Leading Down

In September my role at Sarasota Baptist Church changed. I am now serving as the Executive Pastor. My heart is still in developing people through small groups so this new position actually gives me a better platform to see that we accomplish this goal throughout the life of the church. Over the last few months I have learned many things about leading from the 2nd chair (Although I believe these principles are true no matter what role you serve in). Here are my top 2.

1. Always try to push decisions to the lowest possible level. Pride tends to make us think we need to make any decision that comes our way. The reality is that while we could easily make most of the decisions it is demotivating to those under you. We need to start by asking the question, "how far down on my organizational chart can I push this decision?" This will help you accomplish two things. First, you will communicate to those on your team that you believe in their ability to make key decisions. Second, when they make the decision they are more likely to invest personally in the outcome. I know when I stick my neck out on something I will work as hard as possible to make sure it goes well. One thing I found as I started doing this was that it can actually be harder and more laborious to push the decision down. Sometimes it is just easier to make the call on the spot. Resist what I call the "Ease Factor." The "Ease Factor" is doing something that you can do, or have the power to do easily, but that you should resist doing for the sake of allowing a better process to occur.

2. Always push conflict back to the biblical model. Almost weekly someone on my staff has an issue with either someone in the church or some else on the staff (and this staff and church get along great, so I know this is areal problem in other places as well). For the first few months I felt like I was spending a lot of time resolving conflict. One day in my quiet time I realized I was doing this all wrong. Now when someone comes to me my first question is "Have you talked to them yet?" If the answer is anything other than yes I send them back to deal with it. (I also do not accept the answer that they emailed or texted them). After seeing this model work so well I decided to use it on lay people. Now when people come with complaints or issues that deal directly with someone on my staff or others in the church I ask them if they have met with them to talk it out. If the answer is anything but yes I send them back. So far I have only had to moderate one issue that was not able to be resolved between the two involved. (I would like to refer you back to an earlier post on why you don't use email or texts to deal with conflict).

I hope this helps some of you as you lead from the 2nd chair.