Effectiveness and Excellence

 

The concept of team effectiveness is a term for analyzing both strategically and practically how well a team is doing. Within ministries especially, not all results can be accurately measured thus leaving no gauge for determining the effectiveness of a team. The components necessary for evaluating a team’s effectiveness aside from goal achievement includes looking at collaboration, communication, member well-being and performance balance, and growth and development. All of these things are impacted by team leadership, conflict resolution, trust, and clear communication, roles, and goals which should also be assessed. Let’s look at two sides of applying team effectiveness.

First, consider a team that is made up of highly productive individuals. It may be easy to see results very quickly and think the dream team has arrived based on goals being surpassed and deadlines shattered. I have been a part of or witness multiple scenarios like this but devastatingly, they didn’t last; sooner or later, everything fell apart. In one such circumstance, the reasons why were flat out stupid but it came down to failure to acknowledge member well-being and assumptions were made that were eventually costly. Temporary success is possible and sometimes it can even look really good. But, ensuring team effectiveness includes understanding and analyzing every contributing factor. If you miss how members work together though and whether they are thriving as individuals, there could be drastic consequences.

On the other hand, as an avid sports fan, I can think of many teams that were loaded, expected to be major contenders, but never reached the hype. In baseball in recent years, this has included teams like the Yankees, Angels, Giants, Padres, Mets, and even the Phillies and Dodgers at times. Two great examples of this include Joe Maddon and the Angels and Gabe Kapler with the Giants. Both of these coaches were big time hires and were expected to lead great turn arounds with their respective teams. Both of them, especially Maddon, had tremendous weapons on their roster and success wasn’t really a question, it was more about how successful they would be. But both were fired without really achieving anything, and after the fact, it was learned that both had begun to lose the trust of the players in their leadership. It just goes to show, you can have all the “right” or most skilled people but still fall short of achieving goals without proper leadership. Being a leader involves both intentionality and assertiveness to inspire others while also having the humility and flexibility to be guided by the Spirit.

For most of my life, the word excellence has inspired a high amount of aspiration and initiative to do my best and be the best at what I do. This has come though with costs due to a lack of understanding. On one hand, my striving for excellence led me to a mindset where I had to be good at everything. Because of this, I generally feel insecure around people who are really good at things where I’m not. I also have become jealous at times of others, including some of my brothers, who seemingly turn to gold whenever they try something new. I have pushed myself to do things that I don’t even enjoy, just so I can fit in with others and appear to be good at it. Now, there are very few things I’m excellent at and a lot of things I’m okay at. The other cost was at a much deeper level, buying into the mindset that my value and worth to others is directly tied to what I do. If I’m not performing or providing some benefit to others, they would rather do without me. This has led to relational distrust, insecurity, and many more complex and deeper issues. 

But, in recent months, there has been a realization and an ongoing acceptance of the reality that I’ve missed the point of what excellence really is. Certainly, my life is a work in progress in finding my worth and value through the lens of how God sees me and this is essential. Beyond this though, there is a level to which we should be striving for being the best and accomplishing excellent things. The labyrinth that I built for myself was based on the belief that this was up to me and the definition of excellence was how I defined it. The truth is that we will never achieve excellence, or what we think excellence is, based on our abilities or efforts. Rather, it is through the transformational work of the Spirit that we can achieve anything and success is based on God’s definition, not ours. Our motivation has to be based upon bringing glory to the Lord and to obediently live by the Spirit. If this understanding infiltrates the teams we lead, how much of an impact might be had on both productivity and team culture? Excellence is really achieved when our every action and word is executed for the glory of God. If it’s anything else, we’ve missed the point. There is something freeing about realizing that we don’t have to be the best at everything, only the opportunities He places in front of us. And we will be excellent in those things if we are allowing the Spirit to work through us. He does all the work and deserves all the credit; He just chooses to let us be a part of what He is already doing. Now that, is truly excellent.