Catalyst Conference Session 2: Patrick Lencioni

Blogger's Note: Lencioni is a great leadership author. One of my favorite books of his is called DEATH BY MEETING.

Isn't it interesting that many of the popular TV shows of the past (Happy Days, Seinfeld, Friends), they rarely showed people at work. Even in church, we rarely think about or refer to our life at work.

Job misery is something that effects every social level and every type of profession. No job is a perfect job. So how do we address our work life? What can we do to help people find greater fulfillment and meaning in their jobs?

Samuel Johnson: People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.

THREE SIGNS OF A MISERABLE JOB (...or a miserable church member):

1 - Anonymity - going to work and feeling like you aren't known. All human beings have a need to be known, so when we feel like no one cares enough to know us, we feel we are missing something important.

Sometimes in the interview process potential employees are sold with warmth on a great work environment. Then after beginning the job, there is a huge disconnect. Important moments happen for employees (births, deaths, etc) and no one seems to care.

When it happens in a church, it is particularly painful because the expectations are higher for a church (especially a church staff).

If we don't care about the people we manage, we shouldn't be a manager.

Why don't we do this? It is intuitive. It should be a no-brainer. It might be busyness. It might be a lack of our own sense of value. We don't understand that we have importance and influence to them. Sometimes we feel like it might be disingenuous because you have never asked about them before.

#2 - Irrelevance - people that don't feel they are making a difference have a deep sense of insignificance.

We as leaders need to be constantly remind people of the difference they are making in the company or in the lives of others. Identifying for people their role and reminding them of how valuable it is brings great meaning and purpose to their existence.

Why wouldn't we want every waitress, janitor, church usher, or minister to know what a huge difference they are making in our lives?

#3 - Immeasurement - people need to measure for themselves how they are doing. If you don't know how you are doing, and you don't know how to track it, you tend to feel a bit hopeless and out of control.

Often sales people like their jobs because they always know where they stand. We all have a need to measure.

We need to measure what is is we do that is relevant? What do we do to assess our effectiveness?

Good management is actually good ministry. Helping people feel valuable can be one of the biggest impacts on their lives.