Recreating Yourself
September 28, 2009
Is it worth teaching volunteers every aspect of your staff position? Or is it acceptable to just do it yourself?
Perhaps the biggest deterrent to bringing on and training new volunteers is because it is easier in the moment, to do it myself.
This could mean one of two things, either I don’t have the right volunteer or I need their help even more than I thought I did! If you find yourself too busy to teach others – you are too busy!
To hand something off is very difficult for me. Not in a one time situation like an event, that’s easy. But, in my everyday work.
I have no specific, bullet point, time specific work day. I could never produce creative concepts if I worked under this kind of schedule. I of course have several non-changing weekly meetings which give me deadlines for projects and programming of our services, but beyond that I set my schedule.
This makes it very difficult to use volunteers. And it makes the thought of duplicating EVERYTHING I do more overwhelming than doing it myself! I do however completely buy into the fact that duplicating myself MUST happen. But, to find someone so available that they could follow me through my workday in order to learn what I do…seems impossible.
Although I have people that know how to do all the important individual parts of what I do, I have not identified one individual that could sit at my desk and do the little jobs, planning, recruiting, creating that I do right now.
The obvious goal for the good of our ministry is that we MUST duplicate ourselves, not optional. But, HOW?
I have wrestled with this over and over and have decided the first step for me has to take place in a class setting. Our class system is called Crossroads University, so we constantly develop new class offerings for the maturing of our congregation. Here is my plan.
1. Teach the programming process (two meetings to cover)
2. Assign topic for them to take home and create a service
3. Allow them to physically direct their own live service
4. Recruit the ones I see potential in and spend more specific in depth time with a couple individuals.
5. Keep repeating the process!
This sounds so simple when I put it on paper, but I would love to know, do all of you have a volunteer in whom you are investing a lot of time?
I would welcome your suggestions as I begin to create a mini me!
Related posts:
- Culture of Crucial: Recruiting People, Not Musicians or Singers
- Dealing With Tech Arts Burnout, Part 2
- Letters to Leaders, Vol. 3
- Perspective
- Dealing With Tech Arts Burnout, Part 1
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Wow! Good, thought provoking article.
Duplicating your success, first by yourself, and then by teaching others to "do what you do", is the ONLY way to sustain a successful and meaningful worship experience.
Smitty
Very thought provoking, Lori -- thanks! We've been kicking this idea around, but like you said, it's easier to think about it than implement it.
It's called Discipleship...like what Jesus did with His disciples...
Lori,
Great article. I suppose one of the biggest things that can hinder us from doing this is the fear of losing control ... or thinking that our way is the "best way".
So many times, we can "recreate ourselves" only to find that the person we train doesn't do it the way we would do it ... even though "their way" is often just fine ... or sometimes ... EVEN BETTER.
I know it is easy to say, but, honestly - I am not threatened at all by bringing on someone else from the aspect of them not doing it how I do.
One girl I am considering beginning to work with will bring a much stronger presence to the position - she will be usable on stage, I am not! I love to encourage, create, and connect people with opportunities to serve in their most gifted areas, from behind the scenes- way behind!
The other "hidden" issue here is what leadership expects. As in, the leadership you submit to.
I used to be in a staff ministry situation where leadership expected ME to lead every single Sunday. Because of that I didn't actively recruit other leaders and at times I grew weary of recruiting even team members, because I felt like I could handle it all by myself.
I'm not saying that my nondesire to recruit is solely the responsility of my leadership, but their expectations really played a HUGE part in creating an atmosphere where I accepted and operated in mediocrity (as a whole). The Sundays were good, because I'm a pretty decent singer/worship leader, but the "success" wasn't there because I did not raise others up in a significant manner.
I've been at other places, however, where the focus was on EMPOWERING people to minister, and the leadership wanted me to lead people, not a service, so I was challenged to train and equip people, even to the point of replacing myself. And I did.
Fast forward to where I'm at now, and I'm watching videos from this same church and watching those very same volunteer team members rock the ministry without me. I'm very proud. And I feel like I actually accomplished significant things for the Kingdom.
I have often said 51% of any leaders job is raising up other leaders. How do we do that? With the [decision space] concept.
When we have a potential leader we need to create a space for them in which they are completely authorized and resourced to make a decision. At first that space will be incredibly small, even an “either this or that” option. For example, I might need something designed by a layperson. I can tell the volunteer designer, here is the template and you are free to change this color or that one picture. Here are the resources you have available. I might tell a potential worship leader, you get to lead a song this week, here are your two choices. I then tell them, “Here is why these are your two choices (both tie to message, etc).” This last statement is vital because it gets them to start thinking with values and purposes of the organization, more on this to come.
The next time I give them a project their [ - decision space - ] should grow. They should be given slightly broader boundaries to make decisions of what to do, when to do it, and how to apply their given resources, with me providing coaching and continuing to give the “why” behind it all. And so on and so on.
Soon they will have grown into a [- - - - decision space - - - - -] where they are making major decisions on what to do, when to do it and how many resources to bear, as they now start raising up new leaders under them by providing these new leaders small [decision space] and multiplying the process. You will rarely have to bang your ahead against the wall on their decisions because they understand why you make the decisions you do and were grown in leadership. Though they might not approach a solution exactly like you would (which is actually healthy), the result will line up with the overall vision because they understand the WHY of it all. Soon you will have a team of solid leaders.
How can you give every person under your leadership a bit more [decision space] this week?
Great post, trench!
Smitty
Russ I totally agree...several of the leaders under which I have served, have wanted me to do the leading all the time- making me nervous to even try to give others a shot at leading!
Hi there,
I'm a newbie here but figured the best way to get to know people would be to dive in with my tuppence worth (for the Americans that means 2 cents worth).
I don't work in full time Christian ministry, however I am an academic (equivalent to assistant professor) and supervise quite a few students completing various courses in a laboratory environment. When I first started supervising I would get really frustrated because it was much quicker (and often cheaper & more successful) for me to do things myself rather than explain something for the umpteenth time and then watch them mess it all up again. It was especially difficult if I was trying to work to a deadline or had limited finances and couldn't afford for them to accidentally poor a valuable sample down the sink (again!).
However, after speaking about my problems to a more experienced member of staff they suggested I was viewing students in completely the wrong way. They suggested instead of focusing on the task in hand I should focus on the student themselves. Start very simple and give them tasks you know they can do, and then build up slowly. If you start off giving them limited responsibility they will not become overwhelmed, and once they master one task they will start to use their initiative and help in other ways. If they know they can be successful they will be encouraged and so will you! The key is to be people focused, not task focused.
He also suggested I write a website with a FAQ page that I could refer people to for commonly used procedures. It took a while to write but is a lifeline for me ("have you read my webpage? - well why not read it first before asking me") and, since I keep track of the hits it gets, I notice that people all over the world are now using my webpage as a resource.
I see no reason why this sort of method shouldn't work in other settings.
Hi, Simon. Welcome here from another Brit! I'm Julie, based in Yorkshire.
I understand what you mean about the frustrations of teaching people, since I'm a teacher myself. It's always easier to do it yourself than to teach others. But in the teaching process, there is a transmission of knowledge and expertise and, as you say, there is a connection between the person doing the teaching and the one learning. It all comes back to relationships really, doesn't it?!