Welcome back Be the One family!
Pastor Steven here, I am so excited to go into the next part of our series on leadership, "Connection"
Connection is the glue that holds the team together. Every team goes through changes and misunderstandings. There are a few things that mend those moments but one of the biggest things that will help is the personal investment you’ve made. As a leader, we never want people to feel used and abused. We want them to feel known, loved, and challenged.
3 keys to healthy team development:
Know- People have an insatiable desire to be known, understood, and valued for who they are. For us to know our teams it will take time. One of the biggest hangups for leaders is they assume instead of making the time to ask. Once investment has begun, people have a sense of connection with their leader.
Love- This is deeper. While we are to give love freely as a believer, there is a depth to love that is caused by doing life together. For love to happen there has been constancy and commerotery. There is a sense of safety and vulnerability present in relationships.
Challenge- Proverbs 27:17 talks about iron sharpening iron. We are in each other's lives for more than just dispense compassion and cute moments. If we truly care, we will move our relationship into courageous conversations that challenge both our teams and friends to good works. That is how the Bible shows us to grow as a loving community.
When we connect, all three have to be in tandem. When you remove one from the equation the connection falls apart.
Known + Loved - Challenged = People become stunted in their growth. When we don’t challenge them comfortability sets in before long they will move toward discomfort, because the Lord calls us to keep growing. This will cause people to back off because nothing is happening or growing. In turn they will leave offended because truth wasn’t present in the relationship.
Loved + Challenged - Known = People are discouraged because they feel as though there is no authenticity in the relationship. They believe the leader is just pushing me to the next challenge but they don’t really understand or value me. This produces low motivation and discouragement in people that eventually fall off and fade out.
Known + Challenged - Love = People feel used by the leader and organization. These people would say, “I’m only loved because of what I produce.” This type of relationship is motivated by fear and puts production over people. If we are not careful, people who are only known and challenged will feel like tools used just to build the organization. As a leader, we don’t just use people to get the job done, we use the job to develop the people because we should be more concerned about the person than the task.
Be the One family, I want to challenge you with this: - When was a time in your life that you felt known, loved, and challenged? - When was a time in your life that you felt a lack of being known, loved, or challenged? - How can you your improve on making your team feel known, loved, and challenged? Love ya, Pastor Steven Sexton