7 Requirements for Leading Your Team Through Change (Part 3)

*Be sure to check out Part One of my blog series, “7 Requirements for Leading Your Team Through Change,” by clicking here!

 

Requirement number three is:

Effective Change Requires Assembling a TEAM.

Image courtesy of drivingir.com
Image courtesy of drivingir.com

Who is your team? Are they “together”? No leader can lead effective change alone. It requires a team.

The crucible moment of change for a leader is the moment we share our vision with the leaders around us. It’s that moment of “pulling the trigger” of our vision. It is often scary, but it must be done if the change is ever going to happen. No effective change can happen without first getting buy-in from the key leaders, paid AND volunteer. Negative comments from a key leader in a group setting, or someone building their own “opposition team”, can set the vision back for a while, or kill the chances of change altogether.

There is great value in having individual meetings with key leaders, where the leader can share vision from the heart. It takes a little longer, but it’s worth the wait! It is in these private meetings that the leaders credibility can be solidified through “honest, forward-looking, competent, and inspiring” communication about the vision. Leaders should share their gratitude for friendship and partnership in ministry before asking for their help in the next journey. Once the key leaders buy in, an enlarged circle of influence has been developed which will give confidence to other leaders.

 

In our most recent “DiscipleShift” journey at Midway Church, purposed to  “intentionally make disciples through relational environments,” this initial buy-in phase took about eight months. At the end of eight months, the vision had expanded from three paid staff members in conversation to all of our staff, plus over 200 officers and volunteers. At that point, the rest of the church was ready for implementation, which took about four months.

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