Like most aspects of life, good ministry leadership requires a team approach. And as the leader of a team, it’s your job to let them know they are appreciated!
Who is on your team? Clarifying who is on your team is one part of the process. You have your obvious teams – your staff, council, chairs, and church leaders. These folks need to be thanked often. But you also may have people who are partnering with you to accomplish great things in life – your family, your friends, and people who are serving in behind the scenes roles. You may not always think of them as part of your team, but they need to be thanked. Act with intentionality by thanking your team members today!
Here are five ways to thank your team members and let them know they are appreciated and loved.
Old Fashioned Thank You Notes
Send notes when something great happens. Send thank you notes after big events, tough seasons, major meetings or votes. Send thanks when someone gives you great feedback or when they have help accomplished something of significance. Be sure to make these personal. Handwriting notes really makes it nice.
Use Social Media
One easy and free way to thank people is to make it public on social media. Don’t overdo it, and always make is sincere, but be generous with this kind of thanks. Take a picture of your leadership team and tag them in a post, tweet a thanks to individual team members, include the event, project or ministry role on instagram and make sure your team gets tagged. Showing your appreciation on social media not only impacts the team members privately, but also adds a level of public praise for your folks.
Send A Gift Card or Certificate
Sending a small token of appreciation is always loved. Ice cream coupons or coffee gift certificates are always something simple that can be sent along with a thank you note. If you’re just sending something to one person, it can be larger gift cards. Practice sending a gift to your team on their birthdays each year. Anything of this nature makes an impact. Be as generous as possible!
Develop Community
The reason for saying thanks is because it fulfills one of the needs of people – to feel like they belong and that what they do matters. A genuine thank you note helps people know they are part of something, that someone notices what they are doing and that it is appreciated. Thank you notes help build intentional community. Another way to help thank your teams and give them a sense of community is through access to you. Build the boundaries you need, but give your key team members access to you through text, phone and time to talk.
Develop Them
This last one may not always be easy, but another way to thank your team is to continually invite them into more. Help them grow in their gifts, offer training, equipping and opportunities for owning their role with the ministry or organization. Take them with you for training events and seminars. Give them greater roles and more opportunity. Keep building the organization. The greatest motivator for volunteer is success. Get a vision for growing the ministry with your team and give them a tangible role in it.
Make thanking your team part of your weekly and monthly routines. One of the things I do is to put a repeated item on my calendar that reminds me to send thanks to people in my circles. Make it a habit!
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