Would you mind if I took a minute or two and bragged on some of the best leadership I’ve been honored to be a part of?
This past weekend our church, World Outreach Church (WOCHURCH.org) in Murfreesboro, TN hosted its 3rd annual “The Polar Express Experience”. This show features close to 100 or more teenage singers, dancers and actors who create a show that the entire community lines up to attend.
The show has grown so large, that this year the decision was made to have 2 shows, a 3:30 matinee and a 6:00 evening show. In total well over 4,000 people found their way to campus this weekend with their kids and loved ones to take part in the event.
The show is just one component of a much larger experience in that there are activities for kids of all ages all over campus. This year featured “snow”, ice skating, cookie decorating, Christmas card making, photos, story time, train rides and much much more. It was a massive undertaking that involved hundreds of volunteers all offering of their time and talents to contribute to the event.
My wife and 2 kids along with myself had roles to play leading a team that was responsible for getting maps into the hands of all visitors to the campus. Us along with about a dozen other team members covered different entry points throughout the campus making sure everyone coming to visit knew where to find the various activities.
One of the many things that makes our church so special is simply this. When you offer up your time and talent to be used in a volunteer role, staff members are trained to make sure that areas you serve suit the talents you offer. In other words, they want you serving in a role you enjoy, not simply a role that needs to be filled. This simple approach by the leadership team and filtered down through all staff insures that there will never be a person doing a role they don’t want to do simply for the sake of volunteering.
Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? But yet in practice and reality it isn’t that simple, and beyond that our church goes and complicates the matter even more by then adding an additional layer. Volunteers who demonstrate the leadership skills necessary for leading a team of volunteers are then encouraged not only to lead, but lead in the direction they think best.
In other words, leaders are empowered to lead. And the book titled, “We do it this way ‘cause that’s the way its always been done” is shredded by new innovative and thoughtfully creative ways to use ones time, talent and skills.
It almost sounds downright revolutionary. AND IT IS. And each and every week hundreds of people give of their time and talent in a volunteer role seeing their role within a much bigger picture that seeks to truly make the church a better place.
My challenge for the week is simply this. Within the leadership roles you have, are you confident enough in the team you lead to allow them to run free and truly innovate their roles within the organization you’ve established. Are you bold enough to allow them to be themselves and bring their true talent and skill to work with them to make for a better team.
It’s not an easy concept, but if you’ve surrounded yourself with a team of brilliant people - why not give them that latitude.
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro TN gets it. Granted their hiring involves volunteers versus employees, but why couldn’t your company adopt such an approach and allow it to flourish?
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