Team Life Characteristics - Part 1
Over the next few weeks we will discuss what makes a good team leader and what makes a good team member? How we relate to our colleagues has a huge impact on our health. Many global workers' careers have been derailed by conflict with a colleague or someone in leadership. Our level of contentment is largely determined by the health of our relationships. So for the next few weeks we will discuss characteristics of a good team leader and characteristics of a good team member. I want us to speak of these together because I believe we can grow together.
Some of you may not serve on a “team” but you have colleagues, work with national churches, or member of other organizations. I think the characteristics will apply to all of us.
Some of you may not serve on a “team” but you have colleagues, work with national churches, or member of other organizations. I think the characteristics will apply to all of us.
Member Care Team Life
Characteristics of a Good Team Leader
Characteristic #1 Listening
Be someone who listens, I mean really listens. I do not mean you have already decided what you are going to do and you are placating me by pretending to listen to me. To be honest that is demeaning. I mean you seek to understand before you seek to be understood. I mean you ask good questions and listen to my answers. Listening means you consider my thoughts, feelings, and convictions. It means I am given permission to participate in the decisions that impact my life and ministry.
Characteristics of a Good Team Member
Characteristic #1 Assume positive intent.
As a leader I ask you to assume that the decisions I am making are the best decision I can make. I know it is not perfect but I promise it is the best I can do. I promise I do not wake up in the mornings thinking how I can make your life miserable. Please assume I am doing my best. Please assume that even if you disagree with my decision that I do have your best interest and the best interest of the ministry at heart.
Bottom Line:
When team leaders truly listen and team members assume positive intent, it makes communication possible. Communication breaks down when one side makes the other a villain and themselves a victim. I rarely have seen things work out when that happens.
Team leaders, I encourage you to listen. Consider the thoughts, feelings, and convictions of others in your decision making. Allow team members to participate in the decisions that impact them.
Team members, assume positive intent. Your leader is not a villain. They are not trying to make your life miserable. They are doing the best they can.
Team leaders, I encourage you to listen. Consider the thoughts, feelings, and convictions of others in your decision making. Allow team members to participate in the decisions that impact them.
Team members, assume positive intent. Your leader is not a villain. They are not trying to make your life miserable. They are doing the best they can.
We Are Walking Together
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1 Comment
Listening (and hearing) protects a leader from two common traps: (1) going prematurely up the ladder of inference and creating a story with too little data and premature judgments, and (2) relying too heavily on one's own intuition. Our intuition is formed by our experiences, understandings, and beliefs. The more people one leads, the less reliable their personal intuition becomes because many of those they lead have different perspectivies because of different experiences, understandings, and beliefs.
n
nSo, to avoid both these common traps, increase the "data" you intentionally gather. Listening is a powerful tool to help do that!