4 Reasons Teams Feel Isolated And Burned Out (and what to do about it)

Do you want current members to serve for a long time? And you’d love new people to join too, I’m sure! So do current worship leaders or worship/tech team members have short tenures? Are potential members unwilling to start serving because they fear feeling isolated? Are current members burning out? Why?

Here are four common reasons for teams feeling isolated and burned out.

1.     They don’t get any feedback after serving

2.     They serve with unclear expectations

3.     They feel relationally unconnected

4.     They serve where it’s not a good fit

So how do you eradicate isolation and burnout? (it’s what Ad Lib Music is ALL about!)

 

Give regular feedback!

Three little letters will change someone’s life: TSF or Timely Specific Feedback. We get the Feedback part, but it must be Timely and Specific.

It must be Timely – given within 24 hours. We tend to fill the void with negativity, so the more time passes, the more likely we’ll begin to question everything we did and how effective it was.

And it must be Specific – “good job” is not good enough. Focus on what you observed — for example, if it is something negative, don’t say, “You didn’t seem to be a team player.” Instead, say, “You insisted your monitor mix be so loud that other band members couldn’t hear themselves.” If it’s something positive, don’t just say, “You’re such a team player.” Instead, say, “I noticed you were aware Frank wanted to read an unplanned scripture between songs, and you made space for him — you’re such a team player!”

Ideally, this should happen naturally — the pastor should give feedback to the worship leader and tech leader, the worship leader and tech leader should give it to their teams, etc. You may need a structure or organizational system to create and support the culture of giving and receiving TSF. For example, you can have a quick debrief after the end of a worship gathering, or get into the habit of sending out a few emails Sunday evening, or you can put a task reminder in your phone to send out TSF on Monday morning. At Ad Lib Music, we call this system “Broccoli” (because only real friends tell each other if they have broccoli stuck in their teeth.)

 

Give clear expectations

Be able to articulate and agree upon what “success” is. As the worship leader, can you articulate your pastor’s vision for the worship gathering? Does each team member have the same answer to “What’s a win?” Does everyone know what the worship ministry's vision is, what its values are, and what goals we are working toward? They must!

 

Build a real community

Do you provide space at rehearsal to build relationships, or is it only musical? Do you  “know the condition of your flock” (Proverbs 27:23)? Are you invested in their lives, and do you know what’s going on? Do you eat together? I’m serious. Do you? Have you been to each other’s homes? Get connected! Friends make better music.

 

No square pegs in round holes

Does each person come alive in the role they’ve chosen? Have the integrity (read: guts) to re-assign someone if they’re not in the right spot. Just because someone is willing doesn’t mean they’re qualified. Now don’t misread that; people don’t have to be perfect before serving. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, and I believe the best way to steward their talent is to connect someone’s strengths to a need, not to try to improve someone’s weakness to fit a need.

Utilizing someone who is undeveloped may work in a pinch, but I’ll take a visual artist who’s an 8 out of 10 to help in the tech ministry rather than add him as a piano player (if he’s a 2 out of 10.) Here’s my thought process: if I invest in him as a piano player, he might make it up to a 5 out of 10, and if I have someone else who is only a 6 out of 10 piano player without any investment on my part, I’m already way ahead. (HT John Maxwell) It’s not a hard and fast rule. I know we tend not to face issues and make the best calls sometimes to “keep the ‘peace.’” (We are peacemakers, not keepers.)

I’m calling us to intentionality in our leadership. Spend good energy in building and caring for your team. Or you may be giving that opportunity to someone else.

-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

4 Reasons Teams Feel Isolated And Burned Out (and what to do about it)(Nº 25)