{"id":32337,"date":"2022-09-10T16:05:37","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-leadership-practices-churches-should-adopt-from-chick-fil-a\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:37","slug":"5-leadership-practices-churches-should-adopt-from-chick-fil-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-leadership-practices-churches-should-adopt-from-chick-fil-a\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Leadership Practices Churches Should Adopt From Chick-fil-A"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image size-full wp-image-96265\">Chris Potter photo &#8211; Flickr<\/div>\n<p><em>By Joy Allmond<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mark Miller, vice president of high performance leadership for Chick-fil-A, recently addressed a group of pastors and denominational leaders at Lifeway\u2019s Church Partners Summit.<\/p>\n<p>Based on his decades-long career at the successful franchise, here are five pieces of advice he gave on how to create an environment where existing and emerging leaders can flourish.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>1. Have an agreed-upon definition of leadership within your church.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cThere is a saying in baseball,\u201d says Miller. \u201cYou can\u2019t win the game in the first inning\u2014but you can lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And this is why, he says, an understanding of leadership\u2014and a commonly understood definition\u2014must be established as early as possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is where we found ourselves 20 years ago,\u201d he says. \u201cWe would have told you we were a leader-intensive organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<p>But the challenge, Miller explains, was that Chick-fil-A organizational leaders thought every time they referenced \u201cleadership\u201d that everyone had the same understanding of what they were talking about.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwenty years ago we discovered there were around 6,000 definitions of leadership\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that one definition is right and one is wrong. We had different functional areas trying to develop leaders within their own \u2018mold.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This, he says, created several unintended negative consequences. There was confusion over things like:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"has-normal-font-size\">\n<li><em>Who do we recruit?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Who do we recognize and promote?<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Who do we give more opportunities to?<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cOne thing that suffered within our company was morale,\u201d Miller recalls. \u201cBecause leaders in different parts of the organization had their own definitions of leadership, they recognized people who carried out certain behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There were people in other parts of the organization who carried out the same behaviors, but didn\u2019t get recognized\u2014simply because their leader had a different idea of leadership.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re trying to cultivate an environment in your church where you\u2019re raising up leaders, it\u2019s important to get everyone aligned around an agreed-upon, consistently displayed definition of what is meant when you say \u2018leadership,\u2019\u201d says Miller.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>2. Know what skills you want your leaders to develop and utilize.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Miller says every senior leader in a church or parachurch organization should ask themselves, <em>Do your leaders have the necessary skills to deliver on your definition of leadership?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharacter isn\u2019t enough,\u201d he says. \u201cPsalm 72:78 tells us David shepherded his people with integrity of heart <em>and skillful hands<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When someone pointed it out to him, Miller said it was a moment of clarity because there are often debates about whether leadership is about character or about skill.<\/p>\n<p>The answer, he says, is both.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome think it\u2019s simply about character,\u201d says Miller. \u201cYou probably know a man or a woman of impeccable character who can\u2019t lead. And you probably know someone with the skills to lead, but without the character you\u2019d want to follow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Chick-fil-A found themselves at a crossroads when it came to their leadership development methods, organizational leaders wrestled with what skill sets and character traits they wanted in their leaders.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"uabe521cfa3ee64f04b121a76c3525959-content\">See also&nbsp; Fixing our Firsts and Lasts: Trading Our Screens for Scripture<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ultimately, Miller says, they came to the conclusion they wanted their leaders to emulate King David in Psalm 72: \u201cWe want to raise up a generation of leaders who have integrity of heart and skillful hands.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>3. Provide ample opportunities for existing and aspiring leaders to lead.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>According to Miller, research\u2014and conventional wisdom\u2014has found we learn about 70 percent of what we need to know about leadership by actually leading.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou learn about delegation when you do it,\u201d he says. \u201cThe same applies to problem solving or brainstorming. Until you\u2019ve applied them\u2014practiced them\u2014they\u2019re not really part of your repertoire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Miller believes top-level leaders might be pleasantly surprised at what they&#8217;ll find if they ask themselves: <em>Are there any unproven emerging or inspiring leaders you can throw into the deep end of the pool?<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>4. Have an agreed-upon way of measuring the effectiveness of your leadership development methods.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cHere\u2019s what we believe to be true,\u201d says Miller. \u201cNothing improves without measuring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He says church and organizational leadership teams should find a metric that indicates whether leadership development efforts are fruitful. He adds that while there are key metrics in churches and in businesses that will always stay consistent, this particular scorecard should be dynamic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne example of such a metric would be the percentage of your leaders who have been trained in your point of view when it comes to leadership,\u201d explains Miller. \u201cWhen you get that to 100 percent, and put it in the onboarding or core curriculum for the future, that metric no longer serves you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another example of measuring success in leadership, he says, is through having church members or those who work within a parachurch organization participate in engagement surveys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn example of a true\/false item on the survey would be, <em>I know the vision of the organization<\/em>,\u201d Millers says. \u201cIf they don\u2019t know that, it&#8217;s a direct reflection on leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>5. Ensure current leaders are modeling desired behaviors.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u201cMore leadership is caught than taught,\u201d says Miller. \u201cYou can undermine everything we\u2019ve talked about if you&#8217;re advocating servant leadership and you don\u2019t have servant leaders in your organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People watch the leader, he says, whether or not we realize it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to create a leadership culture, you have to define it, teach it, practice it, measure it, and model it.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-profile-box square gb-has-avatar gb-font-size-18 gb-block-profile gb-profile-columns\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-avatar-wrap\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-image-wrap\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-content-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"gb-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Joy Allmond<\/h2>\n<p class=\"gb-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\"><strong>@joyallmond<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-text\">\n<p>Joy is the executive communications manager at Lifeway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"gb-social-links\"><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box su-box-style-default\" id=\"\" style=\"border-color:#000000;border-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"su-box-title\" style=\"background-color:#333333;color:#FFFFFF;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px\">Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box-content su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"one-third first\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"two-thirds\">\n<h3>Designed to Lead: The Church and Leadership Development<br \/> <\/h3>\n<p>Eric Geiger &amp; Kevin Peck<\/p>\n<p>  FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times?  What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation?  3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chris Potter photo &#8211; Flickr By Joy Allmond Mark Miller, vice president of high performance leadership for Chick-fil-A, recently addressed a group of pastors and denominational leaders at Lifeway\u2019s Church Partners Summit. Based on his decades-long career at the successful franchise, here are five pieces of advice he gave on how to create an environment &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/5-leadership-practices-churches-should-adopt-from-chick-fil-a\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;5 Leadership Practices Churches Should Adopt From Chick-fil-A&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}