Pastoral Leadership | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Pastoral Leadership

5 Keys To A Great Apology And Why Leaders Should Go First

Posted by on August 19, 2019

When I do executive coaching, I help leaders understand the minority offender response. This simply means in a situation with another person, even if you have the minority of the responsibility for the problem, leaders should always go first. Doing the right thing is far more important than being right. Carey Nieuwhof has another great post:

You probably have a love/hate relationship with apologies. You appreciate it deeply when others apologize to you.

But you find it difficult to apologize to others. And let me guess, when you do apologize, you’re tempted to explain, justify or defend your actions.

Which is not really an apology at all. Please hear this. Two of the most powerful words a leader can utter are simply “I apologize”.

One of the reasons those two words are so powerful is because we hear them so rarely from leaders.

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A Sobering Reality For Pastors And Leaders

Posted by on August 11, 2019

The voice of your character must be louder than the opinions of the crowd if you are going to sustain great leadership over time. People can make you think you are better than you really are or they can convince you that you have nothing to offer. I learned a long time ago to live my life before an audience of One. Ron Edmondson has some excellent advise:

“There is a sobering reality every pastor and leader needs to understand. Knowing this one can protect your career—help keep you from burning out—and guard your heart.

I see this impact leaders from all generations—but, I must be honest—I probably see it even more in our youngest generation of leaders entering the workforce.”

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6 Reasons We Make Bad Decisions At Work And What To Do About Them

Posted by on August 4, 2019

Harvard Business Review has been my go to resource for best practice leadership development for over ten years. Everything they publish is high quality and occasionally they absolutely hit it out of the park. This post by Mike Erwin is one of those times:

“Research has shown that that the typical person makes about 2,000 decisions every waking hour. Most decisions are minor and we make them instinctively or automatically — what to wear to work in the morning, whether to eat lunch now or in ten minutes, etc. But many of the decisions we make throughout the day take real thought, and have serious consequences. Consistently making good decisions is arguably the most important habit we can develop, especially at work.”

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How To Lead The Five Most Difficult People

Posted by on July 28, 2019

The reality of all leadership is that most of our major problems are caused by a small percentage of people. When you realize that, then you can develop the right perspective that puts these people in a different category. Then you still must develop the leadership skills to help them. This Dan Reiland post is very helpful:

“As a church leader, I’m confident you love and care about people, but If you have been leading for more than one week, you have encountered a difficult person or two.

Recently a wonderful volunteer on the hospitality team told me that someone just left because of the coffee. The unhappy attendee said, “This coffee tastes like dirt.” He said it was weak and insisted that we do something about it. It didn’t matter that it was free. (Free is not an excuse for lousy coffee, but thousands of people seem to like it.) The volunteer offered the Starbucks brand, but the attendee was upset that it wasn’t free.”

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Why Smaller Churches Are Making A Comeback

Posted by on July 14, 2019

In the height of the mega-church movement, if you were leading a smaller church in the same area, it was going to be extremely difficult to grow. However, the cultural shift with these last three generations values smaller over large. They are looking for community and they have a natural distrust of anything that is big. So smaller can be the new big, if pastors are prepared to lead contextually. This Rainer post is helpful:

“Smaller churches are poised to make a comeback. I’m serious. I see too many signs and indicators to believe otherwise.

For certain, I know the bad news. The median size of a church has declined from around 100 to 70 in worship attendance in a decade. That means one-half of all American congregations have fewer than 70 in worship attendance.”

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Ten Behaviors Sabotaging Your Leadership

Posted by on May 19, 2019

In this day of a major priority being placed on collaboration and empowerment, the question that still remains is how do great leaders stay engaged? Collaboration is not just group think and delegation is not abrogation. This Forbes post is a great read to help know where the lines are:

“Have you ever been in a situation at work where you felt like you lost your cool? Maybe not in that wildly out of control way, but enough to where you felt bad about what you said or did and wished you’d handled yourself differently?”

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How To Build Trust As A Leader

Posted by on May 9, 2019

There are some leadership principles that are contextual to leading churches but this is not one of them. As a matter of fact, failing in this area as a spiritual leader is magnified many times more than in corporate life. People potentially loosing trust in you is one thing, but in their faith is quite another. This Forbes post is excellent:

“A lack of trust often erodes teams and organizations to the point where people feel that their working environment has become toxic. The results of a toxic work environment — including unnecessary drama, fighting among employees, lack of communication and no clear protocol — can stifle productivity and results.”

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Don’t Be The Boss Who Talks Too Much

Posted by on May 4, 2019

There is a real tension between making sure everyone understands the vision and there is great alignment compared to the tendency as leaders to talk too much. This leadership skill is amplified when leading church staff or lay leaders because there is an even higher need for total buy-in moving forward. This HBR post is the type of leadership development pastors need:

“As head of a startup, I always want to make sure everyone on my team understands the vision for what we’re trying to achieve. I also want to make sure we’re hearing, considering, and incorporating everyone’s ideas, and acting quickly to iron out problems along the way. So we have a lot of group conversations. A lot.

We discuss our mission, goals, and the steps it will take to achieve them. Every time, I look for new ways to say things, in hopes of making the vision crystal clear and discovering even slight differences in how various team members understand our goals.”

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Don’t Give Your Critic Words

Posted by on April 13, 2019

I can think of no greater leadership challenge than being a pastor, where the emotional and spiritual health of the leader has a greater impact on results. Many pastors because of a lack of leadership training wonder almost every day if they are doing the right thing. Combine that with all the negative people in their ministry and discouragement is inevitable. This post by Ann Voskamp encouraged my spirit:

“We stand on the corner of Randolph and Green after a breakfast of sourdough toast, housemade sausage, blueberry pancakes, and coffee with raw sugar. The Uber pulls up and we climb inside, falling into easy conversation with the driver.

Turns out, she’s a chef, but for now she’s feeling burned out. Driving meets the need she has for conversation, and she takes the long way through the city to prove it.”

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10 Habits Of Transformational Leaders

Posted by on April 8, 2019

Leading a local church may be the single most difficult leadership challenge I know. You must have a high level of spiritual security and your significance primarily comes from you’re calling not the response of the crowd. You need to be inspiring and highly relational to move people to change. This Forbes post offers a great list for every pastor:
“A growing number of companies are looking to hire transformational leaders. These are the people who create positive changes in their employees and companies. Transformational leaders are billed as leaders of the future who can help their companies through turbulent times full of change and innovation. But what does it actually mean to be a transformational leader and how can you become one? Here are 10 habits of transformational leaders:

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