Steve’s Sayings

  • Pick and choose your battles (my mom said that first)
    • The single best piece of advice I’ve ever received (thanks, Mom). Not everything is worth fighting over. Decide ahead of time where you’ll put your energy, time, and knowledge. Decide what is most important and focus on that. Everything else is fluff and not worth your resources.
  • Simple is best
    • Complicated things are complicated and that makes life even more complicated than it is or needs to be. Keep it simple
  • Provide the right tools for your staff
    • If you don’t give them the tools, shame on you, and you can’t hold the staff accountable for your failures to set them up for success
    • If you do give them the tools and they don’t do what you’ve asked them to do, you need to have a serious personnel conversation with them
  • Training is one of the best tools for church staff
    • Provide constant training – it is not a “one and done.” Invest in your staff and then expect them to perform to the level they’ve been trained.
  • Every staff member needs a mentor/coach
    • No one is above needing a coach/mentor/accountability partner. It may be a group or an individual, but everyone (including pastors and CEOs) need an advisor/counselor.
  • Shadow a colleague once a year
    • Conferences are good and useful, but about once a year (at most every other year), skip the conference and find an organization that is already at where you want to go and then go shadow your counterpart there. Learning from them will help you avoid their mistakes and get you there faster than if you do it all by yourself.
  • Attack the problem, never the person
    • When you attack a problem, you find solutions; when you attack a person, everyone gets defensive and solutions take a back seat. Find solutions, not scapegoats.
  • God is inclusive, never exclusive
    • Non-Christians criticize the church for not following John 3:16: “because God loved the WHOLE world…” and Christians need to remember God never excludes anyone, even people who are not like us.
  • Financial numbers are best understood if you know their context
    • To fully understand why money is spent like it is, you need to really understand the whole organization. If you don’t want to take the time to delve in, then you only need a financial executive summary.
  • Do strategic things that eliminate future problems
    • Take the time to analyze why you have lots of little problems and then find a solution that resolves the root issue. It will take time, but it will save you time in the long run.
  • A financial crisis is a terrible thing to waste
    • A financial crisis is an opportunity to make hard decisions – and blame the financial crisis.
  • This is a personnel matter, not a management issue
    • Many times there is an issue that involves personnel but we often fail to address the people and their (in)action. You don’t always have to find a management solution, sometimes the solution is new personnel.
  • Never hire a ministry (Andy Stanley said that first)
    • Churches want to help people. That’s great. But NEVER put them on your payroll – you will become an enabler and never get them off. Give the person loads of benevolence, but not a paycheck. AND, just think what hiring a ministry does to the hardworking staff you have – what happens to their morale?
  • Develop people – gently push them farther than they think they can go and support them along the road
    • This goes along with coaching – we can do more than we think we can, but most of us need someone cheering and encouraging us down the road. Marathon runners love cheering sections; life is a marathon – get a cheering section AND be someone else’s cheering section.
  • My job as a manager is like a soccer coach:
    • give everyone a specific job
    • et them to play well together
    • stay inside the boundaries, and
    • keep everyone focused on the goal
  • Row together for the same horizon
    • A leader must set the goal (horizon) and then keep everyone aiming for that goal. If your rowing is not coordinated, you’re just going around in circles.
  • Outsource decisions to others as much as you can 
    • it frees you up and empowers them
    • if they do well in small decisions, give them bigger ones next time
  • The school of hard knocks is worth its tuition
    • The trick is to go through each class only one time
  • Use people but don’t abuse them
    • People are “tools” (that’s poor analogy but stay with me) and all tools should be used properly; abused tools will break or not work well causing you frustration when the problem is of your own making
  • Never embarrass anyone in public (Gary Fenton said that first)
    • ALWAYS talk to someone in private; there is no upside to public embarrassment
  • Everyone’s favorite subject is themselves
    • If you can get someone to talk about themselves, you’ll never lack for small talk at a dinner party
  • If nothing unites you then everything will divide you
    • Every church and every organization should have at least one clear focal point that EVERYONE can say, “Our mission is…”
  • Have conversations not confrontations
    • Conversations are dialogues; confrontations are usually one-way streets. Confrontations often lead to tense situations. Conversations usually lead to solutions.
  • Set people up for success
    • You will always be a better manager and leader if you help someone be better than they are now. Word will get around the office or organization and you will be seen as a leader because of the worth you place in people.
  • Excellence is the goal, not perfection
    • Some people are perfectionists; some seek excellence – don’t confuse those concepts. Excellence wants the best possible outcome using the currently available resources and it is willing to “make do” for now till something better comes along. Excellence, not perfection, must be the goal for all leaders.
  • Quality + Service + Cost = Value (adapted from Ray Kroc)
    • QSCV was the mantra of the founder of McDonald’s. I added some math symbols: value is the destination and that is achieved through excellent quality, outstanding service, and reasonable pricing. I’m always willing to pay more if the Q and S will be very good so that I get the best value.
  • Buy quality or you’ll buy twice
    • My dad said “we’re too poor to buy twice” – if you buy “cheap” it’ll break and you’ll end up buying it again. Be a wise money manager.
  •  Hire attitude first, then aptitude
    • You can always train people but only if they have the right attitude. The wrong attitude will infest your workplace and cost you dearly. The right attitude is invaluable.
  • One of leaderships greatest challenges is determining whether people are chasing you or following you
    • And sometimes people are doing both at the same time; sometimes even the same person is doing both.
    • Listen to the people who are chasing you; sometimes their criticism is helpful
    • The people who are following you need to be put to work as volunteers
    • Sometimes people will switch camps – that’s okay, they’ll switch back at some point or leave
  • Get & stay organized: your mind, your time, and your stuff. It will save you time and headaches later.
    • I’m an organization nut – I can usually find just about anything because everything has its place (just one place).
    • Organizing your time, your mind, and your stuff is short-term pain and long-term gain.
  • It’s not about how they act but how you re-act to situations. That shows your character.
    • You never control what others are going to do or say – you have total control over what you do and say in that situation. Be a person of character and not “a character.”
  • What is the wise thing to do?
    • This is from “The Best Question Ever” by Andy Stanley. This question will ensure you always do what is best IF you answer it truthfully.