Serving Bread

Although I’m an extrovert, I do a lot of reflecting, thinking, and strategizing on my own. I can not only come up with new ideas, but I can inspire myself for those ideas and my personality type allows me to put together a plan in executing those various ideas. I can function as an internal processor… up to a point. The problem I run into is that I assume that I have buy-in (or ownership) from the various stakeholders.

This mechanism gets me in trouble often in my marriage. I imagine conversations that have never happened where my wife is on board or agrees to a certain plan of action. And those ideas can often make perfect sense in my mind, yet they are not articulated to others. The lack of clarity in communicating the vision or the plan creates distrust, miscommunication, and dis-empowerement.

Clarity is an important function of leadership. The clearer I am with those I lead (I’m back on the leadership theme, not the marriage one… I don’t lead my wife) the better I am at leading them well. Seeking clarity with expectations, job descriptions, ministry values, responsibilities, etc… allows for a better leadership environment and a gives young leaders more motivations leadership.

As a leader, I often make too many assumptions about those I’m leading. I assume they have the values that I have and the motivations that I have. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it’s not. Clarifying my values gives me a better gauge on how to lead people well. There are four main areas where I have found it important to practice clarity:

• Values/Assumptions. When I have assumed that people have the same ministry values that I have, I have been disappointed. I have discovered that some of the ways that I think about ministry are so ingrained in me, that I don’t even think that they are anything special. I think of them as common sense and assume that everyone who does leadership does those things. That’s just not the case. We have to clarify our values and let people know exactly what we mean.
• Job Descriptions/Expectations. Both my personality type and my role motivate me to do my work well. I know what I have to get done and what it looks like to do that thing well. Young leaders may not know what is expected of them. Clarifying expectations is empowering for people as they know how their leader believes in them.
• Language. When I say discipleship or leadership, it can mean a number of things. We can have an entire conversation about a particular topic and realize that the conversation was for naught because people were working with different definitions.
• Leadership. What role will a person have in shaping the ministry? I recently clarified with my staff team that the staff team as is cannot be the vehicle by which all decisions will be made to guide our community. I then invited input and asked them to let me know what areas they would enjoy having a voice to shape the ministry. Clarification of leadership roles frees me to make decisions without the need to consult.

There may be other areas where clarification is especially important. In my context, I am urged to push for more clarity in these four areas.