In a recent article at The Malphurs Group blog, Brad Bridges offers nine ideas for ways not to develop leaders in your church or ministry. Among these counterproductive actions:
Do It Yourself. If you can do it all, you don’t need anyone else right? Wrong. Everyone eventually will run out of do-it-yourself capacity.
Hire more people. If you have too much to do, pay someone else to do it. Wrong again. Many times hiring and hiring more people is a bandage. The real solution: Develop the leaders you already have.
Delegate to the nearest warm body. When you are stressed or tired, it’s tempting to assign tasks to anyone available. People don’t just want work to do. They want meaningful, challenging and relevant opportunities. Delegate according to gifting.
Shun Evaluation. With volunteers, this is easy to do. They don’t want you to evaluate them, right? Wrong. People hate corrective, punishing or controlling feedback. They like positive, expected and developmental feedback (well…maybe not all of them do). Rather than telling people what they did wrong, try having clear job descriptions and asking them what went well and how they’d like to improve. (Click here for the full list.)
Blessings!
Michael Duduit
MDuduit@SalemPublishing.com
www.MichaelDuduit.com