Leading during a crisis
You Will Face Crisis
Every leader will face crisis. The longer you lead and the larger organization you lead the more crisis you will encounter. Sometimes it’s small other times it’s big. Here’s just a few examples from my time in leadership:
Drummer not showing up on Sunday morning
Nursery Director not showing up on Sunday morning
9-11
I got a phone call from a man claiming one of my church leaders was having multiple affairs with women on Craigslist, including the callers wife. Turned out to be true.
Early in my church planter days there was one week we couldn’t make payroll
I had a tenant in our church in KC that wouldn’t pay their rent and I had to evict them
I had a youth pastor quit after only 6 weeks on the job with no explanation and haven’t heard from him since
Financial/Housing crisis of 2008
I’ve had multiple air conditioners stolen from the church
I could go on and on…
My point is this: Leaders will face many crisis. You are not immune. The following items are what you are to do when crisis hits whether big or small
Be Ready
If you wait for the crisis to hit to be ready you won’t be.
Like the Boyscouts always say…be prepared. It took me a while to learn this lesson but when I did it elevated my leadership.
I discovered that most days in ministry are pretty mundane/routine. Most days don’t include a crisis. Most days I don’t get to preach. Most days aren’t a whirlwind of activity. But those days do come. The best way to be ready for them is to take advantage of all the others days by developing your heart and especially your mind.
A leader should be aggressively learning and growing during the routine days of ministry so when a crisis hit’s you are ready for it. You can’t wait for a financial crisis to learn about finances. You can’t wait for a crisis with a leader in your church to learn what the bible says to do about it.
Your days should be filled with reading, podcasts and conversations with smart people. Be relentless about this.
My friend Scott Lingle likes to remind me of a quote by Charlie T. Jones “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
No Fear
When you become a leader you take on a variety of responsibilities and you lose certain rights.
You lose the right to be overly emotional, you lose the right to get sick on Sunday’s (pastors) and you lose the right to lead out of fear.
If we lead out of fear we are both hypocrites and false prophets.
We are hypocrites in that we confess we belief in verses like 2 Timothy 1:7 “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power” and Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again.” We believe in these verses and the people we lead are counting on us living them out when it matters most.
We are also false prophets in that False prophets are those who predict the future wrongly. Fearful leaders lead out of the worst case scenario. And these scenarios almost never come true. That makes you a false prophet. If you’ve ever freaked out about something that never happened you know exactly what I mean. Leading this way will erode your trust like nothing else.
Further, fear is a tactic that poor leaders use to control their people (Jim Jones). Faithfulness is a tactic good leaders use to influence and lead people.
Don’t misunderstand me. You can be cautious, alert and patient and still not be fearful.
Frame your leadership
In a crisis, like Covid-19, you need to frame your leadership so that both you and the people you lead know how you are leading during the time. Here’s the two ways I framed my leadership during Covid-19
1 We’re Playing Ping Pong Not Chess
This idea is simply about recognizing what season you are in. If you are in a chess season then you can take your time to make a decision. During chess season you can gather data, have meetings, fast and pray, etc… But during ping pong season you have no time to deliberate, you have to respond. A wise leader knows which season they are in. During Covid-19 we went from chess season to ping pong season over night. All of a sudden leaders had to make decisions rapidly without time to convene with boards or do due diligence. The key being successful in ping pong season is that you are prepared for it mentally and intellectually and you have the trust of your organization.
2 My Remote Control
IMO the best leaders are currently pushing the RESET and/or the FAST FORWARD buttons of leadership
Leaders who have pushed the PAUSE button are ones who have done nothing innovative or pivot during Covid-19 and have nothing planned for afterwards other than hoping that things will return to normal when Covid-19 is over. They will not. They are not thinking, dreaming, building or innovating.
Leaders who have pushed the STOP button mighty possibly see their ministry or business come to an end. If you have pushed the stop button you probably should not be a leader. Their plan is revival. A much better plan is reformation.
Leaders who press the REWIND button are hoping life will return to the way things were pre-Covid-19. Many things will return but many many more things will be different.
Leaders who have pushed the RESET button are pivoting. They understand that things will be different after Covid-19 and they will be different too.
Leaders who push the FAST FORWARD button are also pivoting. They realize that this period is offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make years of progress within a couple months time.
I told this concept to my staff and board and let them know that we are hitting the fast forward button, which we did. As a result we are many months if not years ahead in several aspect of our vision.
Leverage Opportunities
Every Crisis presents itself with opportunities. Covid-19 presented a bunch of them and we took advantage of every one. Here’s some of the many things we took advantage of:
We rebuilt systems: assimilation and children’s ministry
We applied for and received the PPP grant
We applied for and received a $5000 grant from ELi Lily to redo our worship stage lighting
We completed a host of facility projects including an entire new kids wing
Started a bunch of virtual small groups
Rewrote the policy book for our preschool parents so we could fix some festering issues
Implemented a new digital bulletin saving us manpower and $3500 per year in printing
Turned off the AC units in our building. We have 115,000 sq ft so this saved a lot of $$$
Had sever hard conversations with tenants and employees
Fed the staff at 2 hospitals and a community center
Rewrote our church vision (we hit the fast forward button)
And much much more…
Thanks for reading. When your next crisis comes I hope this helps you to be ready for it.
