Under Pressure

Courtesy of belgraviacentre.com

Working in a church media department always has its challenges and at any given service you will be under pressure to make sure things run smoothly. How do you keep your cool when under pressure? We recently started doing a tech run through on Thursdays and it has helped us in keeping our cool during a service. Also, checking everything prior to the service helps keep the pressure down. But there will always be a Sunday here and there when, despite the precautions you take, things will go wrong. To keep yourself and your team from going crazy during these times you should have procedures in place. For example, the computer used for PowerPoint froze in the middle of the service. Our procedure is to quickly restart the computer and the VGA switcher. Having procedures in place minimizes the stress and ensures that glitches are handled smoothly and quickly. What if a guest speaker decides to change his whole presentation during the worship set? This actually happened to me today. I had to quickly load the changes into our computer during our announcements because that would be the time when it would be less noticeable. When a special event or speaker is scheduled it is always good to schedule a seasoned volunteer or staff person who knows the flow of the service and the software being used to help in case of changes or issues occur.

Planning various scenarios and procedures along with scheduling the right people will help you as a leader to keep your cool when under pressure. But the one thing that I believe is important is your attitude. You can have procedures and back up plans but if you don't have the right attitude or frame of mind you will stress out anyways. Learning how to approach a situation good or bad with the right attitude will keep you calm and clear minded. So what is the right attitude? Being confident in yourself, your skills, and your team. Build confidence in yourself and in your team so that when a situation presents itself you'll be cool as a cucumber.