A healthy work environment should be a high priority for parish pastors and leaders. As a leader, you want to ensure you’re creating the best possible space for your team to work well and effectively, and sometimes it’s hard to know why that isn’t happening. Here are 5 things you can do to help ensure your culture is healthy.
- Cast Vision
Without clear vision, it’s impossible for your team to be unified, which is a perfect environment for frustration to flourish, rivalries to develop, and silo ministries to spring up. Clearly communicate where your team is going, how you’re going to get there, and your core values so that everyone is headed in the same direction. Then, do it again. Do it as often as you can.
- Encourage Everyone
Even good leaders, even great leaders can highly underestimate the power of encouragement. Even if you aren’t a leader on your staff team, your encouragement can still make a significant impact. Encouraging a positive culture will create a much more motivated, kind, and collaborative workplace.
- Celebrate Success & Failure
It is actually easy to overlook success, especially if you’re entrepreneurial. But every success needs to be named and celebrated, because what gets celebrated gets repeated.
And sometimes you might also want to celebrate failure, too.
At least celebrate honest mistakes and miscalculations you can learn from. What gets recognized in this way won’t get repeated.
- Listen to Wise Advisors
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is refusing the advice of others, assuming they don’t understand the organization or know what’s best. This is easy to do, as all organizations are unique, but don’t fall into this easy trap. Fresh eyes are full of creativity and can infuse fresh life into your parish. Figure out who the wise people are around you and listen to them. If you do it as a leader, it will permeate the whole leadership of your parish.
- Keep an Open Mind
Challenge the way you see people, positions, and new ideas. Staff who know they’re seen for their actual work and potential will do better work with a better attitude than those stuck in dead end jobs, knowing they’ll never see a promotion or a fresh opportunity. Stay open to everyone’s new ideas too. That openness will preserve your healthy environment.
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