Christian Leadership Alliance

Motivating Volunteers

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How to Bless Your Team Members!

 "If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself be irritated with them or be depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face."  —Romans 12:6-8, The Message

Looking for ways to enhance your employee's performance and effectiveness? Here are five key strategies.

1. Focus on strengths. First, help your team members discover their strengths. When a gifted person is released to serve out of his or her strengths, it's powerful. Conversely, when you have round pegs in square holes, it's a disaster. Buy everyone on your team the breakthrough book, Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.

Imagine what would happen if you realigned all jobs based on team members' strengths! Psychologists at The Gallup Organization have been investigating the nature of human strengths for over 30 years, and have interviewed over two million people to discover what made them successful. From this research, 34 recurring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior emerged. Gallup calls these patterns, or themes, "the raw materials for building a strong and productive life."

Team members, according to Gallup, don't need to possess all these themes, but simply to identify which of the 34 are their most powerful—their "Signature Themes"—and then cultivate them with learning, practice and focus.  

Help your team members learn their "Signature Themes" by giving each one the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths. Each book includes a unique website password that allows each person to take StrengthsFinder, a very helpful assessment tool. An email report is returned, revealing the person's five most powerful themes—and how best to leverage and align these strengths at work.

2. Align work with giftedness. Next, help the members of your team know and focus on their spiritual gifts. Imagine what would happen if (per Romans 12) leaders led, administrators did the administration, teachers did the teaching and mercy-givers poured out the mercy?

3. Draw big boxes. Paul Nelson, a former president of Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (EFCA), once told leaders at a roundtable for CEOs that every boss must carefully define the extent and limits of team members' authority to act without additional approval. He drew a box on the flipchart and recommended, "Let your team members know how big their box is."

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