All posts in productivity
Customer Engagement
Starting a business or a church can be tough. They both often run into the same organizational issues, but simply use different terminology to describe them. Businesses use words like “products” and “customers”. Churches use words like “first-time visitors” and “ministries”. Once a church or a business has had a particularly successful amount traction, the way they connect with their congregants or customers changes drastically.
The need for new products/ministries and services challenges a staff to adapt systems that were put in place during simpler times. Although people are creatures of habit, thriving organizations need flexibility to remain alert to the people who are coming through their doors and market trends.
One system that we all need to be aware of is how we continually engage our customers. We have to be able to stand in their shoes, or better yet, have them tell you about the experience they have had with your church or business. Bringing in church members into the organizational design process allows you to re-think how you engage with them. Whether it is transactional or consultative, you know you are engaging effectively with your customer when they echo back the things that make you special to them.
Here’s 4 indicators you have a healthy organizational culture that engages “customers” well:
- When people know where to turn for help when they need it. (user-friendly website and customer service at the office)
- When the experience people have with your organization reflects the values your organization
- When the service (or product) delivery is consistent and meets (or beats) people’s expectations
- When people understand the value proposition of what you provide
Save The Best For Now
“What’s new?”
It’s a two word question that gets us out of bed everyday to search for the answer. Back in the day… before I was a live… NOTHING WAS NEW. Everybody had their same job for 30 years. There wasn’t much to chase. I’m not intending to discourage a dream, or forecast despair upon the go-getter, the entrepreneur, or someone who aspires to be remembered, but rather, I’d like to encourage all of the above (which I’m in) in their current season.
It’s as if we’re all saving our best for a later engagement, a future event, or a fast-forwarded version of ourselves where we are really doing what God called us to do. We are saving our best for the dream job we’ll have where we feel all of our gifts and talents are being utilized. We feel the gravity and pressure of having something “new” to share, but I would propose that we take inventory of our current season and give it everything we have. For who we are in this season, is but a preview and practice for our next season.
I would even go as far to say this: There may not be a next season. We ought to give this season what we would give if it was our last. Save the best for now.
Catalyst Backstage with Brad Lomenick
I had the privilege of hosting Catalyst Backstage a few weeks ago and I can say it was truly an honor to get a few moments with some people who are making a big impact for the kingdom of God.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some of the insights I learned from the different individuals I interviewed.
One of the guys I interviewed was Brad Lomenick, the Director of Catalyst. Here’s a 3 leadership lessons I learned from Mr. Lomenick:
1.) Give People A Chance.
We often want people to be better leaders without putting them in a position to really do it. From day one, the Catalyst brand has always stood for giving young leaders an opportunity to be used.
2.) Trust Your Team.
It’s hard for us to trust our teams when we are constantly thinking, “I can do it better if I just did it myself.” The more you trust your team, the better the results will be because your team is learning as you trust them with more.
3.) Stay Personable.
Brad has one million things to be doing and people to connect with at HIS event, but I can’t tell you how many times I saw him stopping and saying hello to people he didn’t need to. When he had the excuse to be in a hurry, he still found time to be personable.
You can see Brad’s interview at www.catalystbackstage.com.
Work Culture Lessons from Google, Twitter, & Facebook
When you take a look at this infographic, you put yourself in two different pairs of shoes. The first pair is from an employee’s pair and you’d think, “Man, I wanna work for Google!” The second pair is from an Executive Leader’s pair and you think, “Man, we’d never be able to afford ALL that.”
Regardless if you’re at the top or bottom of your organization, ask yourself this question: “Do people LIKE working with me, or our my co-workers working with me because it’s simply their job?”
You can make working with you enjoyable. Around the corner from all the places I work is a car wash that cost 75 cents. Asking a co-worker to bring in 5 of their favorite shirts for you to take to the dry cleaners would cost you 10 bucks! Depending on your position in the organization, you hold the power and budget to cater in lunch for your department once a month, but you never do simply because you don’t think about it. Maybe you’re organization can afford a pool table, but you would never put that into a budget. Why not?
Don’t let your work environment become mundane. There are creative things you can do to keep things interesting every now and then with or without the budgets of multi-billion dollar companies. 
Horrible Bosses
I’ve got 5 jobs. For real. I have a total of 3 bosses. I’m the boss at the other 2. It keeps things interesting I guess. My current bosses bend over backwards to make my life and schedule conducive for their organization, but that’s not to say they’re perfect or that I’ve never had a Horrible Boss.
If you’re making any sort of personal work progress, there has to be some form of tension, correction, or discipline between your boss and you. I’ve had a lot of these meetings. 
Now if we’re honest, which is the purpose of this blog, we’d all say we’ve been extremely frustrated with a boss or two in our career. Or perhaps there wasn’t obvious tension, but you simply disagreed with the theology of that pastor or leader. Or maybe you don’t like the way that person handles leadership and you’ve seen things like that handled a lot better. There are countless situations that can set us off internally where our job is just a job that helps us pay bills and we spend days “putting up” with people.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” (Colossians 3:23 NIV)
This shifted my thinking when I actually apply it. I thought about changing my boss’ name in my phone and email contacts to “the Lord” to see how I would respond to the things they ask me to do. Because honestly, I may do a good job and get things done, but I know I don’t do it as if God Himself ask me to do it. And I should.
This doesn’t change anything externally necessary, but it does change my attitude when things get tense. Horrible Boss or not, there’s a big man upstairs that I’d do anything for. And that anything entails working for for a human.