The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Unclear Wins Lead to Unhealthy Staff
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You can't lead a healthy church if no one knows what success actually is. Today we're gonna break down why clearly defined wins matter more than ever in church leadership. And we're gonna discover how vague expectations can lead to staff burnout, sideways energy, fractured culture, you name it, and learn how to turn the tide hopefully by setting meaningful, actionable goals. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders of OpenCemistry Staffing.com, and I'm our your host, obviously, since you're listening and watching, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Do you ever feel like your team is working hard, but as hard as they're working, nothing's ever really seeming to move forward. That feeling, it comes mostly from unclear winds. It's when your staff doesn't really know what success looks like, and you create stress and confusion and missed opportunities. And hopefully today we're gonna help you fix that. I remember back serving on a team and had one of the pastors come to me and say, you know, and everybody was busy, the church was growing, but everybody was clearly a little bit frustrated. And one of the pastors came and said, I just don't even know what game we're playing. I want to get a win, but I don't even know what game we're playing or what the rules are. And that really is the definition of what is your win? It's an unclear win. It's this anxiety that comes out of just this unspoken, we're all busy, we're all the church is growing, everything seemingly should be good, but we're just not sure even what game we're playing here, what the rules are. So if your staff start asking you, hey, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things? Why doesn't every anything ever feel finished around here? Those are some red flags that people don't know exactly what the rules are, what the games are, what game you're playing, and what a win really looks like. And if you don't address those, am I doing enough? Am I doing the right things? Why doesn't it feel like anything's ever finished? It's because there's no clear wins. And over time, if you don't deal with those red flags, you're gonna get burnout, you're gonna get frustration. Those questions tell you that there's frustration, and eventually you're gonna get team disengagement, and eventually people will just leave your team and go find someplace else that they're playing a game that they know the rules and know what they're playing. So the team engagement comes a lot most of the time, not because the people on your team aren't capable, it's that they just don't have a finish line. And those vague expectations over time, maybe not initially, but over time, they will break trust. When wins feel fuzzy, that feedback that you do give when you do give it, it it feels impersonal. Performance reviews can become really awkward because nobody really has any agreed target upon to begin with. So you start making stuff up. And staff over time start to believe that success is based on vibes, not value. And you can do that short term when things are all up and to the right, but as soon as things start to plateau or things start going down, down and to the right, it's not as good anymore. And that trust that you used to have, I mean, it slowly erodes. The clarity that you used to have, it's not there anymore. And the confidence in leadership and where we're headed and what we're doing and what makes a difference goes away slowly. So, how do you get that back? How do you define, how do you share clear wins with your staff? I think it starts with asking the question what does a win look like for your church? What does a win look like for a staff person? Break it down, break it down weekly and monthly and quarterly, and involve your team in defining what matters most. Now, this is gonna be a change because your staff's not used to it. They're gonna say, okay, so what's up? But you got to bring them into the process and you have to define this is where we're going and this is what a win looks like. And when we get the win, we're gonna celebrate it together. Involve your team in defining what matters most. Communicate it, write it down, put it on a bulletin board in your staff lounge or whatever you have. Return to it regularly because clear wins for you and for your staff, what you're gonna find is it's gonna turn things around pretty quickly because everybody is gonna know the rules, they're gonna know what game they're playing, and they're gonna feel like before they were saying, Coach, put here I am, put me in the game, put me in. I'm ready to play, and now everybody's gonna be playing. And clear wins create confidence and they create energy and they create unity when those things weren't there before. So you need to define your wins. Here's my final thought for today unclear expectations aren't neutral, they're toxic, and they will affect your leadership. And honestly, it's just us here talking, right? Like we can be honest with each other. You can't afford your church cannot afford vague leadership. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com is my email address. What's one clear win that you can define for your team this week? Maybe you've already done that and you can just kind of share with me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. You can share with me, hey, this is the win we're working on right now. This is how it's going, this is how we've set it up. I'd love to hear that story. But maybe right now you're like, Todd, yes, I need to define a win for my team. I'd love to be able to help you do that, but I'd love to be a sounding board. What can you come up with? What can you define as a win for your team this week? Love to hear that. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com and reach out to me anytime if there's any way that I can help you or your church, particularly in the area of staffing, healthy church staff, salary, any kind of hiring needs. We're here to serve you. I'm here to serve you and your church. You can reach out to me anytime at podcast at chemistry staffing.com. If you're listening or watching this on the day that it was released, it's Friday. So you've got a great big weekend coming up. I hope you enjoy it. This is my one of my favorite times of the year in the fall. So enjoy it. Be praying for you and your church, wherever you are, wherever you're listening or watching, that you would just have a great weekend of services and that life change will happen. Matter of fact, let's take a moment here just to pray for you right now. Father, I thank you for whoever's listening to this, whoever's hearing my voice or watching this face here today. I pray that you would be with them this weekend with their staff, with their church. May this be a healthy time for them. I pray that you would just show up in a great way this weekend and that lives will be changed. That trajectories will be totally turned around because of the ministry that they're doing. And I thank you for all this. And just we're so thankful in Jesus' name.
