360 Reviews: Solving the Mystery
Fletch is a skeptic and Nathan is a believer. Nathan will try to win over Fletch on the role and effectiveness of 360 degree reviews. Nathan feels that there are key success factors […]
Tips for Coaching Your Staff
Let’s talk about tips for coaching your staff for their personal and professional development. This discussion will be with members of the Lead Self Lead Others Team. The ability of your staff to […]
3 Ways Intentional Coaching Helps Executive Pastors
Like it or not, Executive Pastors are coaches. You can embrace your role as a coach and improve your effectiveness by coaching your team.
I’ll admit it. The word coach used to make me cringe. And […]
What Church Leaders Must Do, and Not Do, in the Pandemic
One of the CEOs I coach leads an organization with almost five hundred employees. In a video call with him this week, he began by explaining how he spent two days calculating when the organization […]
Leadership Challenges of Leaders in Industry and the Church
Throughout my many years of ministry, I have had the opportunity to coach executives of Fortune 500 companies and church leaders. My vantage point is fascinating; I enjoy the challenge of identifying best practices that […]
Questions for the New Year
The New Year brings new opportunities to focus our lives on what and who matters most. In my mentoring and consulting practice, I am working with my clients this month, helping them talk through their […]
Great Coaching Conversations with Key Players
Do you know how to have a coaching conversation with your key players? It’s scary to think about the amount the time we spend talking to staff members and key volunteers on any given week. […]
The Nuts and Bolts of Writing Job Descriptions
Job descriptions are written documents that facilitate good communication about what a person is to be doing and focusing on. If they are well thought through, well written, and referred to often, job descriptions will […]
The Executive Pastor: A Pioneer
Last week I attended the annual XP-Seminar in Dallas—it felt so good to be with “my people.” Finally, to be with people who spoke my language! It was exciting to share my frustrations and passions […]
What Makes for a Happy New Year?
January always brings an interesting challenge for XP’s. As we return to the office from the holidays, we begin to realize anew that the gang needs us to lead them, once again. Circulating through the […]
Tips for Strengthening the SP/XP Leadership Relationship
Each time I work with a church leadership team, I schedule time for coaching the Senior Pastor and Executive Pastor together. This dynamic working relationship experiences significant wear and tear and needs to be inspected […]
The Secret of Improving Staff Performance
I really hesitated using that title but I did because I get so many questions related to staff performance. Every XP I know deals with this issue of getting people to do better and do […]
The XP Mentoring Checklist
One of the greatest privileges of serving as an Executive Pastor is the opportunity we have to come alongside men and women and help them develop in their leadership. The first few months of the […]
Leading Self Through Painful Transitions
For the past two months, I have been coaching several XPs who have been asked to resign their positions. Transition is never easy and usually makes the honor roll for experiencing pain and suffering in […]
Leadership Assessment Tools
Nathan Baxter is a former Executive Pastor that has a heart for mentoring. One tool that he uses as he helps pastors is the Birkman Leadership Assessment Tools. Here Nathan outlines some of the available assessments, […]
Breaking the News, Without Breaking the Leader
One of my more challenging tasks as a leadership coach is to figure out a way to break the news to an Executive Pastor or Senior Pastor that they may not be doing as well […]
Fostering a Leadership Culture
One of the unspoken responsibilities for Executive Pastors is creating environments where leaders in the church are developed and new leaders are attracted to join the team. Most churches that are audited come up short […]
Flat Tire Leadership Team
Earlier this year, I experienced an incredible breakthrough in my working relationship with my Senior Pastor … honesty! I have the highest respect for my pastor and basically joined the leadership team because of my […]
The Manure Leadership Principle
I’d like to teach you something that I learned as a kid growing up on a horse ranch. I call it the Manure Leadership Principle. I’m surprised how many Executive Pastors are familiar with manure since […]
The Three Lane Highway of the SP-XP Working Relationship
Over the summer, I hit a new mile marker in my leadership coaching by working with my 50th SP-XP team. I have had the privilege to spend time in thirteen states, nine denominations, and churches […]
Let’s Prune Some Ministries!
Executive Pastors get excited about the opportunity to flex their catalyst muscles to launch ministries in the church. But most tend to lose enthusiasm when it comes time to do some pruning. Ministries are living […]
The Fun and Fright of a 360 Evaluation
I still remember the day when I received the results of my 360 performance evaluation as an XP. I seriously wanted to either quit or beat the stuffing out of someone (in a Christian sort of […]