Chapter 1
PERSONAL PRODUCTIVITY IN
YOUR MINISTRY
MINISTRY
EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY
In all organizations, achieving results is what counts—but what results? Managers must be concerned not only with "making things happen," but also with why they they happen. Both ends (organization goals) and means (management processes) are relevant in the discussion of how to achieve results. Management effectiveness concerns what is accomplished.
Christian ministry professionals should think of effectiveness and efficiency as opposite sides of the same coin, so complementary are they. How something is accomplished in ministry is as much an end as what is accomplished. Christians should be distinguished not only by the kinds of goals they pursue, but also by how the treat one another while in pursuit.
In secular organizations, efficiency (how people achieve goals) is typically defined along economic lines—time, energy, and dollars saved—rather than along human lines—how people feel about their work and how the organization supports them as they work. Achieving results ordinarily takes precedence over how results are accomplished.
Christian organizations must not define efficiency only in this narrow economic sense. How people feel abut achieving results is of great significance, because Christian organizations have human welfare goals as well. The ministry manager should strive to maintain a healthy balance between effectiveness and efficiency. Christian goals must not be achieved at the expense of people. Workaholism, severe pressure to perform, and hard-nosed competitiveness have no place in a ministry setting.
SITUATION REVIEW 1.1
Balancing Effectiveness and Efficiency
1. To what extent do the people in your organization and specific ministry area feel driven to achieve goals?
2. In the past, how did your organization react when goals were not met? How did you react?
3. In what ways do you feel most constrained and limited in pursuing ministry goals?
4. How do these constraints affect the way you interact with the members of your ministry team?
5. What have you accomplished with the people in your ministry apart from any goals reached (e.g., rapport-building, sense of mutual supportiveness)?
6. To what extent do you have a clear sense of how you want to interrlate with the members of your ministry team?
ACTION PLAN 1.1
Balancing Effectiveness and Efficiency
1. For each of the major goals your ministry is currently pursuing, list one or two ways you can supportively interact with team members (even if these goals are never satisfactorily achieved).
2. In what ways do you most commonly interact with other members of your organization? Develop several concrete goals for improving the quality of these interactions.
3. Do you feel your ministry team has achieved a good balance between the work that is accomplished and how it is accomplished? What specific evidence can you cite to support your assessment?
MINISTRY STRATEGY AND
OPERATIONS
In assessing their own personal productivity and performance, managers often overlook strategic contributions—how their productivity advances the organization’s overall mission. Organizations tend to stress the pursuit of personal job goals more than overall corporate goals.
This is understandable considering the difficulty of measuring how each individual contributes to the performance of the total mission. Nonetheless, ministry managers must never lose sight of the spiritual purpose of their Christian organization. Jobs have a tendency to take on a bureaucratic "life of their own" when not linked to a larger strategic plan.
Bureaucracy—the form of organization based on rigid procedures, multiple levels of authority, and commitment to the status quo—inevitably results when people lose sight of overall strategy and focus narrowly on their own job descriptions. More than any other type of organization, Christian ministries must stress job mission and vision.
People throughout the ministry must understand how their individual work advances the cause. The more they identify with what the ministry is striving to accomplish, the greater their individual contributions can be. By "catching the strategic vision," ministry members will be more motivated and stronger team members.
SITUATION REVIEW 1.2
Operations Versus Strategic Orientation
1. To what extent has your ministry carefully clarified and communicated its strategic mission and purpose? In what specific ways has this been done?
2. Do the people you work with seem to share a sense of vision and purpose? Do they seem to identify with the overall ministry more than their individual roles and job descriptions?
3. Would you characterize the organization of your ministry as bureaucratic? Is it cumbersome and time-consuming to get decisions made? Are you often straitjacketed by inflexible rules and procedures? Is it difficult to bring about beneficial change?
4. Do you feel your own work makes direct, significant contributions to the vision and purpose of your ministry? How?
ACTION PLAN 1.2
Developing Greater Strategic Emphasis
1. Identify three steps you can take to help coworkers think strategically (identify with the ministry’s overall mission) rather than in terms of operations (personal job descriptions and procedures).
2. Define the purpose of your ministry in fewer than fifty words.
3. List three constructive things you can do in the next six months to help make your part of the organization less bureaucratic.
4. List three constructive things others in your ministry can do to “bust the bureaucracy”.
BALANCING PEOPLE AND
PRODUCTIVITY IN YOUR MINISTRY
Managers function to achieve results working through people, so there is a task side and a people side in managing. Both are equally important, yet most managers have a difficult time keeping them balanced.
Some managers tend to focus on productivity more than relationships; others overemphasize the relational side. To be professionally effective, managers must strive to balance the two orientations by interacting with coworkers in such a way that productivity naturally results. The key is developing productivity through building relationships; the two go hand in hand.
Since people are both the end and means of Christian ministry, the ministry manager must avoid two traps: abusing people while achieving results; achieving results which do not greatly benefit people. Managers heavily overbalanced toward productivity sometimes unintentionally grind people up in their drive to meet deadlines, maintain high economic efficiency, and surpass standards. Such "slave-driving" tendencies reflect a myopic sense of ministry vision, for how can one pursue human-welfare ends while using means detrimental to people?
Managers overbalanced toward interaction and relationships are apt to fall into the trap of achieving results that have meager potential for benefiting others. So much time and energy are spent by ministry members in "fellowshipping" and "ministering" to one another that little is left over for those the team is supposed to serve!
SITUATION REVIEW 1.3
Assessment of Productivity Overbalance
1. I dislike disruptions when I’m working.
2. I want to have a close, friendly relationship with the people with whom I work.
3. I am usually very conscious of time while working.
4. Being part of a team effort is important to me.
5. I prefer not to be very dependent on others in my work.
6. I often go out of my way to meet new people.
7. I am most productive when working alone.
8. I have a lot of friends and close acquaintances.
9. I tend to measure success by my personal achievement.
10.
I usually find working with others to be stimulating.
Total your score for the odd-numbered items (which reflect a productivity orientation) and compare it to the total for the even numbers (relationships orientation). Are you significantly over-balanced in your stress of productivity or relationships?
ACTION PLAN 1.3
Balancing People and Productivity
1. If Situation Review 1.3 indicated you are overbalanced toward task productivity, fill out the following action plan steps.
A. Indicate several ways you can productively interact with coworkers more frequently throughout the work day.
B. List possible ways you can enhance your own productivity by interacting more frequently with coworkers.
C. List the goals of your ministry which you cannot achieve by working alone.
D. Note ways in which you can enhance the productivity of your coworkers by making a greater effort to “build yourself” into them.
2. If you were overbalanced toward relationships in Situation Review 1.3, the following action plan steps should help you to correct your excesses:
A. List several ways in which you can hold yourself more accountable for productivity during the workday, especially as you work in a team setting.
B. List ways in which you can hold your coworkers more accountable for overall team accomplishment.
C. What work can you do while you are alone to enhance the productivity of coworkers when you do interact with them?
D. What can members of your work team do to enhance the team’s productivity?
MINISTRY TIME MANAGEMENT
The manager’s scarcest resource is usually not information, nor manpower, nor even money—it’s time. We all have exactly the same amount of it each day, but some of us have a great deal more to show for it. The goal of managing time is not to get more of it, but rather to get more out of it.
Volumes of excellent readings about time management have appeared in recent years, offering a valuable array of time-saving techniques and tips. When boiled down, however, most of this material has a common theme: control your priorities.
We spend our time according to what is most important to us. The way to effective time management lies with carefully defining our priorities management—the proverbial putting first things first.
The ministry manager’s priorities should revolve around the following foundational question: Who benefits by the way you spend your time? Time management decisions in a Christian setting must be governed by the opportunity to serve others. Time invested in ministry activities that benefit others is time well spent.
This suggests a foundational truth about effective time management: once ministry managers are service-oriented, their time actually belongs to others. Time must not be selfishly hoarded by the manager, but other generously invested in others. Spending our precious time on others is actually a greater sacrifice than spending our money on them. The familiar adage, you have to give up something in order to get something, rings true for time management. One of the most common debilitating mistakes ministry managers make is to create more time for serving others simply by working longer hours. They seek to serve by adding on more and more "floors" to an already towering "skyscraper" of daily activities.
Becoming an overcommitted "workaholic" is not the solution to the one problem. Giving up some lower priority time-consuming activities the only effective solution. In short, you must give up something of lesser importance) to get something (of greater importance). Christian who genuinely desired desire to serve others will strive to be undercommitted rather than overcommitted. They will have time on their hands, giving them a receptiveness that invites rather than shuts out others.
Such advice may sound like sheer madness to the busiest of managers who blame "role overload" for their habitual lack of time. Indeed, ministry managers are often extremely busy and pressed for time. But then this becomes a professional lifestyle, a significant reworking of the management is warranted.
SITUATION REVIEW 1.4
Time Traps
1. Listed below are the most common managerial time wasters. Indicate how often you find yourself falling into each time trap by placing one of the following numbers by each item:
2 = Frequent time trap for me
1 = Occasional time trap
0 = Infrequent time trap
1. Attending meetings of marginal importance to you.
2. Dealing with unscheduled drop-in visitors who primarily want to socialize or pursue low priority matters.
3. Handling telephone interruptions dealing with routine business.
4. Performing busy work that could be readily delegated (including word processing and computer chores).
5. Mixing personal pursuits with professional duties (e.g., running personal errands while at lunch, handling family matters over the phone).
6. Handling the same paperwork (memos, reports, minutes) multiple times.
7. Fumbling around to locate misfiled documents or misplaced information.
8. Explaining routine information to coworkers personally rather than via memo or meeting.
9. Overanalyzing or over-deliberating about relatively inconsequential decisions.
10.
Waiting on others (for appointments, to provide information, to complete
assignments).
The higher your overall score total (0-20 range), the greater your potential for time-wasting.
2. Assess your tendency toward over-commitment by indicating how strongly you agree with each of the following statements (2 = strongly agree; 1 = mildly agree; 0 = disagree).
1. It is not unusual for me to feel overloaded with work at various times during the week.
2. It is difficult for people to get to see me without an appointment.
3. I sometimes miss work completion deadlines because I have too much to do.
4. I don’t say “no” often enough when people ask me to participate in nonessential or low priority professional activities.
5. I sometimes desire to isolate myself from others in order to completely devote myself to work.
6. I occasionally “cut corners” in the way I perform my work in order to meet deadlines and get things off my desk.
7.
I am sometimes hard to get along with because of work-related stress and
strains.
The
higher your overall score total (0-14 range), the greater your
potential for over-commitment.
ACTION PLAN 1.4
Getting more out of your time
1. Keep a time log during a typical work week. Itemize the major and minor activities you engaged in daily and the approximate amount of time spent on each. Determine about what percentage of your time that week was spent on each activity category. Use the following generic table as a guide to developing a more tailor-made time utilization chart for yourself. Indicate actual percentage of time spent versus a desired target percentage.
Percentage of
Weekly Time Activity
Spent Desired
____% ____% Working by yourself.
____% ____% Working one-on-one with others.
____% ____% Working with a group.
____% ____% Low priority activities.
____% ____% Waiting for others.
____% ____% Meals and breaks.
____% ____% Telephone conversations.
____% ____% Getting ready to work (e.g., gathering information, organizing desk).
____% ____% Nonwork-related socializing.
____% ____% Personal pursuits (errands, hobbies).
____% ____% Performing tasks you could delegate to others.
____% ____% Commuting from home to your work area.
____% ____% Planning.
____% ____% Written communication.
2. List below the five people or groups of people (“constituents”) you invest most of your time in. Indicate the approximate percentage of work time you spend with each person or group and how important each is to the goals and mission of your ministry (A = very important; B = somewhat important; C = low in importance).
Percentage of Time Spent Importance to Ministry Person or Group
_____ _____ 1.
_____ _____ 2.
_____ _____ 3.
_____ _____ 4.
_____ _____ 5.
Are you satisfied with the relationship between the two columns (most time spent with most important ministry constituents)? What actions can you take to achieve a better match between importance of constituents and time invested in them?
MINISTRY STRESS &
BURNOUT
Stress is the price managers pay for working too hard, too long, or under too much pressure. It is inevitable that ministry managers will occasionally succumb to stress. But when that stress is prolonged and integrated into the manager’s lifestyle, burnout results. Its consequences are chronic fatigue, psychosomatic disorders, and the straining of relationships.
Excess is the root of most job-related stress. Excessive work, worry, dependency, or expectations can equal stress. While work, achievement, and excellence are all worthy pursuit, when carried too far they become traps for the unwary ministry manager. Herein lies the insidious trap of stress. It results from too much of a good thing—too much work, interaction, and self-sacrifice. Managing excess is the key to managing stress.
Why do so many ministry managers overdo things and bring unnecessary stress upon themselves? Two root causes are common, and both are preventable. Many times stress is simply the by-product of poor work habits: trying to do two things at the same time (conversing on the phone while working at the computer keyboard); doing tomorrow’s work today; eating on the run, and so forth.
Another core cause of stress is psychological in nature. Far too many managers, particularly those in serving professions, subconsciously define their self-worth in terms of job accomplishments. The harder they work, the more they validate their own self-worth. Unfortunately, such a spiritually myopic perspective naturally generates a "success-through-excess" syndrome. The workaholic lifestyle that results becomes extremely addictive, and stress is the inevitable hangover.
SITUATION REVIEW 1.5
Stress Alert
Respond to each of the following questions with a 2 for “strongly agree,” a 1 for “mildly agree,” and a 0 for “disagree.”
1. I gain immense satisfaction from work.
2. I spend little time with escapist hobbies.
3. When working on a project, I generally strive for close-to-perfection results rather than “good enough” results.
4. My job is often very fragmented—lots of “starts and stops,” interruptions, and unexpected turns.
5. I stay busy, even rushed, much of the time at work.
6. I have to depend on others to quite an extent in order to achieve job goals.
7. I have a fairly strong dislike of conflict and disagreement.
8. I often find it draining to work with others rather than by myself.
9. My need for professional security and certainty is fairly high.
10.
I often take my job home with me and dwell on my work when away from the
workplace.
The odd-numbered items deal with stress-aggravators, while the even-numbered are potential stress-relievers. Compare your odd-even totals to assess your overall stress tendency.
ACTION PLAN 1.5
Stress-Coping Strategy
1. Identify three to five “busywork” (low priority) activities you could readily remove from your weekly work routine (via delegation, better organization, or lowering of self-imposed productivity expectations), thereby making your job a bit less hectic.
2. Identify two or three simple ways to relax that could help you relieve tension during busy work days. Consider such practices as taking short walks, varying your lunch routine, and mini-Bible devotionals at your desk.
3. In what areas of your ministry work do you feel most dependent on others (and thus most vulnerable).
4. What actions can you take to increase the amount of trust and team spirit you share with those you most depend upon in day-to-day situations?
5. In what ways can you define success more by the accomplishments of your team rather than by your own personal achievements?
6. Over a week’s time, make note of when you feel most under stress and strive to identify what factors seem to cause these feelings. Are they tied to the type of work you do? Are they related to the way you do your work? Do the people you work with cause these feelings? Is the way people work with you a source of discomfort?
7. List the factors you would most like to change about the way you do your work or about how your organization operates.
8. What can you do to better adjust to your job situation in the absence of the ideal changes expressed in your preceding answer?
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mathew 11:28-30)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)