It is evaluation week at NCC. I’m meeting with all of my direct reports to do year-end reviews.

It’s amazing how a few simple questions can promote such healthy conversation. My goal is to make sure that everybody on our team enjoys their job. I think job performance is really a function of job satisfaction. I’m less concerned with performance than I am with satisfaction!

So one question I ask our staff is what they’d like to add or subtract from their current portfolio? I really want to know what people enjoy most and least about what they do. Too often we try to make people fit their portfolios. I think that is backwards. I think portfolios ought to morph to fit staff–sort of like a pair of shoes.

I also ask staff if they have any issues they want to talk about. It’s sort of an open-ended question that allows for honest dialogue. I really want to create an environment where people feel like they can verbalize issues instead of internalizing them.

During a week like this I am reminded of something I’ve said a thousand times: how much you enjoy ministry is largely determined by who you’re doing ministry with.

The most important and most difficult decisions leaders make are staffing decisions. Hands down. They are the riskiest and lonliest decisions.