Now you can be a part of a team, be running a team or you can be thinking of your volunteers that you have in your ministry. Having vision is not enough to keep a team. I have heard “People don’t leave a team, they leave the leader.” As people in charge of a ministry we are over people to make sure everything gets done, but as the leader you are responsible for the people under you. Here are 10 things to do to make sure you run your team down:

  1. Do not recognize hard work when its done. Have the thought of, “Well I told them to do it, so I expect it to get done.” Words mean more than you think.
  2. Don’t be approachable. Keep the gap between leader and team.
  3. Make work more important than health. Yes, we need to get stuff done but it means nothing if everyone is tired and worn out.
  4. Don’t invest in them. Part of when people are feeling run down is because they feel what they are doing is not being appreciated or valuable. Investing in the lives of your team and having community with them will make them want to follow you and the vision of the ministry even more.
  5. Micromanage everything. Don’t trust anyone to get it done, and check in on everyone and everything at every moment until its exactly the way YOU wanted.
  6. Be too busy to make sure your team is spiritually healthy.
  7. Be passive aggressive about issues. Don’t be the “leader” and talk about tough issues that need to be addressed but do it in random comments and to other people on the team.
  8. All ideas are great, but your ideas always win.
  9. Don’t have clear vision or expectations and leave your team wondering what to do and stumbling in the dark guessing of where to go with it.
  10. Don’t have fun together and laugh together.