Summary: If you want to be successful in a ministry context, don't expect other people to solve your problems. Come to the table with a well-constructed plan and your leaders will actually love you.
One of the most important lessons that I learned was that busy leaders don't want to solve my problems. Busy leaders want to approve well-constructed plans. Let me say it again. Busy leaders do not want you to come to their office so that you can passively sit there and they think through all of the details to solve your problems. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
You see, busy leaders would rather have you come to them, lay out a well-constructed plan. Once they look at all the good work you have done, hopefully, they will say, “Wow, they've thought through a lot of this. They did a lot of the work ahead of time. This looks pretty good.” Insert you getting approval and actually gaining bonus points with your leader. Listen to me on this concept: A busy leader would much rather say yes to you and not have to wade into the details. They may want to have you tweak this a little here and modify that a little bit there. But it is much easier for them to say, “Go therefor and make that happen”, than it is to delve into the weeds and solve your problems.
Listen, if you want to be successful in a ministry context, don't expect other people to solve your problems. Come to the table with a well-constructed plan and your leaders will actually love you.
Before you go into your leader’s office and ask for anything, do them a favor and do yourself a favor. Take 15 minutes at the very least to collect your thoughts, gather some details and put together a plan. Stop winging it. Stop walking in, thinking you will be able to lay out a cohesive plan on the fly. Stop doing this. Come to the table with a plan. Trust me when I say that you will save time - both your time and your leaders time - if you enter their office with a plan.