Five tips for leading from the second chair.

For 23 years I had the honor of sitting in a second chair position, while serving as a youth pastor for small and large churches. The things I experienced through the successes and failures of that journey taught me so much.

Today, I did a training session with one of the youth pastors that I coach in my one year coaching program. During our one hour conversation, we unpacked several things that I learned - mostly from mistakes - in hopes that he would be even more effective at serving his church body from the chair he currently occupies.

As a second chair leader, you are so valuable to your church. I thought I would post a few of these tips in bullet point form on my blog, for you to read and hopefully apply. These are just short snippets, if you would like to get in depth training CLICK HERE to find out more about our personalized coaching program.

Here are five tips for leading from the second chair in any organization.

1 - Be great at what you do. 
As a second chair leader, lead your area with such vision and precision that your leader does not have to worry about your department. Not having to be concerned with what you are over, will free your leader up to look at other areas that need their attention. 

2 - Communicate clearly to your leader. 
Your leader needs to know, where are you taking your team, and what problem are you currently solving. Communicate clearly these five questions to your leadership.

What are we doing?

Why are we doing it?

What is going to be the positive result because of this action?

Where are we struggling?

What is our game-plan to remedy to the problem?

Clearly communicate your direction with your leader, then be prepared to take the conversation deeper if they would like to.

3 - Be flexible. 
You are on the team to serve the vision, mission, and values of your organization. Be willing to bend and change if it will help the team accomplish its goals. 

4 - Don't be a "yes man". 
You are on the team to make the team better. So make it better. If you agree with a direction then let your leader know, if you do not agree, then let them know why. Don't just say what you think your leader wants to hear, say what your leader needs to hear. 

5. Take responsibility for your mistakes. 
We all make mistakes. When you make a mistake or your department underachieves, take responsibility. This builds trust and open communication between you and your leader. 

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How do you know they are ready for promotion?

Ok, you have a position that needs to be filled in your ministry or organization. You have a handful of people on your team that you could promote to lead the charge in this much needed department, So how do you know who is ready for promotion?

Well there are a lot of variables to look at, however, I think you need to at bare minimum have a leadership filter that you run everyone through to help you know if they are ready to step up and lead.

Here are four attributes that must be found in someone before you promote them.
Honesty 
Humility 
Hungry
Hardworking 

Here attributes that have cannot be found in someone that you are considering promoting. someone. 
Poorly Tuned Ears 
Lack of Caring
Gossip/Backbiting 
Pettiness 

DID YOU NOTICE … skillset is not one of the filters. I know that skillset is important, however, I have found through the years that if someone has the skillset to accomplish task but lacks positive the characteristics, their level of skill is not powerful enough to overcome their lack of character.

When looking to promote, take character over talent, every time.

Sure hope this helps.

If you want to get even more training tips or even coaching…..CLICK HERE TO LEAD YOURSELF AND YOUR TEAM BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE.

Five things you can't have on your team.

As leaders, our strength is not found in our facilities, finances, programs, or even our vision. The strength we possess is the people on our teams. People are the ones that run with the vision, initiate programs, increase finances, and fill up facilities. However, because our people are so important, they not only are our greatest strength, they have the potential to be our greatest weakness. If they are not equipped properly, or don’t possess the right qualities, the vision will not move forward, programs will not be initiated, finances will fall short, and facilities will become empty.

No matter the size of your organization, here are five things you can’t have on your team.

1 - Poorly tuned ears.

People on your team need to have the capacity to not only listen, but actually hear what you are saying. Team members need to have their ears tuned into not only your words, but your heart. When team members ears are tuned in, they are able to run with the mission, vision, and values of your organization.

2 - Lack of caring.

What you do is so important. You need people around you, who actually care. Care about each other. Care about the people you’re reaching. Care about doing things right. You can teach them process and protocols. You can model persistence and passion. But at some point they have to decide to care.

3 - Backbiting / Gossip.

If you want to ruin your culture … allow gossip and closed door conversations about others. The, “He said, She said” stuff is an absolute cancer that will divide and overpower the vision you have for your organization.

4 - Small thinking.

Small thinking is not, thinking “details and process”. You need those people on your team for sure. Small thinking is … “Thats not how we’ve done it before”. Small thinking is … “We can’t do that”. You need team members that pull the lid off of what can be done, and dream big dreams.

5 - Pettiness - 

“It’s all about me”. “They put the paper clips in the wrong place”. “She corrected me in a way that I did not like”.

When you have pettiness on your team, you will constantly be putting out fires and working sideways rather than moving your organization forward. This is not only negative for your team, it is distracting and harmful for your team member. Pettiness has to go.

If you have any of these things from anyone on your team here are two tips:

1 - Help that person try and overcome the issues they are struggling with. Meet with them. Discuss the issues openly and directly. Give them a chance to change. Be as patient and long-suffering as you can. Part of your job as a leader is to help people improve and grow. This is a great opportunity for you to do that.

2 - If for whatever reason over time they are not able to check these things at the door.  It might be best for your organization and for them, if you help your team member find a new team to play on.

If you want to help your team be fore effective, excited and efficient at work …

CLICK TO TO CHECK OUT LEAD ONLINE PLATFORM.

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Launching something new? Here are four steps that will help you succeed.

There is nothing more invigorating than launching a new project, ministry, business, or church. However, According to the Small Business Association 50% of all new businesses fail during the first five years. In the church world, Thom Rainer of Lifeway Publishing states that between 6,000 to 10,000 churches will close their doors in the United States this year.

I don’t have all the answers, that is for sure. However, before you start the process of launching something new, here are four steps that I know you need to take.

1 - Wrestle with the WHY. 

Why are you doing this? Really? What is the motive? What is the win? Why does this need to be done? If your why is not deep in the DNA of who you are, when trouble comes, which it will, you will not have the motivation to push through it.

2 - Clearly define the WHAT. 

What are the three to four thing that will cause the why to come to pass? Narrow the what down to the big rocks of what gets you the win. 

Example: TheCHURCH at Visalia:
WHY do we exist? 
Bring people to Jesus and help them live like Him. 

WHAT do we do to accomplish this?
Gather - on the weekend. 
Grow - in small groups. 
Give - to Gods kingdom. 
Go - serve the world around us. 

3 - Find the right WHO. 

Your why and what will help define who the right person is to be on your team. When looking for the who - look just as long at character and heart as you do skillsets and experience. 

4 - Empower the WHO to run the HOW. 

Let your leaders lead. Give them the why, define the what, and let them get into the trenches and figure out how to accomplish the task. Your job is to train and release them to success. 

Hope this helps:
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http://www.growmoore.org/lead-online-preorder/

What do we do when we try and fail?

WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE TRY AND FAIL? 
Leadership lessons from Exodus Chapter 5. 

Moses had answered Gods call to leave his job as a Shepherd in Median and go to Egypt and free Gods people. 

He had met with his brother Aaron. He had met with the Israelites letting them know the plan. Now after 400 years of slavery, hope was rising up in Gods people. 

When Moses took the bold step and stood before the pharaoh, for the first time. He failed. In fact he failed in a big way. Not only did the Pharaoh say no to Moses request to allow Gods people to be go worship the Lord in the dessert. The Pharaoh, got angry and punished the Hebrew slaves. Taking wall all the straw they needed to make bricks, but he did not reduce the amount of bricks they had to make. When the people complained to the Egyptian masters, the masters got more angry, beating and even killing them. 

The Hebrews came back to Moses, their leader. They were hurt. They were angry. They said to him, "The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” 

Then Moses left the people and in a private moment, cried out to God, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.”

Moses had just gotten started and he already had a major failure. The Pharaoh, didn’t listen and his people are against him. Failure, drove the questions that had been haunting him since the first day he accepted the position as "Leader" to come to the forefront ... 

God did you really call me? 
You've got the wrong guy. 
I don't think I can do this. 

Leadership is not easy and failure comes even with the highest of calls. 

We all know this. I am sure the Moses knew this. 
But for some reason it seems different when its us. 
We should succeed. It should be easier than this 

But the truth is, leading yourself, leading your family, leading anything is not easy and many times failure may be experienced more often than success. 

So what do we do, when we try and fail? 
What do we do when it’s not working? 
What do we do when deep inside of us we are convinced, Gods got the wrong person in charge … and that person just happens to be us? 

We do what Moses did in Exodus Chapter 5. We keep walking into Exodus Chapter 6. 

When we try and fail, we simply step into the next chapter of our journey, and try again. 

Because maybe, like Moses, we are the one for the job. 
But we will never know if we don't keep going.