Building your dream team!

In my experience I have found that the following principles are important – if not vital – for building a great team!

- Team members genuinely care for each other.

What is the team temperature? A leader will monitor this and ensure good relational ‘gel’ in the team. Each year I take the King’s elders away for 4 days. We go to France where a former elder and his wife have a large house with a pool. In the mornings we pray and discuss and in the afternoons we rest and ‘play’. This is invaluable time together and I see it as real investment in the team. I think every such team needs an equivalent.

- Team members know what’s important.

Priorities need to be recognised and stated. Challenges need to be identified. These are the tasks of a leader and there will come times when as a result of these activities that you recognise that you need to up your game. One year I returned from my summer break to be informed that our Church Administrator was moving on, one of the elders was ill and had to take long-term sick leave and we were £90K down on our budget! We had a Family Meeting to tell the church what was happening and one of the outcomes was that I had to re-involve myself in areas such as taking funerals and pastoral care. By Christmas of that year I was losing the plot! I was glad to take time over the break to analyse the critical elements in our situation which I identified as – diversity, finances, apostolic reach, growth and impact on the team. On the first Sunday in January I presented these challenge points to the church and addressed them.

What are the key challenges you and your team are facing? If there is corporate ownership of these, that will help you as you assess your resources and move forward.