#3 Develop Your Leadership Effectiveness – ASSESS

by Gary Reinecke | Dec 6, 2018 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

LEARN-EMPOWER-ASSESS-DECIDE-EVALUATE-REVIEW

Life-long learners constantly cycle through a developmental process to sharpen their leadership skills. It may be intuitive or it may be intentional. But the 6 steps are real: LEARN-EMPOWER-ASSESS-DECIDE-EVALUATE-REVIEW.  The third step in the leadership developmental process is ASSESS. The word assess refers to that need for leaders to assess the vision, their goals and the team members performance.

Over the last several decades a lot has been written about vision. I like to draw on Joel Barker’s quote:

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

Vision includes three elements. More importantly, these three elements must be inextricably connected to the vision. The larger the gap, the greater disparity between your vision and your team members – the higher the probability is that your team will NOT produce the expected outcomes you desire. Here are the three elements:

• Strategies
• Goals
• Targets

As a leader, you are constantly addressing the proximity of the vision to your strategies, goals and targets.  Here are five questions to ask team members to assess that gap:

1. Where is our team positioned currently?
2. What is the gap between our current position and our vision?
3. What do we need to do in the short-term that will help us to achieve that vision?
4. In the medium-term?
5. In the long-term?

Assessing is an important step in the Leadership Development Process. But Assessing in itself is not enough. In fact, going to a workshop, listening to a podcast or even receiving a degree in leadership does not guarantee a person can lead. I’ve found that many people have knowledge but lack the experience of actually leading a team. Applying the knowledge and learning from success as well as failure is critical in the development process.

Questions for your reflection:

1. When was the last time you assessed your team’s current vision?
2. When was the last time you assessed your team member’s performance?
3. What steps do you need to take to close the gap between your vision and the actions of your team?

The next step in the journey to develop as a leader is – Decide.  What are you going to measure and how will it be measured? This is where we will pick-up next week.

InFocus is responding to the need to help leaders empower their team through our Live Courses called Collectives.  Learn about the 2019 Collectives.  Each Collective will engage you in the 6 Step Leadership Development process above.

Related Leadership Development Resource:

Effective Leadership Storyboard

by Gary Reinecke | Nov 1, 2018 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

One of the most impactful worship environments that I’ve participated in was in a marginalized community in Springdale, Australia. The Gospel was potent that Sunday evening many years ago. We met in a community center where me and Gina (my wife) ate a meal with other members of the community, from donated food. A closet set aside for clothing and other necessities, was made available to those in need. After we ate together on the first floor, we went upstairs to participate in worship together. That evening was memorable in many ways:

• Inter-generational – from twenty-somethings to 60 year-olds
• Multi-ethnic – Pacific Islanders to Aussies
• Socially diverse – current and former drug addicts, prostitutes and people working towards sobriety

The evening began with scripture reading and prayer. A cardboard box with percussion instruments was passed around so everyone could have a shaker, tambourine or drum to beat. Then in a light-hearted manner, the worship leader  led this rag-tag band in a couple of familiar worship songs, inviting people to engage in a non-threatening manner.

Perhaps the highlight that sticks-out for me was the leader that led the Bible portion of the night who was from the local community. After various people read the passage aloud, we broke-up into smaller groups to explore insights from the passage and ways to apply the truths we had gleaned. To culminate our time together we shared Communion as a symbol of the New Covenant Jesus had called this gathering to live-out together, in a missional community called the Rainbow Church.

You might have thought I was going to share the content of the Gospel with you as if something had changed. The New Covenant Jesus preached and lived-out remains the same as 2,000+ years ago. However, the church of today must return to a more incarnational and missional expression of the Gospel.

One church staff team I consulted with recently came up with the slogan to rebrand their ministry: Be Missional to Multiply! This is what Jesus did. This is what the church must return to. This is what the church must be and move towards.

Reflect on the questions below so that you and your ministry can. Be Missional to Multiply!

1. How are you making the Gospel unnecessarily resistible?
2. What does it mean to be missional in your context?
3. What can you do differently to make missional living part of your DNA?
4. How are you multiplying disciples?
5. What else could you be doing?