The Monday Morning Debrief: Stick to what you do best

Last Tuesday Howard Shultz, the CEO of Starbucks held a Town Hall meeting.  So what do you think this Town Hall was about?  Coffee maybe?  NOPE.  Well then, about Customer Service?  NOT EXACTLY.  Well how about marketing and promotion?  WRONG AGAIN.

Mr. Shultz had a Town Hall meeting about…yep, you guessed it…Politics!  Now, although I applaud Mr. Shultz for being engaged in our democratic structure and encouraging others to share, of all the things to he could choose to hold a Town Hall meeting about, politics is probably the last thing I would peg him to do.

As I read and processed Mr. Shultz’s new endeavor, this made me think about what we, as ministers, do on a daily basis. Do we stay focused on our tasks and mission or do we allow ourselves to get sidetracked on other, non-mission related work?  As I examined my life, I know it can be easy to get sidetracked.  That is why I believe that we need to stick to what we do best so that we can stay focused and on mission.  That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try new things or engage in different strategies to reach our target audience.  After all, we do need to be growing in our leadership and effectiveness as ministers all the time.

But  what it does mean is to not get distracted (too long anyways) with things that are not in your field.  For instance, if you believe that your ministry needs to become more tech savvy and do a few more powerpoint or video ideas for your group, then by all means try it out.  But if you are not so tech savvy yourself, you do not need to be spending countless hours each week trying to make it work.  You shouldn’t be focusing all your energy on making this happen because it is going to take you away from what you do really well.

That is where delegation comes in.  If you believe you and your team need to change things up or get into other areas that you are not engaged in right now, then by all means explore that.  But if you do not have someone who can pick it up and take charge of it, then you may want to hold off from really putting a lot of time and energy into it.  Because, as a good friend tells me over and over again, “When you say ‘yes’ to something you are saying ‘no’ to something else”.  So we need to stay focused on what you need to do to make you and your ministry the most effective.  If you can find others who can pick up some of the work and allow you to get into new areas, by all means do it.  But until you have the right leadership in place to make that happen, be very careful to what you say “yes” so that you don’t get too distracted.

So TAKE A MINUTE right now and look at all the things you are doing.  What are you currently doing?  Is there something you are doing that you can delegate to someone else?  Or do you simply need to stop doing that?  Don’t get spread so thin that you end up not being able to do what you do best – whatever it is.

Thoughts, comments, questions?  Post a comment so that we can all benefit.