leadership reflections 5/31

I was listening to the catalyst podcast in the car the other day and something struck me. (the catalyst podcast is a pretty cool resource once they get to the interviews- its pretty lame when you listen to the hosts name-drop or go on and on about nothing).
They were interviewing Patrick lencioni- who has written several great leadership books. He dropped this line into conversation: “you have to treat your employees like volunteers and you have to treat your volunteers like employees.”
Treating your employees like volunteers is important, because we often think that a paycheck is enough affirmation, recognition and thanks. We often thank volunteers, get them gifts, recognize them, but we rarely do this for employees, because they get paid. We need to treat employees like volunteers.
Treating volunteers like employees is important, because we often don’t expect much from volunteers. If they show up late, or not at all, it often gets overlooked. If they do a bad job, no one really says anything. Not the same with an employee- the standard is higher. Lencioni’s point was that volunteers long to be held to high standards. They long to be held accountable and to be pushed farther. If you don’t you just make the bad ones worse, and the good ones leave. So treat volunteers like employees.
Another thought-
They were interviewing francis chan, who comes across as a super gentle, quiet leader- and probably is. They asked him about how he leads his staff and he said 2 things that stuck out to me:
1. He said, “I’m afraid that I’m going to keep a starter on the bench.” He is afraid that he is holding back the men on his staff from becoming more- so he tells them to leave, and start their own churches and get in the starting line-up. He said, “can you imagine if a player like kobe Bryant was kept on the bench?”
2. On prayer he said that he tells his guys, “if you’re not in prayer at least an hour a day, I’ll trade you in for someone that will.” Hello!