How many times have you sat in your office wondering why your team just does not seem to get it.  Why don’t they understand what you value?  I mean really we have talked about in meetings and I have spent hours stressing and struggling over what is most important.  Yet, your leaders do not seem to really to value the same things that you do when it comes to the ministry.  This morning I would like to share why it is important to recognize the things your leaders do that you value.

a. Takes you back to the vision – when you can point out or encourage a leader publicly for doing the very thing that you desire it helps to keep everyone focused on the vision.  When we are done with a program we will email our leaders just sharing our thoughts for the evening and in the midst of that we will try to highlight one individual who really did a good job with the values that we want our team to have.  When you do this everyone else begins to think, I can do that.  Then you are creating an environment where you get to share what you value and they see it first hand.

b. Increases the heartbeat of your strategy - Again when we communicate through stories of what we have seen our leaders do they begin to really get the heartbeat of your strategy.  They begin to understand who is coming to what program and how they can really engage in life with students better.

c. Encourages others to start doing the same things – We have already said this, but when you see some one get rewarded for doing a good job, often you will try to do the same things.  We want to create a positive influence structure where we talk more about the good things they are doing and they catch on.  Reality is we just try to beat them over the head with what we want and they never seem to see exactly what it is until we encourage and exhort others in front of the whole group.

In a lot of ways this may seem really simple.  I have many conversations with guys all over the country who can not figure out why there team of volunteers is not getting the job done very well.  Give these things a shot and see what happens.  Also, if you have any other ideas let me know.