No matter how intelligent and skilled your people are, no one will ever reach his/her potential if they lack confidence. Effective, fruitful leaders always work to build and boost the self-esteem of their team members, knowing when people believe in themselves greater potential will be reached. As individuals reach their potential so will the organization.

In my opinion, the number one best way to build and boost self-esteem in others is the act of genuine encouragement. Encourage each individual member of your team or organization privately and in front of others. It is easy to be negative towards someone not matching the expectations of an organization. For most of us it takes a disciplined heart and mind to build up in these situations.

Instead of discouraging someone by verbally beating her down for what she is not doing efficiently, why not encourage her in what she is doing well. You can find the good if you look. The issue is we often refuse to look beyond the negative. Therefore, we act out of the negative which only lowers morale, not only the one person in question, but all who observe or work with this person.

I am not saying praise a person who is not performing adequately. Find something good in that person, encourage her in that area, then help her build on the needed performance enhancements. In doing this you will demonstrate that you care not only about the bottom-line of the organization, you will also demonstrate that you care for the development and the spirit of all individuals on your team or in your organization.

If the only thing you can find positive in Julie is that she is always early, why not start a conversation, “Julie, I notice that you are not only on time every day, you are at your station ready to go fifteen minutes early. I want to commend you for that. Also, I want you to know that you can come to me with any thoughts or suggestions on what we can do to build you into the very best you can be. What is the first thing you can think of right now that I can help you with?”

Julie may not respond that first time the way you need her to. That is okay. You can lead her with properly formulated questions to unearth and understand her needs to improve certain areas of her performance.

I am not writing about praising bad performance. Most people do not realize how they can improve, they need a little coaching. Sometimes, a “little” coaching is all it takes. Beating down, using disparaging comments never builds up.

If you desire better performance, always encourage. Find ways to encourage every member of your organization (family, church, team). Encouragement always builds confidence. Confidence generates better performance leading to effective results. Remember encouragement always builds confidence.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Have you ever noticed that no one likes to be told – anything, but everyone loves to give their opinion? Since this is true in our society, why not ask people’s opinion instead of trying to tell them something. Without a little more information, that sounds a little silly or even ridiculous, doesn’t it?

What if you could take a scenario and instead of telling what needs to be done, ask properly formulated questions that lead the person(s) to make the right decision for the circumstance. You can! It takes a little training, but you can learn this invaluable leadership practice. I am blessed to work with pastors, and organizations assisting them in this leadership style.

Pastor Don called me one morning stating he had a staff member who was not performing and was causing disturbances in the church. I listened intently, wanting to learn first, is it the pastor or staff member. Is this working relationship salvageable? After listening to the history of the situation, I understood the dilemma and asked a couple of questions to before moving forward. Then I changed my line of questioning.

The pastor had said he wanted to tell her…and he listed a couple of reasons why he believed, “It was time for she and the church to part ways.”

My question was, “Why do you want to tell her anything?” Pastor Don went immediately into retelling me the same things he had previously, how she and her husband were distracting God’s people from His work.” I listened, then repeated my question with an emphasis on the word “tell”. “Why do you want to TELL her anything?”

It was then that Pastor caught it. Pastor Don and a team from his church had worked with me for about a year on a revitalization process. Don had watched my leadership. I had coached him on using questions instead of always telling. The second time I asked the question, Don got it and immediately queried, “I need to ask her, don’t I?”

I answered yes and we began about a twenty-minute discussion, formulating questions for his interview with her. We would discuss a properly formulated question which would allow her to surface the issues. After her response, a second question would help her dig for the true source of the issues. Then Don said, “Then I need to tell her…”

I stopped him mid-sentence and asked, “You need to what?” By the end of our conversation we had worked up four or five questions for him to ask her and I stated again, “If you ask the right, properly formulated questions, she will come to the right conclusion and make the decision.

Things worked out well. The staff member did come to the right conclusion for the church and her family. She realized it was not the church, it was indeed she and her husband causing the issues. She even stated, “I believe it is time for me and the church to part ways.”

When you ask the correct, properly formulated questions, people will generally make the right decisions, even in difficult discussions as the one above. Imagine what your teams and individuals could accomplish when you ask the right questions. I’m convinced, we are not asking the right questions today. What can you do to learn more about properly formulating questions to spur your team forward?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Most always, the stories we hear of micro-managers are negative. Actually, I cannot think of one positive reference to a micro-manager. No one enjoys being managed this way. Have you ever thought about your own management practices. When was the last time you ran a checklist to insure you were not becoming a micro-manager?

Micro-managers, without knowing it, degrade the creativity and productivity of team members, employees, or volunteers. Below are eight characteristics of a micro-manager. Which of these characteristics have you adopted or are you flirting with?

Being never quite satisfied with results – Instead of trying to find fault or a “better way”, ask questions, seek out how the team (or member) arrived at their conclusion. What steps were taken? What possibilities were surfaced? What obstacles were faced and how were obstacles overcome?

Feeling frustrated because you would have done the task differently. I learned early on in my leadership life that not everyone has the same thought processes as me. Not everyone will approach an assignment the same way as I would. That does not make me right or them wrong. Therefore, I must pull back and allow them to work to the effective solution their own way. As long as the results are effectively fulfilling the desires of the project, then all is well.

Focusing on perfection to the detriment of completion and productivity. Perfectionism is over-rated. It may sometimes be okay to be articulate, but perfectionism rarely wins the day. I am not perfect, neither are you, nor is anyone. Assist people in becoming and doing the best they are capable of. Perfectionism will then take a backseat to a much more fruitful outcome.

Continuously monitoring employee progress each day at every turn of the project. No one, not even you, likes someone looking over your shoulder. Give people the freedom to work through the various steps of a project. It is okay and helpful to check in occasionally inquiring if your assistance is needed.

Not communicating the big picture, ensuring employees can’t do too much on their own. Communicate the big picture of what lies ahead but leave the details of driving to those who will be in the driver’s seat for implementing the project. See post “Being a Debate Baker” on this site. Like a good GPS, you can be available to give direction when needed or advise of impending obstacles. A good GPs otherwise is quiet, ready to give assistance.

Constantly criticizing how everyone works. This usually comes from someone who is afraid of his/her own shortcomings being “found-out.” Overly criticizing only weakens a team or member undermining morale and creativity.

Believing that no one else can do their job as good as the boss can. Someone else is there to complete the job because you could not on your own. Do not try to always be the smartest person in the room.

Not getting input from the team. Getting input from your team is not weakness. Instead, it is a wise leader who builds trust, accountability, and ownership in every team member through their input.

Conduct a self-inventory using the eight characteristics above. Determine working on which ones needed to improve your leadership and your organization’s fruitfulness.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Eating flour right out the bag is not tasty. While I have done it before, consuming raw eggs is not recommended and not tasty. Add to these a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of baking powder, and one of vanilla extract, still is not worthy of our tastebuds. Even mixing them all together with some water or milk will not satisfy the taste palette. However, mix them all together and bake them in the oven for 30 minutes (perhaps with a couple other ingredients), and you may come out with a delicious cake.

To complete the recipe for a tasty cake you must combine all the raw ingredients then allow them to bake for a time. Only then do you have the desired outcome of something delicious to eat. The same is true with decision making. You can pull a group of people together with all the right ingredients for a successful team, but the individual ingredients does not a team make. First, they must be combined, as you would the ingredients for a cake.

However, the secret to a successful team is what comes next. Are you, as leader, a decision maker or a debate baker? Decision makers are those leaders who generally make most of the decisions for their team/organization, then call on the team to implement the leader’s decision for success. Decision makers are creativity squashers and morale crushers. The team may carry out the leader’s wishes, but with disdain and unmotivated.

Debate bakers on the other hand, know how to use the combined ingredients (creativity and experience) of each team member for a quality baking process. Without the correct baking process the cake will never develop. Good healthy debate on issues and topics are the heated oven in which to bake ideas into the desired product.

Debate bakers have learned how to draw out the best qualities from individual members, how to combine the thought processes of all members and to depersonalize individual ideas in order that the team can make great productive decisions. How?

• Learn to use questions formulated to take each mind to higher levels of thought processing. Don’t settle for the run of the mill, “How can we…” questions. Instead ask questions of, “What would it require for…” Questions are perhaps the greatest tool God has given us as leaders, yet we most often squander them on questions that cannot take us to the needed solution. Learn to develop open-ended thought-provoking questions.
• Know the natural thought patterns of all team members. Most people have a routine of thought patterns. Learn how each member thinks then develop your questions to challenge each person’s thought processes.
• Pair team members with other members who have different thought processes and have them discuss thoughts and ideas on the topic at hand. Then have each pair present to the whole team.
• List every pair’s response on a large tear sheet. Lead the entire team in a discussion of the pros and cons of each item listed using properly formulated questions. The team’s discussion should lead you to the one right idea for your organization’s pursuit.

A good healthy debate involves back and forth of pros and cons of ideas. Encourage debate without allowing anyone to belittle or degrade any person in the room or organization. This is the heat in the oven which produces the tasty outcomes that everyone can enjoy.

Be a debate baker for your organization, your team, and your family. Debate bakers will always produce a better tasting outcome than decision makers.

Learn more about formulating thought provoking questions in chapters 6-9, Coaching; A Way of Leadership, A Way of Life.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Keeping with our theme from the last couple posts, how do some leaders/organizations seem to keep members/employees? Why do some churches grow and others do not? Actually, there may be several reasons, but in this article let’s look at what you can do to keep people active and growing.

The following four steps can assist you in developing and keeping people engaged and growing into their greatest potential.

1, Observe, be observant of the individuals in your organization. Listen to what they enjoy talking about, how he/she uses his/her hands, what brings excitement to his voice, what topics does she gravitate to. Observe how each individual attacks each part of his job/ministry and varying opportunities for service. Observation is one of your best resources for helping people grow. Past performance is the best indicator of future expectations.

In your time of observation you want to look for strengths, natural abilities, and passions. These will lead you to each person’s areas of potential and fields in which he/she can soar.

2, Connect your observations of each person with areas within the organization where he/she can grow and develop skill and proficiency. When children seem to run to a particular man or woman in your church, and that man or woman seems to connect with the children, he/she might be a good person to serve in your preschool or children’s ministry. Another person with compassion for a particular group of people, may be ideal for a ministry to that people group. Many times people do not see the connection between their passions and their potential. Help people make those connections in their life.

3, Encourage, people to grow into their connection points as identified. Your encouragement comes not only from verbal communication, but also from supplying all the resources you can, including physical resources, supplies, conferences, educational opportunities and more. Follow up encouragement and asking what she has learned since her discovery period is always a good reinforcer of encouragement.

4, Acknowledge each person for his growth in the areas you have discussed and that he has undertaken. Every small stride forward is a milestone in reaching his potential and each of those small steps need to be acknowledged by leadership and others throughout the church/organization.

When you want to keep people in your organization, help them keep growing, stretching for greater potential. Great athletes never reach a point where they stop developing skill. Great scientists never stop exploring and researching after reaching a milestone in their career. Effective leaders always are encouraging people to stretch a little farther to reach a little higher, and to strive for greater heights of development.

Cause the members of your organization to continually build on their talent and you will strengthen your organization.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Do you consider yourself and your organization a talent magnet? That term, talent magnet is tossed around some in the business world, but truly some pastors, church leaders and churches are also church magnets. While the term is tossed around, it is not always true of those who may claim it or to whom it is attributed.

Liz Wiseman in her book “Multipliers” and Mark Miller of Chick-fil-A in his book “Talent Magnet” both ascribe to a talent magnet as one who not only attracts best talented people to their organization, but also who keep those talented people for the long term.

A magnet not only attracts but also has the power to hold on or to keep objects attached after the attraction. Think of a magnet; hold it close enough to a metal object and the object will be drawn to the magnet, without moving the magnet. This is due to the strength of the magnetic field of the magnet. The object cannot resist being drawn to the magnet and it remains attached to the magnet.

It is easy to attract top talent for your organization. Money is a good attractant in our society. While money may attract, it is not a magnet. If you can offer enough money to hire a person of top talent, someone else can offer more money to attract them away. Money is not a magnet. A nice newer facility is certainly an attractant. Yet facilities, no matter how new or technology advanced, are not magnets. Facilities carry no power to  hold talent or attach people.

Often in the church we consider how profile, high power preachers or new, state of the art facilities can be a magnet that will draw men and women to our church. In the church and in any religious organization the need to be a talent magnet is to be able to attract and attach people to Jesus Christ. He said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me.”

To be a talent magnet ourselves, we must surrender all our self-reliant motives and desires. Surrendering our own, personal desires and wants to Christ and seeking to assist every person in our organization (church) to continually reach for his/her greatest potential will allow God to build us and our church into a talent magnet organization for His cause, the greatest cause in the world. A talent magnet acts selflessly, providing resources, encouragement, and avenues for every person to grow and excel beyond even the leaders of the organization (church). This is the attaching power of the magnet.

Are you willing and ready to surrender your position over to Christ and allow Him to draw you closer to Him so that He can reach others and grow them to their greatest potential? Attract and Attach as a Magnet!

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

John seemed to be on the fast track for his company. He was being recognized for drawing the top talent from his business competitors. His division was beginning to look like a chess board with all back row pieces. No pawns on John’s team, all captivating leaders. He had assembled a team of winners, gifted, talented, frontrunners. This was a success story in the making. Or so it seemed. Within a year the wheels began to fall off. John’s team was struggling to meet the demands of productivity not to mention the chasm between reality and their goals.

How could this be? Such a team of top talent. It was like having the number one draft pick for every position on the playing field. The first thought on people’s minds was, “This team is too talented. With so many top talents on one team, no wonder they could not work together.” But this was not the case. The biggest downfall of John’s team was John. John had become an Empire Builder.

Liz Wiseman, in her book “Multipliers” shares that Empire Builders are those leaders who attract top talent, but stifle that talent by underutilizing the talent, hoarding resources, bringing in good talented people for the leader’s benefit. They bring in top talent to make themselves look good. Each one of these detriments will lessen productivity until the best talented people leave due to lack of purposeful fulfillment and utilization. As word gets out it is difficult to attract quality talent.

Instead follow these six guidelines in building a fruitful winning team.

• Recruit and hire based not only on what each person can bring to the team. Hire based on how each person can complement the team and how the team can complement the talents of each member.
• Utilize the talent of each individual on the team. If you always need to be the smartest person in the room, – you are not – you will stifle the creative flow of the combined players of your team weakening morale.
• Intentionally invite input from all team members with a genuine aim of recognizing and utilizing “best ideas”, no matter where they come from on the team.
• Provide all the resources each person needs to succeed in making the team successful. Encourage individual growth in all areas of strength and potential for every team member.
• Give feedback and congratulations at every level. With every small stride made in moving the team toward its goals, congratulate both privately to the individual and publicly in front of the whole team.
• Do not take credit: Pass the credit and shoulder the responsibility. Regardless of the amount of effort you had in a success, never take credit for yourself. Always pass the credit down the line. Likewise, even if something went wrong that you had absolutely no involvement in, shoulder the responsibility.

Don’t be a self-empire builder. It will cost you in the end. Instead, follow these six guidelines and you will be a people builder. Your teams will be stronger, productive, and effective in accomplishing every task and goal assigned. I guarantee it.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

There once was a queen who was eating rice cakes and honey with her chief advisor on her balcony. A drop of honey landed on the balcony railing as the queen was pointing at something in the distance. Her advisor asked if he should call a servant to clean it up, but the queen only laughed and told him that it was not her problem. “It is only a drop of honey and someone will clean it later.”

As they continued eating and chatting the honey began to slowly fall to the busy street below. Once again, the advisor called attention of the queen to the honey now fallen into the street and “is now attracting flies. Shall I call for a servant.” Just as before, the queen sluggishly replied, “A little drop of honey swarmed by a few flies is not my problem.” She added, “Someone will deal with it later.”

Soon, a lizard rushed out from underneath the palace wall and began to catch flies with its tongue. Then a cat sprang from a nearby bakery, ready for fun! The two animals batted each other back and forth like toys until suddenly, an angry butcher’s dog came charging at them and began biting the cat. The advisor now reminded the queen that the flies attracted a lizard, which then attracted the cat who is now being attacked by a dog. Yet again, the queen stretched and shook her head. She told her advisor to relax, “Those silly fighting animals are not my concern.”

When the baker saw a dog attacking his cat he ran out with his rolling pin and began hitting the dog. When the butcher heard his dog’s cry, he ran out with his broom and started hitting the baker. The butcher and baker began fighting each other The other shopkeepers nearby took sides and joined the fight. When the soldiers came along, some of them knew the butcher while others knew the baker. They too took sides, and the battle just grew and grew in the streets.

People began throwing rocks at the windows, tipping over carts, hurdling a torch through a window, a fire raged and spread to the palace. The queen and her advisor were escorted out of the palace into the street below. Later that day when the fire had died out, surveying what remained of their land she stopped in front of where her balcony once stood and noticed a small puddle on the ground. She realized that it was honey and told herself that she should have cleaned it from the start. Now, all her kingdom was lost because of a drop of honey. From that day on, the queen never said, “It’s not my problem!”

An effective leader should have the right mindset to act accordingly to whatever situation arises. When he does not, the suffering can be organization-wide like in the example of the queen in the story. Learning to listen and consider what others are suggesting is one of the greatest skills that all leaders should possess. Caring for the people working with you is essential to effectively lead them towards greatness. Seeking to resolve issues early will produce greater gain.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Have you ever thought about the fact that Christmas is the only Birthday we celebrate where we give everyone except the honoree a gift? It is true. When invited to a Birthday party everyone brings a gift to the person celebrating a birthday, right? Yet, at Christmas, the birthday of Christ our Lord and Savior, we give gifts to family, friends, co-workers, and others. Yet, how many actually take the time to consider what gift to give the honoree – Jesus Christ?

Most people contemplate, ponder, and even shop various stores and the internet wanting to find that perfect gift for the special people in our lives at Christmas. What would be revealed in your life if you spent as much time pondering over what gift would be the perfect gift from you to Jesus this Christmas?

There is really only one gift that I can think of and I shared it a couple weeks ago with the church I am currently serving. I asked each person to tie a brightly colored festive ribbon around their finger to remember not to leave Jesus behind this Christmas season (using Luke 2:41-46 as text). Then near the end of the message I asked everyone to look at the ribbon and contemplate giving themselves as a Christmas gift to Jesus every morning until Christmas.

Then, on Christmas morning, give yourself to Jesus as a birthday present. You never give a birthday gift expecting to get to use it as you wish. You give a birthday present for the receiver of the gift to use as he/she desires. Therefore, giving yourself to Jesus as a Birthday present, you are giving yourself to be used by Him for His desires and purpose, not your own.

What changes could be wrought if every person who calls themselves believers in Christ gave themselves wholeheartedly as a Birthday gift to Jesus this Christmas? What differences would we see in society in 2023? Will you give yourself to Jesus as a Birthday gift on December 25^th?

Have a joyous, wonderful, Merry Christmas with the Savior!

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

I recently read the story of Chad Rose, a Michigan resident who one year happened to have an extra Christmas tree that was used on his business’s parade float. Not needing the tree, yet not wanting it to go unused, he posted on Craigslist to give it away for free. For most of us a tree is an essential and integral part of the Christmas season. Yet there are people for whom a tree is an expense that would require using funds needed for daily essentials. After posting the ad, his inbox was immediately flooded with touching stories of why various families deserved to have the tree.

With each e-mail he read, it became clear how significant one small evergreen tree can be in providing the special holiday glow for a family. One email read, “Having a real Christmas tree would be such a great blessing this year [because] usually we draw a Christmas tree on a large poster and hang it in the corner.” Realizing that even $25 towards a tree was too much for some families to spare, Chad went out and bought 40 more trees to give away. He spent most of the next day going over his recently received emails for the first tree. It is said he was checking it twice, and not paying much attention to who’s been naughty or nice – just deserving.

The good holiday spirit in this story doesn’t stop with Chad Rose. Ann Posont of East Grand Rapids read Rose’s Ad and contacted him, not to get, but to give. She offered to donate ornaments and other trimming for the 40 trees he had purchased.

It has been said that the Christmas season tends to bring out the good in people. What if, like Chad Rose we can all look for even small ways to give, such as a lone, left-over Christmas tree. Perhaps like Rose’s case, God would then impress on us to give out of our abundance to bring the true joy of Christmas to others, strangers in our midst. You never know who will be touched and how far and wide your generosity might extend as you share and other people like Ann Posont catch the spirit (The Holy Spirit) and share the love of God as well.

Like Roses’ Christmas tree, what is in your possession? The Spirit of giving grows, first in us, then in others we touch.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Story adapted from Camille Styles: “8 inspiring stories that show true meaning of Christmas”