Spiritual Giftedness. Do your team members really understand their spiritual gifts? As a team leader, you need to help people understand and discover how God has wired them spiritually. Using your primary gifting to serve God is highly motivating.
Clarity. Do your team members know exactly what you want from them? Don’t make the assumption that staff and volunteers know what you want them to do. Spell it out clearly. Put it on paper. Review it once a year.
Tools and Training. Are your team members equipped with the tools and training to do their ministries well? Non-existent or ineffective tools and lack of training take the motivational wind out of the sails of your team members. Get the tools and materials they need into their hands. Build confidence through training.
The Big Picture. Do your team members understand the BIG PICTURE? Do they see the connection between what they are doing and the vision/ mission of your joint efforts together? The quickest way to destroy team motivation is to create a feeling of disconnection. No one wants to be a cog in a bureaucratic machine. No one wants to just fill a slot. Help your team members understand the vision and mission and where and how they fit.
Thankfulness. Are your staff and volunteers recognized, publicly appreciated, and championed for their work? There is a direct connection between appreciation and motivation. Most staff and volunteers don’t choose to serve so they can be loved, appreciated and thanked. Yet, notice how people tend to flock to teams where those things are practiced.
Have you found other things that help motivate team members to be all that they can be in their service to the Lord?
4 comments:
Your work is very important and is of great help to many people, there are virtually close and I wish you the biggest successes
Elettra,
Thanks for stopping by and for the comment. Which of these motivators do you most identify with?
You hit on this idea in your post but I find it an inviolable principle that team mates must know well that you are dedicated to helping them succeed in what God is calling them to. Too many team leaders give the impression that they think their people are there to be used to reach the team leader's goals.
We need to make it clear that God has gifted each of us to do the works HE created us to walk in. A team exists to encourage each other to do just that, not to fulfill the team leader's own plans. Lots of leaders talk like this, few can actually live it. I think it is a humility thing.
Strider,
I agree with you. When teams exist to fulfill their leaders goals, it doesn't take long before there are problems all around. Yet, sadly, this is the way so many teams operate with the leader saying these are our goals, here are our plans to reach those goals, John you are in charge of #1b, #1d, #3a, #4c...get to it!
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