As Any Good Leader Will Do - Part 3

In the first two installments of this article I told you about a person on one of my volunteer teams who was having trouble committing to the responsibilities of the service position. At the end of part 2 I left you with the thought that I would probably "fire" this person. Well, sometimes things change.

Interestingly enough I never had to confront the man. He actually came to me. I think he realized he was falling short, and felt convicted to apologize. This was perfect because I actually like the guy and was seriously dreading that conversation. Due to his honesty and self awareness of the situation I decided to keep him on the team and give him another chance. He stepped it up and hasn't been a problem for me or the team going forward.

As any good leader will do I am constantly on the lookout for changing situations concerning our volunteer teams. Seems like there is always something that is completely out of my control. Typically they manifest themselves in some negative way, i.e. a missing child, a domestic dispute, or a medical emergency. But every now and then an uncontrollable situation turns out for the best. In the curious case of the irresponsible volunteer, he just informed me that he's taking a new job out of state and will be moving. He has resigned from the team.

The twists and turns of life are never dull are they?

As any good leader will do - part 2

There comes a time in every leader's life when you have to decide whether to forgive and forget or forgive, forget, and fire a volunteer.  It's truly unfortunate when this happens. No one likes confrontation. The potential for ruined interpersonal relationships abounds. Sometimes however, it just has to be done for the benefit of the entire group.

The scenario I gave you in part 1 of this article is a real situation that I am currently involved in. I have had to let people go before so i'm dreading what comes next. Couldn't I just leave him on the team and encourage him and hope he gets better? Yes I could, but why? How many times do you let your children disobey before you spank them? The last line of part 1 asks, what would Jesus do? I know from personal experience that he disciplines those he loves. It's always for the better. Yes always. This is a grown man who should know better and be responsible and reliable. I can not let this go.

How to handle this kind of situation is the point of this article. So how will I handle it? In a loving and respectful way with the intention of building up and training this man. I will not call him out in front of others. I will not voice my disappointment about him with others behind his back. I will meet with him personally and explain my position. I will show him our volunteer agreement and gently point out the ways he has fallen short. I will give him time to voice his opinions on the matter. I will genuinely listen.

Lastly, I will ask him to step down from the team. I will encourage him to not talk negatively about me or the team to anyone else. The Bible warns us not to stir up dissention in the body of believers.

What about his position on the team? Do I have someone to replace him? Yes I do. He's been shadow training for over a month now. He will be able to jump right in and serve in a timely fashion. As any good leader will do I try to look ahead and strategize my movements.

In part 3 I will let you all know how my conversation with him went. My hope is that this personal experience I'm sharing will be a training tool of sorts for you.  More to come...

An article

Here's the link to an article I wrote for the Baptist Convention of Iowa on the need for church safety teams.  enjoy.
http://bciowa.org/danger-close/

As any good leader will do. Part 1

As any good leader will do.  Dealing with uncommitted volunteers. Part 1

If you are the leader of a team of volunteers then you will immediately relate to this story.

For the sake of our story let's call our main character John.  John comes to me and says, "I'd love to serve on your safety team ministry".  It could be any ministry you oversee.  My particular bent is church safety and security teams.  I respond as many of you would, "excellent.  Let's meet this week and talk some more about it."  So I meet with John over coffee (I hate coffee - I'm the minority I know) and I lay out the responsibilities and expectations of being a part of this important ministry.  John has all the right answers.  Other members of the team may even vouch for him.  By the time we are done talking I'm convinced that he will be a committed and loyal member of the team.

Things start out great.  John attends his first training meeting and shows interest.  He makes his way through our "job shadow" process and I put him on the schedule to serve on his own.  He performs well and I'm convinced that I've found a great new member of the team.  Perhaps a few weeks or months go bye with no issues to speak of.  But then I show up at church and I check in with my team to make sure everyone is squared away and ready to serve.  I'm told that no one has seen John.  I confidently say, "I bet he's just running late."  We wait and we wait and we...well by now I'm concerned and I decide to text him.  I say to myself "he just forgot to check the schedule".  No reply to my text.  Well as any good leader will do, I jumped in and covered his position for him.

Curious to know why John didn't show up for his scheduled position on Sunday I pursue him with an email and a personal phone call during the week.  I finally get ahold of him and he tells me he just wasn't feeling well Sunday morning and he's very sorry for not showing up.  Well as any good leader will do, I give him the benefit of the doubt.  Everyone wants to be given a second chance right?  "Don't sweat it John, but if that happens again, could you please work hard to find a replacement for yourself?"  He assures me he will. 

The next weekend that John is scheduled to serve I get a text on Saturday night saying he can't serve in the morning.  I suppress my frustration and reply with "ok, who's filling in for you?"  He responds with "I'm not sure I can find anyone on such short notice."  I'm thinking, well TRY!  I don't say this of course.  I mercifully respond by asking him to let me know who he finds to replace him.  Sunday is here.  John is not.  John's replacement is not.  "Hey guys, did John call any of you last night about filling in for him?"  "Nope"  "No"  "Negative" (there’s always one military guy in the group). 

Well as any good leader will do I jump in and cover his position... you are beginning to notice the pattern here or you haven't been paying attention.  So what do we do as leaders of volunteer ministry teams to mitigate this kind of behavior?  Mercy and understanding are always the right answer, right?  After all that's what Jesus would do.     …. To Be Continued