The Success of Your Organization Starts with a Cohesive Leadership Team
After working for 24 years in two churches, nine years at a not-for-profit, six years at a for-profit company, and having consulted with hundreds of churches--I believe the most important ingredient for ensuring success in every church, non-profit, and business is "organizational health."
In his book, The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni says,
"I've become absolutely convinced that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre or unsuccessful ones has little, if anything, to do with what they know or how smart they are; it has everything to do with how healthy they are."
Lencioni is absolutely right. And the only way to have a healthy organization is to start with a healthy leadership team. In fact, he says it is the first thing you should work on. Sadly, very few churches or organizations have a cohesive leadership team. But there is no way to accomplish your goals in any sustained way without one.
What I often hear from organizations without a cohesive leadership team...
Clarity is lacking. Where are we going? What is most important right now? What one or two results are we all working on in this season?
Decisions are muddy. The same people walk out of the same meeting with a different sense of what decision was just made. Conversations get revisited again and again.
Leaders have varying commitment to the decisions that are made, which leads to confusion and politics throughout the organization.
Significant decisions are made without healthy and robust conflict. Leaders leave the room without voicing their concerns. Meetings are often boring because controversial topics are avoided.
Rather than leaving everything on the table in the room, the "meeting after the meeting" is the norm.
Leaders are not vulnerable about their weaknesses or mistakes. A lack of trust means team members will quickly jump to conclusions about the intention of others.
Rather than the leadership team agreeing on a shared rallying cry, each department and each leader carries their own priorities and goals -- which sacrifices the synergy of an entire organization going after the same thing.
Leaders are advocates and protectors for the team they lead rather than committing to embrace and support the decisions of the leadership team where they are a member.
Our work matters. And yet we often continue to spin our wheels with little traction while trying to keep up with the turnover that is a natural result of the unintentional dysfunction of our leadership team.
I'm incredibly passionate about this topic. I see so much at stake, especially for cause-based organizations like churches and not-for-profits. I've been a part of high-functioning, cohesive leadership teams with "average-talent" team members that crushed their goals and had success that was significant and sustained. I've also been a part of dysfunctional leadership teams with super-talented team members that could never get traction and fell far short of their potential.
The good news -- this is 100% fixable. It takes some intentionality and humility, and the willingness of the senior leader to set aside one or two days every couple of months to work on this. It requires some systems and behaviors that can be learned. And it takes the commitment of the team to be honest about what is true, and to do the hard work to get better. If this strikes a chord for you or even just makes you curious, I'd encourage you to read The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni (or listen to it). You will find very practical steps to take as a team.
Send me a reply if this resonates with you like it does for me. I'd love to hear about your experiences with how the health of a leadership team can make the difference for an organization.
My passion has led me to give my life to help organizations get this right. Using the principles and tools designed by The Table Group, I am working with teams to help them find health and clarity -- which inevitably leads to results. I have remaining spots for only two churches or organizations beginning early in 2024. If you are interested, reply to this email or schedule a short zoom call.