the    sides

I wanted to follow-up to this post. I’ve gotten some great off-line emails as well as online comments but I want to land the plane by talking to people who are “top level” or “senior leaders” at their organization or church.

There is no higher value of the people that work for you than your loyalty to them.

Your competency, wisdom, insight, professionalism, and leadership pales in importance to your loyalty. I can put up with less than great in any one of those areas. Heck, part of the reason I’m on your team is because you have weaknesses in one of those areas. You don’t have to have it all together to lead me.

You do have to be loyal. I’m not going to follow someone who’ll sabatog me or betray me or hang me out to dry.

Here are the promises I make in writing to every volunteer who has served with me:

Ministry must be done in community. We need each other. A Coach needs a LIFE Group leader and intern and all the vice versa’s in-between. We need more than just our bodies showing up to ‘run the program’ or our great teaching skills or whatever else we bring to the table. We need each other.

I need you. I need the relationship. I need the friendship. I need to know that I’m not alone on this journey of chasing Jesus. And you need me as well.

Knowing that, and understanding that the only reason you are doing this is because you want to, I make the following promises to you:

I promise to lead you as best as I can in Christ-like servant leadership.

I promise to treat you with integrity and respect.

I promise to create an atmosphere where you can best use your God-given gifts.

I promise to never embarrass you in front of people.

I promise to always give you “the benefit of the doubt.”

I promise to do whatever it takes to make us succeed.

I promise to be a part of your life outside of ‘the ministry.’

I promise to pray for you and your family.

I promise to handle our differences discreetly and with integrity.

I promise to be available to you whenever you need me.

You can sum all of those promised up with the phrase - “I promise to be loyal to you and the health of your soul.”

When started student-led life groups in Kansas, my senior pastor was a wee bit nervous. He should have been! I don’t know how many hours we went back and forth on the risks but finally he said - I trust you and your heart, run with it. Then it happened as I knew it would. One of my students made a colossal mistake the first week. We had a couple of parents that were quite … they were angry. And they called Al.

I’ll never forget what Al did especially knowing his reservations about this project anyway. He said - “First of all, you need to call Grant and give everyone a chance to work this out peaceably and reasonably. Secondly, you need to know that I agree and support Grant. Giving teens the opportunity to lead is risky, but it’s worth it. So we’re not going back to the old way.”

Everything got worked out but what Al got out of the deal was my complete loyalty. After that, there was never any doubt that Al had my back. That doesn’t mean he always agreed with me!! But we handled that in his office and only we handled it. He never embarrassed me or did stupid power play games.

All of that to say this - from the perspective of the peon - your loyalty to me will go miles toward creating a great working environment. It is completely legitmate and fair to demand loyalty out of your staff but only to the degree that you are loyal to them.