Leadership Journal

A thousand times before I had walked down this hallway, but this time I felt like Frodo on the road to Mount Doom. I had hired a new staff member (I'll call him Derik) less than six months before. He had impeccable credentials, stellar references, and a strong track record in ministry. I anticipated a long and fruitful ministry. We were going to soar to new heights together! Derik thought so, too. He was at least confident enough that he uprooted his family and relocated to join our church staff.

Yet here I was, 180 days later, walking to Derik's office to ask for his resignation. There had been no moral failure. No major policy violations. No angry conflicts. Just a long line of missed deadlines, dropped balls, misunderstandings, unmet expectations, and bad vibes. And I had had enough. Monday is usually my day off, but I spent this particular Monday fasting, praying, practicing my talk, and (mostly) trying to work up my courage. Finally at about 4:30 in the afternoon, I said, "It's now or never" and headed to his office.

Fifteen minutes later, he was gone.

I take full responsibility for this hiring train wreck. Derik is a great guy who loves God and loves the church, but he simply was not a good fit for our team. I thought I had done due diligence, but in retrospect I made the worst personnel decision of my life. And everybody paid for it.

Derik experienced a sense of failure like he never had before. I lost many nights of sleep and quite a bit of credibility in the eyes of those who trusted my decision-making skills. A ministry area that we desperately needed to develop actually went backward. And our entire church experienced a loss of momentum and morale from which we are just now beginning to recover.

Here are four key mistakes I made.

I had several phone interviews with Derik prior to hiring him, but only one face-to-face conversation, a two-hour lunch. That lunch went well and included lots of honest dialogue about our stories and our approach to ministry. But it simply wasn't enough face time.

I realized my mistake during Derik's first week.

Many of our staff and key volunteer leaders were attending a national training event together, and I viewed that as an opportunity for Derik to begin building relationships with some of our key leaders. I'd hoped that by the end of the week, Derik would be nicely assimilated. Derik, however, was aloof. He would sit by himself during sessions. He browsed the book table alone rather than mingling with other leaders. I was learning that Derik was an extreme introvert who struggled in large group settings. I'm an introvert myself, and so I certainly don't fault him for having that personality type. But Derik's introversion was so extreme that he found it difficult to function in the team atmosphere that we worked hard to develop.

I would have discovered this earlier if I had spent more time with Derik in different types of settings prior to the hiring decision. He was comfortable and confident when ...