QUICK GUIDE – Coaching Staff Members

 

You may know the name Marcus Buckingham as the creator of the Strengths Finder inventory and the author of the popular book Strengths Finder 2.0.   

We recently had the chance to see Buckingham’s 2017 presentation from the Global Leadership Summit entitled “Reinventing Performance Management.”  The talk was so practical that we want to pass on the essence of it to as many people as we can.  Here are some questions which Buckingham answered with refreshing clarity:

Question #1 – How effective are annual performance reviews?  Answer: Not at all.  They are so subjective as to tell us more about the reviewer than the person being reviewed. They are being abandoned by many organizations today in favor of something better (see below).

Question #2 – How effective is “feedback?”  Answer: It is almost worthless because it doesn’t get to the heart of what motivates us.  Feedback centers on the priorities of the supervisor, rather than the passions – which reflect the strengths – of the individuals receiving the feedback.

Question #3 – What DOES motivate staff members to give their best to a larger cause?  The answer to that is found in the chart below (as adapted for church staff members). Any senior pastor would love to hear his/her staff members affirming all eight statements…

	“WE”	“ME”
Purpose	“I am enthusiastic about the mission of my church”	“I clearly understand what is expected of me”
Excellence	“In my team, I am surrounded by people who share my values”	“I have a chance to use my strengths every day at work”
Support	“My teammates have my back”	“I know I will be recognized for excellent work”
Future	“I have great confidence in my ministry’s future”	“In my work I am always challenged to grow”

 

Here’s the essence of Buckingham’s counsel, reduced to a few statements:

1. Since we’re as self-focused as we are, the key to hearing your people voice the “we” statements in the left-hand column is to empower them to be able to make the “me” statements in the right-hand column.
2. The two most important statements are both in the right-hand column: “I clearly understand what is expected of me” and “I have a chance to use my strengths at work (preferably on a daily basis).”

3. The essence of team leadership is regular (he says weekly) coaching sessions in which the leader is quizzing the staff member about those all-important “right-hand-column” questions.

4. Paraphrasing Buckingham: “Your job as a leader is to help your reports to make all of these ‘me’ and ‘we’ statements with great enthusiasm.” Don’t say, “I’m too busy leading to be able to do this.”  This is the essence of team leadership: helping your people to effectively use their strengths every day. Growing leaders must give up much of their own personal work (ministry) in order to empower those they coach to do their work successfully. This is the essence and the sacrifice of leadership.

5. If you’re too busy “leading” to do this, you’re too busy. If you have too many “reports” to be able to do this, you have too many “reports.”

 We can tell you from experience that this works.

Not that we thought of it ourselves.  We heard it in the coaching training formerly offered by Don Price and his team from the Forest Lakes District of the Evangelical Free Church in America. 

We also found it in Tim Addington’s book, Leading from the Sandbox, in which the author urged senior leaders to conduct coaching sessions with those they are supervising with questions such as the following:

• How are you doing physically, mentally and spiritually?
• What did you do on your day off this week?
• On a scale of 1-10, what was your fulfillment factor this week?
• How have you used your strengths in the past week?
• How have you grown or what have you learned in the past week?
• Can you tell me about something which you were able to complete?
• Can you tell me about something you were not able to complete?
• How can I help you with this?
• How are you doing on your KRA’s (key result areas) or the annual goals you set for yourself?
• What are your big goals for the next week?
• Have any relationships gone south?
• Is there anything you need me to help you sort out?
• Are there any resources you need but don’t have?
• How can I pray for you?

If you are a senior pastor or some other type of supervising leader in a church, we want to urge you to make your own form, get it in the hands of those who report to you and start using it immediately. 

With only rare exceptions, your people don’t want the freedom of being left alone.  They need help and they believe that you can give it to them if you care enough to do so.

Make sure they fill out the form. Re-schedule the meeting if necessary. Make sure he/she makes copies for both of you and then sit down over a cup of coffee (or lunch) and talk it through.  This is a great gift which you can give to your staff members.  They will love it and they will love you for doing it. Your reward will be overhearing them make the “we” statements to others and the great work which they’ll do.

And they should, because they have the privilege of serving Christ with a leader who really cares about them.