It’s Not My Job

“It’s not my job,” is more than an excuse. It’s one of the most destructive cultural statements you’ll ever hear in any church or organization. Whenever you hear this phrase popping up you’re sure to find the following destructive behaviors lurking beneath the surface:

1. Turf wars and Competition

Competition can be healthy when it drives new ideas, innovation, improvement, and pushes the organization forward. But competition can go south when it turns into turf wars, jealousy and undermining the progress and overall good of the organization. Team members need to remember when one person or department wins the whole organization wins. It’s not my job.

2. Silos

When each ministry in the church is looking out for its own interests, you’ve got silos. They go beyond just a lack of communication and collaboration around a centralized vision. Silos show up most predominately in the approach ministries take to staffing, time allocation, ministry budgets, calendaring, communication strategies, and facility or resource usage. It’s not my job.

3. Politics

Organizational politics are at play when the vision and goals of a church or organization begin to take a back seat to the goals and agenda of an individual or particular department. This turns into manipulation, triangulation, end rounds, and all kinds of ugly destructive behaviors.  It’s not my job.

 4. Laziness

Often times this phrase is simply an excuse to get out of work. There’s a difficult conversation to be had or a difficult task to be accomplished. And instead of shouldering responsibility and getting things done many people shrink back and make excuses. It’s not my job.

5. Lack of Buy-in to the Vision

When you start to hear this phrase thrown around you can bet that you’ve got a team full of employees not owners, followers not leaders. At the end of the day if you’re the lowest level employee in an organization or the Sr. Leader in the organization your job is the vision. No job should be below you…or above you…because the vision is your job. It’s not my job.

“It’s not my job,” is a passive aggressive shift of responsibility that people make in a vain attempt to somehow protect themselves from consequences.

You’ll never hear the phrase, “It’s not my job,” come out of the mouth of a leader. Because the very nature of a leader is to run into the gap, into the fray, make things happen and get on the solution side of things. Leaders accept responsibility and move things forward.