The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Staff Culture You're Accidentally Creating
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You don't build a church staff culture in the day. You build it in a thousand, probably unnoticed modes. How do you respond to stress? How do you treat your assistant? What you celebrate, what you tolerate. And today on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to unpack the invisible cues that are shaping your staff's culture and how to take intentional steps toward a healthier team atmosphere. Hi there, my name is Todd Groads. I'm one of the co-founders over here at chemistrystaffing.com. I hope you'll check us out. I'm also your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Today's hard truth is this: your staff culture exists whether you think you're building it or not. And if you're not actually shaping it, chances are it could be shaping you. And today that's what we're going to talk about. This unintentional culture that you're creating. It's unintentional. You're doing it whether you know it or whether you don't know it, and how to pivot before it becomes your church's greatest liability. Okay, you say it's what you do. Vision statements are great. Core values look nice on the wall, but your staff culture is really formed in the little things, how you handle conflict, who gets promoted and why, what happens when somebody fails, how you celebrate wins, who you listen to, all those kind of things. Because your team is watching and they're taking notes. They might not be taking literal notes, but they're taking notes in their head and they're watching and they're seeing how everyone reacts and what your church is doing culture-wise. And a lot of times there are red flags in unintentional culture that just happen. If your culture feels off, it probably is. Look out for these things. Maybe there's silence in meetings that could mean that fear is starting to speak up. Maybe there's overfunctioning leaders that could mean that eventually there's going to be some burnout. There could be some constant turnover. This happens in churches quite often where they just lose people. They don't know why. And it's actually because of the culture. It's because there are some deeper trust issues there that you've just not dealt with yet. Maybe everybody's just playing nice. But you know below the surface that there's just some hidden tensions there that absolutely have to be addressed. This all if when you don't address it, this all feeds into your culture. And most staffs won't tell you what they feel until they're actually an interview, until they resign. So how in the world do you start shaping the culture where you that you actually want? How do you shape your culture rather than your culture shaping you? I've got some ideas here, some steps. They're generic, but I think they will help you get on the right path of creating the culture that you want rather than your culture just responding to what's happening. Okay? Step number one, listen, you gotta listen with curiosity and ask what is it like to work here? And you actually have to listen to the answer. You have to actually want the answer. You always say, don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. You actually want to know the answer to this question. What's it like to work here? Step number two is you need to model transparency. Share your blind spots. Ask for feedback. You need to be susceptible as a leader. You need to be authentic, you need to show transparency. Step number three, align those actions with your values. If you say family matters, don't reward 80-hour work weeks. I see this all the time in job descriptions. Hey, we're a family first church, but we want you to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week. Those values conflict with each other. So align your actions with your values. And sometimes you really need to take a hard look at that. Step number four, celebrate what you want more of. Make culture visible and make it contagious and celebrate those things. We talk about this all the time on the podcast. Celebrate things. We don't do well as church leaders and as churches to celebrate things, even if it's a small win. Every time somebody is baptized and you don't celebrate it, what in the world are you doing? You gotta celebrate. You gotta take the time to celebrate, not just move on. Stop, take time, celebrate, make culture visible and make it contagious. And when you celebrate, man, it makes it visible and boy does it make it contagious when life change happens. Culture is created either by design or by default. Okay, here's my final thought for today. Here's my bottom line. You don't need a culture overhaul, most definitely. You need a culture awareness. Okay. If you want a healthier staff, start with invisible systems and habits and assumptions running in the background. I'd love to hear from you. What part of your church staff culture needs a hard reset? And if you'd like to have a conversation about that, about resetting your church staff culture, or maybe you're just stuck and you need some help, and maybe there's a way that I can come alongside and either coach or consult. I'd love to hear from you at podcast at chemistry staffing.com. And if you're ready to build a healthy team from the ground up, you can visit chemistry staffing.com. We can help you and assist you and be a partner to help you do that. All right, I hope this has been helpful to you. We're here every day on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name's Todd Rhodes, and thanks so much for joining us today. See you tomorrow.
