Home Pastors Pastor Blogs 5 Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Senior Leadership Team

5 Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Senior Leadership Team

by Jason Vernon

Developing a strong senior leadership team is vital to the health of your organization. The capacity of your team will determine the potential impact of your ministry. Jesus modeled team-based ministry from the very beginning.

He hand-selected twelve disciples (Mark 3:13-19). Then He invested even more time in His relationships with Peter, James and John (Mark 5:37). Jesus intentionally gave focused attention to the core leaders of His team. Here are 5 practical ways to show appreciation to your team:

  1. Ask your team how you can pray for them. This lets them know that you care about what is going on in their lives.
  2. Invite your team to go with you to leadership conferences or to other ministry invitations. This raises their leadership lids and builds connection.
  3. Pay special attention to your team’s family members. Try to remember birthdays, sports teams and hobbies. Seth Godin calls this “emotional labor.” Use Christmas parties and other team gatherings to get to know your team’s family members.
  4. Share compliments on a regular basis. Don’t underestimate the power of encouraging words.
  5. Ensure that your organization is properly compensating key team members. Many churches can’t afford the same pension programs and bonus plans as larger companies. This is still not an excuse to overlook the importance of this area. If the capacity of your team determines the potential impact of your entire organization then key team members should be a key consideration in the budgeting process. If financial resources are not available, look for other ways to compensate key team members: flexible schedules, sabbaticals, extra vacation days, etc.

To find out more about developing senior leadership teams, check out my ebook, Take the Lid Off Your Church.