The truth is whether you are a leader or not you are setting an expectation.
I'll talk about what this means in your worship leading in a future post but for now let's examine what this means for leading your team.
You set the expectation. Don't allow others to set it for you.
This means three things: clearly communicate the expectations, you have to lead by example, and you have to enforce the expectations you've set.
1 | Clearly communicate the expectations
This is truly the first line of defense and, unfortunately, it's where we as leaders often fail the most. It's so easy to have unstated expectations because we think they're obvious or we simply don't feel like constantly communicating them to people. This leads to uncertainty in our teams as to what's expected of them. Do you want people to arrive to rehearsal on time? TELL THEM (and actually start your rehearsals on time - they'll get the picture)! Do you want people to have their music memorized? TELL THEM! Do you want Jimmy the 14-year old bass player to stop taking selfies while you're running through Reckless Love? TELL HIM! We have to communicate our expectations if we want people to follow them.
2 | Lead by example
People will not follow the expectations you set if you aren't following them yourself. If you want people to be prepared, you have to be the most prepared person on the team. Show them what it looks like! If you want people to be on time, you have to be on time! Simple as that.
3 | Enforce the expectations
This is the hardest part. These are the hard conversations. Sometimes this means asking someone who didn't make practice a priority for the week to sit out on Sunday. Sometimes it means sitting down one on one with someone and just asking, "what's going on Jimmy? I've notice you've been on Instagram a lot while we're playing Reckless Love." You can only successfully enforce expectations when you've clearly communicated them and modeled them yourself.
Start the expectation conversation with your team this week at rehearsal. Clearly communicate them, actually hold yourself to them, and then enforce them.
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