Pivoting to Progress

Worship leaders: It's easy to feel defeated when it seems your team's performance is consistently limited by mistakes, week after week.

          "If only they would play the right notes..."

          "How many times do we have to go over this phrase AGAIN?"

          "WHY does the tempo keep dragging?"

You've probably asked these questions (and many more) repeatedly, leaving you with nagging frustration. But what if it's YOUR approach to supporting your team that needs tweaking, not just the members' mess-ups?

You might find that your strategy for setting your team up for success affects the issue more than the actual abilities of your team members. 

Too often, we try to go about elevating our performances by requiring our team members to replicate trendy songs and tones verbatim before they are truly ready. This fails because of two reasons: 

1) Your team has had insufficient time to incorporate those aesthetics and necessary skills into their daily practice and listening, which leads to… 

2) Invalidating or embarrassing your team, which severely harms their confidence. (It can happen more easily than you think.)

Instead of placing an overwhelming litmus of learning licks, replicating tones, memorizing song forms, or mastering complex gear, you should pivot your perspective, implementing the following approaches:

• Meet your team where they’re at, focusing on their established skills.

• Build from their strengths, gradually guiding them through unlocking new abilities and achieving personal validation. 

Story time. 

I recently had a really productive session with a team that had a varying range of abilities in playing instruments and singing. One player in particular was starting fresh, and their applied knowledge on their instrument only covered the basics. BUT they could:

• Play in time.

• Listen well.

• Be willing to learn.

I can work with that.

The song we were learning required a wide-open soundscape, which usually features somewhat advanced parts—full of complex chord voicings, effective orchestrating on the drum kit, etc.

When I started teaching this player their part, I immediately sensed that they might be overwhelmed with what I was asking them to do.

Instead of grinding through the original, complex part (probably with poor results), we worked together to whittle it down to a SINGLE shape that could be used to a similar effect in the song, and soon, the needed element to the band's sound was there. By the end of rehearsal, we were starting to sound like a legit worship team! More importantly, this player walked away with:

1) A grasp of the necessary sound for the song AND could execute it.

2) Enhanced confidence in their progress instead of embarrassment over their inexperience.

Remember: Progress is best made incrementally, so you have to be OK with imperfections each week. By adjusting your approach, you’ll build each team member’s self-confidence, which always reciprocates in appreciation and willingness to explore new areas.

Be blessed 👊✌️