Meetings are an important tool you can use to achieve your mission. I’ve participated in good meetings. If you want to participate in good meetings more often, answer this question: What makes a good meeting good? Good meetings are on TARGET in terms of:

• Team purpose
• Assessment
• Results
• Guidelines
• Effective facilitation
• Types of meetings.

To get an idea of how you can make your meetings even more effective, complete the following assessment (download). Use the following scale:

4: Strongly Agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly Disagree
 
Team purpose
___ Our team’s purpose is documented.
___ Our team’s purpose targets mission achievement.
___ Our team’s purpose is understood by each team member.
___ Our team’s purpose statement is user-friendly.
___ Our team’s purpose is used as the filter for what gets on the agenda.
 
Assessment
___ We assess completion of assigned tasks.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of team purpose.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of achievement of targeted results.
___ We assess meeting effectiveness in terms of abiding by meeting guidelines.
___ We use assessment at each meeting.
___ Each team member is involved in assessment.
 
Results
___ We identify results for a given meeting before the meeting.
___ We use the SMART goal format to list our targeted meetings results on our agenda.
___ Our targeted meeting results target mission achievement.
___ We achieve our targeted results at each meeting.
 
Guidelines
___ We developed our meeting guidelines collaboratively.
___ Our guidelines define our desired team dynamics.
___ Our guidelines support the achievement of our team purpose and our mission.
___ Each team member abides by the guidelines.
 
Effective facilitation
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the team purpose
___ The facilitation focuses our team on achieving the targeted results.

Types of meetings
___ Our team members understand that there are different types of meetings.
___ We use a schedule of different types of meetings to address tactics, strategy, and vision.


Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What satisfies/frustrates me about the data?
3. To improve your meetings, which 1-2 of the 6 TARGET areas could you address?
4. What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Improve your meetings Today.

By focusing, working smart, and pursuing excellence. To get an idea of how you can manage yourself more effectively, take the following assessment (download). Write the number in the blank that comes closest to representing how true a given statement is for you right now. Use the following scale:

4: Consistently • 3: Usually • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely

Focus
___ I focus on joining God in what he is already doing.
___ I focus on doing right things, before I focus on doing things right.
___ I focus on my God-given mission.
___ I have defined my mission in terms of SMART goals.
___ I understand how my mission, goals, and daily activities are connected.

Work smart
___ I ask God for help.
___ I think big. For example, I ask myself questions like “What 3 dreams do I want to realize?”
___ I think clearly.
___ I think outside the box.
___ I document my goals.
___ I determine the actions steps I will take to achieve my goals.
___ I take SMART action.
___ I schedule my action steps.
___ I schedule my big goals first.
___ I plan backwards.
___ I track my progress on my goals.
___ I reflect on my goals.
___ I find better ways to achieve my goals.

Pursue excellence
___ I pursue my goals.
___ Before I start working on my goals, I get the resources I need.
___ I get the support, encouragement, and accountability I need to achieve my goals.
___ I pay attention to my goals (because I know that what I pay attention to gets done).
___ I target my strengths.
___ I eliminate my frustrations.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What excites/concerns me about the data?
3. What helps me increase my self-management?
4. What hinders me from increasing my self-management?
5. What will I do?

Work smart. Increase your self-management. Today.

You want to serve God more effectively. So do I. God has done great things for me, and out of gratitude, I want serve even more effectively.
 
One thing that helps me increase my effectiveness is focusing. Focusing on God, on what He’s calling me to do, on what’s going on, and on action steps I need to take so I can serve effectively.
 
Questions help me focus. Questions like:

1. What’s your organization’s God-given mission?
2. What’s it take to achieve your organization’s God-given mission?
3. How can you measure mission achievement?
4. How can you identify key performance indicators?
5. How can you use key performance indicators to achieve your mission?

To get started, how about discussing the above questions at a team meeting?
 
Get focused. Reflect on some questions. Today.

You want improve your organization’s improvement system. You want to target things like stakeholder involvement, staff focus, and staff accountability. And you want to start by analyzing what’s currently going on.

Question: What can you do?

Answer: You can take the following self-assessment (customized for a school). Rate each item, using the following scale:

4: Strongly agree • 3: Agree • 2: Disagree • 1: Strongly disagree

Stakeholder involvement
___ Students support the improvement plans.
___ Parents support the improvement plans.
___ Staff support the improvement plans.
___ Leaders support the improvement plans.

___ Students are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Parents are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Staff are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Leaders are involved in implementing the improvement plans.
___ Stakeholders support and are involved in implementing the improvement plans.


Staff focus
___ Staff talk about organizational improvement.
___ Staff make proposals regarding organizational improvement.
___ Staff work on organizational improvement.
___ Staff hold each other accountable for organizational improvement.
___ Staff are disappointed when improvement goals are not reached.
___ Staff focus on organizational improvement.


Mission-driven improvement
___ Our improvement plans are documented.
___ Our improvement plans target mission achievement.
___ Our improvement plans drive organizational improvement.
___ Our organization’s improvement is driven by documented plans that target mission achievement.


Improvement plans guide work
___ Staff understand the improvement plans.
___ Staff know which improvement plans they are to implement.
___ Staff can explain their role in a given improvement plan.
___ Staff implement the improvement plans.
___ Improvement plans guide staff work.


Staff accountability
___ Leaders hold staff accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold each other accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff hold themselves accountable to implement the improvement plans.
___ Staff are held accountable to implement the improvement plans.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
3. In terms of enhancing organizational improvement, how would I prioritize the 5 areas?
4. What might happen if I addressed the top priority area?
5. What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Enhance your organization’s improvement system. Today.

You want to close the gap. You know that enhancing your organization’s improvement system can help. So, you want to learn more.

Question: How can you learn more enhancing organizational improvement?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 6 questions.

1. How well does your staff understand what’s involved in organizational improvement?
2. How involved are your stakeholders in organizational improvement?
3. How focused is your staff on organizational improvement?
4. What drives your organization’s improvement?
5. To what extent do improvement plans guide staff work?
6. To what extent are staff held accountable for improvement plans?

*To learn more, take this self-assessment.

How focused are you on your God-given mission? To find out, take the following self-assessment (download). Rate each item in terms of how it describes you and your situation. Use the following scale:

4: Definitely • 3: Usually • 2: Sometimes • 1: Rarely

___ I’m comfortable reciting the mission verbatim in casual conversation.
___ Each day I talk with others about the mission.
___ I tell stories about the mission being implemented.
___ I provide opportunities for others to tell stories about the mission being implemented.

___ I know what it takes to achieve the mission.
___ I can readily explain how each of my daily activities contributes to achieving the mission.
___ I help others understand how they contribute to achieving the mission.

___ I know the current level of mission achievement.
___ I measure the achievement of my mission.
___ I use a scorecard to to measure the achievement of my mission?
___ I use meetings to celebrate progress on achieving the mission.

___ I focus on closing the gap between current and targeted levels of mission achievement.
___ I get the training I need to carry out the mission.
___ I provide others with the training they need to carry out the mission.
___ When making proposals, I explain how the proposal targets mission achievement.
___ When others make proposals, I ask, “How will this help us achieve the mission?”

___ To increase my focus on my mission, I know what I need to keep doing, start doing, stop doing.
___ I’m focused on achieving the mission.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about the data?
3. What helps me increase my focus on my God-given mission?
4. What hinders me?
5. What will I do?
   

Increase your focus on your God-given mission. Today.


Resources:

• Video
• Tutorial: To learn more about achieving your mission, explore these 4 questions
• Know where you are and where you want to go
• Want to achieve your goals?

You want to your organization to achieve its God-given mission. You know that enhancing your organization’s professional development can help. So, you want to learn more.

Question: How can you learn more about enhancing your organization’s professional development?

Answer: By exploring the following list of 6 questions:

1. What do you want to focus your organization’s professional development on?
2. What are the components of a professional development plan?
3. What do you believe about professional development?
4. How can you enhance your organization's professional development program?
5. How can you increase the impact of professional development?
6. What are your organization's professional development needs?

Pursue excellence. Enhance your organization’s professional development. Today.

You want to learn more about achieving your God-given mission. You want deepen your understanding of:

1. Your mission
2. What it takes to achieve your mission
3. How you’re doing on achieving your mission
4. How you can close the gap between the words of your mission and the reality of your situation

Question: How can you learn more about achieving your mission?

Answer: By exploring the following 4 questions:

(1) What’s your God-given mission?

1. What is a mission statement?
2. What makes a good mission statement good?
3. How important is your God-given mission?
4. How can you unleash the power of your mission statement?
5. How focused are you on your God-given mission?
6. How can you be a good steward of your God-given mission?

(2) What’s your definition of mission achievement?

1. If you don’t define the achievement of your God-given mission, how effectively can you work?
2. What does it take to achieve your mission?
3. To achieve your God-given mission, what has to be accomplished? To what degree?
4. How does defining the mission help?
5. What do you need to do to effectively define mission achievement?
6. How can you define what it takes to carry out your school's mission?

(3) To what extent are you achieving your mission?

1. What do you need to know?
2. If you don’t measure the achievement of your mission, how effectively can you lead?
3. How does measuring the mission help?
4. How can measurement help you increase your focus on your mission?
5. How can a scorecard help you increase your focus on your mission?

(4) What will you do to close the gap?

1. Are you a player or a spectator?
2. How focused are you on closing the gap?
3. What can you do to close the gap?
4. How can getting coaching help you close the gap?
5. How can you maintain and increase commitment, participation, and accountability?

Remember: The real question isn't "How can you learn more about achieving your mission?" The real question is "What will you do to achieve your mission?"

Resources:

1. Video: To achieve your God-given mission, make sure of 4 things
2. Self-assessment: How focused are you on your God-given mission?
3. Tutorial: Empower others to strategically pursue God’s calling
4. Define mission achievement in terms of measurable student learning
5. Know where you are and where you want to go
6. Measure mission achievement
7. Measure and report achievement of schoolwide objectives
8. Want to achieve your goals?

You want improve in planning. You know this is going to feel like climbing a steep set of steps, so you decide to take it 1 step at a time.
 
Question: How can you climb the next step?
 
To find out:

• Read about the 5 developmental steps (below).
• Then, use some reflection questions to identify what you will do to climb the next step.

 
Here are the 5 steps:
 
Step 1: You work.
You’re a missionary, you’re out of language school, and you’ve just started doing full-time ministry. You’re sitting in a room, getting introduced to other missionaries. Each person introduces him/herself by name and job title. Your turn comes, and you say, “Roger, evangelist.”
 
A few weeks later, you’re out walking in your neighborhood. You’re feeling a little fuzzy about your ministry. And you find yourself thinking, “What’s my plan?” A few days later, you take time to pray and to write out your plan. It describes the activities you want to do, for example, teaching English Bible classes, making and distributing tracts, and talking with those in your neighborhood. You look at your plan and feel better.
 
 
Step 2: You work, and you have a documented plan.
You look at your plan every once in awhile. But you notice that having a plan hasn’t helped you as much you thought it would. You think maybe that’s because your plan isn’t as good as it should be. You wonder, “How good is my plan?”
 
You take a look at your plan, pray, and decide to revise it. Instead of just listing your activities, you decide to:

• List your overarching ministry purpose, the 4-6 goals you need to accomplish in order to achieve your overarching ministry purpose, and the key activities you need to do for each of your goals.
• Make everything SMART: Specific • Measurable • Attainable • Relevant • Timebound.
• Keep your plan to 1 page.

 
Step 3: You work, and you have good documented plan.
You continue to look at your plan every once in awhile. And you notice that upgrading your plan hasn’t helped you as much you thought it would. You find yourself asking, “How can I really use my plan?”
 
A couple of days later, you read an article about paying attention to your goals. The article suggests that you review your goals on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and annual basis. You pray about it and decide to do this. And you decide to measure your progress on your goals and to reflect each month by talking with a fellow missionary about ministry progress. You know that reviewing your goals, measuring your progress, and reflecting will take time, but you think it’ll be worth it.
 
 
Step 4: You intentionally use your plan to guide your work.
As a result of reviewing your goals, measuring your progress, and reflecting, you find that you’re using your plan a lot more to guide your work. And you find that you’re more clear about what you want to accomplish. So, you improve your plan by putting in better activities, revising your goals, and by tightening the alignment between your overarching ministry purpose, goals, and activities. You share your “improved” plan with colleagues, invite feedback, and use feedback to further improve your plan.

In addition, you increasingly recognize that you have limited time, energy, and abilities. You find yourself wondering, “How can I manage myself better? How can I get more focused, work smarter, and pursue excellence?”
 
You pray, watch a video, read an article, take a self-assessment, and explore getting a coach. As a result, you decide to get a coach. Your coach empowers you to:

• Identify what helps you focus.
• Target your strengths and reduce your frustrations.
• Determine the amount of time you will invest in each goal.
• Identify 3 articles you will read about best practices in evangelism.

 
Step 5: You think success is being a person who is focused, works smart, and pursues excellence.
As a result of working with your coach and using your plan to guide your work, you find that you’re more focused, working smarter, and intentionally pursuing excellence.
 
And you’ve shifted your thinking about success. Instead of thinking that success is having a plan or even achieving a plan, you now think success is being a person who is focused, works smart, and pursues excellence—as evidenced by the achievement of your plan.
 
You’re wondering, “How can I empower others to strategically pursue God’s calling?” You pray, and you watch a video and take a self-assessment on leading by asking questions. And you decide to apply your learning to empower others to reflect, get clear, focus, prioritize, and pay attention to their goals.
 
 
Now, ask yourself the following 5 questions:

1. Which “step” best describes me? (Be brutally honest. When doubt, choose the earlier stage.)
2. How do I feel about being on this “step”?
3. In terms of climbing the next step, what helps/hinders me?
4. To climb the next step, what do I need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
5. What will I do to climb the next step?

Improve your planning. Start climbing the next step. Today.

You want your school to achieve its mission. You know you need to define what it takes to achieve your school’s mission. You’ve hear that developing student objectives (schoolwide learning outcomes) might help. So, you want to learn more. Good.

Question: How can you learn more about developing student objectives?

Answer: By exploring the following 7 questions:

1. How can you define what it takes to carry out your school's mission?
2. Are student objectives right for you and your school?
3. What's developing student objectives look like?
4. What questions should you consider before developing student objectives?
5. What makes good student objectives good?
6. What are some reasons for developing student objectives?
7. How are mission, student objectives, and curriculum connected?

Focus on your mission. Use student objectives to define the achievement of your mission. Today.

To close the gap between the words of your mission statement and the reality of your current situation, do 4 things: focus on your mission, empower others, work smart, and pursue excellence.



To what extent do staff in your organization do these 4 things? To find out, take the following self-assessment (download). Rate each item in terms of how well it describes what your staff do. Use the following scale: 

4: Definitely • 3: Usually • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely


Focus on mission
___ We comfortably recite the mission verbatim in casual conversation.
___ We know what it takes to achieve our mission.
___ We can readily explain how each of our daily activities contributes to achieving the mission.
___ We know the current level of mission achievement.
___ We focus on closing the gap between current and targeted levels of mission achievement.
___ We focus on our God-given mission (instead of other good things).

Empower others
___ We listen (instead of talking).
___ We inquire (instead of giving advice).
___ We lead by asking questions.
___ We focus others on taking SMART actions (instead of letting others take undefined actions).
___ We encourage (instead of criticizing).
___ We empower others to solve their own problems (instead of solving their problems).

Work smart
___ We focus on doing right things, before focusing on doing things right.
___ We document our goals.
___ We reflect on our goals.
___ We determine the action steps we need to take to achieve our goals.
___ We schedule time for our big goals first, then schedule time for small goals (like email).
___ We track progress on our goals.
___ We focus on working smarter (not harder).

Pursue excellence
___ We are aware of best practices that help us carry our mission, strategic plan, and specific job assignments.
___ We have documented our best practices.
___ Our professional development program reflect best practice.
___ Our improvement system reflects best practice.
___ Our meetings reflect best practice.
___ We use best practice to care for staff.
___ We use best practice.
___ We pursue excellence.


Now, ask yourself 5 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What satisfies/concerns me about the data?
3. In terms of providing professional development, how would I prioritize the 4 areas?
4. What might happen if the professional development needs in the top area were met?
5. What will I do?

Pursue excellence. Improve your organization’s professional development. Today.


*Need professional development resources? Close the Gap Now offers live training (coach and productivity) and free tutorials/tools:

1. How focused are you on your God-given mission?
2. Explore getting coaching
3. How can you empower others more effectively?
4. Empower others to strategically pursue God’s calling
5. Lead by asking questions
6. Develop a coaching culture
7. How can you manage yourself more effectively?
8. Energize, focus, and unleash your staff
9. Enhance your organization’s improvement system
10. How can you enhance your organization’s professional development program?
11. What makes a good meeting good?

As an administrator at an international Christian school, you know that staff play a vital role in carrying out the mission. Because your care about your staff, want to be good a steward of the staff God has provided, and want your school to carry out its God-given mission, you ask yourself, “How can we energize, focus, and unleash staff both personally and professionally?”

To find out, take the following self-assessment. Rate each item in terms of how well it describes how you energize, focus, and unleash staff. Use the following scale:

4: Definitely • 3: Usually • 2: Sort of • 1: Rarely

Personal life:
___ 1. We have daily staff devotions.
___ 2. We have fun together throughout the year (for example, wedding and baby showers, meals, outings).
___ 3. We provide specials (for example, pottery classes and access to fitness equipment).
___ 4. We provide mentoring/life coaching to help staff balance work/home and maintain good health.
___ 5. New staff are assigned a buddy to help them get settled.
___ 6. We provide language instruction.
___ 7. We provide assistance with medical/dental visits.
___ 8. We support staff in their personal lives.
___ 9. Staff feel supported in their personal lives.

Professional life:
___ 1. An all-day help desk is available for the first week of school.
___ 2. New staff are assigned a mentor to help them with their work.
___ 3. We provide coaching to help staff grow professionally.
___ 4. Staff are assigned to a professional learning community/team.
___ 5. Staff participate in professional development each week.
___ 6. We reflect together about our work.
___ 7. Supervisors provide accountability/feedback to staff.
___ 8. Supervisors provide feedback to new staff within the first 2 months of classes.
___ 9. Principals demonstrate interest in what's happening in classrooms (for example, by doing walkthroughs).
___ 10. Principals invite teachers to share student work samples.
___ 11. Principals give teachers feedback on student work.
___ 12. We support staff in their professional lives.
___ 13. Staff feel supported in their professional lives.


Now, ask yourself 4 questions about the data:

1. How many 4s, 3s, 2s, and 1s do I have?
2. What’s satisfying/unsatisfying about the data?
3. To energize, focus, and unleash staff, what do I need to keep doing? start doing? stop doing?
4. What will I do? (If you’d like to learn more about developing a staff stewardship plan, click here.)

Pursue excellence. Energize, focus, and unleash your staff. Today.