There is an excellent post on the “Fast Company” expert blog today. It deals with Leadership and what people desire in their leaders. Culling it down to its essentials, the post’s main point asks if we are inspiring our people to do their best or merely motivating them to perform at a higher level. What’s the difference? You might ask. Well, according to this article and my own experience, motivating people can prove to be an expensive task both financially and, in the case of church work, spiritually. This article is aimed at business types but as a former secular business leader and now pastor, I look for the similarities that can be put to use in our churches. Here are a few quotes from the post and my thoughts follow:
In speaking of commonalities between the 20 somethings and 60 somethings (in age) here’s a key quote:
There were quite a few commonalities between the 20 year olds and the
60 year olds, one of which was they wanted to be respected. The younger
age group wanted to be respected even though they were the new up and
comings and the older, pre-retirement aged group wanted respect because
of their experience and wealth and depth of knowledge and weren’t
quite ready to be put out to pasture just yet.
…and really, who wants to feel useless? When I was a newly married 21 year old man selling advertising for a local radio station, I would easily get upset when business owners would tell me I was too young for my profession. I wanted to be respected for my maturity (even though I had a lot of it to do!) at that point and judged based on the product I was selling.
In any event, are we as church leaders respecting both age groups? As a church planter, I had to come to grips with the fact that I wouldn’t have a bunch of “leader” types in my church to begin with. I would have to grow them. I had a lot of great people but many were not ready to be leaders. If you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing as a church planter, reaching the lost for Christ, you’re naturally going to attract new people with no church background and no knowledge of the expectation of them as church ministry partners! A few will grow like wildflowers and put their natural leadership skills to work and others will have to be cultivated. In either case, you have to spend some quality time with them. If you’re blessed with seniors in your church, for heaven’s sake, find a way to put them to work! I know many will say they don’t have the time or energy but ask! You may be surprised what a great resource you have in older people who have the time, skills, and wisdom to do great things for your church!
Another great quote, going to back to my original point about inspiration versus motivation:
Is leadership trying to motivate staff or inspire them to do their best
all the time? There is a huge difference between motivating and
inspiring. The first comes from an external influence such as perhaps a
raise, a bonus or award or even to meet stiff deadlines. Motivating is
expensive energy. Ultimately the cost could very well be exhaustion and
burnout. Inspiring one to be their best, do their best and recognize
and speak to their and each other’s best brings a whole new level
of energy to an organization.
As spiritual leaders, inspiration should be our main goal in this equation. In the early days of our church plant, I tried to motivate my volunteers by bringing breakfast to our meetings and/or setup for church. I gave them Starbucks cards all the time to purchase coffee on their way in as a “thank you”. I provided them large meals at the end of the year to celebrate our work. All of these are good and fine but they DO NOT substitute for inspiration. I missed this point in the past but no longer.
Inspiration, by its very nature, appeals to the inner person. Motivation will only take you so far but inspiring someone to give of themselves to the cause requires a leader to invest a significant amount of time in the vision of the organization and sharing that vision with others. Even more important is giving that vision away and allowing others to take ownership of the dream. For some of us, that’s the difficult part. We talk a good game but ultimately, we keep control over our dream because it’s special. But if we really want people to burst out of their shells to a more explosive, God-serving life, we HAVE to let the dream go to others. It’s not as though we really lose it but allowing others to play a part, albeit a different part, will give the dream wings and allow it to flourish. It’s what we want as pastors working with people right? We have to include them, and allow them to make mistakes along with way, if we want to see the dream achieved.
So…do you motivate or inspire? Choose carefully!
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