Welcome to Leading Teams with a Servant Heart

Welcome to Leading Teams with a Servant Heart which is the second part of the Leading Through Others module of the Growing the Servant Heart on-line Programme for Christian Leaders

STUDENT NOTES

Leaders lead people and more often than not those people are organised into teams. Teams may vary in size, in character, in duration, in purpose and objective. But they all have similar needs when it comes to leadership. This lesson focuses on those needs from the perspective of the Christ–centred servant leader whose goal is to enable the individual team members, and thus the team as a whole, to achieve its full potential in God’s service.

A team comprises a group of people but it is a common mistake to assume that a group is a team just because they have been brought together.  It is the leader’s job to form the group into a cohesive, collaborative unit that is able to achieve its goals. As Christ-centred leaders it’s our job to do this in a way that glorifies God and exhibits the character of Christ.

The core of our study on teams is based on the work of Pat MacMillian who identified six characteristics which are common to teams that are highly effective.

Pat MacMillian is a Christian who is expert in leadership and team development. For many years he has worked with both secular and Christian organisations to help them build teams.

The Growing the Servant Heart programme is about providing practical tools to help the Christian leader function day-to-day. As such the tools and approaches have been selected because they are supportive of the values of a leader who is centred on the servant character of Christ.

At the end of this lesson, as the student, you will have considered the nature and lifecycle of a team and examined six essential characteristics required for any team to be effective.  You will also have considered the make-up of an effective team.

Pat MacMillan explains his approach to teams in his book: The Performance Factor – Unlocking the Secrets of Teamwork (published by  Broadman and Holman Publishers). It is a challenging, informative and entertaining book to read, which offers deep insights into the nature and development of a team. It’s not about command and control, but it is about approaches that will fulfil the leadership objectives of the Christ-centred servant leader. The content of this book forms the core of this lesson and so it is an essential read that will help you further develop the concepts we will discuss.

The lesson is split into 10 topics for ease and subsequent reference. You will find students notes for each topic on the topic pages. They are virtually a verbatim transcript of the topic videos. You can also download the full student notes from the link just under the video.

You will find the Google Translate controls at the top right so you can read the on-line notes in your own language.

The module following this is entitled Leading Through Relationships which primarily considers the matter of responsible communication, the oil that lubricates all collaborative relationships.  As always we will look at this topic from the perspective of the Christ-centred servant leader and this leads us to a different approach than the world would normally take.

Please enjoy the module, you can start by selecting a topic from the menu: