I've worked with scores of church leadership teams over the years, and one thing I've learned is that it takes a ton of intentional effort to build trust, work together, and make good decisions as a team.
You can have talented people, great relationships, and a shared passion for the mission, but still struggle to make decisions and work together toward the bigger picture.
Here are three characteristics I look for in healthy leadership teams, along with a bonus.
1. They've Worked Hard to Build Trust
I'm a huge Patrick Lencioni fan, and I love the way he talks about trust. My takeaway from his work is that you know you have enough trust on a leadership team when you can have healthy conflict in the room.
Sometimes someone challenges an idea and gets their hand slapped (metaphorically, of course). So they learn to keep quiet. Before long, everyone is agreeing with each other, but they're not necessarily making good decisions.
Healthy teams can poke holes in each other's ideas because they trust each other.
Here's an exercise I've used with teams that can be incredibly powerful. Ask everyone to answer two questions:
What do I do that helps this team?
What do I do that hurts this team?
Have each person share their own answers first, then invite others to offer feedback. If you're the leader, you go first.
That second question can be uncomfortable, and you need some trust already established before you try it. But I've seen firsthand how powerful this exercise can be in building the muscle of trust.
2. They've Decided This Is Their First Team
Another concept from Lencioni that I think is so important: Your first team should be the highest-level leadership team you sit on, not the department you lead.
Let's say you're the Creative Arts Pastor. You have 10 people on your team, and you spend most of your week working alongside them, planning weekends, Easter, Christmas, and everything in between.
When you walk into the executive leadership meeting, are you coming in as a member of the leadership team or as a lobbyist for your department?
There's a difference.
If the executive team is your first team, you're thinking about what's best for the entire church, even when those decisions aren't what your department would prefer. Then you go back to your team and help them understand and get behind those decisions.
Ask yourself before your next leadership meeting: Am I here representing my department, or am I helping lead the entire organization?
3. They Have Crystal Clear Clarity on Why They Exist
Yes, I realize "crystal clear clarity" is redundant. That's kind of the point.
I've seen leadership teams spend three, four, even five hours a week in meetings because they haven't decided why that group exists. So they end up discussing every decision and every idea someone brings into the room.
My bias is that we should push decisions as far down in the organization as we possibly can. The highest-level leadership team should be focused on organization-wide strategic and vision decisions.
Here's my practical advice: Write down why your leadership team exists and put it at the top of every meeting agenda.
We all forget. There's scope creep when you build a house. There's scope creep when you go to Target. And there's definitely scope creep in leadership meetings.
Having that purpose in front of you helps keep the conversation focused.
Bonus: They Have Meeting Discipline
This one might sound boring, but it matters.
Healthy leadership teams have written agendas, take good notes, and leave meetings knowing who will do what by when.
I like timestamped agendas. If we've agreed to spend 10 minutes on something and need 20, that's fine. But we also need to decide what we're taking off the agenda to make room.
And the next time we meet, we follow up on what we said we'd do.
It's just good discipline.
Where Does Your Team Need to Grow?
I don't think there's a better investment you can make in your church than investing in the health of your leadership team.
And I believe that health trickles down. To whatever level your leadership team is healthy, that will impact the rest of your church. And to whatever level it's dysfunctional, that will trickle down too.
So take an honest look at these characteristics. Where is your team strongest? Where do you have some work to do?
Pick one thing and start working on it at your next meeting.
Listen to the Full Conversation
Holly and I unpack these three characteristics of healthy leadership teams, plus a bonus on meeting discipline, on this week's episode of The LeadingSmart Podcast.
We also share some practical examples from teams we've worked with and ways you can start building a healthier, more effective leadership team.
How LeadingSmart Helps Build Healthier Leadership Teams
One of the things I enjoy most about our work at LeadingSmart is helping leadership teams get clarity and alignment.
Through our leadership team consulting, we help churches build trust, get clarity on how decisions should be made, work through challenges, and develop healthier rhythms for leading together.
Every team is different, but the goal is the same: a more cohesive leadership team that's better equipped to lead the church and accomplish its mission.
Schedule a call with our team if you'd like to talk about how we can help your leadership team grow.