The challenges of leading a team are legion: conflicting personalities, getting everyone on the same page, turf wars. Often one of the best ways to avoid some of the negatives is to focus on the positives. Instead of waiting for problems to arise, what constructive groundwork can you put in place now to bolster team health and effectiveness?
To that end, rather than focusing on the challenges you want to avoid, let’s look at some goals for team health. What are some of the strengths you want to encourage? You want to see optimism and vision– openness to the Holy Spirit. Most likely, you’d like to see people working together rather than in competition with one another. On the whole, you want to foster an environment of encouragement and willingness to speak up. Additionally, I’m confident you want to address concerns before they have a chance to become big problems.
With this in mind, next time you have a team meeting, spend an hour working through these questions. You will be amazed at how much positive energy surfaces.
- Where have you seen God at work?
- What progress have you made?
- What do you need from other team members?
- What do we need to discuss? Decide? Follow up on?
- What would you like to suggest we include on our agenda?
- What would you like to share with me privately?
More on Leadership
Did you find this blog post helpful? These resources are also helpful in fostering team health and effectiveness:
The Leadership Difference– This book is packed full of skills and strategies that result in lightening your own load, developing the skills of others, and getting the job done effectively.
Leadership Skills Guides– This downloadable resource is perfect for refining your own skills, or helping you develop others. A powerful tool for leadership training, this set of guides includes teaching points, scripture passages, reflection and discussion questions for 37 essential leadership skills.
Effective Communication Resources– This group of downloadable coaching resources are designed to help you identify communication effectiveness and help individuals develop good communication skills.
Photo by Perry Grone on Unsplash