A Mindset Change Back to Normal By Dave Waters

It Will Take a Mindset Change to Find Growth and Normal Again!

Organizational growth requires a mindset change. After two years of Covid, many question whether things will ever get back to normal and whether growth is even possible again. The short answer to this question is “yes, growth is possible.”

I want to share three mindset changes required for growth.

Change #1 

The first mindset change required for organizational growth is that growth begins with the leader. In John Maxwell’s book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Maxwell argues that the #1 law of leadership is the “Law of the Lid.” This leadership law proposes that the leader is the lid for an organization’s growth and that the organization will never rise above the level of its leadership. Therefore, for an organization to grow, the leader must grow. This self-leadership requires multiple disciplines, and these disciplines include but are not limited to a lifetime of learning. It’s been said that the day a leader stops learning is the day that the leader stops leading. To grow an organization, a leader must keep growing.

Change #2

A second mindset change required for organizational growth is a recognition that most previously used metrics are neither leading metrics nor the most important metrics. For example, if your organization is a church, many use worship attendance as their primary metric. Attendance growth at church is a lagging metric. It lags a more important metric, which would be first-time guests and how many first-time guests return.

Even those metrics are somewhat lagging and perhaps even less important than another metric: How many people are engaged in discipleship ministries and engaged in missional response? And by missional response, I’m not talking about how many people go through some seminary-level missional training and go to live in another country. I’m simply speaking about how many people feel equipped and inspired to be a missionary in their neighborhoods, at their recreational centers, at their schools or workplaces, and in their homes.

The more engagement in ministries and the more missionaries sent into the community, the more growth will occur in the church. In your organization, what metrics are leading metrics, and what metrics are lagging metrics. Shift your mindset to focus on growing those leading metrics.

Change #3

Finally, a third mindset change required for individual and organizational growth is around health. Healthy things grow, which means that healthy individuals grow and healthy organizations grow! Asking these questions can help increase health:

• What things need to be done to create a healthier person or organization?
• What things need to be stopped to create a healthier person or organization?
• What person do we need to change organizationally to create a healthier organization?
• What organizational structure do we need to change to promote health?’

If after asking some of these questions, you may discover that staffing change is needed!

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Dave Walters joined the FaithSearch team as a search consultant in 2021 while also serving as senior pastor of Alpharetta First United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, GA. Walters has led the 5,000+ member congregation in Alpharetta since 2019. While continuing his pastoral role, Walters supports FaithSearch with nonprofit and ministry-based searches.

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