All Aboard!

It is always so encouraging for me to hear about the great things that God is doing in the lives of others.  Yes, I know that I am blessed beyond belief and for that I am grateful, but for me to hear how God is blessing someone else?  This brings me even greater joy.  This weekend at my church, I got a great opportunity to experience this.  As a part of our outreach theme for this month our church brought back three pastors who were sent out from our church to plant a new one somewhere else in the country.  Throughout the sermon, these three men shared with us some of their God at Work stories and they were nothing short of amazing.  It was great to hear just how God works things to fit into his perfect plan.  With that being said, I hope that this will be an encouragement to you as well readers.  I hope that my words are uplifting and encouraging for you as you read them today.

At what point did it become ok to be lazy?  To cut corners?  To take the easy way out?  I am finding more and more that this is the path that is taken with many if not most of my generation.  I don't know where it came from.  Our parents weren't this way, and our grandparents certainly weren't.  So why the change?  Why are we so quick to settle on the mediocre?

I had these thoughts in mind as I was working alongside several of my peers last night during closing time.  After yet another frustrating evening of what became a very late night, I summoned everyone together for a quick debriefing session.  What I came to find out was interesting.  They were very open with me in saying that they didn't have a lot of motivation to get out early at the end of the night.  This was clear, so I asked them what it would take to get them motivated.  There response to me was, well there was no response.  You see, they didn't even know.  Long story short, this brief chat about quicker closes turned into a discussion about putting forth your very best effort to honor God first, and their boss second.  While I am still looking for that perfect motivation for my team, I found it interesting that Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A was discussing this very same topic in his blog update titled "Sweep Well" just last Thursday.  In it, he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he said "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare composed poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

What this is saying, is that no matter what task you have been given to do, you should look at it and approach it as if it were of utmost importance to you.  This is your task.  You own it.  You are to be held accountable for it. If that quote dosen't do anything for you, maybe this next one will hit home.  It comes from Colossians 3: 23-24

It says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

In other words, Whatever you do, do it for the glory of the Lord in Heaven who created you, and will judge you for your deeds.

I am not completely innocent either.  I can recall many occasions where I cut corners to get the job done more quickly, but in the end, I always knew that I hadn't given my all and that the final product could have been better.  If there was a way to give my entire team this thought process, I would do it.  To take ownership of yourself and your work, to treat our store like it it their store.  Something that they are personally responsible for. What a change we would see.  Imagine working with a group of people in which every one of them takes pride in the work they are doing.

It has to start with us though.  We cannot sit idly by waiting for someone else to start the revolution.  After all we only have control over one thing, and that is ourselves.  If we change the way we think about our work, and take pride in everything that we are doing, the odds are that this will catch on with the team.  Maybe not right away, but if they see you acting this way consistently  they won't be able to help themselves but to jump on board along with you.

All aboard!

In Christ

What's The Problem?

"What is the problem when the problem is no longer the problem?" This was the question asked by Dr. Emerson over and over again this weekend at the Love and Respect conference.  In other words, what he was asking, was when an argument becomes about more than just the petty issue which brought it about in the first place, what is that deeper issue?  This got me to thinking, when we have an employee who regardless of their training, the extra time and effort put into forming a positive co-worker connection with them, and despite daily reminders, cannot perform up to the level being asked of them, what is the real issue?

You see, it applies the same way as it does in a marriage.  This worker is holding on to some issue, and they feel as though they can't express what they are feeling, so it just festers and builds until someday, the negativity they have been storing up, rears its ugly face, and now we have a problem.

So why the frustration?  What was it that caused this worker who surely didn't come in the day they were hired with hostility towards you in their heart to suddenly blow a fuze?  Do you know?  Isn't it our place as leaders of our team to protect our people, and to grow them up in the business as well as in life?  It's easier just to look at them and bring down the hammer because they aren't performing, or because of their attitude.  But the easy way is not always the correct way is it?  We should be looking at this person, and asking why are they behaving this way?  What has brought this about?

As their leader, it is our responsibility to find out.  Find out what is going on in their lives, what are their interests, what are their goals and their dreams?  If we can't even make the effort to connect even a little bit with our team members, then how in the world can we expect them to desire to give us everything they've got for us?  To fight the battles every day for us and for our business?  Something has to change.  I suggest looking inward and deciding whether you are being the leader that they deserve.  Take a moment and think about a time when someone invested in you.  It dosen't even have to be a major life-changing event, but they may have just simply provided a word of encouragement or a comforting pat on the back.  And what happened?  Something inside of you lit up, and your fire was renewed.  Connect with your team, and show them that you want them to succeed and you are on their side fighting right along side of them.  They will respect you for it, and they will surely want to work harder for you in return.

Believe in your team.  You hired them for a reason.  There was some trait that they possessed that made you think that they were an asset to your business.  Don't lose sight of that.  They are good people who want to do good things for you.  There is an issue stopping them from doing that, and it would be best for both parties to find out what it is and how to fix it or at very least how to work through it.  Love on them, and they will love you in return.  After all, we are called first to love God, and second to love others as he loves us.  He has blessed us with our business, so we better make sure that we are doing everything we can to honor and glorify Him by being a good steward over it and our team.  Love on them and show them that they are so much more than just a worker, but a person that we care for, and would gladly fight for.

I pray that you don't ever face this issue readers, and that you have already discovered the great return that comes from investing in your team.  If that is you, than bravo!  For the rest of you, I hope that these words encourage you and challenge you.  I hope that you will take this to heart and consider the opportunities that could lay ahead for you.  God bless you all, and thank you for reading.

In Christ

Reflecting on Paul

Paul was one of the greatest writers in history.  In his letters to the churches in Corinth, he shows us how to light a fire underneath those in our care.  Now Paul established several churches, and made these letters a habit, making sure to connect with them and encourage them along the way.  If we look at how Paul opens in 1 Corinthians 1:4 - 9, we see that he is just showering the church with hope and with blessings.

I absolutely love this about Paul.  He finds ways to encourage the church and build them up to show how much he loves them before letting them have it.  A lesson can be taken from this.  We will all face times when a team member under our care needs a good talking to.  I have found that it is better to encourage them, as Paul did, to let them know how much you appreciate them, and how grateful you are to have them on your staff before addressing any issues that need to be fixed.  This will cut down the odds of that person feeling attacked, and increase the odds that they will feel appreciated and loved by you, their leader.

In this letter, Paul continues by warning them about divisions in the church, and how very dangerous of a path that they were heading down.  He then goes on to give a little of his own testimony from the time that he spent with Jesus.  Not just in prayer and worship, but physically WITH him.  Again, this man is a great role model to take after.  He got it!  He knew not only what they needed to hear, but how to tell them in a way that would build them up and encourage them to keep moving forward.

Brothers and sisters, we as leaders are held to a higher standard than most.  We have been blessed with the task of growing the businesses that God has entrusted to us, and with growing up our team in Him, and to equip them to do the same for others.  Instead of ripping into our team time and time again for not getting the bathrooms clean, or not being fast enough, or not this or that, lets just take a moment to realize that they are only capable of accomplishing to the level that WE have equipped them to.  If something isn't right, ask yourself why that might be.  What steps have been missed?  How can I help them get better?  We made them a part of ou team for a reason, and that reason was probably because we saw some great potential within them.  Lets give them the chance to reach that potential.

I hope that this is both encouraging and helpful to you.  Please feel free to investigate further into Paul's ministry for yourself.  You can find his work through most of the New Testament in the Bible. Don't own one?  Check this out...

http://www.biblegateway.com/

That is all for now.  God bless!

Year 1

So I got married this year.  People always say that the first year of marriage is the toughest.  If this holds true, than I am truly blessed by the Lord.  Yes, we both have hectic schedules and we don't see nearly as much of each other as we hope to, but the time that we do share is amazing!  I recently stepped into a role of management at the Chick-Fil-A in Davenport, IA.  As a natural born introvert, this has been a stretch for me at times.  Praise God that I was made with a changeable heart.  Now I have not mastered this skill of managing people by any means, but thanks to the support of my loving wife, and the rest of the leadership team at CFA, I feel like I am making great strides toward becoming successful with this position that God has blessed me with.  My hope for this blog in the future is two-fold.  First is to share the struggles and the triumphs that I face in learning to manage people in a way that both promotes a strong business  and creates a desirable place to work.  Second, is to share similarly about managing this crazy thing called life.  I hope to encourage you by sharing God's grace in my life and support you in sharing what are sure to be some similar phases of life.  I hope that I am successful in this.  For now, that is all.

God bless!