Killing the Performance Culture
An classroom in West Africa
As Global Workers we are trained to learn and observe other cultures to best identify the ways we can connect relationally and share the Gospel relevantly. Through this development of learning others' worldviews we become more and more aware of our own culture as well as the good and bad baggage we are carrying with us to our new host culture. One of the heaviest rocks that I believe many of our teams (especially millennials and Gen Z) are carrying in our cultural backpack is a performance-based mentality.
As part of our American culture, we are generally very driven: setting goals and meeting them at all costs, developing a big vision, striving for efficiency, being masters of our calendars and fitting as much as possible into them. None of these are inherently bad, but as a new global worker hitting the field when your identity is built around what you get done, the first months and years of onboarding will be incredibly difficult.
I have seen this in my own life and every single new global worker that our team has onboarded. We come in after a couple of years of fundraising where we have told people what we hope to do when we get on the ground. Now we are here and ready to go! But… we have to learn a new language, a new culture, a new team of co-laborers, and the systems and strategies of reaching this culture. When we arrive on the field we are effectively reverting back to our infant selves. We have to rely on those around us to do even the most basic of things.
This is a brutal yet beautiful sanctifying process that we have the privilege of confronting. Nothing could make a person more God-dependent than this journey. The question I have been asking as I lead our team is “how do we help our people confront the performance based mentality before and during onboarding?” This is not an exhaustive list and I am by no means an expert, but this is what we are learning and seeing:
Constantly Clarify
Honestly, it doesn’t matter how much you clarify your expectations for them in the first months and years; they will always want to produce more than they possibly can. They feel the pressure of partners back home and measuring up to their co-laborers around them. This is why constantly clarifying your expectations for them on a quarterly basis (minimum) is so important. This is a discipleship journey, so walking with them as they unlearn and learn new things takes time. As their leader, patiently showing them and reinforcing what you expect is one of the most freeing things you could do for your team.
Celebrate “Failure”
At the beginning of our weekly team meeting, we start out with “wins” and “failures.” We celebrate both! Failing isn’t bad when we are learning and growing from it. We encourage failure because it means people are pushing themselves to do hard and uncomfortable things, and it reinforces that we aren’t perfect. Nobody would say they were…but they wish they were. My desire is that our team crushes the scary connotations of the word failure. This is important for newbies coming in to begin to unlearn their performance-based mentality. We love them because of who they are, not because of what they do for our ministry.
“The goal is to remind them that their identity isn’t rooted in what they produce or how they perform. It’s rooted in Christ.”
Stop “Empowering” Them
I have recently grown tired of hearing the idea of “empowering your team.” As born-again believers we have been empowered. Period. This isn’t meant to be a trite Jesus juke. It’s just really important that we understand who the Empowerer is. We are stewards - not owners - of the ministry and the people that God has given us. My number one goal as their leader is to help them get their eyes off of themselves and on to God who has empowered them. I need them to recognize this truth, and then my job is to unleash them as their empowered selves to use their empowered gifts to see new people empowered by Christ.
Don’t Save them from the Process
This is a brutal disorienting process for anyone. As leaders we sometimes want to jump in and cushion their falls. Remember we are stewards not owners even of the people we lead. The best thing we can do for them is to let them wrestle through the hard moments. That doesn’t mean that we don’t love them and come alongside them. But coming alongside them isn’t adjusting your expectations, goals, or onboarding process just to save them from this journey. Instead you are lovingly reminding them Whose they are, why they are there, and that you love THEM not their performance or production.
Keep Setting God-Sized Goals
I have seen many people overcompensate for a hyper-focus on performance by removing goal setting and performance language from their team. The thought process is that we don’t want them to feel like this performance mentality is something we promote. Yes, it removes stress and anxiety from people when expectations are lowered, but doesn’t it also handicap them from seeing God do amazing things in and through them? The number one goal isn’t to save them from this performance-based mentality. The goal is to remind them that their identity isn’t rooted in what they produce or how they perform. It’s rooted in Christ. So we can shoot for wild, God-sized goals and even if we “fail,” God is good and we are His.
Again, this is a brutal yet beautiful journey that is unique to cross-cultural work. What an incredible sanctifying opportunity we have to lead our teams in a healthy, more biblical understanding of identity and the work of the ministry.
