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How to Encourage your Ministry Team in the Bleak Midwinter

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This is a guest post by Dr. Paul White, business consultant, psychologist, and coauthor of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman

Now that we are fully into the New Year and venturing into the dreary days of January and February filled with cold weather and few days off from work, ministry leaders need to take a hard look at how we are going to support and encourage our team members.  This is the time of year (especially for those who like sunlight) for people to just drag themselves through the day.

As a psychologist who trains leaders and colleagues how to effectively communicate appreciation in the workplace, let me offer some suggestions.

Understand the nature of discouragement and burnout

Discouragement and burnout, over the long haul, come from a combination of weariness and lack of hope.  We have just emerged from the holiday season with many extra activities, and now we face the daily grind of doing our normal work.  A lot of people are emotionally tired.  Add to this a potential lack of vision (“Remind me again, why are we doing this?”) and a lack of hope (“My contribution really isn’t going to make a difference…”) and you have the perfect recipe for team members either going through the motions or giving up completely.

Give your team what they need:  vision, hope, appreciation and encouragement

This is where leaders can make a tremendous difference with their team members – by providing vision (where you are going and how doing x, y, and z fits into the overall plan), communicating hope (helping them see how what they are doing does matter), and communicating appreciation and encouragement along the way.

Communicate your appreciation in ways that work

One challenge in effectively encouraging your team members is that not everyone’s “language of appreciation” is the same.  Therefore, some attempts at appreciation may not really impact them.  Most people think of appreciation as being verbal—saying “thanks” or writing a note —but in reality, studies show at least 40% of people really don’t  value words in terms of feeling affirmed and appreciated.  For another 25%, a gift card to the local Christian bookstore will not convey the intended appreciation.  Some people feel appreciated when you spend personal time with them; others just want help getting tasks done.

In our research for appreciation in work and ministry contexts, Dr. Gary Chapman and I have found that for people to truly feel valued, four conditions need to be present.  Appreciation needs to be communicated:

a)  individually (rather than a blanket thank-you to all involved),

b) in the language that the individual values (see our online inventory to identify each person’s preferred appreciation language),

c) regularly (not just at their annual review or at the end of a big project); and

d) in a manner that the individual perceives as being genuine (versus forced or contrived).

To be honest, it takes some time and effort to communicate appreciation effectively. But it is worth it when you “hit the mark” with a team member, and you watch as they start to glow (or become teary-eyed) and their commitment to you and the ministry deepens dramatically. And you will be able to help them endure the long, dark days of winter – they may even smile occasionally and report enjoying their work!

 

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Author Bio: Dr. Paul White is a business consultant and psychologist, and is the coauthor of The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman. For more information, go to www.appreciationatwork.com .

About the Book: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace applies the “love language” concept of New York Times bestseller, The 5 Love Languages, to the workplace. This book helps supervisors and managers effectively communicate appreciation and encouragement to their employees, resulting in higher levels of job satisfaction, healthier relationships between managers and employees, and decreased cases of burnout. Ideal for both the profit and non-profit sectors, the principles presented in this book have a proven history of success in businesses, schools, medical offices, churches, and industry. Each book contains an access code for the reader to take a comprehensive online MBA Inventory (Motivating By Appreciation) – a $20 value.

 

The Essence of My Book

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Here’s one way to state the essence of my book, in the words of Spurgeon:

Be diligent in action. Put all your irons into the fire. Use every faculty for Jesus. Be wide-awake to watch opportunities, and quick to seize upon them.

That’s what I’m trying to help you do, and that’s why I wrote my book.

I spend the first part fleshing out what productivity really is from a Christian perspective and why it matters (namely, so you can maximally steward all your gifts and opportunities and faculties for the glory of Jesus); then in the rest of the book, I lay out practical strategies for actually getting things done in the midst of all the opportunities and distractions that constantly multiply around us.

The biggest influences on my book include, from the old days:

  • William Wilberforce
  • Jonathan Edwards
  • Martin Luther
  • John Calvin
  • Augustine
  • William Carey
  • Charles Spurgeon
  • Martyn Lloyd-Jones
  • Jim Elliot (though I don’t quote him)
  • John Wesley
  • The Macadonian Christians in 2 Corinthians 8
  • The apostle Paul
  • Many others

And from the current days:

  • Jesus
  • Tim Keller
  • John Piper
  • JI Packer
  • Wayne Grudem
  • Peter Drucker
  • Tim Sanders
  • Keith Ferrazzi
  • David Allen
  • Stephen Covey
  • Seth Godin
  • Daniel Pink
  • Scott Belsky
  • Chip and Dan Heath
  • Marcus Buckingham
  • Many of my friends
  • Christians I’ve met around the world, both online and in person
  • Many others

What does someone like the 18th century theologian Jonathan Edwards have to say about productivity in the 21st Century? A lot. You’ll see when you get into the book. I think, perhaps, this conjunction of the old and the new, along with utilizing the best secular thinking within a robust Christian framework, might make it unlike any book you’ve read (in a good sense!). We’ll see.

In terms of the status of the book: we are still finishing revisions, but we do have a publication date which I’ll share with you when I have the time.

I just wanted to write this post up because I came across that Spurgeon quote again during the revisions, and wanted to share it with you.

Have a great weekend!

 

Wordsmithing: Tips for Writers

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Andy Naselli has a great summary of Doug Wilson’s recent book Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, which is worth taking a look at.

And, if you read the post, you’ll learn a bonus fact on why it’s not necessarily wrong for me to have ended that sentence with a preposition.

(One other note of interest: Though it’s not as engaging, I used the term “wordsmithing” in the title of this post because I don’t like the term “wordsmithy” that Wilson uses in the title of his book! But that’s a small thing, and probably something Doug would find humorous in light of the subject.)

The Bad Effects of "Smart" Compromises

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This is an important post from Seth Godin last week:

One of my favorite restaurants is a little Mexican place in Utah called El Chubasco. I’ve often eaten there twice in a day, and once (it’s true) ate there three times.

It’s always crowded. Sometimes people wait outside, in the cold, even though there are plenty of alternatives within walking distance. So, what’s the secret? Why is it worth a drive and a wait?

No specific reason. The energy of owners Jill and Craig is certainly part of it, but most customers never encounter them. I think it’s the hand-fitted gestalt of thousands of little decisions made by caring management out to make a difference. Usually, when a business like this gets bigger or turns into a chain, marketers make what feel like smart compromises. The MBAs collide with the mystical, and the place gets boring. “Why do we need 14 free salsas when we can get away with six?” or “Perhaps we ought to stop handing out huge tumblers of water for free–our bottled water sales will go up.”

This turns out to be the secret of just about every really successful enterprise. Sure, you can copy one or two or even three of their competitive advantages and unique remarkable attributes, but no, it’s going to be really difficult to recreate the magic of countless little decisions. The scarcity happens because so many businesses don’t care enough or are too scared to invest the energy in so many seemingly meaningless little bits of being extraordinary.

Here’s the main thing to focus on: much of the time, the things that appear to create more work or be less “economical” are what actually create the magic.

That’s why a cost-cutting focus, while having an appearance of wisdom, is actually deadly.

Tom Peters makes the same point in his landmark book In Search of Excellence. There is this notion to think that good business sense (and bringing good business sense to the world of ministry) means optimizing and creating efficiencies.

But that’s wrong. Good business sense is about making a great product or service — something people will love, rather than just put up with. Efficiency only becomes important after that, and as a result of it.

There might be a reason to have only six versions of salsa instead of 14. But that reason needs to be based in the fact that fewer options will somehow serve people better (Apple exemplifies this in many ways), rather than in the fact that it will be less work for you or “save money.”

 

The Primacy of Organizational Health

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Patrick Lencioni’s latest book is available for pre-order, and it looks fantastic: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business. I’ve found everything Lencioni has written to be incredibly enlightening and, best of all, wise. Lencioni writes from a foundation of virtue and character — which is what sets his books apart from so many others.

Here’s the short description of The Advantage:

In The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are, and more to do with how healthy they are.

And here’s the longer description from Amazon:

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, Lencioni brings together his vast experience and many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books and delivers a first: a cohesive and comprehensive exploration of the unique advantage organizational health provides.

Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified.  Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave. Lencioni’s first non-fiction book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health—complete with stories, tips and anecdotes from his experiences consulting to some of the nation’s leading organizations. In this age of informational ubiquity and nano-second change, it is no longer enough to build a competitive advantage based on intelligence alone. The Advantage provides a foundational construct for conducting business in a new way—one that maximizes human potential and aligns the organization around a common set of principles.

My Interview at The Gospel Coalition on the Doctrine of Vocation and Finding Meaning in Your Work

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Last fall, Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition interviewed me on the Christian doctrine of work. It’s now posted at their site. Here’s the video, with Collin’s intro:

What gets you out of bed on Monday morning to go to work? What motivates you to persevere in a job you don’t enjoy, that doesn’t reward you adequately?

I posed these questions to Matt Perman, blogger and author of the forthcoming What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Changes the Way You Get Things Done. We discussed how jobs afford us opportunities to love our neighbors, and how we each multitasked during repetitive work to learn about God and concentrate on his Word.

Especially if you’re struggling at work, you’ll want to hear Perman explain the doctrine of vocation, which invests everything we do with meaning, because we’re living out a God-giving calling. Whether a pastor or plumber, we work in faith as unto God himself (Colossians 3:23-24). Perman explains how even garbage collectors can apply this doctrine to make their work more interesting, challenging, and fulfilling.