{"id":2828,"date":"2013-02-18T20:05:52","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T04:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=2828"},"modified":"2013-02-18T20:05:52","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T04:05:52","slug":"15-proven-ways-to-demotivate-your-church-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2013\/02\/18\/15-proven-ways-to-demotivate-your-church-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Proven Ways to Demotivate Your Church Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever met a leader who deliberately went out of their way to de-motivate their staff?<\/p>\n

Of course not.<\/p>\n

Ever tried to do de-motivate your own staff?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that\u2019s never crossed your mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And yet, when you spend as much time in churches and with church teams as I do, from time to time you come away thinking that this is exactly what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

You see, sometimes, usually through sheer lack of awareness, church leaders appear to be going out of their way to ensure a demoralized, de-motivated staff.<\/p>\n

While not exhaustive, here is what I have found to be the top 15 proven ways to de-motivate your church staff.<\/p>\n

If your goal is have a team of fired-up, aligned, highly motivated ministry leaders on your team, avoid these strategies at all cost.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. When someone complains about a staff member, always assume the complainer has a legitimate beef. Take the complainer\u2019s side when you meet with your staff person.<\/li>\n
  2. Never drop by a staff member\u2019s office (except when you want something).<\/li>\n
  3. Never attend their ministry gatherings.<\/li>\n
  4. Make them jump through hoops before approving their request to attend a conference.<\/li>\n
  5. Don\u2019t show up at staff parties and functions. (If you must, show up late and stay for just a few minutes).<\/li>\n
  6. Withhold information.<\/li>\n
  7. Don\u2019t involve them in leadership conversations, unless it\u2019s specifically about their department.<\/li>\n
  8. Constantly compare them to their counterpart running \u201cthat great ministry in the church down the street\u201d.<\/li>\n
  9. Don\u2019t answer their emails or voicemails. If you must respond, take a very long time to do so.<\/li>\n
  10. Impose significant change on them without seeking their input.<\/li>\n
  11. Set high expectations for results without the necessary resources.<\/li>\n
  12. Never give them a shout-out in \u201cbig church\u201d.<\/li>\n
  13. Avoid showing interest in their lives outside the office.<\/li>\n
  14. Make a big deal about small mistakes.<\/li>\n
  15. \u00a0Make a small deal about their big ministry wins.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Remember, no team ever drifted towards being a charged up, motivated team of go-getters. Building that kind of team requires diligence and intentionality.<\/p>\n

    But you can<\/span> build that kind of team.<\/p>\n

    And your starting place could well be avoiding each of these de-motivators.<\/p>\n

    What would you add to this list?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Ever met a leader who deliberately went out of their way to de-motivate their staff? Of course not. Ever tried to do de-motivate your own staff? I\u2019m sure that\u2019s never crossed your mind. And yet, when you spend as much time in churches and with church teams as I do, from time to time you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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":[22,478,7,744,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-featured","category-leadership","category-team-2","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2828"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2832,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2828\/revisions\/2832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}