3 Keys to a Healthy Staff Culture

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No matter the size of your church’s staff, culture is king. While God can use any circumstance to fulfill His purpose, a healthy staff culture can make or break your ministry team. Whether it is in ministry or in a corporate role, people like working in healthy environments. To ensure your church’s staff culture is healthy, keep these 3 keys in mind: 

Have a Clear Vision and Purpose

In today’s world, this may seem like a no-brainer, but it cannot be overstated how important a clear vision and purpose is to maintaining a healthy staff culture. A clear vision and purpose helps every staff member know and understand their role on the team. And when your role is clearly defined it is easy to know what is expected of you. Unclear expectations can breed anxiety and dysfunction in any team, but having a clear vision and purpose will give your staff something to tie their work back to so they know how they are benefiting the whole.

A Transparent and Collaborative Environment

No one likes to be left out of the loop. People want to feel that they have a say in what goes on in their workplace and that is no different when it comes to ministry staff. Being transparent with your staff about challenges that lie ahead for the week and why certain choices have been or will be made brings your staff into that decision-making process. Even if you are not always giving your staff a chance to voice their opinion about how to handle a situation, being open about why certain decisions are made will help your staff to feel involved in the process. Of course, if you can have your staff be involved in those decision-making processes even more you will find that that greater transparency and collaboration will make your staff feel valued even more.

Have Meaningful Relationships

You do not have to be best friends with everyone on staff, but especially in ministry knowing that you can rely on and trust in your staff goes a long way to having a healthy culture. Having meaningful relationships goes deeper than just ensuring that everyone likes one another. Meaningful relationships are ones where you know you can talk with one another about challenges and find a sympathetic ear and suggestions for how to move forward. Meaningful relationships are ones where people are not looking to get ahead at the expense of a colleague, but rather seeking to ensure that when one person succeeds the whole team succeeds. Every staff is going to have their ups and downs but making sure you build meaningful relationships will allow for a healthier staff culture and keep everyone focused on the work of ministry instead of office politics.

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