The Five Faders: An Overview
The Five Faders is the single concept that will likely create the most dramatic, positive change in your leadership and your team’s health. That’s a big claim, I know. But I believe it.
If you don’t understand the Five Faders, you won’t be able to be the best version of yourself, you won’t be able to bring out the best in your team, and it’ll be easy to avoid walking in love.
It’s likely you have, to some level, experienced a team that has:
Rock Stars who are Perfectionistic and Contemptuous
Gatekeepers who are Oversensitive and Mistrusting
Judges & Juries who are Critical and Isolating
Know-It-Alls who are Lecturing and Debating
Dictators who are Micromanaging and Controlling
Lord, help us, right?
But imagine a team where each of us is the BEST version of ourselves.
A team that understands and honors the value of what each person brings.
A team that has learned to put their defaults aside and do what love requires of them in any given situation.
A team that has a common language to work through differences.
This is a Five Faders team!
The Five Faders team is full of:
Craftsmen who create Beauty and Usefulness
Pastors who develop Unity and Belonging
Prophets who foster Devotion and Depth
Mentors who embody Wisdom and Capability
Architects who design Excellence and Transcendence (exceeding usual limits)
What is the Five Faders? The Five Faders is Ad Lib Music’s development system that gives you language and awareness to unlock your team’s potential to function at its best. We are all driven by one of five motivations: Artist, Shepherd, Priest, Educator, and Producer. They are why we do what we do.
In a nutshell,
Artists notice nuance.
Shepherds consider the individual.
Priests overflow with simple love and pure devotion to Jesus.
Educators bring out the best in others.
Producers plan so they exceed usual limits.
You can think of it as a personality test or the enneagram for worship teams that answers the question of motivation: “What are you doing when you’re doing what you’re doing?” At a basic level, it tells us how we are motivated. Not what we do but why we do it. Each type has a healthy, integrated, resourceful expression AND an unhealthy, disintegrated, unresourceful expression.
There are three main ideas about the Five Faders.
ONE
Awareness of who you are is the only way to be the best version of yourself. Knowing what motivates you is the key to becoming the best you. If you don’t understand how you’re motivated, you’ll likely be on the unhealthy side of your fader.
TWO
Your team is healthiest when you VALUE what each fader brings. It’s easy to see that a team full of all five faders would be beautiful. In the spirit of honor, we want to learn how to celebrate people’s unique gifts and express how they bring something helpful to the team that complements what you bring.
THREE
We ALL have EVERY Fader, AND the Faders are NOT static; they are not locked. You MUST develop the skills required to adjust your faders to be appropriately balanced. This does NOT mean that they are all set to the same level. Music that’s mixed that way doesn’t sound good, either. The question to ask is: What does LOVE require of me now?
If you’d like to understand the Five Faders more fully, you have a few options;
Have us in (by Zoom or in person) to teach this to your team (email Dave@adlibmusic.com)
Listen to a recent 2-hour session I taught on this at Worship 4:24 (here) and read the handout
Sign up for a Zoom with me for us to talk about it
-Dave Helmuth
(purchase my book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)
The Five Faders: An Overview (Nº 397)
