Not only in sports, teams have become commonplace in the business world, private sector and in the spiritual community. While the team concept has been around for ages, it has certainly increased in the past few decades. In the past decade and a half, I cannot remember how many times pastors have stated to me, “We’ve moved from committees to teams.” I actually believe this is a good move, if the move is truly to a team concept. Unfortunately, in many churches, the “teams” still serve as committees only with a new moniker.

A team is a small group of people serving with a specific purpose and working in coordination to accomplish stated tasks and goals. You do not go to a football stadium and expect to see some players using an American football, others a European football, and still others swinging a golf club or tennis racket. There would not be much of a team in that atmosphere.

Let’s briefly look at four characteristics of highly effective teams.

1. The purpose of a team is clear to everyone on the team and those looking in from outside the team. If a team is put together to seek and clarify the future vision for the organization, then their tasks should be driven by the aspects of seeking said vision. If on the other hand a team is put together to “rubber stamp” the leader’s desire, then a better name for the team would be “The Yes man and woman team” (sarcasm).

Whatever the purpose of a team is it should be succinctly stated from the very beginning and clear to all inside the team and those outside looking in.

2. Goals and expectations should be set at the implementation of the team. The first meeting of any team should be orientation of the purpose (see #1) and establishing goals and expectations. Without these being set at the start, will lead the team to floundering, chaos and a breakdown of the team’s drive.
3. Open, continual communication between team members is a must. While teams may not meet together in person, regular, open communication channels should be set during the expectations meeting and a follow through pattern established at the start. With today’s multi-instant communication methods continual or regular communication between team members is 100 times better than getting together for regular scheduled meetings. And in many cases, it’s all in writing!
4. Celebrating team achievements is more crucial to effective teams than most people would give credit. When your team, a portion of your team, or an individual on your team reaches a goal or achievement or brings to the team a key in effectively moving forward, that individual, portion and entire team should be recognized within the larger organization. You want people at all levels to know achievements are recognized and celebrated within your organization.

No matter what field you are in, your organizations effective forward movement depends on proper establishing and empowerment of teams within the organization. One of the most important obligations you have as a leader (organization or team) is to ensure your teams are established with a clear purpose, with properly aligned goals and objectives, a communication process, and a celebratory mindset.

What should your first step be in realizing effective team strategies within 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.

As a child one of my earliest Christmas shopping memories was a particular shopping trip with my Dad & brothers. Our goal was to each pick out a gift for Mom. Dad would purchase the gifts, take them home, wrap them, and place them under the tree until Christmas morning.

As we walked through the perfume section of the store, I saw what I thought looked like a stage coach with perfume bottles in it. I grew up in an era where westerns were king and every boy wanted to be a cowboy. Intrigued by the “stagecoach”, I spoke up and told Dad that’s what I wanted for Mom.

To my surprise, Dad reached up and picked only one piece of the stage coach. Instead of a stage coach, what I had chosen looked more like a canoe with a bottle of perfume. My disappointment quickly faded as Dad handed it to me to place in the shopping cart. I was thrilled, looking at this small boat-like canister white and dazzling with glitter. I was extremely excited to buying (with Dad’s money) a gift so shiny and sparkling for my Mother.

In fact, as soon as I got back to my Mother, with extreme excitement in my voice I said, “Mom, let me tell you what I got you.” Dad interrupted me right away to explain that it would not be a surprise Christmas morning if I told Mom what I bought her. From that moment until Christmas morning, I could hardly contain myself. I so wanted to let it out. I was ready to burst with excited emotion, desiring to tell my Mother of this special gift.

Those are great memories of childhood Christmases. As I reflect on memories like this one, I also think of the Christ of Christmas. The reason we celebrate Christmas. If an inexpensive, plastic, canoe shaped perfume container could evoke that much excitement and exuberance, how much more deserving is the one who came to earth as a child to offer me a home in heaven? Is my excitement for Him paled in comparison to the excitement I displayed as a child over this one small gift?

Where is your excitement this Christmas season? Was it displayed at the opening of presents? The sharing of fond memories with family? How much excitement will be displayed through your words and actions this Christmas season and into the New Year for the one who provides so much in your life, including an opportunity to spend eternity in a place called heaven?

Enjoy this Christmas season recalling the Christ of Christmas and all He has brought you through.

• This is an updated post from a Christmas past.

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.

The world offers many shiny, glittering, eye-catching “gifts” that look so good and enticing. Too often, when we accept what the world offers and tear away the pretty wrappings, our excited expectations are replaced by feelings of emptiness and sometimes even guilt. All these empty emphases will not bring the joy or the peace of the season, or good will toward others. Joy, peace and good will only come from placing our eyes on the greatest gift of all time –Jesus!

Presents are like that – material things cannot satisfy the longing in our heart for something spiritual, for purpose in life, for focus, or contentment in life.

Jesus – on the other hand, unlike material gifts, is the greatest gift you could give to someone else. His gift of life is not empty- not hollow, but it is exhilarating –it is life giving. It won’t break, rot, rust, or wear out. It will never lose its power. It is a gift that will last for eternity.

Actually, you cannot give it. The only thing you can do is offer this greatest gift of all. Some people have bought into the idea that all I have to do is live my life and that will be enough.

But that is not what God’s Word tells us. Trying to live a good life and go to church is not enough. When Christ is truly Lord and Savior of a person’s life, he/she will want to share and live doing the things that God desires – things that may otherwise seem uncomfortable.

It is ours to be obedient and share what God has given us – the greatest gift of all, Jesus. Let’s look at three important principles of any gift from the recipient’s perspective.

First, you must accept the gift. It is not your gift if you do not accept it. Once you accept a gift you must unwrap and open it, correct? If you do not open it, you have not fully accepted the gift. Perhaps you have accepted the offer, but not the gift. True acceptance comes only after you unwrap the gift.

Jesus is the greatest gift of all. What have you done to unwrap God’s greatest gift to you?

Second, you must believe in the gift. When you unwrap the gift you want to believe it is what it says. If it is a sweater, you want to believe it will keep you warm. Unfortunately, many people never do anything with this greatest gift of all. Therefore, we must ask, have I truly accepted God’s greatest gift, Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior? How is He Lord and Savior of my life?

The third step is to put the gift to proper use and enjoy the benefits of the gift. When anyone gives you a gift, you put it to use. You wear a sweater so everyone can see it. You not only wear it. You make sure all your friends see it and you share with others of the one who gave you the gift.

Accepting God’s free and greatest gift is truly greater than any gift you will receive this Christmas. Do you wear it like a diamond ring? Do you tell everyone you meet about it, praising the one who gave it to you – the God of all creation? Let’s put into practice this greatest gift God has offered to each one.

Merry Christmas!

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 looked for years attempting to discover a job where you went in, had your orientation training, went to work and never had any further training. Not looking for myself, I was naive enough to believe there had to be some job, somewhere, in some field with these qualities. I was seeking help from people from all aspects of the corporate world and from volunteer organizations. There is not one – anywhere. With every job there are update trainings for safety, new paperwork, updated software, improved techniques, new products, and more. Continued training is part of every job.

Oddly enough, it is in the church where I find the strongest resistance to training. I have even heard people say things as, “I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I don’t need more training.” This type attitude saddens me and here’s why. All jobs in the corporate world deal with the temporal – temporary things of this life. In the church, we deal with the eternal. How much greater is our need for ongoing, updated training?

When your employees or volunteers attend training what is the follow up process. Both in the corporate world and the volunteer/church sectors every organization should build in some type of follow up for training. This is a great place for coaching leadership, whether hiring an outside coach or training all persons in supervisory positions in coaching leadership skills. Unfortunately, in many organizations the only follow up is found in one question, “How was it?” That’s it. Nothing else is seldom said to insure there is some progress being made in regard to information learned at the training.

Even leaders, CEOs, pastors and others should have some structure in place to debrief the material covered and a structured follow up configuration for the individual and the organization. If we are attending or sending personnel to training events without structured follow up to put the gained knowledge and resources into practice to move either the individual or organization forward, are we not wasting resources. After all, training should not be to add another notch in our attendance belt or to check one more conference off our list. Every training event attended should benefit the individual or organization for years ahead.

Training should enhance skillset development, leadership ability, organizational processes, communication, and any number of other forward moving attributes. If our learning is not improving our doing, then we must question whether our time, finances, and other resources are being used fruitfully.

Coaching to support learning is highly successful when implemented immediately following a training event and carried out over an appropriate period of months. In other words, the greatest benefits to the individual and organization is when follow up coaching is implemented for the next weeks and months. Each coaching session advancing the individual and organization forward.

With each coaching session the individuals of the organization more consistently apply the new material/approaches in their work and life. Coaching sessions should not be too closely scheduled nor should there be too much lag time between sessions. To begin follow up coaching, every two weeks should be adequate in most scenarios. Depending on the advancement these could later be moved to monthly until the new processes, new material is absorbed into the fabric of operations. Always end a coaching session with an action step to be implemented by the coachee(s) before the next scheduled session.

What is your first step to building a training follow up structure in your life and any organizations you are involved with?

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.

Pastor Shawn returned from a training conference convinced he had found what the church he pastored  needed to pull out of the ten year slump they were experiencing. He called a meeting with his leadership team for Sunday afternoon. Shawn entered the meeting charged up and excited about the new possibilities. His excitement dropped when he walked into the room to find less than half of the church leadership team present. “How could they not show up for such an all-important meeting,” he thought.

Not wanting his excited spirit to be totally crushed, he jumped right into his subject matter, “I’m so excited to tell you what I learned at the conference I attended this past week… I believe God showed me what we need to make the needed return in our church.” Within a couple of sentences, it was obvious. The face of every person in the room shared the same discontented expression as if to say, “Not again. We’ve been here before – over and over.”

The truth was they had been “here” before, every time Pastor Shawn returned from a conference. Shawn had attended a conference every four to six months, each time convinced he had the key to bringing new people in. Following each conference, he worked with his leadership team to begin developing a new structure for the members in the church to “change” their approach. The issue was each time Shawn returned from a conference he wanted to stop what they had been working on and begin developing some new plan. Not one new structure had been implemented before Pastor Shawn returned and stopped all progress to develop the latest, greatest he had heard about in his latest conference.

Within weeks of this latest endeavor, Pastor Shawn found himself out of the pastorate. Flexibility is one thing, but an unstable, unfocused mind is not a good leadership trait.

A lot of good can come out of conferences and other training events. I lead many myself, desiring to lead individuals, churches, and organizations to better fulfill God’s purpose for life. Yet, we all must use discernment about what is right for our church. And that which is right is that which God has gifted and impassioned the people of any given church to carry out. People will serve out of their passion and giftedness, not out of pie in the sky dreams that we’ve learned about at a conference.

One of my big principles to live by and teach is, “Don’t copy models, capture principles.” Instead of trying to copy what someone else is doing, find out what passions and giftings God has instilled in the members of your church. Every true born-again believer has been gifted and impassioned to serve God in particular areas. There are numerous surveys and assessments available to assist you in leading your people in this discovery. The second step then is to help people connect passion to ministry – serving God.

So impassioned am I about this that I will speak in an advisory role, to any pastor or church leadership team – at no cost to you – in this discovery and implementation process. Simply contact me or your denominational leaders for assistance. Begin today in your life and leading others in unearthing God’s purpose and desires for living the abundant life. What steps will take in this arena to becoming focused and stable for 2022?

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.

Trust is a key component to any relationship, church, business, or organization. Therefore, it should be understood that a leader’s ability to build trust is key to any organization. People will not stay at an organization where trust is absent or lacking. Fifty-nine percent of respondents to one study stated they had left at least one organization due to trust issues. Those negative numbers are growing.

A more recent study showed only seven percent of respondents trust their supervisors/organizations were looking out for the individual’s best interest. This could be one’s perspective of individual desires or it could be leaders placing organizations goals above employee safety, health, and welfare. Whatever the reason, a lack of trust is growing in volunteer as well as employment organizations.

One of the major reasons for lack of trust is always communication. Lack of healthy communication will always breed distrust. Where there is a lack of trust there will also be discontentment, low morale as well as high turnover. Untrustworthy leaders always rob an organization (church, business, team) of its best people.

You, like me, have likely served in an organization where people were put in positions of leadership without the needed skills to effectively lead a team to produce desired results. Usually when this happens and morale begins to wane, levels of bureaucracy are initiated. With each new level of bureaucracy more people exit the organization. Knowledge can be passed on, trust can be built, but without the development of skills on the part of leadership, the first two will fall flat for the organization.

What does trust building (and maintaining) require? As stated above, open honest communication is high on the list. Consistency in organizational structure and operations is perhaps a close second. Are operational procedures carried out equally across all levels of employment?

The story is told of IBM’s CEO walking from one building to another with a group of his executives being denied entrance because he did not have his security name badge. All the other executives had theirs, but the security person at the gate refused to let the unbadged man in. The executives immediately came to his defense, even sharing with the security guard, “He’s the CEO, he can fire you on the spot.”

It was the CEO that stopped their defense saying, “No, he’s right. That is the policy.” The entire arty of executives waited outside the gate until someone retrieved the CEO’s name badge from his office. The CEO commended the Security officer for doing his job well. This is building trust throughout all levels of an organization.

Trust is the foundation of all nourishing and wholesome relationships. At home, work and every team on which you serve, how well are you doing at building healthy trust within your circles of influence?

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 have been many men and women in my life that have mentored, inspired, encouraged, and guided me on the right track, and I am grateful to God for each one. Some I have written about as Irvin Schanie and Dick White along with Jerry Douglas, and others in my teen years. Throughout my adult life in ministry as Terry Herald, Barbara Wooden and her husband Gary, Jerry Atkins, and so many others who have poured into me over the years. And there have been many others, peers who have been used by God to sharpen me as iron sharpens iron. I could not begin to name all those God has used – the ones that I know of. I am grateful to God for each one.

As I sat pondering these men and women today, my thoughts turned to who is thankful for me this holiday season? Not in a prideful way, but whose life has God placed me in with the intention that I would pour into those men and women as I have been poured into. Have I been faithful in mentoring, inspiring, and encouraging others as God desires?

I truly believe and try to live with the concept that our greatest endeavor in life should be to do for others, to encourage and to pour into people all around us in all walks of life. I know my greatest satisfaction comes in Christ. Beyond that I know my greatest satisfaction comes in serving, pouring into other people. I often share that I write and accept speaking engagements because, “Whatever God has given me, He has given me not to hoard, but to give away.”

For those of you who after reading that last statement, are thinking to write and ask for money I’ll say as the Apostle Peter said to the lame beggar in Acts 3:6, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you:”

God has blessed each one of us with gifts, experiences, talents, abilities, and passions that he intends for us to pass on to others. We are not to force our opinions or “our way” of doing things on others. We are to generously and as a father or mother lovingly guides their children, we are to do for others and pour into them as each person needs.

We are to pour into others without expecting anything in return. This is where true satisfaction comes into our life. This is where you will find and fulfill your God-designed purpose. If you are not daily pouring into someone else without any intent of self-gain, you are missing the mark God has created you for.

This Thanksgiving season as I reflect on who God has placed in my life over the years since childhood, I am grateful for each one – even the ones He used that I did not even know about. Some of you reading this are included in that category. Likewise, not for my sake but for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, I pray that somewhere around the globe there are others who are grateful for God placing me in their lives. Who might be thanking God this week for the lessons He poured into their life through you?

Will you commit today to being intentional about pouring into others without expecting anything in return?

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 can’t say that I’ve ever met anyone who would leave on vacation without some planning. Do you know of anyone who would load the car, jump in and take off driving without some sense of where they wanted to go? Of course not. There has to be some planning before heading out. Even without a clear destination, the direction you’re heading will determine the type of clothing you pack. Likewise, you normally have some type of roadmap, be it paper or electronic, something to assist you in moving forward in the correct direction.

Have you ever read of a successful business that never had a business plan – a roadmap of where they were taking the business? No, success is like a vacation, a process and requires planning and preparation. In business as in a vacation, there has to be some planning before heading out. You need a roadmap with your beginning point and your intended destination.

Is it possible many churches today have disregarded their roadmap? Churches wandering through the course of life’s streets without understanding their current reality and without a plan to reach their destination are indeed wandering as lost strangers in an unknown city without any roadmap.

We must admit many churches are likely using a roadmap of memories. Have you ever revisited a place you first visited as a child, only to find everything has changed? You make a left turn because you remember the good times at a certain location, only to find nothing resembles your memory. Streets are not the same. Buildings are completely different. Nothing is as you remember it. Yet, you keep driving, looking for something that looks familiar.

This is truly what is happening in many churches today. As Lyle Schaller once wrote, “Congregations that are simply drifting in a goalless manner into the future do not find it useful to identify either their destination nor their beginning point called contemporary reality.”

Before you can head toward your destination, you must first understand your current reality. Where are you truly at right now? It is easy to point out the things as we envision them. However, like the traveler going back to a childhood scene, your current reality may not be as clear as you recall it. In Reaching the Summit, the book and the process, churches are asked to go through A Vigorous Face to Face Summit with Reality. This is a look at the true reality of the church’s present condition in connection with the Great Commission and other New Testament scriptures.

Every evangelical New Testament church should understand her destination is to fulfill the Great Commission. With that end in mind, we must strive to gain an understanding of our true current reality. After wrestling with gaining God’s perspective on our true current reality, a church can now begin mapping out a course of action – the trip you will be taking in fulfilling the Great Commission according to God’s plan. Each person connected to a church has a role to play and every person has an active part of God’s plan for his/her church.

What does your church’s roadmap look like? Are you active in helping your church reach its God-given destination? After reading this article, what should your prayer include?

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.

What is the habit loop? A habit consists of three parts; a cue, a routine action, and a reward. According to Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit, the cue is a trigger that tells the brain to go into automatic mode following a learned routine. The routine is a physical, mental, or emotional behavior that follows the cue. The reward is a recurring positive stimulus that tells the brain this routine is good and to be remembered, like eating a doughnut. The next time the cue is introduced, you will follow the same routine desiring a similar reward.

In the first decade and a half of the 20^th century good dental hygiene in America was almost non-existent. It is said the greatest detriment of our military in World War I was not the enemy but tooth decay and oral infections. In fact, the federal government declared the deficient state of dental hygiene to be a national security risk.

This began to change when a persistent inventor & salesman convinced Claude Hopkins to invest his outstanding marketing skills behind a product called pepsodent, a paste for brushing teeth for better dental hygiene. Hopkins had been the mastermind behind Quaker Oats and other now famous products such as Goodyear.

Hopkins was perhaps genius at targeting the habit loop of Americans by finding a trigger or cue then introducing them to a new or different routine – using his product and delivering a positive reward. This reward would instruct the brain that this routine was something needed regularly. “Quaker Oatmeal would give 24 hours of energy – if you take a bowl every morning.” People ate it, they felt better, so this became a habit every morning. Sales for Quaker Oats skyrocketed.

His ads for pepsodent asked you to run your tongue across your teeth. “Feel that film? Pepsodent will clean that film and give you whiter teeth.” Other toothpaste manufacturers had tried many tactics, to no avail. What made the difference? Pepsodent ingredients included a citric acid and other ingredients that left a tingling sensation in the mouth.

This sensation, still to this day, represents in our minds a fresh clean mouth and good dental hygiene. The difference was Hopkins keyed a trigger, rubbing the tongue along the teeth, and a reward at the end of the suggested routine. Other toothpastes left no reward. In less than ten years Americans rose from less than 7% brushing their teeth daily to over 65%. Pepsodent became the number one selling toothpaste for nearly forty years. That’s changing the habit loop. Now, all toothpastes leave a similar tingling taste.

If you want a more effective life or organization, change the habit loop. Most every action we do daily is based on habit. You do not think of your morning routine; you just do it. You do not look at a map to go to the grocery store, you get in your car and drive. Your day follows a regimen of habits. Why is it when you pass by a familiar bowl of candy that you side step and indulge in a piece or two? It is the habit loop.

Understanding how habits work helps you control certain areas of your life and can assist leaders in affecting the habit loops of their organization. (By the way, I know you brushed your tongue along your upper front teeth as you read that statement above)

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.

This article was first posted April 2019.

The team was at a standstill. Ted and Jo Ellen, two members of the team were ready to charge ahead with a decision that the other three members were not ready to make. Fred and Jonathon held a totally opposite position on the decision to be made. Sam, the remaining member just wasn’t sure. Sam could see both points of view, but was cautiously leery of leading the organization down either path.

Have you ever been in a situation like this? Perhaps your organization is at a pivotal point in its life. One decision would be risky and could turn out to be very costly to the organization, and not only financially. It could bring the organization to its knees, to the breaking point. The other option appears to have no risks. No changes required. It leads the organization down a seemingly safe, secure path. The major downside to this decision would be almost certain no growth, a status quo path which could lead to the organization’s demise.

These situations can be overwhelmingly difficult. Yet, there are three questions that can be used in any decision making circumstance, that if answered genuinely, will lead you to the right decision for you (or your organization) at the specific time needed. These same three questions can be used in your personal life, on a particular team you serve, or an entire large corporation or church of any size.

These three Questions that can be used in any decision making circumstance when asked in this order are;

1. If we (I) proceed with this decision, what is the absolute best outcome we can expect?
2. If we (I) proceed with his decision, what is the absolute worst outcome that could happen?
3. Are we (Am I) willing to (can we afford to) live with the outcome of number 2?

Question one asks for the absolute best outcome. The absolute best: We see phenomenal growth far exceeding our expectations. That is truly the best outcome for any organization.

Question two asks the antithesis of the first question. If we make this decision what is the absolute worst outcome? We go bankrupt and close the doors on the organization. (Not all decisions will bankrupt an organization, this is used here for demonstration purposes only)

Another analogy would be going on a diet. The best outcome, I lose weight, feel better and avoid certain diseases later in life. The worst outcome, continue to feel worn out, overweight, and sluggish.

Once these two questions are genuinely answered we must ask ourselves (whether it is a personal decision or a team/organizational decision) the third question. First, realize there is no need to ask if we can live with the results of the first question, because it is the absolute best outcome. Certainly, we can live with the best outcome.

Therefore, question number three is asked in regard to our answer to question two. Can we afford to and are we willing to live with the results to question number two? Are we willing to risk bankrupting the organization? Believe it or not there are times when the answer to this would be “Yes!”

Many individuals, churches, and other business organizations are fearful of asking question number three. Instead, they retreat and try to find another way out of this decision-making process. Usually to the demise of any real forward movement.

What decision needs to be made in your life (organization)? Are you willing to put these three to the test?

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.