Last night we had our summer worship kickoff. Overall I think the night went really well. We're using OnePrayer materials for the summer using four of the messages, small group materials, etc. The prep leading up to the worship was a bit more chaotic than I would have liked. Honestly, it was a lot more chaotic than I would have liked. I've had a bit of time to reflect on the night and I think most of the headache was probably more my doing than any other factor. Ultimately leadership plays a huge factor in the success or failure of any endeavor.
So here are some leadership lessons I was reminded of last night:
- Be Specific – I made the mistake of asking people to help coordinate the event without asking them to do specific jobs. When I asked people to help I also let them know when we would be starting setup before the event. I neglected to tell people when they needed to arrive. If people don't know when you need them to be someplace they'll get there when it's convenient rather than when you need them.
- Confirm Commitments – I had several people tell me they would help us when we initially asked, but I didn't follow up on the day of the event. That leads to a lot of unneeded stress. I think most everything would have been resolved if on Monday or Tuesday I'd asked people to confirm they would be at the event to help and if I'd have repeated their confirmation, "We'll see you at 4 tomorrow night."
- Plan Redundancy – Realistically, sometimes people don't show up to serve. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for not being there, sometimes people forget, sometimes you get a lame excuse. In any situation though the work needs to get done. My redundancy plan last night consisted of frantic phone calls to get people to fill in for various slots. In the future I'm going to plan to have a couple of people scheduled to fill in when an unexpected need arises either because of an unplanned circumstance or additional people requirements.
- Overcommunicate – Vision leaks. It has to be repeated. This is probably one of my biggest failures recently. I make the assumption that because I know the vision and I'm passionate about it that everybody else is as sold out for what we're doing as I am. Honestly the leadership team is behind the vision. Where I need to improve is to make sure that I effectively communicate how the vision relates to every ministry opportunity.
All things considered last night went off well. I didn't get to hang out and chat with folks as much as I would have liked because I was paying attention to last minute details. Thankfully Sarah, the Soles, and a couple of other people came through at the last minute to take care of things I wasn't able to do. I'm especially thankful that Sarah puts up with so much of this sort of stuff from me.