4 Keys to Creating a Team Culture
“You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia.” – Acts 20:18
Leading a healthy team requires living in healthy relationship with the people on your team.
When the Apostle Paul met with the Ephesian Elders in Acts 20 he was able to speak out of the depth of the relationship he had built with them. Paul was not the kind of leader that barked orders out of isolation, but a pastor who “lived among” his people.
Unfortunately, many of us are trying to lead teams in the absence of any real relationship. This is a problem because leadership without relationship is dictatorship. In the absence of relationship true influence is impossible, meaning your only option is to force people to do what you want based on position and power.
So, how do you create a team culture that flows from relationship?
1. Lay the Foundation First
Every relationship has it’s fair share of conflict. On a team you will sin against your teammates and they will sin against you, but if you do not learn to deal with your sin biblically, sin will destroy your team. This is why the gospel is foundational in a team culture. The gospel is the soil from which genuine relationship grows. It is impossible to build a team in a place where the gospel does not permeate the culture, because if the gospel does not permeate your culture, pride will. This pride poisons relationship because it renders you unwilling to confess sin. If you are going to create a team culture the gospel must permeate your relationships making it possible to acknowledge, own, and repent of the sin we commit against one another.
2. Pay the Relational Rent
Most jobs in general, and gospel-ministry in particular requires a high level of withdraw from the people who serve on our teams. When we draw hard from these relationships we must also invest deeply in them. At Redemption we have not always done this perfectly and each time we attempt to draw from an empty account it results in friction and frustration. Yet, in the last 3 years since planting our church, we have spent more time investing in our relationships than anything else. This has taken many forms including making time for relational engagement in all our meetings, one-on-one coaching, sharing meals, and spending time together with our entire families. There is much work to be done and if we are going to draw hard from the relationships that make up our teams we must also invest deeply in them.
3. Test Before Trust
When there is no shortage of work to be done and few people to help, our first impulse has been to rush people into leadership. Yet, each time we have rushed, the result has been regret. When we have failed to test a person in the areas of character, capacity, and chemistry, and instead settled for shoving them into a position of leadership, it has hurt our team, the individual, and the church. Testing takes time and intentional processes for assessing people and their leadership preparedness. You will either take the time to test on the front end, or pay the price for rushing a person prior to their readiness.
4. Settle Into the Sloppy
Being on a team is messy because teams are made up of imperfect and fallen individuals. At times it is easy to hold on to a naive hope that one day the sloppy will slip away. We think things like, “One day when we have more paid staff we won’t have to deal with things like this.” Or, “When our church is bigger and we have better leaders, there won’t be so much conflict and people will just do what needs to be done.” But, if you waste time hoping the sloppy will go away you end up discouraged when it does not and more importantly, will miss the joy of the journey. So, maybe it’s time you stop looking for another team and start loving the one God has given you.
Leading a healthy team requires living in healthy relationship with the people on your team. So, will you put in the hard work of building into the team God is building around you?
Awesome post!!!
Thanks for taking the time to share the lessons you’ve learn with those of us who’re planting behind you.
Hey Monte. Thanks so much. Glad it was helpful. Hope you’re well and praying for your plant!
Ryan,
4 easy to understand and crucial points. I cannot stop thinking about the idols that are created from not “settling into the sloppy” every thing on the horizon becomes a little bit of a functional savior. Joy in the Journey. Christ alone is enough!
Great to meet you this week and thank you for sharing this brother.
Orion
Hey Orion! Great to meet you too and humbled to have you in the network. Totally agree with your thoughts regarding functional saviors. Would have loved to work more of that in. Praying for you and The Avenue!
This is excellent and very helpful.
Any advice for team building when you’re moving into a poorer (3rd world) environment and starting from scratch? How does trust, which is fundamental to any team, best develop in this dynamic?
Hey Paul, not sure I can speak to your particular situation with much authority, but I would argue that what’s great about these points is that they should translate onto any team in any situation. I would think if you’re starting from scratch than where you’re starting is with testing before trusting. You’ll have to invest time and pay the relational rent and as you get to know the people God brings a team will start to form up around you.
I’ll pray you have wisdom and keep in the loop. I’d love to hear how it goes!
Ryan,
Thanks for posting this. These are the things I’ve been talking about with members of our team since Tuesday and now I can send them all this link. It’s great to glean wisdom from those who have alread trudged through this. Thanks for your ministry not only to your local body, but also in helping raise up future leaders.
God bless,
Jordan
Thanks so much Jordan. I appreciate the encouragement.
Great post! I think these points carry well into any leadership/management role and I plan on taking them with me into my secular management job. I am already incorporating #2, but am curious about your thoughts on how to carry #1 into the secular workplace.
Hey Michelle,
Totally agree with you. My advice on #1 would would be to lead the way. While you may not have the luxury of laying an obvious and overt gospel foundation, you may by all means model it in your own life. If you make mistakes, or hurt someone you work with, you can acknowledge, own, and apologize for the infraction. This is both strong leadership and a strong source of gospel-demonstration. Hope it goes well.
Ok, so.. it looks like I am doing #1 and #2
Thanks again for the post. Working on #3 and #4…
[...] finally, Ryan Huguley had a great post on building teams. Advertisement GA_googleAddAttr("AdOpt", "1"); GA_googleAddAttr("Origin", "other"); [...]