by Gary Reinecke | Feb 19, 2017 | Church Growth, Church Multiplication, Leader Development |
What about you?
It is easy to measure the low lying fruit. For instance, church leadership will measure things like worship attendance, offerings, and baptisms. But what if you looked below the surface. At my home church an important metric we track is the percentage of adults who regularly participate in a small group. Annual engagement in 2016 was 94% (click Crosspoint Church for report). The church launched over a decade ago with the goal of focusing resources (time, energy, people) to do a few things well; which has paid off at Crosspoint – a church of small groups vs. a church with small groups!
Consider the following challenge:
- Reflect on the measures below the surface that will have the greatest impact on the health and growth of your:
- leadership
- team
- organization
- Then tie those to outcomes you are striving to achieve e.g. making small groups a priority in my example.
- Brainstorm ideas of how you can impact that area over the course of the next 30-60-90 days.
Effective leaders understand the principle: “Say No – to say Yes to What Matters!” Leaders who focus their time, energy and people; regularly assess their ministry, make adjustments and forecast the future with a high degree of accuracy. This surfaces the strategic question: What are you measuring?
Remember – you measure what matters!
by Gary Reinecke | Feb 13, 2017 | Church Growth, Church Multiplication, Coach Training, Disciplemaking, Leader Development, Uncategorized |
It is easy to get excited about coaching or a training initiative without understanding the true impact.
How many times have you heard colleagues discuss a new training process or coaching resource? And then get partway through the experience without understanding the impact on you or your organization. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to consider the potential Return on Investment (ROI) before you start?
Consider a coaching relationship. When you or I establish a coach agreement we ask the leader to create goals. Over the course of the next year we work towards achieving those goals and assess the progress at the conclusion of our time together. Using the six levels described below you can see that we moved from Level 0 (scope, in my example) to Level 1 (reaction to the coaching process) to Level 2 (learning that occurred) to level 3 (applying the knowledge to the leader’s ministry).
There is a process to measure the ROI on training and coaching. Most of the coaching and training done in organizations settle for Level 1 or Level 2 evaluation – a few take it to Level 3. Here are the six levels:
- Level 0: Inputs
- Level 1: Reaction
- Level 2: Learning
- Level 3: Application
- Level 4: Impact
- Level 5: Return on Investment (ROI)
Review the descriptions above and consider a coaching or training process you are leading. Let’s say it is a leader development process that involves quarterly workshops with coaching in-between. Whatever it is that you are currently working on (developing small group leaders), or anticipate in the near future – what level of measurement are you incorporating in your process.
I’ve discovered that leaders are eager to know the ROI on some of the training and coaching that they are engaged. When they realize that it is possible to calculate and monetize the impact of their investment, it transforms the significance of the training/coaching because they are clear “why” they are making the investment.
Places where ROI is helpful:
- Organization-wide leader development training
- Coaching pastors, church planters, regional network leaders and movement leaders
- Coach training for church planting, parent church coaches or disciple-making movements
A helpful book on ROI, entitled “Show Me the Money” provides a more complete explanation. If you have questions, please e-mail InFocus for more information.
by Gary Reinecke | Jan 30, 2017 | Uncategorized |
How many times have you bought a highly recommended book just to let it collect dust on your shelf?
One of those books for me has been “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge. This book has been and continues to be a strong proponent for creating a culture of coaching within an organization, whether it be a business, a church or mission agency. How is that you ask?
Let me explain the five disciplines of healthy organizational life according to Senge.
- Personal Mastery – is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and seeing reality objectively.
- Mental Models – are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action.
- Shared Vision – involves the skills of unearthing shared “pictures of the future” that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance.
- Team Learning – starts with “dialogue,” the capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine “thinking together.”
- Systems Thinking – integrates the disciplines, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice.
With these as a framework for healthy team life, contemplate how the following might enhance your team.
- If you could help people continually see reality objectively.
- If you could challenge team members unpack their mental models.
- If you could engage people in a shared vision.
- If you could foster a value for team learning.
- If you could integrate these disciplines in a systematic way in your team…
What difference would it make?
I want to challenge you to pick-up the book. If it is on your shelf and you have already read it, browse the titles and subtitles or take note of text you highlighted. Now reflect on the points above and envision how the five disciplines might impact your team, organization, or ministry.
by Gary Reinecke | Jan 20, 2017 | Uncategorized |
The hard work of coaching requires the coach to slow down, go below the surface and uncover key issues.
Not too long ago I was meeting with a pastoral leader who wanted help supervising a new staff member. The new staff member struggled with feedback. They winced when it was given and quick to excuse or diminish the helpful insights. On top of that, he continued repeating the same mistakes. I had several ideas swirling around in my head but I stopped, challenged and chose to remain present.
Then I asked him the following:
- What was the source of the staff member’s insecurity?
- What had the pastoral leader tried to help him receive feedback?
- What had worked in his past experience?
- What strategies could he brainstorm?
- What would he do?
Receiving feedback is a learned skill. Helping someone grow in this area can be a game changer. What are some ways you have helped those you coach exercise this important leadership muscle?
by Gary Reinecke | Jan 17, 2017 | Disciplemaking, Leader Development, Personal Development |
A life-giving gift you can give those you coach is what I like to call “pruning”. I have found that the four categories below serve as a helpful guide to follow using Covey’s, “First Things First” matrix. Take a moment right now to review how you are using your time this week.
- Pull-out your calendar.
- Prioritize your scheduled activities in one of four categories:
- Quadrant I – Important & Urgent.
- Quadrant II – Important & Not Urgent.
- Quadrant III – Not Important & Urgent.
- Quadrant IV – Not Important & Not Urgent.
- How can you spend more of your time in Quadrant II in 2017?
Coveys’ point is that most of us spend too much time in Quadrants III & IV; to the neglect of Quadrant II. Imagine how this exercise might benefit the people you coach. Fast forward to December, if a leader doubled her or his time in Important & Not Urgent activities, what impact would it have on their:
- Personal development
- Disciplemaking
- Leader Development
Happy pruning!
