Four Secrets of Great Team-Based Leadership

Four Secrets of Great Team-Based Leadership
Leadership as a team makes ministry enjoyable and effective.
By Dave Ferguson


There are some things you would never say out loud; even though you
know they are true. The reason you don't say them out loud is (despite
the fact they are true) they just don't sound right. If you uttered
these secrets people will probably misunderstand you. In addition to
the risk of being misunderstood, you start to think that perhaps they
aren't right. So we keep our mouth shut and they remain secrets.

Fifteen years ago a childhood friend, a college roommate, a brother, a
friend-of-a-friend and I made up the team who pioneered the adventure
called Community Christian Church. We started as a team partly because
of shared dream and partly because it sounded like a lot more fun
doing it together than doing it on our own. And from the beginning
when it was just the five of us until today where there are more than
4000 of us at six locations, Community Christian Church has always
been led by teams. The leadership team I'm a part of today is the
finest team of which I've ever been a part. And during that fifteen
years there have been some things about these teams that I knew were
true (I have a hunch we all knew they were true), but we never said
them out loud. We might be misunderstood. We might be wrong. So we
kept these as secrets.

However, now I've either gained enough confidence that they are true
or I'm willing to risk being misunderstood so I've decided to tell
all! Here are four secrets of great team based leadership:

THE SECRET ABOUT THE CAUSE—"We are committed to the cause first and
each other second."

Great leadership teams are always clear about the cause. There is no
great team that is not clear about the cause. There is no good team
that is not clear about the cause. A lot of other stuff may get fuzzy,
but the cause is always very clear. At Community Christian Church
(CCC) you are hard pressed to find a job description for any staff
position. Most people don't really know how much vacation time they
are allotted. Most people don't know how many hours their job
requires. No one is told how they should dress. (This one is kind of
embarrassing) I don't even know the dollar amount on my twice-a-month
paycheck.

At CCC there may be a lack of structure and policy, but the one thing
that is clear is the cause. We are clear that our cause is to "help
people find their way back to God". Last week my assistant, Pat got an
e-mail requesting a staff policy manual from another pastor. I love
her answer: "our policy is not to make policy". I love that! Why?
Because policy is what happens when we can't get people to do what we
want them to do or when people are not championing a clear cause.
Policy occurs when the ethos of a church culture is weak and the cause
is not compelling.

Why all this talk about cause? Because I believe our leadership team
is committed to die for the cause of "helping people find their way
back to God". And when I say "die" I'm not using hyperbole. I mean
willing to let our hearts stop beating before we let them stop beating
for the cause. The five of us who lead Community Christian Church are
willing to die for the cause of "helping people find their way back to
God" whether it is one day at a time or all at once.

This is one of the secrets of great lead teams—we are committed to the
cause first and each other second. Doesn't it sound disloyal to put
the cause first? That's why it's scary to say out loud. That's why it
is a secret. But, the truth is that it's the cause that brings us
together and keeps us together. It is when we put other things or
other people before the cause that we compromise what God dreamed of
in the church and in the great commission. I believe that this is at
least 50% of what it takes to create great team based leadership - an
uncompromising loyalty to a clear cause. There is never a great lead
team when the cause is not clear!

In Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith's great book, Wisdom of
Teams, they make it very clear, "the primary objective of the team
must be performance results (cause), not becoming a team". One of the
great mistakes is forgetting that the cause is what creates community
or team. Ask yourself this, "Why do men always remember athletic teams
or army platoons as the place where they experienced the most genuine
community? Answer, because there was a clear cause that created
community. The cause of winning a game or a tournament created a team.
The cause of defeating a common enemy created a team. Why it is so
hard for athletes to retire? Listen to their stories and it's not the
money they miss as much as the team.

The Acts 2 church was also brought together by a clear cause. It was
the cause called the Great Commission that brought about koinonia or
community. That first great leadership team of apostles had a clear
cause and a clear cause for which they were willing to die.

THE SECRET ABOUT COMMUNITY—"We don't know when we are working and when
we are playing."

I love the way Eric Bramlett describes working at CCC; "working here
feels like recess". I feel the same way. Sure, there are times we
fight about who gets to go down the slide first; sure there are times
when fights break out; but, it's still a playground and it feels a lot
more like recess than school. In the 15 years as a part of the
leadership team at CCC I don't remember one day (literally) that I
looked at my watch thinking, "when is it going to be 5 o'clock so I
can leave work. It sounds trivial, but being a part of the leadership
team at CCC is just plain fun! Consequently, I can't tell the
difference between working and playing; they feel the same!

When we are looking for new staff, my team mates have been coached to
consider the three C's of character, competency and chemistry. For us,
chemistry is always the first priority. I'm not saying chemistry
should be the first priority, but it is because that's what draws
someone into our church culture and draws us to them. Since we hire so
many of our staff from within the church we have a chemistry test that
someone must pass called the "parking lot test". The "parking lot
test" is comprised of one question we ask ourselves before we put
someone on our staff team. The question is, "When we drive up are we
glad when we see their car in the parking lot?" If we are excited
about seeing their car and knowing we will see them inside, they pass
the parking lot test—there is chemistry! If we feel our stomach sink,
knowing they are inside, they fail—no chemistry! All this is to say
that there is a great chemistry with each of the people on our
leadership team. I love playing basketball, traveling, going to
Starbucks, and working with every person on our team.

What contributes to the chemistry of a great lead team? First,
complimentary gifts help create the chemistry. When I look at the gift
mix of our lead team I see people with creative gifts, administrative
gifts, leadership gifts and apostolic gifts. Secondly, a common
strategy that we all buy into creates chemistry. And thirdly all four
of us can't imagine doing anything else. We have all had offers to do
other things in other places for more money, but we just can't imagine
doing anything else.

Bottom line: working as a part of our lead team is a lot like recess!

THE SECRET CHARACTERISTICS – "We may look crazy or chaotic to you, but
there is a method to our madness."

When other churches visit and see the open office concept we use,
where almost all of our 35 staff are in the same room with one
another, they will often say, "How do you get anything done in the
middle of this chaos?" When other teaching pastors find out that we
write all our messages as a team of people from not only multiple
campuses, but multiple churches using video conferencing they say,
"Oh, my style would never work in that environment." I used to be
concerned that outsiders may think we are crazy, chaotic or even out
of control, but now I understand that as one of our secrets.

One of the secrets of a great leadership team is that in their
relentless pursuit of the cause they become a community with
characteristics that are exactly how God made them. This may appear
crazy or chaotic to the outsider, but there is a unique method to
their madness. These characteristics are often paradoxical. Here are
some of the paradoxes you would see in our lead team …

Highly Collaborative AND Very Competitive

Every person in our lead team is very competitive. We want to win in
basketball, we want to win the argument, and we just want to win. But,
at the same time we know if we are going to win our part of the world
for Christ (back to the cause that creates community) we know it will
take collaboration. So, we collaborate on everything. I started to
make a list of things that we collaborate on, then it hit me that the
much shorter list would be those things on which we don't collaborate.

Very Compassionate AND Comfortable with Conflict

Lencioni, in his book, Five Dysfunctions Of A Team tells us that
healthy teams are comfortable with conflict. We are definitely
comfortable with conflict—confronting, challenging, debating and
sometimes yelling (and later apologizing). We are totally comfortable
with conflict. But, I also know that when I need a group to rally
around me, they will be there for me. There is not doubt about it—my
team loves me!

Loves Spontaneity AND Wants Accountability

"Lead with a 'yes' is a saying you hear from our leadership team. We
love being flexible and spontaneous enough that we lead with a 'yes'
to new ideas. The new idea could be anything from going to
Steak-N-Shake for shakes during our lead team meeting to starting a
new service in a few weeks … we love leading with the 'yes' and
spontaneity. That spontaneity however is balanced by our desire (that
might be a stretch … I think we just know we need it) for
accountability. We want accountability for how we are doing versus the
goals we set for ourselves a year ago. We want and expect
accountability for the ministries we oversee. We want accountability
for our budget areas.

To the outsider we may look like an overly competitive team who is
constantly fighting about our goals, but come back next week and we
may look like this highly collaborative group in love with one
another. To the outsider it may look crazy but, it's just how God made
us and it works!

THE SECRET FOR CREATING CULTURE—"We REALLY are going to change the world."

It is the lead team more than any other team that will create the
culture and the ethos for a church. When you have a lead team that is
clear about the cause; willing to die for the cause; and where serving
feels like recess you have created a church culture where people start
to believe that we REALLY are going to change the world!

When people get wind of that kind of opportunity, tremendous
sacrifices become normal. Tim, a leader in our church came to us and
told us that he would like to take early retirement and work for the
church without a salary for one year. After that year was over he
wanted us to evaluate him and if we felt he added enough value to our
church then we would hire him, if not, then he would find another job
and continue as a leader in the church. We said, "Sure!" (Talk about a
deal you can't refuse!) One year later, Tim proved himself so
invaluable that we brought him on staff and now he oversees hundreds
of unpaid servants and all of our ministry teams. I could also tell
you about Tammy or about John or Tim or … tremendous sacrifice is
normal.

Why do people make such tremendous sacrifices over and over and over
again? Because of a belief (that starts with the lead team) that this
might just be the church that actually does change the world! There is
a vibe in our church that they are up to something big and something
special. This is not something that is talked about in a prideful
manner; in fact we are very careful to make sure that God gets all the
credit.

It starts with a lead team that is the micro-culture of the rest of
the church. They are very clear about the cause; willing to die for
the cause; when they serve it feels like recess, and together they
believe that they REALLY are going to change the world! Ok, there I've
said the secrets out loud. What do you think? Do you understand what
I'm saying or am I just plain wrong?



Dave Ferguson serves as a resource for other churches and leaders
seeking to expand through multiple church sites and provides visionary
leadership for the NewThing Network (www.newthing.org).