Counseling With Our Councils

General Notes

Delegating to team members helps them learn from their experience rather than from me. Experience is the best teacher. Don’t try to protect team members from failure. Instead, focus on providing them clear instructions about the desired outcome and asking them to report back. 

Bias myself toward action instead of planning. Give myself a vision and a direction and go and do. Action yields experience. Experience yields expertise. 

What are the parts of my job that only I can do? How can I effectively delegate anything and everything else?

Principles are universally applicable; practices (implementation of principles) are not.

When leading a council it is usually helpful to hear the opinions of others before expressing your own.

If the scope and the due date are accepted by the assignee, asking for an accounting on the due date is sufficient. Correction can proceed from there, if necessary.

How to conduct a council meeting

Agenda prepared and sent a day ahead of time so that participants may prepare 

Express love and concern for each other as council gathers 

Open with a prayer

President presents each item on the agenda or asks someone to present them

President invites discussion, which is had until a proposal emerges 

Members express their thoughts and feelings

When the president senses a unity taking place, he may ask for a recommendation 

If no unity coalesces, consider tabling the discussion and asking members to do personal prep work for further discussion at a later meeting

President identifies the proposal and asks if there are additional comments 

Everyone is given the chance to express themselves again 

The proposal may be modified taking into account additional comments

The proposal is then presented as a motion, seconded, and voted upon