Building a “Great” Zoo (Part 2)

In my previous blog, I described an imaginary city that had been given a huge gift which was to be used to build a great zoo. The leadership team was hired and went to work, but several months into the process, the executive director discovered that each person on the team was working from a different definition of what a “great” zoo was. While this story is imaginary, the underlying issue is a reality in many churches, ministries, and non-profits. The team may have agreed on a vision for a great organization, but individual leaders are each pursuing different interpretations of what this means. If you feel like you’re leading a zoo, or at least an organization that has the kind of un-clarity described above and in the previous blog, what should you do? Here are three leadership steps that can remove those quotation marks and help an organization make real strides toward being great:

• Define what is meant by great. While this may seem obvious, I’m surprised at how often this step is missing. Whether you use “great” or some other word, inspirational language often doesn’t produce clarity. When members of the leadership team can each describe the ultimate goal (e.g., “great”) in their own words, and there is consistency in what they are saying, you’ve taken an important step forward.
• Make decisions and allocate resources based on this definition. Talking about the definition is important, but real understanding often occurs in the context of the strategic decisions that are made by the leadership team. Every “yes” or “no” to a request for funds or to a new proposal should reinforce the shared definition and should move toward the ultimate goal.
• Be willing to challenge misalignment. Even when the first two steps are being done well, you will often find someone who doesn’t seem to be working from the shared definition. In those situations, the leader (or team) must challenge them. Perhaps it’s an honest misunderstanding. Perhaps they don’t want to get on board. But either way, it’s better to confront, no matter how unpleasant this is, than to suffer the confusion and disruption that will eventually occur.

Building a great anything – zoo, church, or non-profit – is hard work. But it’s virtually impossible if you don’t take these three important steps. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>