Organize Your Team’s Strengths

by Chase | How To, Leadership

Chances are, if you’re reading this, that you are a leader of some kind. Maybe you’re the one in charge of your ministry, maybe you hold a leadership role within it, or maybe you are one of several core volunteers. No matter your position within a team, it is critical to understand how your team is wired so that you (and all the other team members) can align yourselves for maximum success.

All teams – including ministry teams – lose traction when they have the wrong personalities in the wrong positions.

Your mission is too important to lose traction. It’s important. It’s eternal.

Is your team experiencing bumps? Do team members seem frustrated? If people are constantly questioning others’ abilities, intentions, and love for your organization/team/church, then you have lost traction. When your team hits this low, it is hard for things to rebound without some realignment. 

Many of these frustrations can be avoided by placing team members in their sweet spots of service.

While I am not an expert in this area, I have experience using several personality and mental makeup tools (such as Strength Finder, DISC, and Myers Briggs) and have spent the past decade participating in ministry teams. For my purposes, I have simplified team members into four separate categories.

Your assumptions may not be scientific, but with enough observation and experience, you too can understand the roles your volunteers and staff work best in.

The Four Types of Team Members

• Watcher
  • Watchers are the ones who are sitting on the sidelines gazing upon the work being done by everyone else. While there are various reasons why they are unable to get involved, the bottom line is that they are not in a position to contribute. A watcher is not a team member – they are a passionate fan who doesn’t walk onto the playing field.
  • Beware: Most complaints originate from the watchers! They confuse complaining as contributing.
• Doer
  • Doers are the ones willing to do the grunt work. They don’t want to plan or make the decisions when they show up. A doer is content showing up, being assigned an area, and working diligently until the job is done.
• Manager
  • Managers can delegate assignments to doers to ensure they are completed. These people are able to invest in others and oversee an area, department, or sub-ministry team. True managers thrive when they are able to effectively execute a plan by utilizing the doers around them.
• Leader
  • When it comes to casting vision, charting the course, and keeping everyone focused on the task at hand, leaders take charge and invest into the lives of the managers and doers. While the leader will not spend as much time on the front lines of the work, his role is critical for maintaining focus, training the team, and ensuring organizational alignment.

How to Organize Your Team for Maximum Effectiveness

After you understand how each team member functions, start placing them into their sweet spots of service. They will be happier serving in their preferred area and the team will be more efficient once everyone works together.

• Pray for your team. 
  • If you’re reading this, you probably care deeply about whatever team you’re on. You want to see it succeed. Pray that God would help you see your ideal role and that others would see theirs too.
• Analyze the current makeup of your team. 
  • A team full of doers will lack direction and initiative. A team full of managers will experience power-struggles. A team full of leaders will only dream up how things could be without experiencing them in reality.
• Encourage team members to step into their true roles.
  • Begin to embrace the role you best fit in, and don’t be shy about asking people to step into the roles they are best for. If someone is a natural planner, detail-oriented, and great at motivating others, go ahead and ask them to manage a project. If you notice an individual who is always faithful to do whatever is needed but doesn’t have the time or inclination to do the planning, don’t pressure them to lead an event! Get them to show up the day of and put them to work instead.

How do you need to reorganize your team?