Process of Team Work

Several processes are inherent in building a group that functions as a team. The following processes as outlined by Jeff Story are typical:1

Aggregation – This involves convening or meeting. Always choose the best possible people, and attempt to choose people who bring different perspectives to the team. At this stage, everyone will have diverse goals and will bring different backgrounds and experiences to the group. Resist the temptation to choose people who are just like you; however, don't choose people who have adversarial traits.

Emulation – This stage can also be called posturing or competing. At this stage, the goals are diverse, and each member wants the team to see what he/she can bring to the group. At this stage the leader will see (clearly displayed) the contributions that each person will make. Some will want to study the subject longer, some will want to move toward decisions, and others will want to spend more time defining the problem. During this stage, tensions can mount, and the group can fragment.

Clarification – During this stage, the leader must give direction to the group and clearly define the role that each team member should play. The leader should define these roles verbally so that each member is affirmed and knows what is expected of him/her and the other members of the team.

Unification – At this point the team goals become clear, and everyone begins to do his/her part to achieve the defined goals. The team leader must remove barriers that will inhibit success, and he/she must create an environment that encourages success. The leader's function is to be the conduit between resources and results.

Summary

Each team member should be carefully chosen for what he/she can offer the team. Choosing team members is one of the most important jobs of any group and should be approached with great care and committed prayer. Whenever possible, utilize various personality and learning style profiles to assist the team in choosing the right person. Team members should represent different viewpoints and perspectives. If you choose people who share similar personalities, learning styles, and other traits, you'll end up with a team of people that specialize in one aspect of a project but will not enjoy other aspects. Ultimately, this will breed discontentment on the part of all involved.

1 Jeff Story, "Team Building and Lay Leadership," Church Administration, no.2 (November 1998): 41, 25.

The process of assimilating and working together as a team is never completed, for often when a good team is formed, someone leaves or joins, which requires the entire team to adjust their roles. A team is always in the process of adjusting and assimilating.

Personnel Supervision

Most ministers of music likely will not supervise a large group of paid personnel; however, most ministers of music will supervise the organist/pianist, perhaps a secretary, and some will supervise an associate minister of music. Ministers of music rarely receive training in personnel supervision, which can result in occasional problems.

Most problems with personnel supervision come as a result of poor communication. Goals and tasks often are not communicated clearly and responsibilities are not clearly defined. In addition, administrative support is often shared with other ministers, and no one is clearly in charge. When several ministers work with a support person and none of them is the designated supervisor, supervision may be non-existent or ineffective. Another common problem among all personnel supervisors is the failure to deal with issues as they arise rather than expecting them to magically disappear if they are ignored long enough. This system never works!

Have High Expectations Even When Someone Is Not Paid Very Much

Many of the problems I've had with supervising personnel have been a result of my not having high enough expectations of them because I didn't feel they were paid their worth. However, for a period in my life I served in a church where I was grossly underpaid based on my education, experience, and job performance. I spent time griping about my poor salary and how unfair it was; but I eventually came to the realization that I had accepted the job for the salary I was being paid. If I had a problem with the salary, I should have made my feelings known from the start. Since I took the job, I was obligated to do it well whatever the salary. I've since tried to apply the same measure to others with whom I'm associated. If we agree to do a job for a certain salary, we should do it well! When we supervise others, we should expect them to do their jobs well regardless of salary. When we play the game of feeling sorry for someone because they're underpaid, they soon become the victim, and we find ourselves in debt to them.

Have Clearly Stated Job Descriptions and Personnel Policies

Having a clearly stated job description is the first step in appropriate supervision, for often the person is unsure of his/her responsibilities. A job description should include tasks in three major categories: daily, weekly, and monthly. Daily tasks should include items such as answering the phone, taking care of correspondence, and other typical office matters. Weekly tasks should include newsletter preparation, preparation of the worship folder, and preparing music for rehearsals. Monthly tasks might include preparation of monthly reports, preparation for certain meetings, and maintenance tasks such as cleaning files.

The job descriptions and/or personnel policies should also contain expected skills and the level of the quality of work desired. In working with administrative assistants, I've sometimes found them to have willing hearts but minimal skills. The same has occasionally been true of accompanists.

The personnel policies should contain information regarding beginning and ending work time, lunch breaks, other breaks, and time off (sick, vacation, and compensatory). Churches are unique in that most of the ministers have flexible hours, and they often come in late or leave early in order to meet other appointments or to compensate for evening work. Conflicts arise when administrative support persons begin to adapt their work schedules similarly. At first, the situation is often ignored and may be seen as allowing support personnel to be a part of the team; however, less work is accomplished, phones are not answered, and everyone becomes frustrated. The following example is illustrative. I once worked with a secretary who came in early each morning (supposedly) to get her work done; however, her extra time in the mornings was spent talking with her friends who happened to be church members. To complicate matters, her extra hour in the mornings accrued overtime, which she always took as compensatory time. Invariably, her compensatory time was taken when workloads were high. The same secretary took very long lunches to run church errands. Sometimes the shopping trips took nearly the whole afternoon. It is imperative to define expectations before a problem arises.

Periodic Reviews and Evaluations

Periodic reviews and evaluations ultimately benefit everyone, for the communication that results allows everyone to perform better. Sometimes reviews and evaluations seem formal, and churches avoid them. Often an employee is functioning well, and reviews and evaluations are not completed. However, the employee may cease to produce appropriately, and no precedent is set for evaluation. In this case the employee will usually ask, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?" It is important to have reviews and evaluations regularly so that effective employees continue to be affirmed and less effective persons are made aware of their need for improvement. Many times churches need to dismiss someone; however, they can't because they've not completed periodic reviews and evaluations and have no evidence to support their position. To dismiss a person without having ever formally evaluated him/her is never appropriate. Ideally, a review should be held every six months and an evaluation held once per year. When a person is newly hired, he/she should be reviewed after three months.

How to Conduct a Review

In order to conduct a review, you should announce the review to the person at least one month in advance. This month gives you and the person to be reviewed plenty of time to prepare. You should ask the person being reviewed to come to the meeting prepared to talk about his/her effectiveness on the job. Suggest that he/she re-visit the job description for help. You should do the same. Look carefully at the job description, the person's personnel file, and talk with staff members, ministers, parishioners, and others who may observe the person's work. Go over goals that were set in previous reviews and be prepared to evaluate progress. Preparing for the review is an excellent time for the reviewer to decide if he/she is providing what the employee needs to be successful.

It is often best to have a job review in a neutral location, perhaps away from the church. A couple of weeks prior to the meeting, you should give the person an agenda for the meeting and ask for input. It is always helpful for the person to know what will take place in order to prepare; the meeting should not contain surprises. The agenda will typically include goals of the appraisal, review of the job description, results, feedback from others, performance expectations, barriers to performance, suggested improvements, training and development, and future goals.

During the meeting you should allow the other person to talk for 65-70 percent of the time. Self-evaluation is always most effective. By being a good listener, you are showing that you care and are willing to help. Be prepared to ask open-ended questions to help the person in the self-evaluation process. Such questions might include: How do you think you are doing in reaching your goals? What parts of your job do you enjoy most? What parts are most challenging for you? How can I help you to do a better job?

Supervision Is Ongoing

Most of us fail in supervising others because we don't see supervision as an ongoing process. It is never over. We must provide feedback on a daily basis in order to assist others in being effective. We must offer lavish amounts of honest praise and be patient when improvements are needed. Remember that the best time to offer feedback is immediately. When we wait for long periods of time to offer feedback, it makes the issue look larger than it is, makes employees fearful that we have a long list of undisclosed issues, and breeds distrust. When people know that we'll approach them immediately if there is a problem, they will be much freer to do their work without worrying about unspoken agendas.

Keep Accurate Records

In any type of supervisory capacity, always keep accurate records. These should contain the person's strongest assets as well as liabilities. Each review and evaluation should be carefully documented for future reference.

When Termination Is Necessary

When a person must be terminated, accurate records are a necessity. As a minister, I've observed church employees such as ministers, support persons, custodians, and accompanists who should be terminated; however, the church did not have accurate records to support its claims. Since accurate records were not available, everyone knew that termination was neither possible nor fair. When considering termination, be sure that you have accurate and substantive evidence and that you involve others. You must involve ministers, personnel committee members, and other appropriate people in order to protect yourself in the process. For example, when ending the employment of an organist, I talked extensively with the pastor, personnel committee, and the music committee before approaching the person. Although I had the support of each committee, I was the person upon whose shoulders the responsibility rested. When the meeting time occurred, the organist was embarrassed that other people knew; however, had she not responded gracefully, I would have needed the support that the other groups provided.

Why Make Good Hires?

Hiring the right person takes persistence and patience; however, a good hire saves time and energy in the long run. Although the search may take longer, and you do more of the work yourself, a good hire is worth the time and energy that must be expended. Resist the temptation to give up and assume that no one of quality is available. Find out everything you can know about the person and involve others in the process.

Developing Job Descriptions and Organizational Charts

Everyone needs a job description so that he/she is able to accomplish all aspects of his/her job successfully. Ideally, job descriptions should be in place before someone is hired — minister of music, organist, pianist, music associate, secretary, or other music ministry leaders or helpers. If job descriptions are not currently in place, they should be written. When job descriptions are not in place and are not updated, reviews and evaluations tend to be ineffective. A job description is simply what it suggests — a description of a job. If job descriptions are not in place, a good beginning point is to ask each person to write down what he/she does over the span of a week, a month, or a year. This may be best accomplished with a time log. After the time log is completed, turn the document into a job description without negotiating what they should be doing. For a new position, you should consult a job description such as the ones at the end of this section. The job descriptions in this chapter may also be used to evaluate what your church ministers and staff actually do. A job description is a work in progress and should accurately describe what is done, not what someone else did in the same job 10 years ago; therefore, job descriptions need to be revised periodically. A good time to revise job descriptions is during reviews and evaluations. Supervising personnel should have the authority to adjust job descriptions as long as they don't depart from the original intent.

Effective job descriptions are a blend of specifics and flexibility. They should provide enough specific information to accurately evaluate the person's effectiveness and enough flexibility to allow the person to be creative within his/her areas of responsibility.

While job descriptions explain the job and its responsibilities and, to some degree, desired outcomes, they do not usually contain information related to benefits, vacation, time off, and other similar items. These issues are usually dealt with in a personnel manual. However, many smaller churches do not have personnel manuals and, in these cases, the job description should be more detailed and should outline the information above. When you are being hired, always have a job description and all other information related to the job in writing! A job description is a friend to every employee because it protects you when someone asks why a job isn't being done. Be aware that some people can use a job description to protect them from doing effective ministry. There are always people who use the excuse "It's not in my job description" for not being a team player. For this reason every job description should have flexible statements such as "Other duties as assigned." The following provides examples of typical job descriptions:1

Minister of Music Principal Function

The minister of music is responsible to the church and the pastor for the development and promotion of the music program of the church.