Team Dynamics: Are Your Church Staff Truly Working Together?

Ever wonder why some church staff teams seem to thrive while others struggle to find their groove? Join me, Todd Rhodes of chemistrystaffing.com, as we dissect the intricacies of church staff dynamics on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. In our candid discussions, we unpack the surprising statistics from our church staff health assessment and uncover why a significant portion of staff members—29%, to be exact—might feel like they're on the outside looking in when it comes to team cohesion.

Prepare to be equipped with actionable strategies as we navigate through the experiences of those feeling disconnected and uncertain about their role in the team. We're not just cheering for the 71% who have teamwork down to a science; we're here to transform every church into a dream team. From fostering structured meetings to promoting cross-departmental collaboration, we're laying out a blueprint for church leaders to cultivate a culture of belonging and unity that resonates through every ministry. So if you're ready to turn those solo acts into a harmonious ensemble, this is one episode you won't want to miss.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

- - - - -

Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome back to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Welcome back if you've been here before. If this is your first Healthy Church Staff Podcast, welcome. Today we're going to be talking about teamwork. Teamwork makes your church run, but is it running smoothly? We're going to talk about that Again, welcome. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and I'm your host for the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Not sure how you found us, but I'm glad you did. And today we're going to continue on our series about church staff health. A lot of this comes out of our church staff health assessment that we did last year. We're also doing another one this year that I would love for you to take part in. It's absolutely free and I'll give you some instructions a little bit later on in the podcast. But today we're going to talk about teamwork and last year, on our assessment, we had over a thousand people take the assessment.

Speaker 1: 1:01

It turns out that 71% of all church staff in the United States those that responded say yes, they feel like they get really great support and work well together as a team. Teamwork that's awesome, but what about the other 29%? Let's make your church a team that everybody wants to be on All right. So let's break it down. The number 71% say that they feel like, yeah, there's really good teamwork at the church, within their staff and within the leadership, and that's really good. That's 7 out of 10, right. But 11% say that they don't. There's not good teamwork and that's still a lot of people that are feeling left out. And plus there's almost 1 in 5, 18% that are unsure and we can work with that. I'll give you some ideas here in a second on how to work with that. But let's first look at the positive responses 71% of your staff. If your staff is typical, some church staffs are going to be really good in the teamwork area. Some are going to be kind of a dumpster fire in the teamwork area, but on average, 71% are positive. Yeah, there is good feedback. That's something to celebrate. Celebrate those wins, reward your team publicly, always remind folks why working together makes a difference to the mission. Some churches do that really well. Others need some help. So let's talk about how we can help those that either feel neutral in the whole teamwork area or feel like that, no, we really need to work on teamwork.

Speaker 1: 2:34

Let's talk about the 11% that feel disconnected, and these are the people that really need your attention. Why is teamwork just not clicking for them? It could be a number of different reasons. It could be that number one they're not a team player and they don't like to work on a team. They're individualistic, they like to work in their silos and when asked the question, they just said, no, we're not a team because I don't like to work on a team. Those kinds of people are rare, but there are some of those. And how they got on your team to begin with, that's probably a topic for another podcast, but we'll leave that for another podcast. What I want to talk about are the people that are team players, that want to be team players, that would love to be on a team, but they just feel disconnected for some ways. For some way, why is teamwork not clicking for them in their current church role? More structured meetings, training on how to be a great teammate those things might help. But honestly, just giving people more chances to work in a group setting might help a lot.

Speaker 1: 3:40

So many times in our churches and on our church staffs, we silo ministries and we silo our staff into. We set them up to work on their own. There's not a lot of cross-pollinization. Is that a word? I think that's a word. They don't mix well together with other staff members. They don't work on projects together, they don't work on ministries together, they're their own dog doing their own thing, and that a lot of times can cause people to feel disconnected. So if you're the leader of a staff, really dig in and find kind of those areas, those siloed areas, those siloed people that maybe they like to work alone but maybe they like to work on a team. And if they want to work on a team and they don't feel like they are on a team, those people just could be kind of dying on the vine. Those are the people that you really need to zone in on. Find the people that feel like they're just not connected to a team.

Speaker 1: 4:38

But let's talk about the middle group too, because there's that neutral group that's a 18 percent, that's almost a fifth of most church staffs that just some days maybe they feel like there's good teamwork and they're part of a team. Other days they're like no, they feel isolated and alone. So maybe they've just not worked in teams much. Maybe they're unsure if they have any backup. And one of the ways to move these neutrals into really supportive and excited people to work on a team is just to get them involved and make sure that they've got team members that they're working with. Make sure that there's some collaboration on your staff. Make sure that there are teams that can share stories and work together, teams that really share the same goal and DNA and will really click with each other so that there can be some kind of some mutual respect and admiration and camaraderie between those teams, but also so that they can see the value of working in teams.

Speaker 1: 5:41

So if you're a leader, maybe share some stories of teams that really rocked a recent project. Maybe share some stories of teams that really rocked a recent project. I've mentioned this quite a few times as we've talked about church staff health on this series, is that one of the things that a lot of churches don't do well that I think we can and even if you do well, I think you can always do better is in celebrating successes. Share stories of how teams of people or collaborations of a couple people on your team just really rocked a project recently. So many times we get a win and we just move on and look for the next win and we don't ever take time to celebrate it or even publicly give a pat on the back. Another way is you can include them in some decision making or planning and directly ask their ideas.

Speaker 1: 6:26

Teamwork is huge and everybody wants to be a part of a team. It makes their work better and it makes everyone's work better. That's my take on teamwork. If you really want to improve how your teams work, it's really important that you're self-aware enough to know that if who's doing well on this and who's not, who's a lone duck out there working on their own, that maybe needs to collaborate a little bit more regularly, get feedback regularly, challenge people, maybe start a new initiative or some kind of a new ministry, even a short-term project that you can put maybe two or three people on. That they can work together as a team kind of report back as a team gets everybody out of their own little bubble so that they can work together and really staff that functions like a well-oiled machine man. That's a powerful thing, not only for the staff, because what you'll find is that staff that feel connected to each other and connected to your church's mission will stay at your church longer and will do much better work, and the end result is your church is going to thrive if you can get people to really work on teams and feel like they've got a good sense of teamwork.

Speaker 1: 7:37

Sure, most people right now do feel supported that 71% is something to celebrate, but don't stop improving. You can always get better. Even if you're at 90%, you can always get to 91%, actively encouraging teamwork, celebrating those great examples. Get those resources flowing so that every team member has the tools that they need. Believe me, it's going to be worth the effort and your church will see the results. Okay, thanks for listening today. I want to encourage you. If you have not taken the 2024 Church Staff Health Assessment. We ask you about 50 questions about how you're doing on your staff. We'll give you a report after that. It's absolutely free and you can take it right now. It's open just for a few more days actually over at churchstaffassessmentcom few more days actually over at churchstaffassessmentcom. And if you have anything you would like to tell me, I read every email that comes in. You can reach me anytime at podcast at chemistrystaffcom. Thanks so much for listening. We will be back tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast podcast.