Five Ways Church Staffs Undermine Their Effectiveness

by rev. mark tidsworth, founder and team leader

Of course it’s not intentional. No, it’s not on purpose (typically). Yet, church staffs are notorious for inadvertently undermining their effectiveness over and over. After years of engaging teams, I thought it might be helpful to describe five common ways staff teams sabotage themselves.

Functioning as a loose association of individuals rather than a team gathered around a common purpose.

This approach to self-sabotage is first in line since it is foundational for effectiveness. When teams are functioning even moderately well, their influence is significantly multiplied, adding synergy to most everything in church life. At the same time, too many church staff persons do not perceive themselves as part of a staff team. They are focused on their areas of ministry, uninterested in their connection with other staff persons. When this is so, the power of teaming available to them is lost. They fail to communicate across turf lines. The church is lesser in its expression of church as a result. Now, before blaming individual staff persons for this situation, we must recognize many dynamics combine to form this kind of staff culture. The individuals are contributors, yet the system itself often supports and encourages this lone-ranger approach to ministry.

Ignoring the need to meet and connect.

Sometimes this second undermining action flows directly from the first described above. When they function as separatists, why meet together? I’m remembering when I first began working with staff teams, hungry for insights and practices for strengthening their effectiveness. In my research and interaction with staff teams, the nature of staff meetings quickly became a hot topic. When staff meetings themselves are unproductive, unengaging, or could be accomplished through several emails, then of course staff persons want to avoid those meetings. I also remember a savvy staff team leader describing how their team spent so much of their meeting time connecting with each other, sharing who they are and what they are about. At first I thought this was wasted time, yet have grown to observe that teams who relationally invest in each other serve more effectively in their ministry roles. Of course there are other factors driving teams to avoid meeting: unresolved conflicts, part-time employee schedules, poor team management, uninterested leadership, to name a few. Those who don’t meet regularly train themselves to believe working together around their common purpose is inconsequential.

Personalizing disagreements during decision-making conversations.

Do you remember Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, published in 2002? Lencioni offers a challenging and robust model for significant team engagement. We’ve reversed his dysfunctions into functionalities, resulting in a strong retreat for church staffs. Anyway, a key practice of effective teams according to Lencioni is unfiltered conflict around ideas. What this means is passionate, but constructive, debate about ideas that focuses on concepts and avoids personal attacks. In other words, we want staff persons to bring their best visioning, thinking, praying, and feelings to the table when ministry strategizing and decision-making is underway. As we know from Emotional Intelligence research and training, the outcome is far better, contributing to collective intelligence. We DO NOT mean engaging in personal conflict, but instead arguing for the best outcome. As one can easily see, not everyone is able to go there, interpreting disagreement around ideas as personal discounting or insulting. When staffs maintain this point of view, they undermine their decision-making and ministry strategizing effectiveness.

Allowing unresolved interpersonal tension to linger and fester.

How much does your church value honesty compared to niceness? Here in the southeastern USA where I live, niceness often trumps honesty. The result is shallow relationships and lowered effectiveness. That’s not the intent of course, yet it is the outcome. Some church staff persons recognize this dynamic in their churches, replicating it in their working relationships with their teammates. When unresolved tension from previous conflicts is allowed to remain, there’s little chance staff teams will engage in honest and productive conversation around ministry strategies. Instead they become protective, unwilling to be vulnerable with each other. The Biblical guidance for not letting the sun go down on our anger is so instructive. Allowing unresolved conflict to fester is an excellent way to undermine team working and effectiveness.

Poorly managing criticism of teammates.

We hear things. People in churches will often triangle staff persons, complaining to one about the other. Most people are not trying to cause problems when they do this… rather they are unused to speaking directly to persons with whom they have a concern. This happens so often in churches that staff persons need be prepared for how to respond. When they are not well-prepared, there are many ways for this dynamic to go off the rails (too many to list here). On the other hand, prepared staff persons know to listen carefully, followed by helping the person with the complaint turn to the staff person with whom they have a problem, rather than taking the problem on themselves. There are many more specific ways to manage this dynamic which avoid undermining the staff team.

Since we believe so strongly in the mission of God’s Church, may we invest in staff team development for the sake of God’s mission through our churches.

Rev. Mark Tidsworth has provided hundreds of staff development days and retreats over the years. Sometimes multiple staff teams will gather in order to take in his training, “Cultivating Cultures of Excellence in Church Staff Teams.” Feel free to contact Mark at markt@pinnlead.com or 803-673-3634.