Chapter 10
STAFFING AND
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
IN CHRISTIAN
ORGANIZATIONS
CATALYSTS TO PERSONAL
PRODUCTIVITY
Although the ingredients of personal productivity are numerous and diverse, a more limited set of factors serve as catalysts to performance. These catalysts, which are both personal and interpersonal in origin, stimulate individual performance and facilitate teamwork. Three such catalysts are of particular importance to Christian professionals: organization culture, job descriptions, and creative stress.
Just as people have unique personalities, each ministry has an organization culture all its own. This culture revolves around what the group values, how people do their work and make decisions, and how the organization relates to the outside world. Culture is a direct reflection of the organization's membership, and particularly its leaders.
Some personalities and temperaments blend into the culture better than others, making organizational compatibility crucially important. The organization must hire people who are not only technically competent, but who also fit into the established internal culture. Organizational fit is just as much a catalyst for productivity as job competence. This is especially true for ministries, which rely so heavily on the right "chemistry" between idealistic staff and volunteers. "Fitting in" becomes just as important for success as training and experience.
Job descriptions can be a second powerful catalyst for productivity. When managed effectively, the job description telegraphs performance expectations and creates a sense of urgency about working. Unfortunately, too many bureaucracy-addicted organizations misuse job descriptions to merely passively describe job duties and procedures.
Well written job descriptions highlight the organizational contributions each job is expected to make--how the job will benefit others and advance the organization's mission. "Job contributions" would actually be a better name for job descriptions, as well as a more accurate reflection of how they boost productivity. When people focus on contributions, they are generally much more productive and fulfilled than when they focus on "standard operating procedure."
A potent, but seldom recognized, performance catalyst can be called creative stress--using natural job-related stress as the basis for continuing professional development. The concept of creative stress recognizes the dynamic potential of pain to drive performance. The cliche, "no pain--no gain," reflects an important truth. Until we are stretched and challenged in our work, we can't fully realize our potential.
The constructive side of stress has long been recognized, but rarely actively managed. Tolerable amounts of stress nudge us out of our lethargy and prick our productive potential. Pressuring someone to produce is not always bad when done to tap latent creativity and ability. Using creatively, small doses of stress can break the logjam of self-imposed routine of "business-as-usual."
SITUATION REVIEW 10.1
Catalysts or Logjams?
1. Ministry team members should check either response 1 or 2 for each statement below:
A. Our ministry hires or recruits new members mainly on the basis of:
1. Their technical competence.
2. Their personality and temperament.
B. To the extent that our ministry uses job descriptions (either formally in writing or informally through word of mouth), we emphasize:
1. The duties and procedures of the job.
2. The contributions and outputs (results) of the job.
C. Job stress tends to:
1. Drain the members of this ministry.
2. Stimulate them to strive for higher achievement.
D. I generally view job stress as something to be:
1. Avoided.
2. Creatively managed.
E. Job descriptions within our ministry tend to be:
1. Ignored or taken for granted.
2. Used as a challenge to spur performance.
F. The culture of this organization stresses:
1. Busyness.
2. Accomplishment.
G. 1. We never give much thought to the culture of our organization.
2. We are aware of our organizational culture and try to work in ways compatible to it.
The more “2” responses checked the better, because they reflect progressive approaches to professional development. Action Plan 10.1 goes a step further by providing planning guidelines for progressive professional development.
2. From the list below place a plus (+) sign beside the five items that best describe the culture of your ministry or organization. Place a minus (-) sign beside the five items that least describe your culture. This exercise should be completed by the entire team as a group.
Fast changing
Stable
Entrepreneurial (constantly seeking new opportunities)
Traditional (preserving the status quo)
Performance-focused
Relationships-focused
Creative
Formal and organized
Informal and spontaneous
Competitive
Cooperative
Authoritarian (power held by few people)
Decentralized (power widely dispersed)
Insulated (limited interaction with people not on the ministry team)
Networked (extensive interaction with people outside the ministry team)
Paternalistic (high tolerance of team member shortcomings and failures)
Demanding (everyone is expected to do their job)
Future-focused
Present-focused
Short-run emphasis
Long-run emphasis
Personal
Impersonal
Making things happen
Waiting for things to happen
High consensus
High conflict
(Other):
(Other):
ACTION PLAN 10.1
Creating A Climate for Progressive Professional Development
1. Based on your organization culture portrait in part 2 of Situation Review 10.1, list six personal characteristics of the type of person who will readily fit in with your ministry team:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
2. Characterize people who would probably not fit in with the team as easily:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
3. Every worker should review his or her job. Each team member should then list the primary contributions he or she makes to the overall ministry team:
4. Phrase each of the ministry contributions mentioned in question 3 as a specific job goal:
5. What causes you the greatest amount of job stress?
6. State three ways in which these stressors can potentially contribute to yur professional development?
A.
B.
C.
CATALYSTS TO TEAM
PRODUCTIVITY
Organization culture, job descriptions, and creative stress can serve as catalysts to personal productivity, which is the first phase of professional development. The second phase is team productivity, in which team members develop skills and capabilities that transcend individual performance and enhance the overall team's capacity to perform. In this vital second phase of professional development, individual productivity becomes the catalyst for team performance. Three basic processes are involved: mentoring, networking, and innovation.
Team members who have the strongest people orientation possess the greatest potential to serve as mentors--people who systematically build themselves into other people. Mentors form a bridge between the team and its individual members, thereby bonding the part with the whole. Mentors act as a communication conduit between the organization and its members, sharing the vision and facilitating synergistic teamwork. Mentors place productive relationship-building ahead of individual productivity and competitiveness. Team members who have largely mastered their own productivity and want to exert a greater impact on others are ideal candidates for mentoring. They are leaders who want to help others become better followers.
Team productivity is further fueled by networking, the interactive, interpersonal process of building alliances outside the team with important individuals and groups. Every member of the team can and should have a role in building the team's network, which is the sum total of all external team member contacts.
Networking enhances professional development because outsiders are the primary source of reality orientation for team members. As team members interact with outsiders, they gain invaluable insight into the team itself. The network tells the team how well it is performing and where and when change is needed. It serves as a mirror that reflects reality.
Innovation is the third and most telling phase of team productivity. Has the professional development of team members progressed tot he point where they can consistently rise above the ministry's prevailing status quo and create something better?
Innovative team members create new opportunities for service and additional ways to serve. They expand the ministry's vision and provide fresh perspective. Sometimes they may even reinvent the ministry and help fellow team members internalize the new vision.
Innovation creates new solutions to old problems and redefines problems so that old solutions work once again. It sees victory in defeat, opportunity in conflict, and a new start in every ending. Above all, innovation convincing shows team members that they can make a noticeable difference in the ministry.
SITUATION REVIEW 10.2
Transcending the Individual
Working individually, team members should indicate how strongly they agree with each statement below (2 = strongly agree, 1 = agree, and 0 = disagree).
1. I would like to have a greater impact on my team.
2. Team accomplishments are more important than my own individual contributions.
3. I have largely mastered my job on the team.
4. I have keen insight into what makes the team successful.
5. Even when I’m busy, I make time for others during the work day.
6. I enjoy meeting people and making new contacts.
7. Talking with others usually gives me a lot of ideas.
8. I’m a fairly change-oriented person.
9. I think about my team and its mission quite often.
10. I have a vision for my work and for the team’s work.
Add up your ten responses and derive an overall total. All the statements represent positive catalysts to team productivity. The closer your score is to 20, the greater your potential for functioning as a team catalyst.
ACTION PLAN 10.2
Team Catalyst Priorities
Rank the following ten team contributions in order of their potential for you. Rank as number 1 the item that promises to be your largest new team contribution; rank the second largest as number 2, and so on through 10.
Keeping in closer touch with the work and contributions of each team member.
Spending more time with individual team members one-on-one.
Spending more time with the team as an overall group.
Challenging team members to higher standards of performance.
Encouraging and praising team members more consistently.
Engaging in external networking for the team (meeting new people, getting to know outsiders better, etc.).
Doing mundane work for the team to free up members to serve in other capacities.
Stimulating creative new ideas.
Helping to champion and implement new ideas.
Recruiting new members to join the team.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
In most organizations, performance evaluation is an unlikely candidate for the manager's most popular job duty. Managers, as well as team members, typically dread performance evaluation because they perceive a strong potential for conflict, embarrassment, and wasted time. Indeed in many organizations this may be the dismal legacy of performance evaluation, but only when it is mishandled and misunderstood. When approached in the right way, performance evaluation should be an enjoyable, positive process that benefits everyone.
The problem with performance evaluation is reflected in the very name itself--evaluating performance. Actually it is not performance that should be evaluated, but contributions. Placing the emphasis on performance implies a philosophy of management that should be alien to Christian organizations: valuing people for what they do rather than for who they are in Christ. The distinction is more than semantics.
When people get the impression, whether conscious or subconscious, that they are not accepted unconditionally by their organization, a host of tensions and frustrations can develop that often reach crisis proportions at the annual evaluation. "Will I keep my job?" "What do they think of me this year?" "What more can they possibly ask of me?" "I wonder who will be in the dog house next?"
The problem with performance evaluation in most organizations is that people feel they, not their performance, are really being evaluated. No wonder the entire undertaking is so often surrounded with anxiety! It need not be so. By emphasizing contributions rather than performance, the process takes on a different, more appealing, aura. The concept of "contributions analysis" does more than sound positive compared to performance evaluation. It makes most people feel positive because of the implication of service rendered.
People feel good about serving and appreciate occasions when the organization recognizes their contributions and provides additional opportunities to serve. Even though we don't all make the same number of contributions, we do all enjoy serving. Performance evaluation should be part of the enjoyment.
But what about team members who have lagged in their service contributions? How can something positive come out of performance evaluation for them? Again, efforts must be made to accentuate the positive by pointing out opportunities for greater service. This should not be seen as a condition for accepting the team members, but rather as an avenue for greater self-fulfillment.
Even when it is necessary to take drastic action over unsatisfactory team member performance--such as restraining, reassignment, or even termination--emphasis must be placed on affirming that person's inherent worth apart from his or her performance in a given team role. Difficult staffing decisions must be made from time to time in every organization, including idealistic Christian ones, but they can be done in a way that affirms and upholds the individual.
SITUATION REVIEW 10.3
Me or My Performance?
Individual team members should indicate how strongly they agree with each of the following statements (2 = strongly agree, 1 = agree, and 0 = disagree).
1. My team appreciates me as a person regardless of how I perform.
2. I enjoy my job even when I don’t get the recognition I deserve.
3. My team helps me see the benefits of my performance.
4. My job fits into the larger vision of this organization.
5. I appreciate advice that helps me to be of greater service to the ministry.
6. I’m more concerned with what’s best for the ministry than with what’s best for me.
7. I’m comfortable with the fact that my co-workers don’t all have the same responsibilities or make the same contributions.
The seven statements (representing positive attitudes) should be totaled, yielding a maximum score of 14. High scores reflect a positive attitude about performance with an emphasis on team member uniqueness and contributions. Low scores on the part of many team members may indicate they are accepted only if they meet the performance expectations of others.
ACTION PLAN 10.3
Affirmative Performance Evaluation
Use the following questions as a framework for evaluating team member performance in an affirming way.
1. Who benefited by the way you performed your job?
2. How did the people listed in question 1 benefit?
3. In what additional ways do you wish people would have benefited from your performance?
4. What unexpected benefits came from your job performance?
5. How do the members of your team perceive your job performance?
6. How can team members help you further increase your job contributions?
7. How can you help team members increase their contributions?
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. (Colossians 3:23)
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. (Colossians 2:6-7)
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)