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Feedback > Leader to Team
1. Encouragement
As leaders, we need to be encouraging our people. If we put them in a position to succeed, then let’s make sure to let them know that they are succeeding along the way. A simple “That was great!”, “Love the work you did”, “Good decision there”, can go a long way and is extremely necessary.
2. Teaching, Coaching, Mentoring
Developing people is who we are as leaders. Jesus constantly was in the business of discipleship and developing those around him. Some of this can be done by giving the feedback that I just mentioned above (encouragement). But everything mentioned in this series has to do with teaching, coaching and mentoring.
3. Crucial Conversations
These are what we call difficult conversations. These probably have to happen with almost everyone along the way. It’s what we’ll have with our kids regularly to help them grow right, it’s what we have to do with our team members & employees, and most everyone in our life where we have some influence.
Sometimes there’s going to have to be a crucial conversation so that we stay on course, instead of getting off course. It could be doctrinal, behavioral, about certain results, or anything that gets in the way of someone growing.
I was like everyone else when it came to crucial conversations – I procrastinated, put them off, didn’t want to have them… why? Because they are uncomfortable! Nobody likes these conversations. But when you learn how to do it, to set the atmosphere, to talk to people the right way – it’s amazing how well it can go. Crucial conversations can become one of your greatest tools of discipleship!
We can dive into exactly how to have these conversations another time.
4. Evaluations
It’s important to have regular evaluations with your team, employees, and people in key positions. You can do these annually, but if you have regular feedback, your annual evaluation won’t be as huge as you will have known a lot of the information already.
There are some things in our annual evaluation we like to ask our team, though:
- Are we helping you to walk along the path you believe God wants you to walk on?
This is something that we want to review annually just to make sure our team members are doing OK. If they say “you know, there wasn’t really anything I was doing this year that helped me grow toward what I believe God wants me to do”, well, then we would have to say “Let’s adjust and see what we can do to put you in a place that gets you going in the right direction”. Keep in mind that they also could’ve been in the right place, but maybe didn’t recognize it. In this instance, we can help them realize that as well.
All of these forms of feedback are tools of Discipleship & a part of Equipping the Saints for the work of the ministry.
Check back next month as we finish the Feedback Series. Have someone in mind that would enjoy it? Get them to sign up to our email list here so they don’t miss out on our updates.
Extending Your Reach,
John Grunewald