My wife Susan and I liked the move, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” There’s a place in the movie where Butch (Paul Newman) shares an idea (of which he always has plenty.) The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) then says to Butch, “Keep thinking. Butch, that’s what you’re good at.”
After watching that movie, every time I would share an idea with Susan which I had been thinking about and processing, she would say, “Keep thinking, Butch, that’s what you’re good at.” I was never totally confident that all my ideas were that good. but I did have a lot of them!
I’m always doing a lot of thinking about a lot of things:
- Is this the best way to do this?
- How could we make the idea, the process, better?
- Are our methods outdated and no longer working for us?
- What if we tried______ instead?
- What are some creative or different ways we could accomplish this.
Ways we have never considered before?
In my coaching, one of the issues I seem to encounter quite regularly is the lack of a proven process for onboarding new people and making sure they both understand who we are as a church or organization, as well as clearly understanding their job and how what they do is critically important and fits into the bigger picture.
As I have been both thinking (and praying) about the onboarding process that can be a problem, I developed what I’ve come to call an “Empowering Framework,” which I have shared with lots churches, their leaders and their teams.
Today, I unpack this with the prayer and hope that it will set your team and direct reports up for joyful success in their calling and responsibilities.
Here are the seven steps in this “Empowering Framework.”
1. Organizational Direction: Purpose, Values, Vision and Strategic Initiatives. Make sure the individual is clear on the important foundational principles on which your organization or church rests. Why we exist, what we believe, where we are headed and what we are specifically and currently focusing on in this season. It all starts here. Some churches and organizations don’t have this clearly thought-through and it can be very confusing to someone trying to guess what it may be.
2. Their ministry assignment. Is there a clear understanding of what you have asked this person to do, to be responsible for? Is it in writing? Are you sure it’s completely understood? Do they have any need for further explanation? Once again, this is at times unclear or seems to be constantly changing which slows down momentum and steals job satisfaction.
3. Our expectations. What we’d Like to see God do through you. These are the things we are prayerfully expecting to happen as a result of what you do; our God-given vision for your specific role and responsibilities.
4. Clarity on the authority to make decisions. Is it clear what authority they have to make certain decisions and what kids of decisions they need to get a sign-off on before executing? If it’s not clear, they will either ask for permission when they don’t need to, or made a decision they should have run by somebody.
5. Set goals in terms of behavior with solid specificity. Both their Walk and their Work. I like to remind leaders that they don’t control outcomes, but they do have control over their own actions. We trust that actions they do take will lead to desired outcomes, but those outcomes are just that; desires, not goals. He is the Lord of the Harvest (the end results) not us.
6. Have Regular evaluation conversations with feedback:
~How you’re doing
~How the work is doing
~Encourage and coach
I’m not a big fan of once-a-year evaluations which can be a one way conversation and often dreaded and not very helpful. I’ve been on the receiving end of many of these. There needs to be regular conversations so people know how we feel they’re doing. When they’re doing well, they need/want to know and hear from us. And when they’re not doing well (they tell us or we sense it) we need to talk with them, listen well and walk with them to improve things. Ken Blanchard has written an entire book on this idea“The One Minute Manager.”
We need to show genuine interest in them, not just their work, but also their personal and family life. I have lost track of the numbers of team members who hardly ever hear anything from their immediate supervisor. Many leaders are slammed and don’t take the time to to speak honestly and encouragingly with their direct reports. Don’t become one of these!
7. Make adjustments. As you have these regular conversations with those looking to you for leadership, work with them to make any changes that are necessary. Are they working too many hours? Are they overwhelmed and on the verse of burnout? Do they need resources they don’t have which you could provide? Do some responsibilities need to be removed? Do they need other people to work with them as volunteers or hires if funds can be made available?
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