Snippet: "Are we well together"

Snip·pet | ˈsnipit | noun a small piece or brief extract.

This one is Steve Cuss, interviewed on The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast. Cuss’s book, Managing Leadership Anxiety, is one of the best leadership books I’ve read.

“I'm definitely seeing church teams that really want to make an impact in their community and around the world…banding together, wanting to make a difference. I'm seeing a higher value on team wellbeing than I saw before COVID. I think before COVID, it was a little bit of mission focus and now it's more, are we well together? And I'm glad to see that. There's always a concern with driven leaders that the more we work on our relational integrity, the less mission we get. I can prove all day long that the better your team cohesion, the further you'll get on your mission. So I'm seeing a lot of that. I'm generally encouraged.”

We’re headed into a season where we have to take some big hills as a church and as leaders. Starting a fourth service, maintaining it without burning out our volunteers and staff, and launching a “slow plant” next fall are big initiatives. I have to admit that I’ve had my bouts with anxiety thinking about and planning for these.

What’s so helpful about Cuss’s book is that he addresses how not to let anxiety take over in team interactions. His perspective helps keep our eyes on the values, not just the vision.

His words are a good reminder to someone like me who can sometimes get caught up in the task and vision and stop asking, “Are all doing okay,” and pursuing joyful service.

Photo by Dmitry Limonov on Unsplash