5 Steps to Getting the Right Person in the Right Role

Have you ever had a nagging feeling that you forgot something? Many ministry leaders have this nagging feeling as they are preparing for their ministry programming for Fall Kick-Off. They may question: “Do I have the right people on my teams”? Or, “Do I have the right people in their most effective positions”?

If you use AssessME.org correctly, there should be no doubt that you have the right people, in the right positions, and in the right teams. But when I say “correctly”, what do I mean? Please let me illustrate how I build my teams using AssessME.org.

Where to Begin

I almost always begin my search for candidates using the Leadership Style Assessment. The first question I ask is, “Do I need a Builder, a Manager, or a Nurturer for this position”? A related consideration is whether I am building a new team or adding a team member to an already established team. For now, let’s focus on my process for adding a member to an established team.

The AssessME.org program advocates team-based leadership rather than point-person based leadership. There are several reasons for this position:

1. If a team member leaves, the ministry program can continue under the care of the remaining team leaders.
2. Ministry stability and sustainability are crucial considerations when seeking to expand ministry impact from year to year.
3. Team-based leadership empowers team members to serve out of their God-given strengths, rather than struggle to compensate for the leader’s inadequacies.

The most important reason is because the kind of team-based leadership AssessME.org advocates is patterned after the Triune Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, consider the graphic below…

A leadership team model based upon the Trinity.

I believe that the functional roles of the three persons of the Trinity should be reproduced within every leadership team. Does my team have a Team Leader…like Jesus? Does my team have an Administrator…like God the Father? And does my team have a Paraclete…someone like the Holy Spirit to care for the team members and the people the team ministers too? My ideal is to find this “Three Strand Chord” of leaders for every ministry program. So, if I need to add a person to an established team, then I consider what role is lacking. Using the Candidate Search Engine within AssessME.org, I simply sort my data base by the desired leadership category. To dig deeper, please read my book, Made for a Mission, which goes into far greater detail explaining the team building process.

Step 2: Sort by Personality

Once I have filtered my database for the desired leadership style, I consider the available flavors of personality represented within my defined candidate pool. Think of a personality type as one’s style of service. So, for example, you may have searched previously for a Team Leader. There are numerous flavors of Team Leaders. We need to find the Team Leader who has the best temperament for the specific needs of the ministry under consideration.

One church of about 400 people had the following personality-type results for their Team Leaders. Consider the eight “flavors” of how these different Team Leaders would function: (Note: The number following the title represents the number of people).

1. Guide (1) –

• Gifted counselor and mentor
  •   Highly people-focused
  •   Prefers one-on-one or small group relationships
  •   Typically works behind the scenes
  •   Has significant influence on the individuals he/she serves
  •   A common pastoral personality

2. Disseminator (5) –

• Values a mission
  •   Values serving with people to accomplish a mission
  •   Values a mission that benefits people
  •   Passionate, with strong relational and verbal skills
  •   Gifted at the startup phases of a project
  •   Attracts people to any new or hot activity

3. Designer (3) –

• Creates a blueprint of system or organizational design
  •   Works independently
  •   Turns chaos into structures to be implemented by others
  •   Has a small relational pool since relationships are viewed as “hard work”
  •   Can observe and address poor logic in a system design
  •   May require support in dealing with difficult interpersonal relationships

4. Protagonist (1) –

• Highly social
  •   All of life is “a stage”
  •   Needs to be in the center of any important social activity
  •   Has a flair for style and the arts
  •   Values cultural relevancy
  •   May “drop the ball” and not finish what was started

5. Super Leader (1) –

• A leader of leaders
  •   A primary influencer within the organization
  •   A strong strategic planner
  •   A change agent
  •   Significant ability to mobilize people to a vision or cause

6. Fraternal Leader (1) –

• Likes to invest in a group or team
  •   Values ideas as well as people
  •   Comfortable in the role of instructor or mentor
  •   Excellent problem solvers
  •   Ultimate goal is to always benefit people
  •   May become too emotionally involved in the lives of others

7. Minister (2) –

• A shepherding person that values protecting people
  •   Avoids risks if at all possible
  •   Leads small groups and individuals well
  •   Functions well only in small organizational structures
  •   Modest and humble individuals
  •   Values heritage and tradition

8. Creator (1) –

• The Thomas Edison of ministry systems
  •   Highly resistive to established ways of doing anything
  •   Is attracted to innovative ministries
  •   Possess strong verbal and multitasking abilities
  •   Gravitates to roles in technology, mechanics, or organizational development
  •   Make great systems analysts and consultants

Each of these Team Leaders brings a different set of skills and temperament into the ministry context. It is important that we position the right kind of Team Leader into our team example.

Step 3: Consider Spiritual Gifts

Spiritual Gifts are Holy Spirit enhanced abilities that are related to one’s God-given personality. There is a direct relationship between gifts and personality. So why do I wait to consider spiritual gifts until step 3? Because ALL spiritual gift assessments have fundamental assessment flaws. They are based upon a combination of interest and experience questions. Just because you might have an interest in a ministry area, does not mean you are truly gifted accordingly. And, just because you may have done something before, does not mean you did it well, or should have ever been serving in that capacity in the first place. Most spiritual gift assessments are only about 60% accurate. Therefore, we provide our personality and leadership style assessments to serve as a check-and-balance against our spiritual gift assessment results. You should expect a consistent pool of gift results among the people you have so far narrowed in your database search. Spiritual Gift results serve as a confirmation of ability and style for the role you are seeking to fill within your ministry team.

Step 4: Consider Necessary Skills

One of my last considerations, can from time-to-time, become the top search criteria. Do I need a doctor? Do I need an electrician? Do I need a Lawyer? What skills are desirable for our Team Leader to make the final cut?

Step 5: Consider Spiritual Maturity

In the spirit of “The last shall be first”, I consider the candidate’s NextSteps Assessment reports for both spiritual maturity and felt-need issues. My first consideration is what level of maturity in Christ is required for this position? Some churches require that all leadership candidates must have reached the “Deploy” phase of spiritual maturity. While others consider the Develop phase of spiritual growth sufficient for leadership positions. It is wise for a church or ministry department to define a policy so that a consistent requirement standard is maintained.

The second consideration is the candidate’s felt-need report. Felt-needs may be positive, such as a great desire to serve the Lord, or negative, such as being wounded by a recent divorce. I tend to set aside all candidates that have a current negative felt-need status. In most cases, I believe it is time for them to heal and grow through their present challenges. However, in some cases, it may be of great benefit to a person experiencing a negative felt-need, to serve other people so that their focus is placed on the things of Christ, rather than upon themselves. These cases require spiritual and emotional discernment. However, in general, I prefer to recruit leaders who demonstrate a consistent positive felt-need status.

Conclusion

While at first read, using these five steps for adding a member to a team may seem complicated. However, with a little practice, these steps will soon become a part of your everyday experience. And in doing so, you will find that your leadership teams will be more effective, and your team members will experience greater satisfaction as they serve their Lord and His people. My prayer is that your ministry will experience a successful Fall Kick-Off, and I hope AssessME.org will be a contributing partner to your success.