How To Build A Team You Love

(This is a post by our Pastor of Ministries, Brad Cooper, who I think is the MOST attractive man on our entire staff. Brad has been a part of NewSpring Church for a long time and I'm so thankful for how he loves and leads all of our family ministries. He also does an incredible job of building great teams and that's what this post is all about. P.S. - Brad will also be speaking at The Most Excellent Way to Lead Conference on March 3rd, here at NewSpring Church in Anderson. You can find out more info about that event right HERE. )

As I consider how to best encourage you in your efforts to build a great team, I feel it necessary to point out that it must start in the heart of the leader. That is to say, to build a team you love, you must love the team you are building. I see this posture modeled perfectly by Jesus Christ as He identified, pursued, developed and released His team of disciples. This kind of selfless love is the secret sauce of a great team. Love is the change agent that team members will require if they are to reach their maximum gifting. As a skeleton is to the body, so the leader’s aim to love is to a team. It is required infrastructure. It is essential. It is the point.

Once the heart of the leader is postured to love, it makes a way for other essential elements to exist:

Shared Vision: A great team is built on great vision. This vision has gravity. It will draw the right team members to the team. It will keep the team on the right course. On a practical note, this vision must be clear enough to help the team distinguish between the “good” and “great” opportunities that will arise over the course of time. If too many “good” opportunities are undertaken by a team it will distract and dilute the “great” impact that a team may have had. As a compass is in the hands of a pioneer, so shared vision is to a great team - a tool to be used at every moment of the journey.

Right People, Right Places: With shared vision in place, the team can then organize around only doing what only they can do. I first heard this statement from Pastor Andy Stanley and have utilized its capabilities for over a decade. God created the church to be a body. He created individuals in the church to be individually gifted and He created us to unite around a shared vision to be better together. This is explicitly detailed in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth- chapter ten and following. That said, when we begin to do what only we can do to move the vision forward on our team, we make room for others to join the movement. Great leaders of great teams consistently evaluate giftings of themselves and team members by asking, “Am I doing the only thing that only I can do?”

Evaluation: Great vision and great organization are foundational for the next element of great teams, great evaluation. This activity is the vehicle that good teams utilize to become great teams. It has been my experience that evaluation must be centered around two primary areas.

• Celebration: Great teams celebrate all the time! This is only because great leaders show them what must be celebrated. Celebration is a powerful reinforcer of vision and of the trajectory an individual or a team is on! Remember that what we celebrate is what our teams will replicate. What are the attitudes, processes, postures, and products that you want to see your team be known for? My last word on celebration is to say that you must always work to tie the celebration back to a person. If something was worthy of celebration it was because an individual and/or a team worked hard to make that a reality. Make your celebration specific and personal! It buys equity for the other side of evaluation.
• Coaching: Simply put, coach anything that has room for improvement. Make a habit of pointing out everything in your plans/process/products that falls short of your established standards of excellence. Make sure you are specific and personal here as well. If something did not meet the bar of excellence it got that way because a person and/or a team allowed it to slide to good enough. Remember, your standards are not what you say they are on paper, but rather what you tolerate in practice. Coach opportunities with lots of vision and reinforcement of the “why” behind every instance. Your team’s culture and products will drastically change if you schedule evaluation at a regular frequency.

Conflict: Conflict is not a dirty word. Conflict is good. A team that is thriving in all of the above areas can only navigate change and growth if safe spaces of conflict are created and welcomed. It’s always been helpful for me to think about how diamonds are made when i think about the priority of conflict. Diamonds are made in an environment that has 3 basic elements: Time+Heat+Pressure = Diamond. We all want the fruit of our teams to be of high value. That said we must create and cultivate the spaces where real heat and real pressure are welcomed and applied.

As you take these thoughts with you and test them on your teams, understand this is in no way an exhaustive list of attributes of great teams. That said, I have never been a part of a team I love and am proud of without the presence of each of these listed characteristics. I pray they serve you as you love and lead your team. In closing, I’ll state again that these elements must be organized around an infrastructure of love. Love is the means and the end of all great teams. Love never fails. To build teams we love, we must love the teams we build.

(If you've loved this post, then I hope you'll love my new book The Most Excellent Way to Lead which is all about leadership by love. You can visit mostexcellentwaytolead.com to find a retailer and preorder a copy today!)