Leadership Compass Activity
Presented by Gail Whitaker
Capital City Church
April 25, 2009
To carry out the mission and vision of the church it takes a team. No one leader can do their ministry without the use of a team. The more effective the team the more effective you are in carrying out the mission of the church. Also, building effective teams mean that you can build effective leaders.
We are going to engage in an activity called the Leadership Compass. The activity describes basically four work styles categorized into the four compass points: North, South, East and West. I will describe the four styles. If you are a North go at the north point; if you are a West go to the West point; etc. First a few notes:
1. This is not about stereotyping (no style is better than the other) and all styles are effective leadership styles.
2. Everyone has one predominant style (although under certain circumstances you can exhibit more than one style). I would like you to select the style that describes your style majority of the time or the one you are most comfortable with.
3. If you cannot determine which direction best describes you - think about when you approach work or a project: your first inclination or your tendency. Also think about feedback on your work style that you have received in the past.
Here are the different styles:
North
Ø You are the "get to the bottom line and let's go" type of person
Ø You like to get moving on a task as quickly as possible
Ø You love to plunge in and are quick to act
Ø You like to try things
Ø You are decisive, active and assertive
SOUTH
Ø You are the caring direction and people oriented
Ø You want to have everyone on the team's input before making a decision
Ø You take everyone's feeling into account before making changes
Ø You want to make sure everyone on the team feels supported and valued
EAST
Ø You are the "big picture" person - you need to understand the vision
Ø Before doing anything with change you want to understand what the vision for the change
Ø You are the creative ones and the visionary leaders
Ø You are a creative thinker and very idea-oriented
Ø You make decisions based on looking towards the future
WEST
Ø You are the nuts, bolts, and details person
Ø You want to know the who, what, when, where and why before acting
Ø Follow procedures and guidelines that is why you need to know what they are
Now that you are in your teams I need your group to answer four questions:
1. What are two strengths of your styles?
2. What are two challenges of your style?
3. What is one thing that people should know about your style?
4. What is the style that is the most challenging to work with?
The purpose of this activity is three-fold:
1. The first purpose is to help you learn how to appreciate the different work styles of everyone on your team. We have a tendency to want to surround ourselves with people who have similar work styles because they understand us. But that is not a healthy team.
Ø What would it be like to have a whole setup team of North's?
Ø What would it be like to have an entire life group of South's?
Ø What would it be like to have a Children's Church ministry of all East?
It is important to understand the value of each team member and how each work style is a strength that a person can bring to your ministry team. Jesus recruited members based on individual and different strength. He had an important mission and he needed disciples like Matthew a tax collector as well as someone like Simon the Zealot who is totally opposite from Matthew. He put together an extraordinary team to do extraordinary work.
We steer away from diverse teams because sometimes we do not understand them or get frustrated by their different work style. This challenge diminishes once we learn to value their strengths.
Let me just share some values that are important from each group:
Ø North: They love challenges they are the ones you can give a challenge to and they are not deterred by obstacles - they will get what you need to get done quickly (you need someone like that on your team - they are your "get it done" people and they keep the momentum going in the ministry)
Ø South: They are the nurturer's and they make sure that other group members feel valued and important. They build on the ideas of others. They will keep other team members sane in chaos or difficult times (they add to the longevity of ministry team members). If you are experiencing a high turnover in your ministry - get a South they will make everyone feel valuable on the team.
Ø West: They are the analyst and they are practical, dependable and thorough. They figure out how to do a lot with little resources and they are skilled at identifying the certain flaws in plans that others overlook. If you have limited resources your "Westies" will be a great asset in figuring out how to work with little to get a lot done.
Ø East: They are your visionaries and they are your creative geniuses that will move your ministry out of the box to reach great heights. If your ministry needs to grow or reach new heights you need an East on your team. You will keep doing the same thing as usual until you bring on an East who has the vision to see beyond tomorrow.
Each direction is important on a team. As a leader you need to surround yourself around work styles that compliment areas that are not your natural style. This is what is needed an effective ministry team.
2. The second purpose of this activity is to create an understanding of how "who you are can determine how you see others". This is important because when you are choosing an apprentice leader you could get distracted by assessing them by your strengths not theirs. For instance:
North people:
Ø See South as being too focused on people and relationships than goals (compromise goals for relationships or to avoid conflict)
Ø See West as having "analysis paralysis"
Do you think a North leader will select a South or West as an apprentice?
South people:
Ø See North people as non-collaborative because they do not take other peoples feelings into account when they rush to a decision
Ø See West as cold, withdrawn and distant because the West generally remain on the sidelines and don't jump in unless they have the information and is comfortable with all the information.
Do you think a South leader will select a North or West as an apprentice?
West people:
Ø See North as being impatient and too impulsive
Ø See East people as over the top "head in the sky" and not practical and too focused on vision and not on details and actions they get frustration
Do you think a West leader will select a North or East as an apprentice?
East people:
Ø See North as being autocratic and want things being done their way when they may have a new creative way of doing things
Ø See West as being resistant to change and stubborn because they will not give in unless they have all the information and comfortable with the decision
Do you think an East leader will select a North or West as an apprentice?
This lesson is especially important when we are selecting apprentices to mentor. Do not overlook a potential leader because their work style may be different. Jesus turned over the keys of the Church to Peter. How many of us as leaders would have done that? We would have probably said "Peter you need to be an apprentice for about another five years, there are so many things you need to work on or change" that is because we are seeing with our lenses which means we can block what the Holy Spirit is showing us. We look for leaders that work like us that provide us with comfort. We are not going to reach an extraordinary vision by being limited as leaders.
3. The third purpose of this activity is to receive insight on how to build an effective and lasting team by understanding what motivates them. John Maxwell in his book Developing the Leader Within You stated "Everything rises and falls on leadership. There are two ways you can get others to do what you want: You can compel them to do it or you can persuade them….Persuading requires an understanding of what makes people tick and what motivates them; that is, a knowledge of human nature. Great leaders possess that knowledge….If you understand what motivated people, you have at your command the most powerful tool for dealing with them". Let me share with you some things that will motivate the different directions:
To motivate North's
· You need to be quick, clear and with confidence
· Focus on the challenge of the task
· Plenty of autonomy
· Establish timelines and stick with them
To motivate South's
· Allow for expressions of feelings
· Give positive reassurances
· Be attentive to relationships in the team
· Listen hard
To motivate Westies
· Allow them plenty of time for decision-making
· Provide data they can trust
· Don't be sensitive when they say "no"
· Do not be overly emotional
To motivate Easties
· Show appreciation and enthusiasm for ideas
· Be patient during the idea generation process
· Avoid criticizing and judging their ideas
· Provide support for others to help with details and follow through
The goal is building lasting, effective ministry teams that can produce lasting and effective ministry leaders.
We are about to break off in groups and I want everyone to make one commitment concerning the lesson today. It one thing to receive information and say in our minds "I am going to make a change" but when we verbalize this statement we give life to it. Harrison will direct us in the ministry groups and each person in the group should finish one of these sentences:
1. I am going to use this information in my ministry by ______
2. This knowledge is going to help me implement ______in my ministry
3. Now that I understand my team work style better I will be more ______
4. Because of what I know now my next step is ______
You only need to select one they are all similar but I intentionally wrote a statement based on each work style. I wanted to model what it looks like to be intentional in including all work styles in your ministry.
I know being intentional about accommodating different styles in your ministry will take you out of your comfort zone. However, to reach the vision of the church, we have to come out of our comfort zone. The vision is beyond our comfort zone.
Being a leader that stays in their comfort zone is a surviving leader. Survivors do what they can to make sure their ministry continues but living leaders move beyond their comfort zone. Maxwell also said when talking about leaders "people who play it safe continually miss opportunities and seldom make progress. It's the same way in baseball -- you cannot steal second base with your food on first!"
My prayer is that everyone moves out of their comfort zone because we have an extraordinary vision and mission and it is in our hands. We cannot reach it by being a surviving leader (things will not change) but a living leader will change things.
I want to end with this poem about being a living leader and not a surviving leader. I love this poem (not sure who wrote it) but I found out it was John Maxwell's favorite poem too. After that I will turn it over to Harrison for your ministry group work.
There was a very cautious man
Who never laughed or played
He never risked, he never tried,
He never sang or prayed
And when he one day passed away,
His insurance was denied
For since he never really lived,
They claimed he never really died
Let's be a living leader!
Thanks.