Effective Church Communications

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and Biblical Inspiration to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission

Effective Church Communications provides Timeless Strategy and a Biblical Perspective to help churches create communications that fully fulfill the Great Commission. Our tools constantly change; our task doesn’t; we can help.

Effective Delegation, The Ultimate Balancing Act, Part 2

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

In Part 1, Gayle shared the foundation of why and how to delegate. This article goes into specific advice on how to make the delegation experience a successful one for you and your volunteers.

• Be available.
Once your worker has directions and starts the job you can get on with your own tasks. Before you do, assure the recruit you are available for questions. For most jobs it is also advantageous to establish checkpoints—agreed upon times you check on the task’s progress. Resist any urge to pop in more often. Trusting people is essential to effective delegation.

• Encourage, appreciate, recognize.
The key to having a good supply of enthusiastic workers is to make heroes of the ones you already have. Even the busiest people enjoy, and will want to make time for, opportunities to serve where their contributions are appreciated. Recall how you felt last time someone gave you a spontaneous “Good job!” Words are powerful. Be generous with your honest praise.

Many churches with regular corps of volunteers have clever ways to identify them: shirts, hats, and pins with a special logo; regular dinners or luncheons; an honor roll in the newsletter or on the website. You will think of many more ways to show your appreciation for these important people—not just the work they produce.

• Evaluate results.
Delegation is more of an art than a science. Situations and people are different; there are no magic rules—only reliable guidelines. Don’t expect instant success. Your other skills have matured and improved with practice—so will your skills of delegation .

Gauge how delegation is working for you by asking yourself some hard questions after each assignment is completed.

• Was time saved? Can I expect that in the future?
• Was the work done well?
• Did I pick the right person for the task?
• Was this a positive experience for all?
• What techniques would I repeat?
• What would I do differently?

• Put aside excuses.
Church office professionals offer a lot of reasons for choosing not to delegate: it is easier to do it myself; the job is mine so I should do it; I couldn’t find anyone to take this on; I don’t have time to explain to someone; it might not turn out well; I would just have to do it over. You can probably add an excuse or two of your own.

Each reason is plausible. Any one could persuade you to just “do it myself.” Nevertheless, the risks are slight compared to the benefits: your own professional growth, the opportunities for service provided, time and effort used most effectively, and a more balanced work load—for starters.

Take the risk. Delegate.

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For Part One of  "Effective Delegation, The Ultimate Balancing Act" CLICK HERE

You might also enjoy:

DDevotions Print Coverevotions for Church Communicators

This is a great book to give out as a thank-you to anyone involved as a volunteer in the church communications ministry. Click on the book to go to the link that tells you more about it.

 

 

 

"You are One of the Great Ones and far more important than you may realize," an encouragement for all church communicators

CLICK HERE or on the image to read one of the devotions from the book above. CLICK HERE to go to a download of a FREE flyer that you can get to share.

 

 

In the Church Office: What to delegate and why

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

Ed. note: this article was inspired by a comment from an ECC reader: "I was wondering what you determine can be delegated?  I guess I'm afraid that if I delegate tasks....or ask volunteers to help....that I will cause people (both those who hired me and others) to think "that's why we pay her---why are others doing her job???"  So how do I get around this?" Gayle's extremely practical answer follows.

WHAT TO DELEGATE AND WHY

Freeing your time for tasks only you can do is a primary reason to delegate. But, it is not the sole valid reason to share responsibilities. Your purpose may be to involve members in the work of the church, create appreciation for the administrative functions of ministry, provide opportunities for teamwork, increase general productivity, or to develop useful skills in paid and volunteer recruits.

Toward that end, consider delegating:

• Jobs someone might do better than you.
Perhaps creating flyers is not what you do well, but you know a person who absolutely thrives on layouts, fonts, and graphics. Ask.

• Parts of bigger projects.
Producing a church directory is one example of an assignment you may not want to turn over in its entirety, but smaller slices of it might be assigned to a few well-chosen assistants.

• Tasks you just don’t like doing.
Yes, that is an acceptable reason to delegate. You do best that which you enjoy—and, someone else could gain satisfaction from doing well that which you would just as soon not do at all.

• Assignments that will challenge others.
It can be to your advantage to turn loose of even some tasks you enjoy and handle well. Giving others opportunities to increase their abilities motivates and encourages.

• Tasks that increase the team’s strengths.
The old joke about the secretary having job security because she is the only one who knows where things filed is actually no joke at all. The office team is stronger when more than one person can do each vital job. Train someone to do the things that must be done. One never knows when an emergency will arise or when you will simply find yourself with too many priorities.

• Projects that allow you to move on to another level of responsibility.
This kind of delegation gives others the opportunity to take on skills you have already mastered so you can gain experience in even more advanced pursuits

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For more advice on how to effectively use volunteers in your church communication ministry, check out:

FREE Ebook: In the church office, to save time and your sanity: Divide your communication team into 2 production levels
There is never enough time to get all the work done that needs to be done in church communications. One way to solve this problem is to have volunteers do some of the work. However, many church office administrators and church leaders aren't comfortable doing this because they are concerned about the level of quality that volunteers product. Or they worry that they won't really be able to control what volunteers do.

 

Six Strategies BookEbook: Six Strategies for Effective Church Communications
Free for ECC Ebook and Template Club members, available for purchase and immediate download, all e-reader versions and in print at this link:

Recruiting Volunteers—Why and How

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Gayle Hilligoss Picture
Article by Gayle Hilligoss

Ed.note: Volunteers are often essential if you want to get done the amount of communications needed for all the ministries in a church. The primary ministry assistant usually has more than enough projects in addition to the primary communication work (bulletin, newsletter, website) of the church to keep her very busy. If the various ministries of the church including children's, men's, women's, mission's, singles', etc., are going to get all the needed communications done, the primary ministry assistant will need help. Gayle Hilligoss as usual has some wise and very practical advice on recruiting and working with volunteers.

 

Want to start a lively dialogue among ministry assistants? Bring up the subject of volunteers. After a candid discussion, those present at a seminar eventually did agree that selecting and training volunteers can:

• multiply your time and productivity
• require an investment of time and energy
• be a blessing—or not!

Applied to the church, the Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule suggests 80 percent of work is done by 20 percent of the members. A lot of office professionals would like to locate a few people beyond that significant 20 percent and put them to work. In many churches budgets are tight, programs are expanding, and both paid and volunteer workers are overextended. People are busy. Why should they want to handle the office tasks you’d like to give away?

Research suggests people volunteer because they want to:

• share their time and resources
• provide something someone needs
• experience a sense of accomplishment
• feel more a part of the community
• gain experience at a skill
• contribute a skill or knowledge
• heal from a personal loss
• contribute to positive actions
• have influence on how things are done

Understanding motivation helps you build effective volunteer ministries which provide people opportunities to give, to share, and to grow. Everybody wins. Including you.

Those who have successfully recruited and worked with volunteers say a satisfactory experience depends on following proven basics.

Recruit selectively

We call them volunteers, but recruits is more accurate. Not to stumble over terminology, recruit your volunteers. Instead of putting out a blanket SOS, ask specific people to do specific jobs. Being a successful recruiter takes time and effort, but the results are worthwhile. Not only will you gain the help you need, the enlistees benefit from the experience as well.

Start by making a list of jobs you want to delegate. Be specific about what each job entails.

Make a list of possible helpers whose talents and personality make a good match to the tasks. Think beyond the people who already do everything. Consider those whose talents are not presently being utilized at the church. In every church there are individuals, some who are already busy individuals, who are willing and even eager to pitch in.

Write, call, or visit each prospective helper. Make your request and explain the task.

The key to recruiting these people is to let them know you have worthwhile tasks to do and their expertise is needed. People resent being asked to do simple busy work; likewise, no one enjoys being expected to perform far beyond his or her abilities.

Define expectations

Most recruiters do a good job of explaining what needs to be done. Fewer take the equally important step of identifying standards of performance. People perform better when goals are clear and specific; take time to define the quality of work you require.

For all but the most simple jobs, provide written instructions. Include in this job description the scope of the volunteer’s authority and to whom she is answerable. People need to know up front the criteria for excellence.

Ask for a short term commitment

Proceed cautiously. Start with a request for a single project. Or gain a commitment for a week or two. If the arrangement works well, you can ask for a repeat. If not, neither of you will be put in an awkward position to end it. Many longtime assistants suggest no volunteer, regardless of reputation or experience, should be recruited for more than a year at a time.

Provide guidance

Once your recruit has accepted, provide training depending on the complexity of the job. Don’t micro-manage, but do provide adequate instruction on how the job is to be done satisfactorily.

Be prepared to spend some time getting your recruit up to speed. She’s seen the written description, now show her how the job should be done. This is no time to be nonchalant. If you take training time lightly, you send the message this is not so important after all. Once any questions are answered, let the worker take over. Assure her you are available if needed.

Monitor progress

Check back in 15 minutes or so to see how things are going. Answer any questions. If there are problems, make course corrections right away.

Don’t overdo, but do check periodically as the project progresses. Observe what has been done since you last touched base. Ask the recruit to show progress made; discuss any changes to be made.

At the end of the task, spend a few minutes with your worker talking about the experience. Ask what she learned about the job, both positive and negative. Find out if there were any surprises and how she handled them.

An effective recruiter can learn a great deal about workers from this kind of feedback: how suited they are for the job, how they respond to suggestions, their ability to give and take directions, their work ethic, and more. Just as important, this is your opportunity to congratulate workers for good decisions, offer optional solutions, and ask for ideas on how the process might be improved. Good ideas often come from people looking at tasks with a fresh view.

Be pleasant, brief, and kind. You want your volunteers to succeed at their tasks.

Express appreciation

Appreciation and recognition are vital to a successful volunteer program. Churches use scores of devices to encourage esprit de corps: lunches, banquets, day trips, newsletter honor rolls, even a website devoted to volunteers and their activities.

Be as plain or as fancy as you like, have fun with it, and just be sure you use the magic words, thank you. Show volunteers they are valuable members of your church office team. Let them know the work they do is important to the success of the ministry. Set the example by your caring attitude, your positive spirit, your effectiveness.

Some churches provide attractive shirts for their volunteers; others use badges or baseball hats imprinted with a distinctive logo to identify their volunteer corps. Many honor their workers with certificates. These little extras not only show appreciation, they encourage team spirit.

An effective way to enlist more volunteers is to make heroes of the ones already serving.

Be realistic

Even though you do your best to choose the right person, equip each volunteer to do his or her best, and sincerely show your appreciation—still, this person is not a paid staff member and will likely operate with a different agenda. Be aware that some volunteers take commitment more seriously than others; don’t be dismayed if a volunteer turns out to be less than reliable.

Nevertheless, expect a good experience. Most of the time that is exactly what volunteers deliver!