Sticky Teams: Keeping Your Leadership Team and Staff on the Same Page Paperback – April 11, 2010

This is one of the best leadership books for churches in years. I loved it. My friend Tim Spivey has talked about this book for years, and finally I got around to reading it. He is a great leader, and understands congregations better than most preachers. So his recommendation meant something to me. And boy, he was right. This is one of those books that all leaders should go through. Elders, and preachers, need to read this book together. At Castle Rock, we have been reviewing books as a leadership team, and this is up there as a possibility. It talks about having a team in ministry, and staying on the same page. It is first of all practical. It deals with church, and gives situations, and a how to in dealing with them. Here is some wisdom from the book. ”I like to remind our board members and staff leaders that we’re lobbyists for God. Our primary job is to listen to, discern, and carry out God’s will, not the congregation’s.” (p. 53). “Wise pastors and leadership teams know an important paradox of leadership: church harmony is inversely related to the amount of time spent oiling squeaky wheels. This is a lesson I was slow to grasp. In my zeal for maintaining peace and unity within the body and for holding on to everyone who came, I allowed a tiny group of chronic complainers to have an inordinate impact on our decisions and ministry.” (p. 80). The book is filled with wisdom from a guy who has done it before, and experienced the work. He talks about keeping unity in the team. As a leader, this book helped me. It has influenced my style of leadership, and it will help you too. It is not long, and it is a fun read. As a preacher, you will relate, and as an elder, you will relate. This one is well worth the money.

One of the things I chose to do a few years back was broaden my reading from just theological works to those involving business, leadership, church ministry, history, and an occasional fictional work. I kicked off 2012 with a casually paced read through this book. I intentionally wanted to take the read slow...so I could absorb the details and apply them along the way.Osborne gives an amazingly unfiltered treatment of the subject of pastoral or ministerial leadership. Workings within the confines of the corporate structure of a business are far more predictable than those of the church. Business principles can INFORM a person on how to lead effectively, but they do not apply perfectly.Everything in the book discusses the leader's responsibility to develop a team that lasts. This often involves inheriting a team and transforming it. The principles...and the direct instructions that Osborne shares, specifically address the lessons he learned in transforming a team.Some of the crossovers from this book to the traditional business structure relate to how a leader directs his executive team in a company. Whether working with a Board of Directors or motivating teams of senior managers, the principles are applicable.The two biggest takeaways for me in the book relates to unity of the team and expectations of the team. First, "Unity that insists on uniformity is not unity at all" (p.29). A healthy team environment cultivates conflict to work through situations and develop the best outcomes. Unity is a commitment to the values and the goals of the organization that provide the framework and impetus that guide the conflict to excellence. Second is the leader's willingness to PUSH his team on to excellence. Osborne asserts that a leader who will not push his team to get better demonstrates a lack of confidence in the team. The highest compliment a leader can give a team member is to expect more from them.This book will not be read once and then set aside. It will be a reference throughout my career. For me, as a church leader, it is directly applicable; however, I think it is useful to any leader who is required to work in a team environment to accomplish a task. I can easily envision this as a required staff read or a "board" read for the discerning executive. There is much to be gained.Thanks Larry for such a powerful tool!

The first few chapters were great. I enjoyed his writing style and occasional humor. I highlighted considerable ideas and statutes. Later on in the book the author was transitioning his church into a major (mega) church and changes still had to be made. That is when I noticed he sounded cynical. I think it was a mistake in his writing to make him sound that way. He was still trying to be the best pastor he could be but his writing didn't really portray this. Like I said I thought it wasn't portraying who he really was. Great team unity building book