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Transcript

Their First Real Feedback Was the Annual Review · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: From January through November, they're doing the job.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're busy.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: You tell them great job in the hallway.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: You send them a quick text after a really strong Sunday.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then December comes and you sit down with the review form.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And for the first time all year, you say the real stuff.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: The reports that keep coming in late, the way that they talk to volunteers sometimes, the gap between what you had hoped for and what they've actually been doing and what you've actually been seeing.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And you watch their face change because they had no idea.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: 11 months of quiet, and then one awkward review.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: If that sounds familiar, either as a staff member or as a pastor or a boss, we're going to talk about that today, right here.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: On the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, my name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com, and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast on Friday.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever, I don't think ever, sets out to do this.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to be kind, you're busy with real ministry, you tell yourself you'll you'll bring it up after Easter, and then it's I'll bring it up after VBS, and then it's after we finish with this capital campaign.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: The calendar fills up, and the only formal conversation left is the one with a score box and a signature line, and that's the annual review.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And by then, the hard truth has become sitting in it's been sitting in your head for months, but it's never made it from your brain out of your mouth.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: You've never told them actually how you think they're doing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what that looks like on a church staff.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Your kid's director hears, I love your heart all spring.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then in December, she hears, parents have been concerned since February.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your worship pastor, your worship leader, gets a fist bump after every service, and then in December he hears rehearsals have been chaotic and the volunteers are getting really burned out.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your administrator hears, thanks for holding everything down every week.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're amazing.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then in December, it's communication's been a little bit unclear, deadlines keep slipping.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And none of that is new to you, but it's brand new to them because they thought everything was peachy, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And when someone hears hard things for the first time once a year on a form, it doesn't feel like leadership, it feels like they got set up.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not against encouragement.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we need more encouragement in the church.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You're awesome in the hallway, makes a difference.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: It really does matter.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So does hey nailed it on Slack or a smile after the service.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's warmth, that's relationship.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't stop doing that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Keep doing that.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But that is not coaching.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Coaching sounds like this.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I noticed in that meeting.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or next time, maybe let's try it this way with that volunteer.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or this part was really strong, but this part needs maybe a different approach.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: If the only time that your employees or your staff hear sentences like that is at the annual review, then you didn't give them feedback all year.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You saved it all up and you let it all out at the annual review.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And saving all that up costs you something.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Feedback, when feedback is rare, staff fill in the silence on their own.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them assume quiet means everything's great, everything's fine, nothing could be better.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Other people, according to their personality, that same quiet could mean that you're unhappy or you just won't say so.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, they're just guessing.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then December comes and they'll find out that they guessed wrong.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And their trust takes a hit, your trust takes a hit, they get defensive, and sometimes people start updating their resumes because of their annual review, because everything was great, and then all of a sudden it wasn't.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's not because one review was harsh, it's because they heard it all at once, and it felt like a final verdict instead of any kind of an ongoing conversation.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted to give them clarity, and what they got was just a surprise.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And believe me, we talk to candidates all day, every day here in my work at chemistry staffing, and we hear this quite often.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's like somehow some somebody in leadership flipped a switch.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing great, then all of a sudden I was the worst person on the staff.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that may or may not be true, but that was their perception because of this exact problem.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look, you're not a bad leader because you don't like conflict, okay?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Most church leaders don't like conflict.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: You put off the hard conversations because you didn't want to crush somebody in the middle of a busy ministry season.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually kind of nice.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: That came from a really good place, a nice place.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a big butt.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not gonna say it, but that's a big but.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Your staff can't grow from feedback they never hear from.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: The annual review should sum up a year of small, honest conversations that happened all year long.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It shouldn't be the first time that the truth shows up.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you do instead?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do instead?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need an HR system.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: You just need a rhythm.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe every two weeks, take 15 minutes, talk about one thing that's working, one thing to adjust, and what good looks like for the next couple of weeks.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a form.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, you don't need an HR plan.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You just say it while it's still fresh.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody's been sitting in your head or something's been sitting in your head since March, say it this week.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't unload it all at once.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not December yet, and the in your review is probably not on the calendar yet.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great time to have those kind of conversations, or at least start those kind of conversations.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you say it because you care about them.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Something like, hey, I should have said this sooner.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I've noticed, and here's what I need from you going forward.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the bottom line for today.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and this might be a hard one for some of you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: If the first real feedback that your staff or your employees get all year comes from the annual review, you didn't evaluate them.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: You surprised them after 11 months of silence.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And can I say, I know we have board members that listen to the podcast as well, board members and elders.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a board member and an elder and you're responsible for the annual annual review of your senior pastor, and you say nothing, no feedback, positive or negative, throughout the whole year, and then you sit them down in December and have this conversation about everything that needs to change, it's not gonna go well.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk to a lot of pastors in January that are coming in late December that are just reeling because of a bad review at the end of the year.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my challenge: pick one person on your staff you've been waiting until review season to have an honest conversation with.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then next week, before Friday, sit down with them for 15 minutes.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Name one strength, name one thing to adjust, one thing that is a clear next step.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to write it down, no waiting for December.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like you're trying to document anything at this point.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: You just tell them what you've been holding on to, and hopefully that will help you.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know it will help your staff member because what it will give them is a little bit of clarity so that they're not blindsided on their annual review.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: If this one hit close to home, I'd encourage you to share it, pass it on to another church later, another pastor, another staff member who's been having a hard time with this.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Hard stuff.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is hard stuff.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: In December, everything piles up and we try to fit everything in, budget, re performance reviews, all of our Christmas plans.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hectic time.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So get a start on it now.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if there's any way that I can help you or your church, particularly with staffing, either the end of this year or the beginning all of next year, kind of even just getting a staffing plan around.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: What can we afford?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Who should we hire?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Those kind of conversations I love to have with you.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: See if there's any way we can partner up and work together on your next staff hire or transition.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out to me, podcast at chemistry staffing.com.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: All right, that's it for today.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hope you have a great weekend.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: We will be back here on Monday, right here on the Helping Church death.