve.  A single weekend of intentional invitations will not fill all the holes.

But a series of these events and actions working in tandem can generate forward momentum moving you closer to the goal… a full team of volunteers.

For the record… you’re biggest money-maker in the aforementioned list is a culture of invitation.  The healthiest teams of volunteers I’ve seen are those that multiply through personal invitation.

So, rarely will I assess an event or action as the single solution to a problem. I just don’t think that happens.   Instead I prefer to orchestrate a series of events & actions that work together to move us toward the solution.

Delegating is essential to leadership.

But delegating simply to keep things off of your plate is not great delegating.  It’s just passing the buck.

There have been times in the past that I thought I was delegating well.  Everything that came my way I found someone else to pull it off.  As I handed them the task I was their greatest cheerleader telling them how confident I was that they could run with this ball.  However, if I didn’t equip them with the…

the right tools

the right team of people to offset their gifts

a clearly defined ‘win’

…then all I was doing was setting them up to fail.

Delegating for success looks different.  More like…

observing the situation to know what it needs to begin with

knowing the leader to which you are delegating… strengths, weaknesses, blindspots, etc

spending time helping that leader find the right people to come alongside them with strengths in areas they might be weak

clearly defining the ‘win’… the desired outcome

scheduled check-ups to ensure they will achieve the ‘win’

Then when the ‘win’ happens, genuinely celebrate their leadership and their accomplishment.  Because without them… you would have had to do it yourself. 

Don’t allow me to paint an inaccurate picture.  I’m in the midst of sharpening these skills yet again.  A difficult, slow process that holds greater hope for long-term success yet requires so much patience in the process.