Building a Team

John Maxwell has famously said “teamwork makes the dream work.”

Teams are incredibly important in accomplishing a vision. And as the leader of organizations, projects, initiatives and churches, maybe the most important thing you do is select, equip and release leaders.

We talked a few posts ago about hiring new team members, so here are a few thoughts on building a team. Several of these points have been constructed and edited based on thoughts that Brian Houston from Hillsong Church shared with a few of us in a retreat setting a couple of years ago.

1. Live and lead so that your team is an overflow of your leadership. Your team will reflect your leadership. What you see in them is what you’re modeling to them. Overflow to your team in a healthy positive way.

2. Don’t think too much, or too little, of yourself. You aren’t the hero, but you’re also not the goat. A healthy balance on this is the right direction.

3. Create a structure and system that allows people on your team to flourish. Can people flourish on your team, or does your personality or stature or the system get in the way? If someone can’t flourish, why would they stay? Find structures that release people.

4. Don’t just look to people, look thru them. What is the next generation? Who will replace you? Constantly build layers of leadership – think generationally.

5. Hire heart before head every time. I want a hustler, not a know it all.

6. Slow and steady, not fast and furious. Building leaders takes time, but is always worth it. You may not always be able to find the right people, but you can always build into them. It’s a marathon, not a sprint in terms of developing people.

7. Constantly fight the bureaucracy as you grow. People are not the problem, sometimes it’s the structure or systems. Even in large organizations, things happen with 3-5 people working closely together. Where there is bureaucracy, the team perishes.

8. Model strong leadership, and not controlling leadership. Your team doesn’t want a dictator.

9. Create a culture where things are out in the open. Don’t let issues fester too long.

10. Be consistent yet customized. Create an environment that is predictable (security) but innovative (creative).

A few tips for authors, thought leaders and experts

I really respect Jon’s willingness to learn from others, and to seek out folks in his life that can keep him grounded.

So here were the six big points I gave him on the issue of becoming an author and being a thought leader. But these points I think are applicable to any of us as leaders who are already experts or soon to be experts. Here you go:

1. Actively Build a Support Network- including those who can help you on the journey, and those who will be real with you regardless of what you become. Beware of CEO disease, the temptation to surround yourself with people who only tell you what you want to hear. Keep honest people in your life so that you can stay grounded in the reality of your experiences.

2. Don’t think You’ve Arrived- Banish the phrase, “I’m done” from your vocabulary. The best leaders never stop learning and see every opportunity, success or failure, as a learning opportunity.

3. Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re not a big deal. Seriously. I don’t care who you are. Humility is way more attractive than arrogance.

4. Celebrate Your Rivals- Jealously is natural, but how you respond to it is not. When you find yourself tempted to speak ill about a rival or secretly wrestle with jealousy, flip that emotion on its head. Find ways to celebrate your rivals and when you run into a new one, let the first question you ask yourself be, “How can I help this person win?”

5. Be Generous. Both with your time as well as your expertise and experience. Don’t forget- you were once a greenhorn who didn’t know anything. As soon as you are an expert or a thought leader, it’s time to start passing on what you know to others younger or less experienced than you. It’s NOT the time to become arrogant and protected and sheltered by an assistant or entourage.

6. Flow between the five stages of creative development. Don’t get stuck in one. Taken in concert, these five stages can be healthy, important parts of growing any creative endeavor. Isolated and obsessed on, any one of these stages can cripple your best intentions. Focus on moving between them. The key is to not just hang out in the “caretaker” stage, where you protect and defend everything you’ve developed, but instead keep returning to the “craft” stage, constantly creating new ideas, projects, organizations and impact.

STAGE #1- Craft – You create something out of passion for the art of it.

STAGE #2- Crowd – An audience discovers you’re good at your passion.

STAGE #3- Commission – You earn money for the thing you love to do.

STAGE #4- Career – You turn a passion into your profession.

STAGE #5- Caretaker – You protect and nurture the thing you’ve created, and do everything you can to “defend” your turf. A dangerous phase.

We First Branding Seminar with Simon Mainwaring

I recently interviewed Simon Mainwaring for the Catalyst Podcast. Check out the interview here. Simon is the best-selling author of the book We First, and has helped some of the leading brands in the world with strategy and social media, through his consulting firm We First Branding.

Simon has just announced his first ever We First Social Branding Seminar to be held in Los Angeles on Feb.1-2, 2012. The seminar is specifically designed to help you define and articulate your organization/brand’s purpose in a way that will emotionally connect with your community, and then to scale and amplify that message using the most effective social media strategies and tactics. Plus, every attendee gets to invite their favorite non-profit for free which is amazing! The early bird pricing ends next week so register now. I’m confident you’ll get so much out of it.

Pastors, Church leaders and non-profit leaders- again, you can attend for FREE if accompanying a regular attendee. So check out this great seminar, listen to the podcast interview, and buy the book!

Keys for starting something New

Are you starting a new organization? A Church Planter? Entrepreneur? Involved in a small organization just getting started?

Here are some tips for getting started:

1. Act like you’ve arrived. No one needs to know you’re just starting. When you’re small, act and think big. When you’re big, act and think small.

2. Hire people you like. Look for chemistry first in terms of creating your initial core team.

3. If at all possible, don’t work with your family. Start with competency, not relatives. And stay away from taking loans, venture capital, or seed money from family members as well.

4. Establish your values and organizational culture immediately. Build your organizational DNA early and often. And repeat.

5. Work hard, play hard. Have fun. Get things done.

6. Lean into interns. A great way to build capacity quickly. And to keep you young.

7. Establish partnerships. Look for opportunities to collaborate at every corner. Seek to build joint ventures.

8. Create benchmarks. Understand clearly who you want to be like, both personally and organizationally. Once you know, learn from them.

9. Celebrate constantly. Find the small wins as well as the big wins.

10. Seek feedback and accountability everywhere. Learn from everyone, and intentionally ask for input.

11. Create a board or advisory group, regardless of your corporate structure. You need this regardless of whether a church planter, entrepreneur, small business owner, or sole proprietor.

Face in the Mud Leaders

As leaders, many times we have to lay down, with our head face down, in the mud, in order for things to get done. Face in the Mud Leadership. Face in the Mud Leaders.

What does this mean?

1. Instead of standing up and leading forward, many times we have to lay down and get out of the way.

2. No one likes to step in the mud, much less lay down in it, much much less lay down with your face in it. But sometimes as leaders we are called to sacrifice and get dirty.

3. Just because you may have to lay down in the mud, doesn’t mean everyone else on your team has to do the same. Not all of your leadership principles being lived out aren’t meant to be modeled by those around you.

4. Servant leadership sometimes means someone else walking over our back to get to the next big thing. And not always someone from your team- many times it could be you’re getting walked over by the person you might have been arguing, competing, or at opposite ends with. You may have to serve truly as a bridge between side A and side B.

5. Face in the mud means no expectations or sense of “returning the favor” by those who might walk over your back or see you as the bridge to get somewhere. It’s not a means to an end philosophy. Anything other than pure motives with this kind of leadership lived out will quickly be seen as unauthentic.

6. Face in the Mud doesn’t mean you are wimpy or not willing to stand up- just the opposite. Face in the mud leadership is quiet strength. And being confident and competent as a leader.

(originally posted by me in 2009).

A few recent pics