What Navy Seals Can Teach Us About Church Leadership - Part 2: No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders
"Leaders must accept total responsibility, own problems that inhibit team performance, and develop solutions to those problems" (p. 50).
The authors of Extreme Ownership, Willink and Babin, provide real world examples from both the battlefield and the boardroom. One striking story comes from Navy SEAL "hell week.” Potential SEALs are divided into teams and driven through impossible physical and mental odds in hopes of proving their worth. Teams compete to see who is best. One particular team struggled, and ended last in every exercise, while another team won nearly all competitions. The struggling team leader blamed the team, while the winning team leader was able to rally the strength and specific aptitudes of team members. To the dismay of the winning leader, and thrill of the loosing leader, the instructor switched them; one from the loosing team to the winning team, and visa versa. An amazing thing happened, the leader of the original winning team turned the loosing team completely around and pulled them together to become a top contender.
How did this happen? The "loosing" team was still made up of the same group of guys, but they were under new leadership. How is it possible to make a single change at the top and completely turn around team performance? It was possible because this leader believed his attitude set the tone for the entire team. Instead of blaming the team, he took full responsibility to lead, pulled them together, believed in them and their mission, and rallied each member to perform at his best. Soon each member demanded the highest performance from each other, and each individual knew what they needed to do to win, and did it.
Extreme Ownership places the effectiveness of the team squarely on the shoulders of the leader. If the team is bad, the leader is bad. That is pretty tough stuff, but I would ask you to consider this leadership principle.
The effectiveness of a SEAL team is a life and death proposition, and while we do not deal in literal life and death, we as pastors do deal in the spiritual life or death of our members’ which, in reality is more real than flesh and blood—it is forever.
Remember Jesus said, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).
We want life. We want transformation. We want honest change and truth to rule the day. We want joy and fulfillment to follow all we do. It is up to us to be on our knees in prayer. It is up to us to rely completely on the power and voice of the Holy Spirit. Remember leadership isn’t surrendering decisions to a council or board of deacons, it is building shared vision, value and a common purpose. You may not be able to make all decisions, but you can build community and consensus.
LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE:
Do you do church as a team? Pastor Wayne Cordierro has an excellent book on the subject, 'Doing Church as a Team.' I recommend you read it.
Next, take time to spiritually appraise, and then practically appraise, all your team leaders: youth pastor, children's pastor, small groups pastor, etc. Write each person’s name down and pray over him or her for a week. Next, write down what you hear God saying about each leader. Finally, meet with them one-on-one, and share what God is showing you. Challenge them with the life and death reality of the spiritual fight they are in. Encourage them, strengthen them, highlight their best, and challenge them where they need to improve. It is your job to lift them to perform their best
Once I begin to build an overall leadership team, it freed me up to be a more effective pastor, and it gave team members deeper ownership in the vision of the church.
To my fellow small church pastors: are you developing teams in your church? At first I thought this was impossible due to our size, but I believe that any size church can begin to build teams for each ministry, even if it is a team of two. Once I begin to build an overall leadership team, it freed me up to be a more effective pastor, and it gave team members deeper ownership in the vision of the church. Don't do church alone -- I did that for far too long. Get a mentor, and be a mentor -- that's called discipleship and it is biblical. Become a pastor who leads your teams to their best – all for the glory of Jesus!
Full credit for the “laws” in this series are exclusively given to:
Willink, J., and Babin. L. (2015) Extreme Ownership: How Navy Seals lead and win. St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY.