Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Doris Gothard
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000456A
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00:29 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn,
00:30 and we welcome you again to Issues and Answers. 00:33 Today, we have returning to us Doris Gothard 00:35 who is a very talented woman, 00:38 she has a degree in pure mathematics 00:41 with a minor in engineering, not too many women pursue that. 00:45 Not many. 00:46 And she comes to us from Washington, Michigan. 00:50 I thought that was a mistake when I first saw that, 00:53 but that's where she lives. 00:54 And she's just a precious person 00:56 but has so much experience. 00:58 She was a corporate manager for General Motors Systems... 01:03 excuse me, Electronic Data Systems, 01:06 and has years of experience in the corporate world. 01:09 But what the Lord has done is allowed her 01:11 to take that experience, she now works... 01:15 I met her actually at a women's ministry function 01:18 where we were both keynote speakers 01:20 and she has taken her leadership 01:24 and team building experience into the church. 01:29 She also is very active in her local government, I would say. 01:33 Yeah. 01:35 She's just a delightful person and so is her precious 01:37 and good looking husband. 01:39 I just love your husband. 01:41 Let me introduce Doris Gothard. 01:43 Doris, thank you for being with us again. 01:46 Shelley, thank you for having me. 01:48 Yes, well, we just really enjoy, 01:50 I fell in love with you when I first met you. 01:53 You were telling the story of when you and Donald met 01:56 and you were like two little lightning bugs. 01:59 And I'll never forget, we won't go into that now, 02:02 but that was the best presentation. 02:06 We had a great time together, we did. 02:08 We're talking about team building today, 02:11 and we've got so much to talk about, 02:13 I'd like to jump right into it. 02:16 What do you think 02:18 is the most important foundation 02:19 for having a successful team? 02:24 Well, I think you need to have a very good leader, 02:27 and we've talked about that, 02:29 and you need to have good people 02:30 for a successful team. 02:33 I am passionate about this subject, 02:35 and then I'll let you ask me another question, 02:39 but I'm very passionate about this subject 02:40 because I love ministry 02:44 and I love being a worker in my church. 02:47 Did you know that most of the people 02:50 that we have in churches, not just my church 02:53 but in every church worldwide, 02:55 they're volunteers, they are unpaid workers, 03:02 many of whom come to work every day, 03:05 but it's service to them and it's ministry to them. 03:07 And so I just want to share a few ideas from my experience, 03:11 even though most of my work experience 03:13 was in corporate America, 03:15 but I've got some experience also in working in community 03:18 and in the church and working on a team in my home. 03:21 My husband and I make up a fantastic team in my home, 03:25 so I'm excited about sharing a few things today. 03:27 Surely. 03:29 How important do you think, even sometimes, 03:32 I have seen good leaders 03:34 with good team members around them, 03:38 and the team is floundering 03:40 because they don't have clear goals. 03:44 How important is goal setting to good success of the team? 03:50 Goal setting is important, but first, let me say 03:56 because I like images of things, 03:58 and for the purpose of our discussion here today, 04:02 I created a pie chart 04:04 of how learning takes place on a team. 04:10 And so if you are a member of a team, 04:11 or you are interested in joining a team, 04:14 whether it's on your job, or in the community, 04:17 or in the church, 04:19 and the church is made up of many, many, many teams 04:22 but overall one big team, 04:25 and that's the members in the church. 04:27 And sometimes, 04:29 in many of our ministry programs, 04:31 we have a little difficulty getting started. 04:34 And we have some difficulty in ending, 04:37 but 70% of the knowledge that you gain 04:41 and how to be 04:43 an effective member of the team 04:45 comes from actually volunteering 04:48 or being asked to serve on that team, 04:51 20% of the knowledge that one learns and gains 04:56 about how to be an effective team member 04:59 comes from the role models 05:01 and from those individuals that are on the team, 05:03 or in the church, or in the community 05:05 that will give you feedback. 05:06 Now in one of those areas that I just mentioned, 05:08 we never really have to worry about 05:10 people in our churches 05:12 giving us a little feedback about what they think. 05:16 That's true. 05:18 You know, you may be a little less inclined 05:20 on your job to really be honest 05:23 and upfront and candid with some employee 05:27 on your job or team member on your job, 05:29 but in the church, from my experience, 05:31 my members are not short 05:34 on giving me their feedback 05:36 in terms of their feelings about my role 05:39 or participation on any project team 05:41 that we have there in the church. 05:42 But clear goals is the question that you ask, 05:46 they're important 05:48 because the team needs to know 05:51 the purpose of the team. 05:52 Right. 05:54 What is our purpose 05:56 in the worldwide church 05:58 that you and I belong? 06:00 We have a mission, 06:02 spreading the three angels' gospel, 06:06 telling the world that Jesus Christ is soon to come. 06:10 Now each person I believe has a ministry purpose. 06:14 And if you don't know what that purposes is, 06:16 then you just need to have a little talk with Jesus 06:17 and ask him, 06:19 "What is my purpose here on this earth? 06:20 What is my purpose in life?" 06:22 But clear goals on any formalized or informal team, 06:26 if the leader does not make sure 06:28 that there are clear goals, then there will be, 06:31 and the term that I used is floundering, 06:34 you'll have difficulty starting 06:39 and you'll have difficulty in how to end. 06:42 So floundering takes place 06:45 when you don't have clear goals on your team. 06:48 Not only clear goals 06:49 but how about clearly defined roles? 06:54 When people are in a team that they don't know, 06:59 you know, if you can say this is what 07:01 we want to do, now let's do it, 07:04 my experience has been 07:06 if someone hasn't been assigned a certain responsibility, 07:10 there's no accountability for that to get done. 07:13 You can say, you know, we need to get this church, 07:17 let's say, it's the reception room, 07:19 "Okay, we need to get this cleaned up." 07:21 Okay, and then we want to do, you line out, 07:24 but if you don't tell someone, 07:25 "Okay, you need to do this part, 07:27 you take the kitchen, you do this," 07:29 it doesn't seem like anything gets done 07:31 if it's just a corporate role, 07:34 we have to kind of break that down, 07:35 would you agree? 07:37 I agree, and let me tell you, 07:38 what you have just asked is very important. 07:41 Now of course I have not had it secret 07:44 that I love to cook in my home, 07:45 I love cooking for my husband, and I love to bake. 07:49 So let's just use this 07:51 in the context of an ingredient 07:55 that goes into baking your special whatever that is, 07:58 whether it's a dessert or an entrée. 08:03 When you don't have clearly defined 08:06 roles and responsibilities in the church, on the job, 08:12 or if you are a community activist, 08:15 or in your home, 08:16 if there aren't clearly defined roles and responsibilities, 08:20 guess what you get? 08:21 Nothing. 08:23 You get confusions. Absolutely. 08:25 It's confusion. 08:27 It's like trying to bake a cake and then you don't remember 08:31 what ingredient you put in last. 08:33 Right. 08:34 You know, you will have absolute confusion. 08:36 So this was so important 08:37 until I made a couple of notes here, 08:39 so let me just read you the first line, 08:41 that goes this is so important, I want to script this. 08:45 No one wants confusion in the church, 08:50 on the job, in the home, 08:53 or on a team. 08:54 No one would desire confusion. 08:57 Clearly defined goals and responsibilities 09:00 for every single member of the household, 09:03 for members of a team, 09:05 is an important ingredient 09:08 because you don't want there to be any confusion 09:12 about what your role and responsibility is. 09:15 Amen. 09:16 And any project that I'm invited 09:19 to participate, 09:21 that's a basic question that I will have, 09:23 what role, what responsibility. 09:27 And I have learned to ask that. 09:29 From experience? 09:31 Yes, often I have been, 09:33 somebody will come to me 09:34 and ask me to join an organization 09:36 or they'll take on a role. 09:37 And if you are asked to be part of a committee 09:40 or part of a group, a team effort, 09:44 if I don't ask what role in advance 09:47 what I often find is suddenly, 09:49 "I'm the one that's heading this up 09:51 and it wasn't my idea. 09:52 That's right. 09:53 So, you know, you may be taking on 09:55 more responsibility than you want to assume 09:57 or have time to commit to the project. 10:01 And I would say, that's not always, you know, 10:03 your fault or the team member's fault 10:06 because if you were never given 10:09 your clearly defined role and responsibility, 10:13 then I don't think it's necessarily fair 10:15 to suggest that Shelley is trying to take over, 10:17 she's trying to run things. 10:19 You know, that's not usually what it is. 10:20 It's usually, "Okay, we've got you on the team. 10:22 Okay, what do we do?" And it's like, "Oops, wait." 10:24 I wasn't planning on, you know, managing the team 10:28 or leading the team, I should say. 10:29 I was only wanting to, you know, 10:32 I can commit this much time 10:33 and you're suddenly asking me to oversee the entire project, 10:36 so that's something that's very important to me 10:38 is to find the goals... 10:41 what the expected roles are, clearly defined roles. 10:44 So we have clearly defined goals. 10:47 Yes. Clearly defined roles. 10:49 Now let's talk about clear communication 10:51 because I know 10:53 that's an important ingredient to team building. 10:55 It is. 10:56 And for me, and this comes from experience too 11:00 because I've spent so many years in leadership, 11:03 but I can sit back quietly 11:06 and observe an organization, 11:09 observe a team, observe a board, 11:14 observe an executive committee, 11:17 and it doesn't take me very long 11:19 to get a sense of this ingredient 11:24 and that is if communication is not clear, 11:28 it doesn't take long 11:29 to determine that the team members, 11:32 the committee members, the board members, 11:35 they don't have clear communications 11:38 about what is being discussed 11:40 and what is being required of them. 11:42 That gives a true indicator 11:44 as to how well that team or that board is being run. 11:47 Communication is key. 11:50 And whenever you have clear communications, 11:52 you will know that everybody is working in sync, 11:55 I might use language sometimes because I spent so many years 11:58 working in an environment where everything that we did 12:00 was to support an automobile company. 12:02 Yes. 12:04 And, you know, any leader 12:07 working in the automobile industry 12:09 during the time that I spent my working career, 12:12 they would identify these terms 12:15 that the success of this corporation, 12:18 the success of this company will be dependent upon 12:24 how well this team, and at the time, 12:26 we had more than 80,000 plus employees that were working, 12:30 you know, for GM at the time, they are far less today. 12:34 But it was determined 12:35 based upon the success of the team, 12:38 how well the team worked together. 12:41 Think of a car, think of a truck, 12:44 most cars and trucks have four wheels, 12:48 teamwork is working together toward a common goal 12:52 that everybody knows what it is, 12:54 you know the purpose, 12:55 so that each one of those wheels 12:58 on that truck, on that car are moving in sync 13:01 so that that car would move and that truck would move. 13:04 I'm inspired myself. 13:06 I feel like I want to go back to work. 13:09 But teamwork is key 13:11 when everybody is working together, 13:13 very much like you have here at the studio, 13:15 everybody has a role and a responsibility, 13:18 and they are performing those roles 13:20 while you and I are having this conversation 13:22 about team building. 13:23 And clear communication is very critical. 13:27 Sometimes, you will go to... 13:30 My schedule is very jam packed. 13:33 And often if I allow 45 minutes for a meeting, 13:37 45 minutes is all I can give to a particular meeting. 13:41 And if you're in there and I'm leading the meeting 13:44 and someone's coming in late 13:46 and they're critical 13:47 to the procedure or the process, 13:51 you may have to catch them up, 13:52 then suddenly I will find myself 13:55 sometimes trying to explain something 13:58 and you've got someone 13:59 who's constantly popping their hand up, 14:02 not allowing you to give an overview, 14:04 to give a clear communication, you know, 14:06 and defining your purposes and all, 14:08 and it becomes very frustrating for a leader, 14:11 so you have to learn 14:13 how to clearly communicate the importance of the overview, 14:17 you have to learn to, you know, 14:20 with all these different personality styles, 14:22 how to communicate with them in a way that won't offend them 14:24 but that they are not detracting from the team 14:27 because there's always someone like that. 14:29 And that brings us to your point, 14:33 and I think it's a very critical point, 14:35 of we have to learn to be Christ like 14:41 in our behavior if we are a leader. 14:44 And it's important that the whole team model 14:48 that Christ-like behavior. 14:51 Let me begin by saying, 14:54 today I believe is the first time 14:59 that I have ever been a part of a program 15:03 in an environment such as we are here at 3ABN 15:06 where I have the freedom to use the terminology 15:10 that I'm going to use today 15:12 and talking about the need to have 15:15 Christ-like behavior demonstrated by individuals 15:19 who are participating on the team. 15:21 Now as you well know, in the corporate environment, 15:23 I would not be able to convene my staff 15:27 and have a discussion with them 15:29 about how we really need to have some improvement 15:32 in their Christ-like behavior on our team. 15:35 I wouldn't be able to express it in that context, 15:38 but what I want to tell the world today is that 15:42 in corporate environments, 15:45 and I'm a Christian, 15:46 in corporate environments, from my experience, 15:50 I believe we use biblical principles. 15:56 Different vernacular. 15:57 Exactly, different vernacular, 15:59 as a matter of fact, what I want to spend... 16:01 If we have the time, I want to spend a little time 16:04 sharing with you very specifically 16:07 some values that, as a corporate leader, 16:11 they were ingrained in me 16:13 and anybody that worked on my team, 16:14 any manager, any supervisor, any employee, 16:17 there were certain values 16:19 for the corporation that I worked for 16:21 that we reviewed at every staff meeting, 16:24 every single staff meeting. 16:26 And when I took a closer look at them 16:29 in preparation for having this conversation with you, 16:31 I realized that they were values 16:35 that every Christian holds very dear, 16:39 I believe, and if they don't, 16:41 I hope after our discussion today, 16:42 when they review what we have talked about, 16:44 they will say we need to model some of the same values. 16:48 These are Christ-like values that corporate individuals do. 16:52 You know, I have to just interject if I may here. 16:55 I have found that most self-improvement, 16:59 most I'm saying, most self-improvement gurus 17:05 are using biblical principles, 17:08 and often, they'll have some biblical principles. 17:12 You can just see exactly where they've taken them 17:15 from the Bible, 17:16 and they just put different labels on them, 17:19 and it's interesting to me that we find the success. 17:23 I mean, just read the book of Proverbs 17:25 if you want to find good success principles. 17:27 But Christ-like behavior, 17:29 let's look at some of the things 17:31 that are already being modeled out there 17:33 because people understand they are important, 17:35 and I think it's inherent to people in general 17:40 who were created in the image of God 17:42 even though they may have fallen. 17:44 They know there are certain 17:45 basic principles that are important. 17:49 I listed a few. 17:50 I feel free today. 17:52 I am so happy to have this discussion with you 17:55 because as you said, 17:56 the Book of Proverbs is a wonderful study, 18:01 as a matter of fact, 18:02 we're studying it right now in our lessons, 18:05 in our Bible study lessons, you know, at my church, 18:07 but at the top of the list 18:09 and I said I know that for some of our viewers 18:12 this might seem odd, 18:15 but at the top of the list 18:16 as one of the values that we had 18:18 as a corporate leader 18:20 that I covered with my employees 18:22 for all of those years guess what it was, humility. 18:26 That's interesting. 18:27 That was value number one. 18:30 That's interesting. 18:31 Let me share a few things with you. 18:35 Humility is based on... 18:36 This is my humble understanding. 18:39 Humility is based on that understanding 18:42 that each person 18:44 that was on my team had ideas, 18:51 and inside of them, 18:53 they may have had a desire to share their ideas. 18:57 My role, my job as a leader 19:00 was to be sensitive to those dynamics within that team, 19:04 to sense those verbal and nonverbal communications 19:08 so that I would have some completion to that 19:11 and encourage, create an environment 19:13 so that everybody could share. 19:14 So it takes humility 19:18 sometimes for a leader to be able to step back 19:21 and say, "I don't know everything 19:24 and maybe I'm doing 19:26 more of the talking in our team meetings 19:28 and staff meetings than I should." 19:30 Everybody knows the role that each other has, 19:33 so we don't always have to say, 19:35 "Because I'm the leader, I must chair." 19:37 I don't think that the leader, meaning the position 19:41 is necessarily the person 19:42 that should always chair every single meeting. 19:44 That's good. 19:45 I think that there are team members sometimes, 19:47 I mean, but that takes leadership with humility 19:49 to be able to be enabling and empowering, with humility, 19:55 to be enabling and empowering 19:57 to allow some of the gifts of individuals on the team, 20:01 you know, to shine. That is so critical in church. 20:04 I love it. It is. It is. 20:06 And in homes, that's a very critical... 20:08 Let me share another value that we had on my work team 20:12 in the corporate environment, curiosity. 20:15 And to me, curiosity just builds on humility. 20:19 If you're working in cooperation with the leader 20:23 that does not stifle every idea that you have 20:26 even though it may not be the best idea at the time, 20:29 I say you should have creativity and curiosity flow 20:36 within every team. 20:37 That builds a strong team so that they can move together 20:41 like those wheels on those cars and trucks 20:43 that I was talking about, 20:45 moving in sync together 20:47 to accomplish a common goal and purpose. 20:49 And for us, for Christians in the church, 20:51 we know what our mission is, 20:54 we know what our goals are 20:55 in order to accomplish that mission, 20:57 and by God's grace, 20:58 I'm determined to be a part of a movement 21:02 that knows what its mission is and what its purposes is. 21:06 Another value, empathy. 21:10 Empathy, and I made a few notes on this. 21:13 It goes something like this. 21:16 And this is not a Webster's Dictionary definition. 21:18 Okay. This is just... 21:20 We like it better. 21:22 Really, I'm being creative here, 21:24 so I would say, empathy goes like this, 21:27 I understand, Shelley, that you have your view, 21:32 which is probably different from my view 21:34 on this subject of team building, 21:38 but I also understand that your view about this subject 21:41 that we're talking about 21:43 is as valid to you as my view is to me. 21:47 That's right. 21:48 But guess what, 21:51 I want to tell you 21:52 that I want to understand your point of view. 21:57 That's good. 21:59 To me, that's a person who shows empathy 22:03 to another person. 22:04 And then the last one, the last value 22:07 that we spend a lot of time sharing with our employees 22:12 is the area of trust. 22:16 Do you know in the home, there must be trust? 22:21 Without trust, there is no team. 22:25 Without trust in any organization, 22:27 without trust from leaders to employees, 22:30 without trust, there can be no teamwork. 22:36 If nobody on the team trusts anybody on the team, 22:39 if no one within the church board 22:43 trusts each other on the church board, 22:45 I say it's time to have an offsite meeting 22:47 and deal with one value, and that's trust. 22:51 I see each one of these as Christ-like behavior. 22:54 Do you agree with me? Oh, absolutely. 22:55 I wrote a couple of other thoughts here about this. 22:57 Trust is made up of two parts, 23:00 and then I'll share just a short story. 23:01 I know we don't have a lot of time, 23:03 but I love this subject. 23:05 Trust in my view has two parts to it, 23:10 competence and sincerity. 23:15 Here's my story. 23:16 I think I shared it with the members of your team here 23:21 and maybe some that are even behind the cameras today. 23:24 And I said imagine that if you had never flown 23:27 on an airplane before 23:28 and you went to the airport 23:30 and now it's time for you to board 23:31 and you get on the aircraft, 23:33 and nowadays the stewardesses, 23:35 I think they still call them stewardesses, 23:37 are very friendly 23:39 but sometimes the pilot is standing there at the door 23:41 to greet all of the company's guests. 23:45 And so you're next in line and the pilot greets you 23:48 and he says, "Well, Shelley, how are you doing today? 23:51 Welcome on board. 23:53 I am so looking forward to this flight. 23:56 You know, Shelley, I love flying. 23:58 I have always loved flying. 24:00 I've always wanted to fly an airplane 24:02 since the time that I was a child." 24:04 And let's say perhaps that you, Shelley, said to the pilot, 24:08 "Well, where did you get your pilot's training?" 24:11 And how long have you been flying? 24:12 Right. 24:14 "Well, I've never had any pilot's training 24:17 and I've never flown before." 24:19 I'd be walking out. Exactly. 24:23 Do you get my story? 24:25 The point of the story, 24:26 the message in the story is that 24:29 in leadership and in the value of trust, 24:34 trust is two parts, 24:37 you can be as sincere as possible in what you say, 24:42 but if you don't demonstrate that you're trustworthy, 24:45 in other words, 24:46 if there isn't that demonstration of competence, 24:49 we're not gonna have a one-leg stool here for trust. 24:52 It goes in two parts, 24:54 you must have both competence and sincerity. 24:58 When we talk about a team, like, 25:01 especially let's use the reference of the church, 25:05 if we're talking about team building 25:07 or even in home, 25:08 the team in the home, the team at church, 25:10 wherever you're working on a team, 25:12 how important is prayer to true team building? 25:18 What a question. 25:19 Loaded, isn't it? 25:20 You probably already know my answer. 25:22 Let me tell you, 25:23 when I would drive, I'd pray before I left home. 25:28 So that's an indicator that prayer is for me... 25:31 Absolutely. 25:32 For me, a Christian, it is key, 25:36 it is above anything that I have shared in this segment. 25:40 Prayer is the key, prayer changes things, 25:43 prayer keeps things in balance, 25:45 prayer helps the team to accomplish more 25:48 than they ever dreamed possible. 25:50 For me, as a leader, 25:52 before any meeting with any team, 25:55 there's prayer before, 25:56 and I noticed here today, our viewers may not know, 25:59 but before your segment here on this program today, 26:02 you offered a prayer. 26:03 Yes. 26:04 A prayer for the program, a prayer for your guest today. 26:07 I just want to thank you for praying for me, 26:10 and we were praying at the same time 26:12 for all of our listening audience, 26:14 those that would be listening and viewing 26:16 because we want everything that we do 26:19 to be to the glory of God 26:20 and we want people to be blessed as a result. 26:22 So for me, a Christian, 26:26 prayer, leaving it out is not an option, 26:29 it's at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. 26:34 Amen. 26:35 First thing I do when I wake up every morning 26:37 is to fall on my knees 26:39 and thank God for another day of life. 26:41 Absolutely. 26:43 The last thing that I do before I retire for bed 26:46 is to fall on my knees and thank God for the day 26:51 and for everything that He helped me to accomplish. 26:53 So we're looking at successful team building 26:56 is having clear goals, 26:58 that's one clarity that's critical purpose, 27:02 having clearly defined roles, clear communication, 27:08 and Christ-like behavior, 27:10 and we'll stick prayer under that Christ-like behavior. 27:13 So that's four Cs I guess. That's right. 27:16 And that is so important. 27:18 Thank you so much. 27:19 I know we barely, 27:20 we could mine your knowledge and your experience on this 27:24 for quite some time, 27:26 but we're all out of time today. 27:27 It's my pleasure. 27:28 Just thank you for coming, Doris. 27:30 And we want those of you at home 27:31 to remember those four Cs. 27:33 They're very important in any team building effort 27:37 that you're making. 27:38 May our God richly bless you 27:40 and multiply His mercies to you. |
Revised 2017-09-18