{"id":2064,"date":"2012-04-24T03:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2012-04-24T08:54:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T15:54:53","slug":"how-to-go-from-herding-cats-to-leading-race-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/24\/how-to-go-from-herding-cats-to-leading-race-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"How to go from Herding Cats to Leading Race Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common frustrations shared by church leaders is that leading their team can be like herding cats; each leader seemingly moving in a different direction.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Effective leaders know that it is possible to align even the most independently-minded department heads into a cohesive, focused and purposeful team. The key is in following these three steps.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create a plan based on a single vision, not on a collection of department goals.<\/strong>
    \nIn many churches the ministry planning process begins by asking each department to submit their plans.<\/p>\n

    This approach almost guarantees a \u201cherding cats\u201d approach to leading the team.<\/p>\n

    Before each department can tackle their individual plan there must be a sometimes exhaustive process of clarifying the overall church vision, and ensuring each department \u201cgets it\u201d. Then, and only then, can they prepare a departmental plan, designed to further that overall vision.<\/li>\n

  2. Continually measure the performance of each department against the church\u2019s overall vision<\/strong>
    \nEach time you meet with your department heads, lead them toward increasing alignment with the overall vision.<\/p>\n

    In the large church where I served as executive pastor I once had a department head who, by all appearances, was leading a record-breaking ministry in terms of growth.<\/p>\n

    The problem was that our church\u2019s vision centred on becoming an increasingly inter-generational congregation, with each member more fully integrated into the overall life of the church.<\/p>\n

    This growing department was developing into an independent ministry merely orbiting around the church, not integrated into it.<\/p>\n

    But with a clear and shared vision we were able to use to steer that department back toward fuller alignment.<\/li>\n

  3. Create multiple sources of information<\/strong>
    \nYou\u2019ll never create full alignment merely by asking your department head, \u201cHow\u2019s it going?\u201d<\/p>\n

    To truly discern the degree of alignment you need to:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Personally spend time in and around each ministry. I\u2019d suggest at least once per quarter.<\/li>\n
    • Build relationships with people you can trust within each department. Ask them how things are going really<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If you\u2019re leading a team of highly energized department heads, the tendency toward misalignment is almost inevitable.<\/p>\n

      But if you keep your team focused on the vision, and relentlessly steer them toward the vision, you can free your race horses to achieve great things.<\/p>\n

      How do you ensure your \u201crace horses\u201d are aligned?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      One of the most common frustrations shared by church leaders is that leading their team can be like herding cats; each leader seemingly moving in a different direction. But it doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Effective leaders know that it is possible to align even the most independently-minded department heads into a cohesive, focused…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[478,7,777,579],"tags":[857,599,856,855,38,697,858],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-leadership","category-metrics-2","category-ministry-2","tag-alignment","tag-department","tag-focused-direction","tag-herding-cats","tag-leading","tag-measure","tag-performance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2087,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}