(Note: I believe this information is based on an article in Amazing Parish,
but I can no longer locate the original reference. My apologies if this is incorrect.)
In our last post, we began to discuss some common mistakes made when establishing a leadership team for your parish. To recap the first two:
- Trying to be too inclusive and putting too many people on the team.
- Not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings and keeping them on the team for that reason. In a similar manner, putting a new member on the team even when they really shouldn’t be on it.
These two are obviously important and in this post, we will continue with a few more.
- Having a difficult person on the team because of their functional role alone.
Obviously, the leadership team should be diverse in its makeup and that would include ensuring that the most important functions in the parish are represented. That can be tricky to manage when one of those people is difficult and does not function well in a group setting. While the function needs to be represented, the person may need to be replaced, at least on this team by another team member, if not completely in their functional role as well. If this becomes necessary, it should be handled with discretion and in accordance with employment regulations. Perhaps that person would better serve the parish in a different capacity.
- Putting people on the team who are not committed to excellence and needed change.
We’ve all heard, “we’ve always done it this way” or “we tried that once and it didn’t work”. While such team members may be dedicated and well intentioned, this type of attitude can be toxic to your efforts as a leader. Unfortunately, some people, especially in a church environment may not be openly hostile but will adopt passive-aggressive behavior. This also can cause unneeded tension and interfere with goals. Be sure that those on your team understand and are committed to your vision.
- Putting people on the team who are difficult in the hopes that they can win over other difficult people.
Although the phrase, “fighting fire with fire” may work in actual fire-fighting situations, this is rarely true in interpersonal relations. As an example, putting an aggressive person on the team to control, or counter, another aggressive person is unlikely to result in a desirable outcome. It will more than likely become a distraction or a source of further conflict. As we mentioned earlier there are better ways to directly address difficult personalities in a more effective manner.
In these last two posts we have covered and explained five common mistakes and how to effectively deal with them when establishing a leadership team. Since such a critical part of your leadership involves working with teams, we will continue to look at other aspects of team building and team management in subsequent posts.