From 'Unheard' to 'Influential': Empowering Staff Voices

Have you ever pondered the untapped potential lingering within church staff teams? It's a game-changer, and I, Todd Rhodes of chemistrystaffing.com, am thrilled to guide you through harnessing this dynamic force on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My latest episode delves into the empowering world of staff input, where the majority soar with confidence, yet a notable minority grapple with silence or hesitation. Prepare to uncover the transformative strategies that will ensure every voice is celebrated, every suggestion valued, and every team member fully engaged in our shared mission.

Join us on a journey through eye-opening discussions and actionable advice as we champion the successes and address the challenges within church staff dynamics. We'll explore the nuanced needs of the positive 71%, the silent 14%, and the undecided 15%, providing leaders and team members alike with the tools to create a vibrant, communicative, and supportive church community. Embrace the importance of cross-department collaboration, the intricacies of feedback reception, and the critical role of leadership in fostering an environment where everyone's perspectives are not just heard but eagerly anticipated. Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your team to unprecedented heights of church health and impact.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Today we're tackling a superpower that every church needs to tap into, and that's the power and the wisdom of your own staff. Thanks for joining me today. My name's Todd Rhodes, I'm the co-founder one of the co-founders over chemistrystaffingcom, and I want to welcome you to this edition of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Okay, does your staff feel like they are free to share ideas or do they keep them to themselves?

Speaker 1: 0:38

It turns out that 71% of church staff that we surveyed in last year's Church Staff Health assessment feel that they can speak up, and that's encouraging. We want to empower church staff voices. At least I hope you do so. 71 percent, but what about the other 29 percent? How can we make your church a place where every team member has a voice? All right, those members 71% feel encouraged to speak up. That's really good. But 14% disagree. They feel unheard, and another 15% are on the fence.

Speaker 1: 1:12

We've talked every day about those people that are on the fence and just a side note, those people that are on the fence, those are the easiest. Two things about the people that are on the fence. Those are the easiest people to sway, to get them to feel engaged. But they could honestly go either way. They could slip positively to be engaged, but they could slip also negatively to be even more disengaged and fall into that next group that we're going to talk about. So the neutral people are really interesting, but they're also very important that you reach because they can be swayed. What happens is if you cannot change the neutral people's kind of neutrality, if I can say it that way if you can't move them off the mark, these are the people that get restless and that eventually move on and are looking and maybe it will not be on your staff in a year. So those neutrals are really really important, all right.

Speaker 1: 2:06

So let's tackle all three, those that are positive, those that are neutral, those that are negative. Let's start with those that are positive. Let's celebrate what's working. Does leadership ask for input? Are there maybe town hall meetings or staff meetings where you can get input from people? Maybe you just have a culture where good ideas get praised, regardless of where they came from, who came up, whatever it is. Keep that up, reward those good ideas getting put into action and just keep regularly reminding your team.

Speaker 1: 2:39

The why behind their feedback matters to your church's success. So those 71% that are doing well, encourage them to do even better. But what about those 14% that feel silenced? Now, that should be a red flag. If you're a leader and you've got a team member or some team members, or 14% of your team members if your church is average who just feel silenced, that should be a red flag to you Do.

Speaker 1: 3:04

Some folks maybe fear criticism. Maybe that's why they're not speaking up. Are they maybe just unsure that if they do speak up, that it'll make any difference, that anybody's even listening? Those are some real issues with those people that feel negative about speaking up and contributing to the overall health of the team. So, leaders, you really got to dig in here.

Speaker 1: 3:26

I'm not big on anonymous suggestions, but sometimes allowing people to make some anonymous feedback is a good step, particularly if your culture is not overly healthy. Just encouraging feedback and receiving feedback gracefully and without retribution or punishment a lot of times is a good step in the right direction to help those people that are feeling bad in this area and, in any way that you can, just clearly showing that you value different perspectives. This is one of the other ways that you can address this. Now, the neutral people there's about 15% that are in the middle. So maybe they're new, maybe they are unsure if speaking up is welcomed, and that's a pretty easy thing to change. If somebody feels like they're not sure if they should speak up, encourage it. You know, hey, I want your feedback. If you're not a leader that values feedback, then that's really on you. So maybe you could put them on a task with other departments to give them some ideas as to what they can do to make things better. Maybe you can ask them just specifically what they can do. That's going to make them a little bit more comfortable in speaking up.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Imagine all right, so maybe this is a perfect world a little bit, but imagine having your entire staff feeling confident to share. Having your entire staff feeling confident to share, knowing that they'll be heard and maybe even seeing their ideas change things for the better at your church. That's the kind of place, that's the target, that's the kind of place that people want to serve in. That's the kind of place where your staff sticks around and the good news is, chances are you're probably well on your way. Celebrate what's working, address the concerns that you see head on and as soon as you see them, and don't stop looking, never stop looking for ways to make every voice matter in your church. That's the key to having a really healthy church staff when it comes to empowering the voices on your staff.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Hey, if you've not taken this year's Healthy Church Staff Assessment, I would encourage you to do. You can go over to churchstaffassessmentcom Absolutely free. It takes you about 10 or 15 minutes to go through, but it will, I think, be insightful for you as a church staff member and it's going to help us out a lot as well. Thanks so much for listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We are going to be back again tomorrow and I hope that you will join me here as well. Same bat time, same bat channel, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Have a great day.