No Drama Leadership

Browsing through a Barnes and Nobles is one of my favorite things to do. Being among books and browsing titles gets my creative juices flowing.  Adding a good cup of coffee while browsing only makes the experiences all the grander. 

I saw it, “No-Drama Leadership – How Enlightened Leaders Transform Culture in the Workplace”. I thought, how about the title, “No- Drama Church Leadership – How Enlightened Church Leaders Transform the Culture of Ministry?”

You see, it’s a lack of leadership not spirituality that is problematic most of the time.  Unless we take responsibility for healthy relationships in the church, people will continue to get hurt.  I know, I have hurt people badly.  I’ve been wounded deeply. My stomach has been left in knots after people scolded me for what I did or didn’t do.  I have literally trembled in horror that my poor decision or leadership caused such a nasty reaction. 

What would my book say?  First, I would write based upon experience of not doing the right things. I seriously have wondered if my spiritual gift was, "making mistakes".   Here are few chapters that I would include:

1)      Don’t promote people to positions of responsibility without training them continually.

2)      The personal values of the pastor and leaders should be aligned with stated values of the church.  Otherwise, there will be a lack of accountability and awareness.  For instance, if the church says, ‘we value family’ the leaders need to model what that looks like.  If the church honors “God’s Word” the leaders better be in God’s Word.  If a value is 'lost people matter to God' you better be reaching people for Jesus. If Jesus is the subject, He needs to be the subject in your life.

3)      I would have a ministry coach that constantly takes me to self-awareness.  I see pastors and churches killing their ministries because of this!  They don’t have a clue how they are coming across to others.  I remember having to tell a pastor that people think that he is arrogant.  His response, "really"?  Another pastor was criticized for being aloof but it never really mattered to him.

4)       When making changes – move slowly and give several opportunities for people to gain an understanding of the ‘why’ behind the change, they are less inclined to resist them. 

5)      Address issues immediately and correct course as needed.  Hoping an issue will resolve itself never works.  This includes personnel, sin, worship, children’s ministries, youth ministry, missions, etc… People will respect you for immediate attention. I had a phone call today from a pastor that said, "Eric, because you are handling this today, you won't have to handle a year from now when the problem would be worse and involve more people."

6)      Leaders must be put time and energy into understanding and knowing those you are leading.  Shaking hands on a Sunday Morning is not “relationship building”.  Doing life together is relationship building.  I do not understand leaders that are the first ones out the door on a Sunday Morning.  I do not understand pastors that hide in their office or leaders that don’t drink coffee at least once a week with their team.

7)      Without good communication – drama will result.  More drama has been caused by me assuming people understand my intentions or could read my mind than any other thing. 

Do you have any chapters that you would add?