When you see a christian leader demonstrate high caliber leadership you just have to point it out. Good leadership doesn’t just happen. It is intentional and it takes work. The same goes for a church leader.
What happened?
Recently, Glassdoor announced the best places to work, and on their list of 2020 Glassdoor Employee’s Choice #1 Best Place to Work for small and medium-sized organizations was Life Church. How awesome that a church would be able to distinguish itself alongside amazing businesses and come out as number one in this category!
What leadership nugget did we witness? First, let’s make sure to honor the tremendous work by Life Church and the staff there, specifically Pastor Jerry Hurley. Golf claps all around!
Craig Groeschel, who leads Life Church posted a video on Facebook documenting the announcement with his staff. That video shows us a ton about a vibrant, god-honoring culture. And it tells us a lot about Craig’s leadership specifically. Take a look at the video posted below…and then read on to see what leadership lesson we can learn from the video itself.
Here is the full post from Craig Groeschel on facebook.
Leadership Lesson in real life
The above video demonstrates a great culture. That is obvious. But there are some small actions taken behind the scenes that we can point out and learn from.
What did it take to put a video like the above together? It had to be intentional right. Someone didn’t just pull out a camera on this one. It was planned and coordinated. Here is what I see had to happen:
- Life Church was notified of this award. Perhaps Jerry knew about it, but the video makes it seem like it was a surprise to him. If so, someone had to intentionally not tell him.
- Craig, or someone on the staff had think to them-self, “we should tape a presentation to Jerry for this”. If it was someone other than Craig to have this idea, then they had to clear it by him and get his go ahead to be in the video.
- Craig, or someone had to ask for someone with a camera to be present with him.
- The rest of the staff had to buy items and coordinate the time to do this. Then they had to hide!
- They had to film the video and Craig had to be present and time it right with his heavy travel schedule.
Yes, this was very, very intentional.
Other things to note from what Craig did and didn’t say, and did with his actions:
- Craig was very affirming to Jerry. He goes on for like 30 seconds about the tremendous value Jerry brings to the team.
- Craig said “under your leadership” (talking to Jerry). Do not overlook this small thing. Craig didn’t say, “together, us serving has resulting in…” or “Under OUR leadership”. He fully gives the credit to Jerry.
- Craig then lifted up Jerry on his shoulders with another staff person and gave Jerry time to talk. He really is genuinely celebrating Jerry here.
What can we learn?
Good leadership is intentional. Craig and the staff all had to be intentional to affirm Jerry. And from what Jerry said in the video, it is clear that Jerry gives credit to others as well. He is intentional too.
Good leadership creates affirming cultures where people feel valued. It has always blown me away how far a simple gesture like this goes. Affirming words should be easy to say, yet it seems that many leaders find the action so hard. Affirming words build others up, but they also show that they are valued. And even when those words are witnessed by someone else, they feel like their work matters or at least has the potential to matter. That means they know they matter. They feel valued.
Good leadership should be fun! I am not sure anyone involved in the presentation to Jerry above would regret taking the time out of their day to do what they did. Most likely, it was a highlight they shared with others. And it appeared to be fun!
Good leadership starts at the top. This is a well known fact. From what we see here, Craig leads by affirming others. Jerry leads by affirming others, and then others at Life Church feel valued and no doubt affirm others as well. The benefits of this can be counted in the areas of innovation, work ethic, low turnover rate of staff, and more.
What about you?
What ways can you lead those you influence by being affirming and intentional?
Share!
What about you? Have you experienced a great church leader? Comment below and tell us what we can learn as well.
OR, have you done something intentional like the above and can share it? What can we learn from you?
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