Have you ever had this experience: You look at things your team or staff is doing, you look at programs at your church and wonder, why are they doing that? Why are we doing that?
Most leaders will shrug and let it go because they trust their team, and they assume there is a good reason they are doing that. There is a good reason we are doing that. And, let’s be honest, as leaders, we have so many other things to do.
But at this moment, the leader actually pushes one of their main tasks to the side.
The task that very few leaders like and keep your team, keeping your church or organization aligned.
Leaders like creativity, strategizing, and brainstorming to develop ideas, but the actual alignment management isn’t enjoyable. In fact, it can be exhausting. And, as leaders, we often think, “If it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.”
No matter how long a team is together, one of the most difficult and important tasks of the leader is to keep everyone on the same page.
It is easy as a leader to think, “We all know what the mission is, so we’re good.” Or, many leaders think, if it’s clear to me, it’s clear to everyone.
Like a car, one of the most important things for a church or team is alignment.
On any team, alignment is crucial.
If your vision, word for the year, or goal involves more than you, alignment is crucial.
But like a car, you must pay attention to it because alignment isn’t natural.
It takes attention and care.
Andy Stanley said, “Visions thrive in an environment of unity. They die in an environment of disunity.”
I remember talking to a couple once whose marriage hit hard times, and they were talking about getting divorced, and I asked them why. They looked at me and said, “We no longer have the same goals, the same dream.” They started with it, but slowly, they stopped working together, and their lives went in different directions.
Alignment takes care and attention.
And like a car, we often overlook the warning signs of alignment at work, home, and in life.
But, for a vision, goal, word for the year to come to fruition, staying aligned is crucial.
How do you know if the alignment is off course? Here are a few ways:
- People start having competing wins.
- People start fighting for stage time or platform time for “their thing.”
- Leaders can’t articulate the overall “why” for the church or the “why” is different.
So, what do you do as a leader or team to keep alignment?
- Ensure everyone can articulate why you are doing something, who you are trying to reach with it, or the goal for a ministry or event.
- Once that is clear, continually communicate it and keep it in front of people.
- Listen for anything that sounds like something different than #1, and gently move your team back to the focus.
Yes, this is hard. Yes, this never ends.
But that is the job of a leader. Otherwise, you won’t get to the place you set out to get to.
