Essay Example on Sally Builds a Thriving Church: Managing Growth & Well-Being

Introduction

Sally has established a church is a busy and fast-growing area of her city. The area is highly populated with people of all diverse groups. Her church is witnessing rapid growth. To ensure effective service delivery in the church, Sally has decided to implement new ministries and hire new staff. She is in charge of everything in the church. With the newly hired employees in need of training and assimilation, Sally has compromised her healthy habits of physical exercise, taking a balanced diet, and having a healthy sleep. She has succumbed to depression and anxiety because she is restless. She chose not to develop a leader among her staff because she believes she is well-placed to be in charge. The church staff has noticed that she is short-tempered, stressed, and unfriendly.

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Healthy leader

Holistically, healthy leadership is used in reference to a clergy's mental health, physical health, and spiritual well-being. Considering clergy health before the 1960s, a compilation of the rate of standardized diseases among the clergies in the United States and Europe from the 1700s to 1960s indicates longer longevity among clergies. However, a research that was conducted in 2002, and which involved clergies found that 60 percent of research participants were obese or overweight. Recently, a 2009 study involving United Methodist, LeGrand, and Proeschold-Bell found that pastors had an increased rate of diabetes, obesity, asthma, arthritis, blood pressure compared to non-clergy (Arnold et al., 2015). From these studies, it is correct to assert that a high number of pastors are experiencing chronic diseases and obesity. In terms of mental and physical health, clergies are experiencing a high number of stresses, including financial strains, frequent moves, high time demands, social support, and intrusions on family life.

To foster and ensure health leadership among the clergies, it is essential to enhance the interpersonal relationship. Fostering healthy relationships among clergy members is instrumental to their well-being and health because they share typical experiences that not understandable to others. However, female clergies experience challenges in trying to maintain these relationships because of their self-esteem nature - want to prove they are worthy of being pastors. For this, female pastors can work earnestly in an attempt to avoid being viewed as vulnerable, maintain their appearances (Anshel et al., 2014). Additionally, female pastors are reluctant to foster mutual trust and cooperation with their peers. Confidentiality and trust are of significant concern to female pastors.

Overall, pastors need to foster accountability in their leadership roles. Responsibility is a crucial aspect of leadership because it can help a pastor measure their progress and success. For instance, an accountable and committed pastor would know what is required of them and set useful milestones to measure their progression (Anshel et al., 2014). Additionally, a dedicated pastor can easily track and strive to meet their goals.

Moreover, being accountable keeps, you always engaged. A responsible person would not be distracted by unnecessary issues and hence is committed to keeping track of their goals. Even when a competent person is distracted, bored, or tied, understands that he/she is answerable to their course (Anshel et al., 2014). Further, responsibility is the fundamental goal of an effective leader. For instance, the pastor should be ultimately responsible for the progress they make. Being accountable for your actions would help you to eliminate excuses, avoid being distracted, and thus start taking positive steps. Accountability helps you to validate your ideas and thoughts.

Problems

The spiritual formation is being compromised by not having an effective and efficient leader in place. For instance, Sally is in charge of everything and is not encouraging teamwork in her ministry. She is always overworked and anxious to meet her goals. She fails to consult her staff, a factor which is making managing the church tiresome and compromising.

Personal assessment

I have learned from this scenario that A good team leader should set clear goals for the internal processes and develop a timeframe for every milestone. The timeline will ensure all team members are on schedule. They will keep track of their progress as the project's work proceeds. Moreover, the team manager should continuously review the performance of each member of the team. During the performance review meetings, they should outline the strengths of the processes and discuss areas to improve. Through this performance rating, the team members will be able to identify and see their development over time (Thompson & Thompson, 2018). Also, to manage internal processes, the team leader needs to build a good relationship with all the team members.

By doing so, the team leader will be able to understand every member of the team. They will be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each member and ensure mutual respect. Internal processes need to be managed to ensure all team members are actively playing their part in achieving their goals. Managing a team is quite a challenge for team leaders. However, there are simple processes that ensure the internal processes of an organization are well maintained. First, the team leader should establish ground rules. They should develop a reporting infrastructure where every team member will understand their role and whom to address when a problem arises (Puls et al., 2014). These ground rules will help solve conflicts quickly among the member, and the main goals will be focused on. The team leader should also steer the conversation.

They should give everyone a chance to contribute during meetings. Instead of offering the ideas first, these managers should provide an opportunity for anyone who wants to express their ideas first, therefore, involving everyone's thoughts. The managers should also encourage shy members to speak up to avoid conflicts due to unbalanced communications. Conducting training programs is another example of internal processes. Training of team members is an essential process of providing them with the information they require for them to succeed in their role. Training will give them a platform where they can ask questions and brainstorm among themselves. It will help enable them to feel appreciated and will help to develop themselves, thereby bridging the skill gap (Puls et al., 2014). This action will automatically improve their performance.

In conclusion, leaders may apply different approaches in leadership, including servant, authentic, and ethical leadership. Authentic leaders are more likely to promote genuine relationships between them and their employees. Conversely, the servant leadership approach involves the full commitment of leaders to serve their followers while considering their growth and development. Ethical leaders focus on promoting organizational performance and success as they mentor good behavior among employees and management. Moral leadership is a crucial process that not only leads to productivity and prosperity but also enhances the reputation of an organization. It involves setting high ethical standards in an organization and ensuring that employees do not violate them. Even though various leadership styles and approaches contribute differently to effective leadership, ethical leadership promotes ethical decision-making that, in turn, leads to the achievement of favorable organizational outcomes.

References

Puls, T. R., Ludden, L. L., & Freemyer, J. (2014). Authentic leadership and its relationship to ministerial effectiveness. Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, 8(1), 55-75.

Anshel, M. H., & Smith, M. (2014). The role of religious leaders in promoting healthy habits in religious institutions. Journal of religion and health, 53(4), 1046-1059.

Arnold, K. A., Connelly, C. E., Walsh, M. M., & Martin Ginis, K. A. (2015). Leadership styles, emotion regulation, and burnout. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(4), 481.