As a supervisor you have to care about principles and people.
- Your people are your staff.
- And your principles are the rules, sayings, maxims, axioms, and proverbs you want them to live by while at work.
It’s imperative that you find an appropriate balance between caring about principles and people.
- If you care too much about principles (everyone following your rules) your relationships will suffer. That is, you will do relational damage by constantly calling people to the carpet for not living up to your expectations. No one wants to keep working for someone who is constantly telling them they’re missing the mark.
- Conversely, if you care too much about people (and don’t coach them as needed because you’re afraid of hurting their feelings) your department will suffer. Nobody wants to make their staff feel bad but you can’t be derelict in your responsibility to coach, correct and develop your staff for fear of doing so.
Historically I’ve tended to lean towards caring more about principles than people, but have found a healthier balance by learning to ask three important questions anytime someone fails to live up to one of my principles.
- Are the quarterly stats good right now?
- Is this the highest priority right now?
- Is this something I can let go? When Paul says that love bears all things (1 Corinthians 13:7a) this basically speaks to choosing to overlook minor annoyances and wrongs vs making a big deal out of every issue.
If the quarterly stats for the church are good and the quarterly stats for that person’s department are good, then you have to ask yourself: Is there really need for correction and coaching right now? If your key metrics are down then the answer is an unequivocal yes, but if they’re up you might choose to let the infraction go.
Likewise, if correcting whatever your staff did wrong isn’t your top priority, then as nice as it would be to take the time (and emotional energy) to pull them aside, you really don’t have that luxury. If you have a priority that’s higher than whatever’s just taken place (that you haven’t attended to) it would be wrong for you to ignore your higher priority to give attention to a lesser one.
Finally, while you definitely need to address any major violations that might hurt the ministry, there are some things that you can overlook and just let go. And when you can, you should. Both Matthew 18:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 5 let us know that there are times to confront serious sins or grave injustices. But from 1 Corinthians 13:7a we learn that it’s ok (and loving) to let the little stuff go.
Asking these three questions has allowed me to let more stuff go, which has created a much healthier balance between principles and people.
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Which do you tend to favor? Principles or people? And how might you find a healthier balance between the two?