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Feedback: God to Leader & Team
We want God involved in everything we do. That is why we have a prayer life! We are speaking to him about certain things – whether that is personal or organizational – and He is speaking to us.
Now, when it comes to an organization, God is primarily going to give the direction to the Leader and how to do that to the team.
Here is an example. In the early 1980’s, God tucked a seed in our heart and it was one word – Europe. We had no other direction on this for many years. In early 1993 we took a trip to Sweden, Estonia, and Germany. On the way home over the North Atlantic we just knew we were supposed to move to Germany and start a Bible School. Our team was small, but everything else we really developed after this initial Bible School was never just us but more of a team effort.
When the team grew more after our move from Heidelberg to Bonn, they came up with more of the plans on “How” to build both the school and church. Today with just a little direction all of our teams come up with proposals that are presented, discussed, feedback is given and then we make decisions.
My job as a leader is to say “Here’s where I think we should go. Now, team, I want you to come up with some plans, ideas and recommendations on how we should get there”. It’s not my job as a leader to figure out all the ‘hows’ (how we’re going to get there and how we’re going to do it).
What I am responsible for as a leader is to get direction from God and give direction to the team, but I am not responsible for figuring out every step of the way – that is done by the team, where they can then bring it back to me (as the leader) and I can look at it and review it with them before giving an approval.
This is a process as a leader and a team to work this way but the practice, process, and implementation is well worth it.
Here is another example: If I am the Children’s Pastor I would say “Here are 6 major areas of the Word of God that we want the kids to learn this year. Now, team, take those 6 areas and bring me back a plan on how we can do that so the kids can learn it in the best possible way”.
I’m not thinking about it anymore because the team is working on it now. They’re smart, they’re in that area, they know the kids, they’re speaking to God and getting direction for all of it, and they’re going to bring back a plan to me that is WAY better than I could’ve ever thought of!
I want to encourage you to start working more like this. As a leader, it will give you more time for the things you should spend time on, and for the team, it is an avenue to give the unique supply given by God to Build the Church. Start practicing feedback in the context of discipleship and in building the organization. It will help everyone and everything grow.
John Grunewald