High-Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance

by Lance Witt, Todd Mullins (Foreword), Julie Mullins (Foreword)

No matter how big an organization, we all do ministry with a team, whether paid or volunteer. Anyone who has been part of a great team knows it's something special. When there is good chemistry, everyone is operating from their sweet spot, the objectives are clear, and kingdom progress is being made, it is incredibly fulfilling and fun.

On the flip side, we're painfully aware what happens when there is dysfunction in the team--stress, tension, politics, and posturing. It's not much fun for anyone, and we end up squandering our divine assignment.

Lance Witt, founder of Replenish ministries and a former executive and teaching pastor at Saddleback Church, knows what it takes to keep teams functioning at the highest level of impact. He shows leaders how to build next-level teams that are spiritually, emotionally, and relationally healthy and productive and high-performing. Short, to-the-point chapters make the book easy to digest and the perfect resource for your team to read through together.

Genres: Leadership, Christian Living, Church

304 pages, Paperback

Published July 31, 2018

Reviews

[Dr. David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

High Impact Teams by Lance Witt took me by complete surprise. Each year I read several books on leadership. On first glance, the book seemed a bit bland and appeared to offer very little in terms of practical help. But it only took about fifty pages for the author to warm up. Once the engines were revved up, he never looked back.

Lance Witt is a seasoned pastor who has served on large church staffs, including Saddleback Church. So Witt brings a wealth of experience to the table - and it shows. His insight and wisdom are evident throughout the book.

High Impact Teams is arranged in eight parts. Each part tackles a different facet of leadership and presents a wide range of options for church leaders.

The principles that Witt proposed are supercharged biblical realities that have the power to created high impact teams with optimal results. I commend High Impact Teams and trust that God will use it in a mighty way to encourage pastors and leaders for many years to come.

[Aaron Boots · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly Recommend Reading This

Read this book with your team. Develop yourselves and prepare yourselves for the difficulty ahead. Ministry and church work can be difficult and trying at times. This book will help you build confidence and strength as a team to be better together.

[Zac West · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate a book that talks about making a big impact but keeping the priority self-awareness and caring for folks on your team. Each idea is about 5 to 6 pages so I will keep this one on my shelf as a resource for different situations.

[George P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ministry is a team sport. Too often, however, ministry teams don’t play to their full potential. “The best teams are both healthy and high performing,” writes Lance Witt. “They focus on relationship and results.” To help ministry teams achieve their potential, Witt outlines a Christian approach to ownership, self-leadership, productivity, relationship, conflict resolution, and culture. If you’ve played on a high-impact ministry team, this book will explain why that team worked well. If you haven’t played on such a team, it will explainhowto up your team’s game. Either way, High Impact Teams is insightful and practical.

Book Reviewed
Lance Witt, High Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2018).

P.S. If you found my review helpful, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon.com review page.

[Jessie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hands down the best book I've read on teamwork up until this point. My first impression of the book was, wow! this is a really heavy book. I was drawn to it because of the topic but was even more drawn to it because of the physical quality it possessed. I thought, "This has got to be a good book if they used quality materials to make it." Now to the meat of my thoughts, Witt's voice is graciously authoritative, coming from years of experience, not letting the reader shrink into their excuses. The book builds on itself in a natural progression. It starts with "own it". Leading great teams start with leading ourselves well. It starts with an inward focus; develop yourself, work on your heart before trying to help others. Inward before outward. Witt speaks life without glossing over issues we need to address. The chapters are short, which is helpful, because the information needs time to digest fully. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are great for causing personal reflection but then doesn't stop there. Like the pattern of the book, the questions move from inward reflection to outward dialogue. Just when I was concerned there was too heavy of a focus on productivity and task management, the tone of the book shifted to relationship. Once again, the flow of the book was perfect. Inward toward outward. There are so many practical application points throughout the book. Every chapter is useful. This book is not only for pastors, staff and ministry leaders. It can be applied to every person, regardless of their position within the church or within an organization. All methods are great for inside the church and outside the church in any workplace. This is a book I would highly recommend you spend lots of time with. Take it in the small chunks its divided into and allow it to change how you function both personally and as a member of a team.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. This has in no way influenced my review. All thoughts are my own.

[Joel Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"High Impact Teams" offers fine instruction for the church pastor/administrator or board on how to effectively nurture ministry in our current business model driven atmosphere for doing church. Lance Witt helps the church administrator or team administrator explore many concerns: defining your team and its goals, doing self-care and team-care within a spiritual environment, how to prioritize relationships within your team (make people more important that product), dealing with conflict on the team or within the organization, and defining the culture of your team/church/organization. This book is filled with practical methodology on the team based model of ministry. Many will find its insights illuminating and helpful as they build their organization. There are many practical steps for ministries to take advantage of.
Unfortunately, the presentation of this healthy model of team performance is presented a little backwards. The section on crafting culture is the final section of the book as perhaps it should be. Part of a vital culture in any church organization is the faith that is foundational to that church. So Lance Witt rightfully included the section regarding belief and discipleship in this section. While, he does state that this is most important for a church, the design of the book suggests that it is tertiary to all the other concerns of running the organization. The faith and discipleship of the organization or team should be the root of all else that gets done, from management to self-care to conflict resolution. Therefore, faith and discipleship should have the place of priority in our organizations and in the presentation of this book. Faith and discipleship should have been discussed in the very beginning. As I read, I kept feeling like this element needed greater emphasis. By the time it came up, it seemed like an afterthought.
I received this book as part of Baker Books blogging program.

[Mary Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lance Witt writes High Impact Teams from a left-brain perspective. He loves lists. So every chapter has lists - i.e., Five Practices to Battle Entitlement, Three Best Practices to Facilitate a Culture of One Another, Three Steps in the Dance of Trust, Top Five Best Practices for Productivity, Twelve Practices that Evidence Strong Work Ethic, Three Questions That Will Help Develop Your People in Ministry, etc., etc. (Lance Witt, High Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance, Baker Books, 2018, pp. 180, 170, 158, 135, 121, 239).

But mercifully, he also has experience of leading teams and consulting in churches with multiple staff members. Out of those experiences he includes a number of stories in the book that balance out his linear list making. He also is open and vulnerable with the mistakes he has made that are common in Christian ministry. He repeatedly connects the high performance needed for effective ministry with the necessity for healthy emotional and spiritual lives among all the team members. He says, “Honestly, confronting your emotional health is one of the hardest things you will ever do… I wish I had learned much earlier in my life about some toxins that had contaminated my soul. Some of the qualities people applaud in your life are the very things that can wreck your soul” (p. 48). The balance between soul care and productive ministry is critical in healthy churches.

His part 6 is called “Diffusing Landmines” – Getting comfortable with uncomfortable conversations, How to Have an Uncomfortable Conversation, Inviting an Uncomfortable Conversation, Handling a Hurricane. All those chapters are immensely practical in a world where sin inevitably affects healthy relationships and communication.
5 stars Dr. ML Codman-Wilson, Ph.D., 8/30/18

[Isaac Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. I liked the layout of short chapters and helpful discussion questions. I didn’t quite give it five starts as I felt like there was a bit of overlap from some other sources I’ve been in. I also would recommend starting with the last 2 or 3 sections and then going back to the beginning. Lots of ground work to get to the nuts and bolts of implementing team culture. Understand his approach though in establishing what culture is before how to do it.

[Dr. Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our church staff is reading this book and meeting weekly to discuss the chapters and ideas and thoughts contained within. It is an interesting guide for managers and hopefully helpful guide for all members for a team. There are some definite hidden gems and nuggets of information, but all-in-all this was a guide for conducting meetings and respecting your co-workers.

[Melissa Scruggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Our church staff adopted this book as a professional development tool. I was blown away at his blunt honesty and application techniques. This book diagnoses problems and potential problems on your team as well as provide valuable solutions. Very helpful for personal development as well!

[Pavel Dimitrov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on developing personal leadership, healthy teams, organizational structure, etc.
Easy read, very applicable and inspiring!
Took my team through the study of this book and we all loved it. Highly recommended!!

[Jacob Giles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am getting ready to church plant and this was a phenomenal read as I prepare. It was probably one of the most comprehensive and practical leadership books I have read. I definitely will be referencing back to it in the future.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved ready this book with our staff. Really brought us together

[Joseph Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short concise chapters making it very organized and easy to read while waiting in line at a store, or when you have only a few moments.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

learned a lot

[Abby Stellenwerf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave me great insight in being a better leader. It gave me great ideas that I want to bring back to my team.

[John]

Excellent Teamwork guide!

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did really enjoy this book. I was on staff at a church years ago, and we all read it together, which was a really great idea.

[Rider Patton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few leadership-type books that actually feels transformational. It was easy to understand, simple, and above all, relatable. If you work in ministry, this book is a necessary read.

[Oak · Rating 5 out of 5]

High Impact Teams: Where Healthy Meets High Performance by Lance Witt is an encouraging book about developing high-achieving teams. Some of the topics that the book discusses include building trust in your teams, bringing a sense of balance in your teams, and crafting a team culture. The book stresses the importance of defining and crafting a clear culture in your teams. By examining how successful teams work, the author is able to show what makes teams thrive. I especially liked the chapter that talked about transitioning through difficult issues that occur in your teams; the key of maintaining good teams and companies is not merely to build them up to begin with, but to to help them withstand trials and tensions. The team discussion questions that Witt provides at the end of each chapter help readers reflect on each chapter's material.

I received this book for review.

[victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a sharp writing and compelling to read in every chapter. This book creating a team environment that invests in the spiritual, relational, and emotional health of its members while simultaneously producing high-level two ideals Tension can be defined as two balancing forces that cause extension to equals growth and that will happen to you and your team the tension between relationship and results and this will help guide you through the key principles to unlock your team’s potential. I highly recommend to everyone must to read this book. “ I received complimentary a copy of this book from Baker Books Bloggers for this review”.

[Ashley Corbin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book as a part of a book study, and to be honest, I felt neutral about it. I was really hoping for something that would rock my world, but I ended up being let down quite a bit. Don't get me wrong - if you are new to leadership, this book will be super helpful. However, being a few years into different leadership roles, I feel as if this book over-strategized simple concepts. A lot of these strategies that Lance Witt proposed could be eliminated with simple self-awareness and organizational empathy.

[Lovely Loveday]

High-Impact Teams is the perfect read if you are building a team or are on a team. Full of personal stories, scripture, and tips to help you tackle both your health and performance when working in a team. A very insightful read for anyone who works or volunteers in a team.