Organizational Culture | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Organizational Culture

3 Reasons We Shouldn’t Reject Leadership Culture

Posted by on January 12, 2020

The sad reality is that more churches die because of leadership failures than theological arguments. Some leaders are too passive and insecure, which eventually means the church will never change and die. Other leaders are like dictators and believe they alone have the word from God. The vicious cycle is that most churches then overreact and shift the leadership culture to compensate for their pain. This becomes unbiblical and eventually the pain of the past is so great there is no hope for the future. I highly recommend this post by Ed Stetzer:

“I think leadership is an important issue that’s often overlooked. I know… you think I’m crazy. Leadership resources and speakers abound. But there’s a reason the best place to find leadership books is at a Goodwill or some other thrift store. Yep.

Secondhand stores are like leadership book archive vaults. Why? Well, there seems to be a pendulum that swings… and has swung. In the 1980’s there was much talk about leadership and there was a lot of people writing on it, speaking on it, and just great prominence on it. Leadership theories and ideas were influencing the church and the church was, in many ways, being shaped by that.”

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It’s Time To Regain First Generation Faith

Posted by on January 8, 2019

Over the years I have served in many different churches. Some small and some very large. Some long term and a couple of church plants. As in any organization, the ability of leaders to maintain the vision and passion of the founders over time is an incredible challenge. This post by J.D. Greear is a must read for all church leaders:

“Many years ago at The Summit Church, there was a group of people who said, “Jesus and his mission will be first.” But here’s what happens: When churches like ours get big and “settled,” so to speak, they experience a natural inertia. Within a generation, they move from mission to maintenance. They go from being reckless in the mission to being comfortable in the institution.”

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The Importance Of The Employee Feedback Loop

Posted by on August 17, 2018

In my executive coaching we deal with a lot of best practices: human capital, process improvement, productivity, teamwork, alignment and strategic priorities. Regardless of how well you do in all of these areas, if your organizational culture does not value ongoing feedback, you don’t stand a change in long term success. This Forbes Communication Council post is a must read:

“In the employee recognition business we are always stressing the importance of clear and honest communication between employees and managers. We do this for a couple of reasons. For one, the employee-manager relationship is consistently ranked as a top driver of employee satisfaction. In fact, a Gallup study found that managers alone account for 70% of variance in employee engagement.”

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How Trust Accelerates Success

Posted by on August 15, 2018

Every day we have limited data to use to evaluate people and situations before we reach conclusions and make decisions. It is critical when working with your people to be able to place trust in that gap both ways. The team needs to be able to trust the leaders and the leaders must believe in the team. This Forbes post is a great read:

“Trust is one of the hottest topics in today’s global conversations. Whether we’re talking about so-called fake news or benchmarking a company’s reputation for integrity and ethics, the importance of trust to an organization or business is undeniable.

It may seem obvious that a misuse of trust is bad for a company’s bottom line. We’ve read enough about data leaks, shareholder deception and corporate scandals in the news to understand how a company can damage its reputation and relationships through bad behavior.”

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Nine Steps To Develop Leadership Discipline

Posted by on August 3, 2018

Great leadership is a combination of having the discipline to execute daily on major priorities while at the same time keeping one eye on your market and competition. Operational excellence is demanded but you must create a culture where strategic innovation can thrive. The Forbes Coaches Council always delivers:

“Business leaders have a tough job. They must manage themselves, lead others and keep the organization heading in the right direction. They are ultimately accountable for the organization’s success. With this comes stress, fear and other emotions that can get in the way of leadership discipline.

Working with CEOs and entrepreneurs, I have the joy of working with some fantastic leaders. I see and experience their wins — their satisfaction of doing a good job. With that, I hear and see the personal struggles, the burden of people issues and the overall frustration that comes with leading.”

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3 Rules For Successfully Leading Other Leaders

Posted by on July 30, 2018

Human capital is the most important asset any organization has to make a difference. The company or team that can attract, train and retain the best of the best will accomplish great things. The leadership skill set required to lead these high potential leaders is different than leading front line management. This Forbes post is worth the read:

“Many of us get to manage others at some point. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to manage leaders who manage others. This adds a different dynamic.

When presented with this opportunity, leaders shouldn’t assume that the ranks will blindly follow them given their placement on the org chart. Sure, you’ve worked hard to climb the corporate ladder and earned your leadership position. But make no mistake; carrying this attitude too far when making hiring decisions can backfire.”

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The Critical Role Of Leadership Development During Organizational Change

Posted by on June 6, 2018

I am not working with any company that is not either going through significant change or actual disruption. The pressure to cut costs can be fatal, especially if it is the area of leadership development. If you don’t cast a hopeful vision for the future and develop everyone on your team the results will be disastrous. This Forbes post is comprehensive:

Most business leaders today would agree on two things: (1) organizational change is constant, and (2) leading change is one of the most difficult burdens of a leader’s command. In last week’s article I focused on the seven mindsets necessary for successful leadership development. In this article, I want to take it a step further and look at the role leadership development should play in organizational change.

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The Nine Surprising Secrets Of Elite Teams

Posted by on May 21, 2018

In my role of executive coaching I get to work with a lot of leadership teams. In my experience about 20% of the teams I see are excellent. The other 80% are average at best and many on the other extreme of being consistently marginal. I will acknowledge that some of the team members I have observed need to be terminated but the consistent factor in the top 20% is the team leader. This Forbes post is spot on:

“As a retired Navy SEAL and founder of six multimillion-dollar businesses, I view the current business landscape like a “VUCA” war zone in Syria and Afghanistan — it’s Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous — but fortunately for you, there are no incoming enemy rounds!”

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Three Steps To Fix A Broken Culture

Posted by on May 14, 2018

Organizational culture is near the top of every major companies list of priorities. It is a combination of how your people and process work together to produce the maximum productivity. If it is healthy, great things routinely happen but if is toxic you are on a fast track to the bottom. This Forbes post is one of the best I have read:

“According to Gallup, “The world’s best organizations don’t simply promise a great employee experience; they create a culture of engagement in which employees can continuously develop and thrive. Leaders at these world-class organizations treat their workplace culture as a powerful competitive differentiator.”

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How To Ask Your Boss For Feedback

Posted by on May 7, 2018

When working with companies and especially leadership teams, the presence of healthy feedback systems in their culture is absolutely critical. The other two extremes are shooting the messenger and the loss of trust that leads to telling the boss what they want to hear instead of what they need to know. This Fast Company post is a best practice:

“I recently read an interesting stat from PwC that indicated nearly 60% of polled employees said they would like feedback from their bosses on a daily or weekly basis. More interesting than that, for employees under age 30, the desire for regular feedback flow jumped to 72%. Being a CEO for nearly 20 years, and having managed millennial workers for a good part of that time, I agree with these findings.”

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