Building Team Morale

Written by Mark Marshall

Think about the teams you currently have in your church. You probably have deacons, Sunday School leaders, various committees, and other ministry teams. The fact is much of the work of the church is carried out through the work of teams. For a team to function with a high degree of success, the team must have high morale.

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Teams with low morale make little or no progress. Teams with high morale function with a high degree of accomplishment. As a leader, you want to make sure to watch for signs of low morale and work toward maintaining high morale among your ministry teams.

What Are Indicators of Low Morale? 
As in any life situation, there are usually warning signals to make you aware of indicators of low morale. To keep from finding yourself in a crippling situation with a ministry team, keep an eye on the following indicators:

• Absence of commitment. When you enlist volunteers to accept responsibility for various projects, you find if difficult to get a commitment from team members.
• Faultfinding. As inevitable obstacles arise there is a tendency to point fingers. Team members look to put the blame on others rather than to take personal responsibility.
• Absenteeism. Members frequently make excuses as to why they can’t attend team meetings.
• Complaining. Meetings tend to be more gripe sessions more than dreaming and planning sessions.

What Causes a Team with High Morale to Lose It?
Most teams begin with a high hopes and enthusiasm as they look toward the future. They look toward accomplishing something together they could not accomplish individually. So what happens to cause a group of people to lose enthusiasm? The following five situations cause a team to lose morale:

• Ever-changing goals.
• Failure to understand roles.
• Mismatch with gifts.
• Lack of feedback.
• Stifling organization.

So What Can You Do to Keep Morale High?
Your job as a leader in your church is to keep teams on task and excited about the work God has called them to do. Failure to do so results in lost ministry opportunities for your church. In order to be a successful ministry team, try to focus on keeping morale high by attempting to do the following:

• Set clear expectations and goals from the onset.
• To the highest degree possible, align team members with their gifts and strengths. When assigning roles, be clear in communicating assignments.
• Foster a sense of accomplishment. Look for both big and small successes and celebrate them together.
• Welcome new ideas.

Keeping morale high is a mission critical to your work as a leader and coach. Staying on top of these issues will make the work of your teams more effective.

Mark Marshall knows the importance of affirming your leadership teams. This article first appeared in the Winter 2005-06 issue of LeaderLife. Used by permission.