Just finished my last staff evaluation.
Here are the questions that we use to guide our conversation. We're more relational and less formal in the way we approach things as NCC. And the tension I'm feeling right now is how do we keep our chemistry and change our chart. We desperately need to restructure so that less people are reporting to me. But with that we lose our flat structure where it's a level playing field. I don't want to lose our collegial approach, but I don't want to lose my mind either :)
We ask employees to rate themselves on a 1-5 scale in seven competencies: initiative, team player, organization, follow-through, communication, integrity, productivity, and attitude. We also ask them to rate their job performance and job satisfaction.
Then we use seven questions to guide the evaluation:
1) What do you enjoy most and least about your ministry?
2) What do you feel are your greatest strengths and weakness?
3) Are there any issues you'd like to discuss?
4) Do you need clarification on any part of your portfolio?
5) Any part of your portfolio you want to add, subtract, or delegate?
6) What are your top priorities/goals for next year?
7) How can I help you reach those goals?
My goal as an employer is to make sure our staff has room to grow. And that means they might not do what they do forever. In fact, I really feel like we need to shuffle the deck periodically to give people new challenges.
I honestly try to make the portfolio fit the employee versus making the employee fit the portfolio. There are certainly seasons where you have staff doing a job that isn't a perfect fit. And all of us have parts of our portfolio we don't enjoy, but I'm committed to helping staff find that perfect portfolio.
I genuinely want people to enjoy working at NCC!
That is the bottom line for me.
Here are the questions that we use to guide our conversation. We're more relational and less formal in the way we approach things as NCC. And the tension I'm feeling right now is how do we keep our chemistry and change our chart. We desperately need to restructure so that less people are reporting to me. But with that we lose our flat structure where it's a level playing field. I don't want to lose our collegial approach, but I don't want to lose my mind either :)
We ask employees to rate themselves on a 1-5 scale in seven competencies: initiative, team player, organization, follow-through, communication, integrity, productivity, and attitude. We also ask them to rate their job performance and job satisfaction.
Then we use seven questions to guide the evaluation:
1) What do you enjoy most and least about your ministry?
2) What do you feel are your greatest strengths and weakness?
3) Are there any issues you'd like to discuss?
4) Do you need clarification on any part of your portfolio?
5) Any part of your portfolio you want to add, subtract, or delegate?
6) What are your top priorities/goals for next year?
7) How can I help you reach those goals?
My goal as an employer is to make sure our staff has room to grow. And that means they might not do what they do forever. In fact, I really feel like we need to shuffle the deck periodically to give people new challenges.
I honestly try to make the portfolio fit the employee versus making the employee fit the portfolio. There are certainly seasons where you have staff doing a job that isn't a perfect fit. And all of us have parts of our portfolio we don't enjoy, but I'm committed to helping staff find that perfect portfolio.
I genuinely want people to enjoy working at NCC!
That is the bottom line for me.
4 Comments:
Mark,
I love what you're doing at NCC. I first came across you and your church after your column you wrote for Outreach Magazine last month called "Got Street Smarts". I actually work for Outreach in the Events division. My heart is to see churches all across the country rise up and start coming up with more and more creative ways to reach their community. Your church and it's growth has been a great conversation starter for some unchurched friends in the DC area. I have a hear to push the envelope in reaching people and getting them to know the person of Jesus Christ.
I love your book, I plan on buying it in bulk to give to everyone I know for Christmas. God Bless you and your ministry. Your blog is one I check every morning.
Can't a church keep a two-level staff arrangement by simply adding more people to the "top" level rather than creating a "middle" level? In other words, does there need to be a single person on top?
Hey Mark,
Are you sure you've read Dennis Bakke's book Joy at Work?
Why do you even need a chart?
Session 9 of the Joy at Work Bible Study has some really good pointers for churches.
The accompanying DVD segment for Session 9, The Marketplace-Friendly Church, is available on Google Video.
There's another segment on the DVD that comes with the Bible Study that really goes into how this works well in a church setting, but can really strip the pastor's gears on what his role really is.
As is probably obvious, I highly recommend the book and accompanying Bible Study.
Tim
10,761 days
I've always struggled with the concept of a single leader in a church versus a plurality of leadership. Biblically, neither made sense to me until I heard the phrase "Chief Among Equals." The person that shared that with me (Dave Tuthill out of Grand Rapids Michigan - the man has an amazing understanding of church leadership) threw a phrase at me that we all know - head of the roundtable.
Plurality of leadership is important. It offers accountability, broadens perspective, and lessens to possibiltiy of overlooking negative consequences to actions. It can also bring stalemate.
The concept of chief among equal - which I see present all throughout the New Testament breaks that stalemate without destroying the benefits of the structure.
Keep us informed on how you restructure things.
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