Healthy Teams: Where Faith and Function Collide - A Talk by Matt Regitz
This episode of the Petrus Development show features the keynote address by Matt Regitz of Divine Renovation at the Petrus Development Conference (PDC) in June. Matt joins conference participants to talk about the importance of healthy leadership teams in ministry. By contrasting the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful teams, Matt outlines specific ways in which pastors and lay leaders can work together to build thriving parishes and ministries.
Show Notes
Background
Matt Regitz comes to the Petrus Development Conference to share his experience in creating healthy leadership teams for Catholic parishes. Matt is a leadership coach for Divine Renovation, an organization dedicated to helping parishes build leadership teams that take the parish “from maintenance to mission.” Divine Renovation recognizes and addresses the pastoral and administrative challenges that clergy face and, in turn, they help pastors build a thriving parish, growing in engagement and in disciples.
Coaching Pyramid
Matt describes a pyramid of needs in the formation of flourishing parishes. In the pyramid, the bottom (largest!) four layers are foundational: (1) vision, (2) leadership, (3) structure, and (4) culture. The smallest, top layers includes strategy, tools and processes, and too often parishes rely unsuccessfully on the top layers, ignoring the larger more significant needs for shared vision and effective leadership.
Leadership Team Characteristics
After noting how few people have experiences with successful, high functioning teams, Matt leads conference participants in a discussion about the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful teams. Conference attendees agree that unsuccessful teams struggle with ego, pride, poor communication, lack of trust, and a multitude of other obstacles. In contrast, successful teams rely on mutual trust, shared vision, capable communication, and healthy conflict resolution.
Leading OUT of a Team
Matt explains one of the essential components of his coaching for Divine Renovation. As a coach, he is training pastors to not simply lead a team. He is training them to lead OUT of a team. Leading a team often relies solely on the management of a team of people through a process. Leading OUT of a team, however, requires that a leader/pastor is leading his team of people, all moving in the same direction, with a common vision and a common purpose. The team becomes a tool for a pastor to be a better leader himself, and it creates a model of shared leadership.
Non-Negotiables of a Team
To close, Matt shares his list of 4 non-negotiables of a successful leadership team. A successful leadership team (1) is united in vision, (2) has a balance of strengths, (3) allows for vulnerability and trust, and (4) is open to healthy conflict. Matt offers tips advice on how to pull together a team that meets all of these non-negotiable characteristics.
Closing Notes
For more information about Divine Renovation and their leadership coaching for parishes, check out their website at https://www.divinerenovation.org/.
Matt presented this talk at Petrus's June 2022 development conference. If you’d like to join Petrus for future live events, check out petrusdevelopment.com/raise
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