Four Reasons Staff Alignment Is Essential
Misalignment among your staff will inevitably lead your church to veer off course or crash.
No one may get physically injured in the process, but the consequences are no less severe. Many churches have been negatively impacted by misalignment, and many others have even closed their doors.
But there’s more to alignment than avoiding pain and problems.
There are several benefits your church can experience when everyone is on the same page. Let’s take a look at four reasons why alignment is essential.
#1. Alignment minimizes conflict
When your staff is aligned in your beliefs, mission and philosophy of ministry, you will significantly reduce the number of conflicts in your team. At times, you’ll still experience healthy disagreements, and that’s OK and to be expected. But when your staff is on the same page, you’ll see a reduction in any significant conflicts that may be detrimental to the team.
#2. Alignment means better focus
Alignment will also lead your team to better focus on what you’re striving to achieve together.
When this happens, your staff will:
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- Be less concerned about pet projects
- Not make excuses
- Disregard non-mission critical problems
Most important of all, your staff will work together as a team toward accomplishing a common goal.
#3. Alignment leads to accomplishing more
By minimizing conflict and improving focus, your staff will be able to accomplish more together. As you focus on fulfilling the church’s mission, your staff will be in a better position to accomplish goals.
#4. Alignment leads to momentum
Staff alignment will also build and maintain momentum. Think about it like this: When you have everyone pulling together instead of going in different directions, you’ll create more traction and pick up speed since you won’t have competing forces moving in opposite directions. As you minimize conflict, focus on what’s ahead, and accomplish more together, you’ll build a wave of momentum you can ride together.
Let’s be honest: No one wants their staff to become misaligned. It’s not like church leaders are standing around dreaming up new ways they can discourage their team. Misalignment among your staff is something that can happen because of a mistake (we’ll get into that below) or because your team has just drifted along for a period of time.
Here’s what you need to know about misalignment: It’s not if your staff will become misaligned—it’s when it does. For your staff to become misaligned, the problems usually begin small.
It can be a variety of things, such as:
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- Disagreements
- Jealousy
- Insubordination
- Gossip
- Poor communication
- Misunderstandings
- Challenges at work
- Unforgiveness
There are times when something significant will lead to big problems. But, for the most part, it’s the little things that can creep into the life of your team that will sow seeds of discord.
Like a small misalignment in your vehicle, in time, if the problem is not addressed, it will continue to get worse. As a church leader, you need to be able to identify the common causes of misalignment. By keeping your fingers on the pulse of your team, you’ll be in a better position to lead them well and build staff alignment.
This brings us to the next point.
