What Sucks the Life Out of Your Team?
For the past several weeks, I’ve been exploring the importance and nature of successful intergenerational teams. We’ve considered what it means to be entrusted with our people, a mentoring model we can incorporate, God’s design for intergenerational ministry, and the characteristics of a belonging culture. Now I want to look at one of the qualities of a thriving intergenerational ministry or leadership team: it must be life-giving. So, here’s a question: what sucks the life out of you? What is not life-giving? Take a minute and list some things that come to mind. Actually, write them down. One thing that sucks the life out of me is complainers. I…
What It Means to be Entrusted with Intergenerational Ministry
In your ministry or organization, I’m sure you want God’s design for perpetually-renewing intergenerational ministry and leadership. And you want your organizational team to embrace it, too. In my organization, we have a structural design that means every year we have many intergenerational teams working together in ministry and leadership. Our mission is to help the next generation get ready to speak, and to do that effectively with lasting impact, we had to get intentional about how intergenerational mentoring and collaboration works best. You have been entrusted with people. As leaders, we have been entrusted with people. What does it mean to be entrusted? I think about that quite a…
The “Reply All” Faux Pas
One of my priceless colleagues is currently transitioning out of her leadership role in my organization. (Insert saddest emoji here.) She has been a true visionary for us, someone who has greatly influenced everything we currently do to serve our mission. So, naturally, I wanted to break the news of her transition in a thoughtful, well-planned way to the rest of our global organization’s leaders and community. She crafted a letter of transition, and my team and I began editing it to incorporate into the announcement. After much discussion, my Chief Influence Officer, Mary, sent it out to all our leaders. I saw it pop up in my inbox, missed…
Extraordinary
I witnessed something extraordinary last night when, just a few hours before boarding Turkish Airlines for our international trip, my team of teenagers gathered for dinner in the home of one of our organization’s senior leaders. As we ate, we observed a tradition that has become one of our ICC culture’s defining moments for every team we commission: Prayer ‘n’ Share time. While we visit over dinner, each member shares something they are looking forward to and something they’d like prayer for. The sharing last night was so precious. Team members were both anxious and excited about the travel, foods, encountering new people, and cultural experiences. Then the extraordinary happened.…
Multi-Generational Teams
Originally posted at the Christian Leadership Alliance Blog Shifting from Frustration to Momentum “Nobody wants that!” These words expressed the sentiment of just about every organizational leader at the end of our annual international convention. Senior leaders left frustrated and exhausted. Younger workers felt devalued and overlooked. I was annoyed… angry…hurt… numb. Did I cause this? How could I have worked against the very ministry I passionately toiled to advance? I replayed their painful words of misunderstanding for days. The next week our ministry got intentional about creating multi-generational teams. I devoted myself to designing a culture fueled by multi generational leadership. I studied multi generational teams inside and outside of…
I’m Not Stressed
“You are very sick. Are you under a lot of stress?” The doctor leaned over my hospital bed, waiting for my reply. I responded, “I don’t think so.” At 28 years old, I had in six months time lost my grandmother, with whom I was very close, and my father-in-law, who died in our home. The mother of two toddlers, I was caregiver for my mother-in-law through her aortic bypass. I was in graduate school while teaching full time. My husband’s health was failing and we were losing his business. That’s when I was hospitalized. I needed a reality check. Self-awareness is an essential leadership competency. I was not self-aware…
