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TECH LEADERSHIP : A QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE | Kent Morris
For anyone tasked with leading a team of techs in a church setting , understanding how techs work and think is vital to success . While creatives and administrative types present their own challenges , leading techs is a unique enigma , replete with contradictions and illogical perspectives . Uncovering the motives and crux of the technical mind can be daunting , even frustrating to those outside the tech bubble . In order to ease the process , here is a quick reference guide to leading techs in a worship environment .
Understand the job is more difficult than it appears . For most church leaders , tech is just something magic that happens and is based on pushing a couple of buttons . After all , iPads work and Elevation videos are perfect , so how hard can it be ? The answer is quite hard , indeed . For a single lighting cue to occur properly , it may require a hundred steps be programmed in perfect sequence . A simple unmuting of a mic can be burdened with a dozen moves made within two seconds . The back-office effort is monumental for transitions , so making a change just before service starts creates tension and opens the door to failure . Lead with a high horizon .
Remember and use LKP as the basis for interaction . LKP stands for Last Kid Picked and refers to techs ’ status in school as the last in line to be selected for any given sport during
PE . Any leader who uses fear to motivate a tech team will lose . When tech ministry is based on demand for perfection instead of encouragement toward excellence , the result is disarray , low morale and high turnover . The tech job is difficult enough without leadership exacerbating the issue through unrealistic demands such as , “ it must be perfect .” Upward progress is a given ; perfection is a fallacy .
Motivation is not materially based . It is ironic techs who work with equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars do not generally pursue a high salary as their primary goal . Though everyone wants a comfortable lifestyle , techs don ’ t synchronize income to worth . They are more apt to correlate industry certifications to success , such as being able to tout their CTS-D credentials or their AZ-104 Azure Administrator plaque rather than post a social media photo of their new car . Focus leadership on helping techs reach their version of a goal .
Techs don ’ t think the way you do . Their social skills may be lacking and their interactions with leadership are often awkward , so help them in these situations by translating executive-speak to them and tech-speak back to leadership . Be the diplomat .
Techs are highly driven , despite outward appearances to the contrary . They usually have an office mess worthy of a teenager , but trust them . They are forced to solder and assemble
at their desk in order to meet deadlines . They have half-broken gear sitting around waiting to be repaired and given to a ministry in need . Few techs are morning people , preferring the solitude of late nights to the busy activity of 8AM , so grant them some slack when they show up a little ( not a lot ) late .
Values are set in a different context than the rest of the workplace uses . Tech is not a 9 to 5 job . Even as their leader , you will probably never know the hours they put into each project . Getting Dante to behave can take three hours or three days ; it simply depends on the configuration and how the equipment is feeling . Ministries are constrained by budgets and church techs are masters at stretching thin dollars to their maximum , so believe them when they tell you they need to purchase something for an event or hire in someone . If there was a cheaper way to do it , they would have found it .
Church can happen without any number of roles , but today ’ s church has to have techs in order to function . As their leader , see their value and learn to harness it for the greater good .
Kent Morris Kent is a 40-year veteran of the AVL arena driven by passion for excellence tempered by the knowledge digital is a temporary state .