Tag Archives: character issues

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5 Often-Overlooked Truths for Christian Business Leaders

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Christian business

The days get faster and faster.. Deadlines and headaches rush at us at a high rate of speed. We do well just to survive to fight another day, right? It is in this kind of environment that Christian business owners or leaders can get so busy and we forget some key truths about our ministry. Hopefully, this post will remind you of some ideas you need to revisit.

Christian Business Leader Truths

1. You must live by example and to a higher standard.

As the owner or leader of a Christian business, you are the example to follow, whether you like it or not. You are the head of the business and your employees are going to look to you for the example. What do they see?

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Don’t Believe These 5 Myths About Christian Business!

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I get many opportunities to talk to other Christians that own or operate a business. When I try to explain to them why they should be using their business to impact people for eternity, I sometimes get a blank stare. They often ask me questions that indicate they have significant misconceptions about Christian business. Today, I want to dispel 5 of the most common myths I have encountered regarding Christian business.

myths

Misconceptions Galore!

The problem is that many people, even Christians, misunderstand what the Bible says about being a Christian. This is even more true when it comes to being a Christian in the business world.

As a result, they often associate Christianity with weakness, laziness, and blind faith. If you have been in business for any length of time, you know these qualities don’t add up to business success. So when I explain my efforts to run a Christian business, the response is not always very positive!

Let’s take a look at the 5 most common myths you might encounter or even believe yourself. Once we dispel these, I think you might have a much better picture of what your business should look like (and what it shouldn’t look like!).

Myth #1 – Christian Businesses should hire anyone!

This is a very common myth and it is rooted in the desire to be kind and fair to everyone. Do unto others what you would have them do unto you, right? While that last statement is true, it does not equate to a wide open hiring policy!

First of all, it is not fair to the applicant to hire them if they are not a good fit for the job. They will never get fulfillment from a job that does not fit them. By not hiring this applicant, you will “help” them move on to find the job that IS a fit for them. You may even choose to assist them in this search if you see enough potential in them.

Not only is it not fair to the applicant, it is not fair to the other current employees to make them work with someone that does not fit the job. This will only increase their load and cause other issues. Of course, the final damage is to the business itself. It is tough enough to run an efficient business without having to work around those not fit or qualified for their jobs.

Myth #2 – Christian businesses should say yes to any request!

I cannot specifically say where this myth originates, but it certainly exists. Sometimes you get a local sports team looking for a sponsorship. In other cases it is a customer looking for an excessive amount of free products or services. You will even have employees ask for difficult exceptions to company policies.

I certainly believe we should try to accommodate requests to the extent that we can and when it makes good business sense. Sometimes, we might do it even when it does not make business sense (but we know it is the right thing to do at the time)! However, for us to say yes to (virtually) every request is impossible.

There are times when the only wise answer is, “No.” A Christian business owner must accept this and not let guilt take over. Jesus did not say yes to every request. Neither should we. Do the best you can, but don’t fall prey to this myth!

To Be Continued!

I have run out of room for today, but will finish with the last three myths about Christian business in my next post. I hope these have been helpful to you.

Have you believed either of these myths?

Do you see how accepting these myths as truth can limit (or destroy) your business?

What are some other myths you have encountered?

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Are You In The People Business?

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I don’t know about you, but I am in the people business. In fact, I will bet that you are, too. I personally think that with very few exceptions, we are all in the people business. By that, I mean that our success rises and falls according to the quality of people we have working with us.

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Entitlement – Whose Problem Is It?

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You give and give and give. You do your best to say, “Yes” to any reasonable request from them. Then one day, you have to say, “No.” That’s when things go south quickly. While it may sound like I am describing my experience as the parent of teenagers, I am actually talking about entitlement among employees and coworkers!

entitlement

Entitlement In The Workplace

Have you ever experienced this kind of situation before? Maybe your experience with entitlement is limited to one or two employees or coworkers over your career. Maybe it is something you learned how to correct long ago. It might be something you are dealing with right now.

Whatever the case, entitlement is an attitude or mindset that is prevalent in our culture these days. Most likely, you have had to deal with this disease at one time or another in your career. While I wish I could say our society has improved in this area, I actually think it has become more of a problem than ever before.

In fact, I have heard multiple conference speakers talk about how the new generation of young adults (Gen Y) coming up has this problem worse than any other generation in memory. I know we have seen our share of entitlement show itself in our business. I am betting you have as well.

Answer This Question

Now that I have you worked up and thinking about the specific employees or coworkers that you think have the most extreme cases of entitlement, I want you to answer one question…

When did YOU last get frustrated when something did not go your way?

Wait a minute! Weren’t we just talking about all of those other people who have the problem with entitlement? Weren’t we all agreeing how bad our society is and how tough it is to deal with entitlement in the workplace? How did the focus turn back to us?

Remove The Log

Well, I guess those are fair questions. My answer is that we must first eliminate entitlement in ourselves before we attempt to address it in others. If I recall, Jesus said something about removing the log in our own eye first (Matthew 7:5). I think that applies here as well, don’t you think?

In case you need a refresher, entitlement is defined as the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. At first glance, you may not see this behavior in yourself. That’s understandable. However, I would like to linger here a moment and let you think on a deeper level.

Taken For Granted?

Think about the daily conveniences that you (might) take for granted. When you flip the light switch, the light should come on. When you go to shower, there should be hot water. At least, there should be water, right? Your “fast” food should be fast…and hot…and available. I could go on…

To be fair, I must admit that I just returned from a 5 day mission trip to Haiti.

On this trip, I witnessed the worst poverty I have ever seen. I was not only shocked at the depth of it. I was completely and totally overwhelmed at the breadth of it. I saw almost nothing but extreme poverty. If you have never experienced it, you will not truly grasp what I am saying. I thought I knew what poverty looked like, but I had significantly underestimated it.

Joy In Harsh Conditions

You want to know what else I saw? I got to spend four days with 34 orphans that lived in the toughest conditions but exhibited more joy and gratitude than those who live in the luxury of the US. I cannot adequately describe to you the distinct difference between their mindset and that of American children their age – even American adults of ANY age.

In fact, their attitudes would blow your mind.

As I said, I cannot possibly describe my experience in a way that completely communicates the experience. Instead of attempting it, I will simply move on to my main point for this post.

Self Assessment

We are all spoiled and, to some degree, guilty of entitlement ourselves. Forget the employees or coworkers that frustrate us with this behavior. There is more than enough opportunity for improvement right here in the mirror to last for a while. If this is not true for you, then I congratulate you. You are better than me.

However, if you have a sneaky feeling that you might be guilty of entitlement, then I encourage you to stop and take an inventory of your feelings. Pray about it and ask God to reveal the truth to you…slowly, so you can handle it. If He dumps it on you all at once, it can be difficult!

Where do you see entitlement in your own life?

Do you see the need to remove it?

What do you see as the antidote to entitlement?

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4 Little Known Qualities Of Godly Leaders

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Anywhere you look these days, you can find a book (or a dozen) on leadership. Everyone feels they know what it takes to be a leader. I am not going to pretend that I have some secret sauce or silver bullet on what it takes to be a great leader. If you are looking for that, keep looking. It may be even tougher to find the same for godly leaders. I personally do not think you will ever find it.

godly leaders

Courtesy of Flickr/Simoes

Qualities Of Godly Leaders

At the same time, I believe it can be very helpful for us to find many true and healthy perspectives on the characteristics and qualities of godly leaders. I believe the more we can learn about what great and godly leaders look like, the better we can hope to mimic them.

It is for this reason that I take notes anytime I hear a description of godly leaders, either as individuals or as a group. I then take what I learn and pass it on through this blog. Today, I would like to share what I learned about great, godly leaders from Dr. Crawford Loritts, a pastor in Atlanta, GA.

Loritts talked about four qualities or characteristics of great, godly leaders during his segment in Dennis Rainey’s Stepping Up video series. Even these are not commonly found in leadership books, I believe we all need to seek these qualities. If we do, I believe God can better use us to point others to Him. I will tackle the first of these qualities today.

Quality #1 – Brokenness

The first little known quality of great, godly leaders as described by Dr. Loritts is brokenness. There are not many leadership books that mention brokenness as a quality of a great leader. In fact, I think very few of us would come up with this quality at first glance.

At the same time, after considering what Dr. Loritts had to say, I would have to agree with him! Before I go further into what he said about brokenness, let’s talk about what the opposite would mean.

Opposite View?

When I think of someone who is NOT broken, the characteristics I come up with are whole, strong, confident…they have it all together. These characteristics may actually be the ones you would find in a leadership book. This actually sounds more like a leader than one that is broken, right?

So let’s take a look at what Dr. Loritts said. First, he said that one who is broken has come to the realization that life is not about him, but is instead about God.

Think about that.

Broken Leader

A broken leader is one that is fully aware that alone, he is not whole or strong. Alone, this leader is not confident. Nor does he have it all together. This leader has come to the place where he acknowledges that he alone cannot be a leader after God’s own heart. He realizes that leadership is about much more than him!

As a result, Dr. Loritts continues, this leader has a healthy reliance on God. He knows that he cannot accomplish God’s plan on his own. He is not capable on his own and therefore relies on God for everything.

Cracked Leaders?

Some of us have partially come to this point. Call us cracked (but not yet broken)! We rely on God for the tough stuff. We rely on Him when we don’t know what to do. We rely on him when we face a situation that confuses or scares us.

But the rest of the time, we do our own thing. We are NOT yet broken.

Fully Broken

The great, godly leader has seen missed opportunities and failed endeavors when he tried it on his own in the past. These cause him to break down and cry. He has even mourned over good results that could have been miraculous if he had relied on God and not himself.

This leader is fully broken because his experience has shown him the futility of leading on his own. He knows there are possibilities that he cannot even imagine IF he will rely on God. He is broken because he is no longer willing to settle for less than miraculous results. He is wholly and fully committed to relying on God.

What About You And Me?

How much of this describes you and your leadership?

If you are like me, this is convicting. I know I understand this because it resonated with me. At the same time, I am completely guilty of trying to do it on my own too often. My prayer is that we will stop seeing ourselves as needing to be so strong. Instead, may we heed God’s words to Paul in 2 Corinthians.

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

Have you considered brokenness as a godly leader quality?

Do you see yourself as possessing the quality of brokenness?

What do you think are Dr. Loritts’ other three qualities of godly leaders?

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Giving: Are You The Eye Dropper Or The Jug?

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Recently, a good friend of mine was teaching on the topic of giving and he asked an interesting question. He told us to imagine we were desperately thirsty and someone offered us water to drink. His question was this, “Would you prefer they give you drink out of an eye dropper or a gallon jug?”

giving

Give Me The Jug!

I am pretty sure your answer to that question is the same as mine – I want the gallon jug! I am not sure anyone would prefer quenching their thirst out of an eye dropper over a gallon jug. No real brain teaser there.

It was his follow up question that got my attention.

When giving, are you more like the eye dropper or the jug?

Great Giving Analogy

Since I am one that likes analogies, this was perfect for me. I instantly understood the question and began thinking of the appropriate parallels. While virtually analogy has its limitations, I think there are several lessons we can get from this picture.

First, think about how much and how often you give. I am not really talking about your tithe at this point, but all that you give over and above the tithe. [This post is not about whether the tithe is a New or Old Testament requirement or expectation. Set this issue to the side for now.]

Questions To Ponder

How often do you find yourself giving to those around you? How much do you give?

Does your giving hurt? Is your giving sacrificial or out of abundance?

When you think about this, are you separating your business and personal lives?

Do you hesitate or are you quick to give?

Do you think your giving represents the eye dropper or the jug?

Another Giving Perspective

Let’s think about another perspective for a moment. Let’s say you are the holder of the water and you want to give it to someone to quench their thirst. If you want to make sure their thirst is fully quenched, which would you prefer to use – the eye dropper or the jug? Why?

Certainly, you can give more and give it faster if you use the jug, right?

So how do you think God looks at us when He wants to give? Does HE see you as the eye dropper or the jug? Why should that matter?

God’s Giving

Well, if He wants to give through you and you act more like the eye dropper, then He will not be able to give you as much or as quickly as He may want. If He wants to give THROUGH you to those around you, but you are slow and tight like the eye dropper, what do you think He will do?

On the other hand, what if you give like the jug? Do you think God will give you more resources to give to others because He can give more quantity and more quickly through you? Have you considered this before?

Once again, I am giving you my thoughts based on what I believe to be true. So that you can see I am not making this up, I want to check the Scripture to make sure it backs up what I am saying.

God’s Giving Purpose

Check out the following verses from Genesis. This is God speaking to Abram (later Abraham) and giving him the original covenant between them. Notice the dual ideas of being blessed and then being a blessing:

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”

Genesis 12:1-3

Blessed To Be A Blessing

Can you see that God promised to bless Abram and his people (Israel), but that they also were to be a blessing to all peoples on earth? This is HUGE and so often we neglect this very idea. We want to be blessed, but we are often hesitant to bless others with this blessing we have been given.

God did not say He would bless Abram so he could kick back and enjoy it. His intention is that the blessing He gives is to be used to bless others – all over the world!

How Achieved

Now that we see the purpose we have, let’s look at HOW we achieve it:

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Luke 6:38

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:6-8

Be The Jug!

Hopefully, you can see that we are all to be more like the jug in our giving. As we give, we are given more. This is the principle of the sower. As we are given more, we continue to give even more. This goes on an on.

This is not a prosperity gospel. This is about God giving more through us because we have giving hearts. This is about our hearts seeing His purposes and responding with our own giving.

I pray you will take these words and ponder them. Pray that God will show you where you are today and where he wants you to be. I promise He is faithful to do it.

Because I want to give you every opportunity to take action, I am going to tell you about an opportunity for you to give right now. My friend, Pastor Rajeev, does incredible work in Northern India where the Christian population is less than 2%. He is trying right now to raise the money he needs for his annual budget.

I encourage you to stop what you are doing right now and pray what God would have you to do for Pastor Rajeev. If you want to learn more about what God is doing through Rajeev, check out the links below. At the same time, don’t let your research distract you from the immediate need! Check them out:

Partners In Action Donation Page

True Life Mission Website

Gospel For India Blog

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Lead For God’s Sake – Book Giveaway!!!

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[title color=”orange-vibrant” align=”scmgccenter” font=”georgia” style=”normal” size=”scmgc-7em”]Free Book Give Away!!![/title]

Lead...for God's sake

Another Free Book Give Away?

You read that right! I am offering a free copy of Todd Gongwer’s book, LEAD…For God’s Sake!: A Parable for Finding the Heart of Leadership!

How Do You Win?

If you scroll down just a bit you will see the Rafflecopter entry form which outlines a bunch of ways to enter the LEAD…For God’s Sake! giveaway. Just complete as many as you would like to be entered to win!

Why Am I Doing This?

I started this blog in an effort to spread the message of integrating the Christian faith into our businesses. I want to see more Christian business owners and leaders begin looking at their businesses from an eternal perspective and running them as platforms for Christian ministry.

While I know my posts are written toward this effort, I thought I would try to step it up a notch for 2013. My plan is to give away one book a month for the entire year! All I am asking from you is to follow the Rafflecopter instructions below. As you enter, you will be helping me to spread the word about this blog at the same time. We both win!

This Month’s Book: Todd Gongwer’s Lead…For God’s Sake!

…an engaging and compelling narrative. As a business leader I found its takeaways right on target. I wasn’t able to put it down. It’s that good!
–John Beckett, Chairman, the Beckett Companies, Author, Loving Mondays

This is a book I could not put down until I finished it. Every parent, coach, manager, and leader should read it. I wish I had read it 30 years ago. –Lou Holtz, Former Notre Dame Head Football Coach

I wish LEAD…For God’s Sake! had been available to my classes and seminars for business and practitioners over the last twenty five years. It is that good…an engaging story you won t want to put down. –Dr. John E. Mulford, Former Dean of the School of Business; Director Center for Entrepreneurship, Regent University

Enter The Give Away

Follow the instructions below to enter the Lead…For God’s Sake! contest and then spread the word to others! The contest ends at midnight on Saturday, August 31st and the winner will be announced on Sunday, September 1st.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lessons Learned From An Onion

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As I have said many times before, we can learn a lot from life if we will simply pay attention to what is going on around us. Last week, God showed me a great lesson about those little sins that we often overlook or brush off as inconsequential. I learned that we are to take these sins more seriously if we want to avoid the consequences. I learned this from an onion!

little sins

Lessons On Little Sins

In my last post, I described how I had inadvertently dropped a small piece of onion from my burger in my truck while traveling out of town. Unfortunately, I did not immediately retrieve the onion, leaving it to stink up my whole truck! If you have not read the whole story, you really need to do that now so you can understand the lessons on little sins that I will describe in today’s post.

To simplify these lessons, I am simply going to list them in order, with brief explanations of the parallels with little sins. Let’s jump in!

I was aware, but did not react immediately!

I mentioned that I noticed something fall from the burger into my lap. I did not know exactly what had dropped, but I had a very good idea of where it had fallen. I could have (and should have) investigated at the next opportunity. Had I done so, the onion would never have had the time to smell up the entire truck.

The same is true of little sins. If we address them immediately, the consequences are reduced. Even if we are not sure of exactly what we did (or said) that was wrong, that fact that we know SOMETHING is wrong should be enough to cause us to take action – seeking forgiveness and repentance.

I allowed my “hurry” to override my judgment!

As soon as I parked at the game, I knew I should have crawled under the seat . Instead, I allowed the fact that I was running late to take priority. I did stop long enough to get rid of the easy evidence, but that was not enough. It just eased my mind a little.

Too often, we run so fast (and so far behind) that we fail to do the right thing when the opportunity arises. We know we should deal with our little sins of saying the wrong thing or overlooking an injustice, but we are in a hurry. We assume the situation will either take care of itself or maybe disappear altogether. This is a mistake that will cost us more later.

I thought getting rid of the obvious evidence would be enough.

I thought whatever had dropped would not be enough to cause damage. As a result, I only removed the box that held the burger. As I found out later, this was not enough to prevent the smell.

When we are guilty of little sins, we usually do not recognize the huge damage they can do when left unaddressed. We simply get rid of the obvious evidence and try to move on, thinking we are clear. Unfortunately, that rarely, if ever, works.

I got used to the smell.

Maybe the fact that I had a smelly soccer player next to me helped me to forget about the onion smell. More likely, I just got used to it. I kept thinking I would deal with it later, but the longer I was around it, the less offensive the smell was to me.

Can’t you see how the same is true of sin? We slip and say or do the wrong thing. Consequences appear – like a broken relationship or cloudy conscience. At first, these consequences are very uncomfortable, but over time we find we can get used to them. This is often easier than dealing with the little sin that caused it.

Fatigue clouded my judgment.

When we got home, it was close to midnight and I was exhausted. I did not want to crawl under the seat at that point. I just wanted to go to bed! Another 12 hours won’t hurt, right?

Fatigue will do the same thing to our minds when it comes to sin as well. We simply are not thinking as clearly when we are not well rested. We tend to delay and compromise more when we are tired. We should not put ourselves into this position if we can avoid it.

I thought masking would work!

This may be the dumbest thing I did in this whole series of events. I still can’t believe it. Though my idea of using coffee grounds would eventually help, I still went out of my way to try to mask the smell rather than taking the time to address it. The crazy part was that I took longer to set up the coffee trick than it would have taken to climb under the seat!

As dumb as this sounded when you were first reading it, you have done the same thing! We have all tried to simply mask our little sins rather than addressing them. We try to spend more money on someone (without apologizing) to make up for being inconsiderate. Maybe we try to offer a customer a perk (without coming clean about our mistake) to win them over. Whatever the case, the masking is not the fix.

I am still paying the consequences.

Even with the onion finally gone, the truck still stinks. It is not nearly as bad as it was with the onion there, but it is not back to normal. While it was only there for roughly 24 hours, that was long enough.

Little sin is the same way. The longer we let it linger, the longer and more painful the consequences. Even after we finally address the issue, the consequences will likely continue for some time. We simply cannot afford to ignore even the little sins. Our awareness should initiate our immediate action.

Have you come up with lessons I may have missed?

Have you experienced something similar?

What did you learn?

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Something Really Stinks!

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The more I have committed to teaching or writing material over a period of time, the more I have begun to see lessons in even the smallest of things going on around me. I have found I can learn a lot about life if I will just pay attention! I recently learned a great lesson about how the “little sin” that we often leave unaddressed. It stinks!

stinks

Lessons All Around Us

Have you experienced this? This happens to me a lot. I can be in a conversation with someone about a funny story or something stupid I did and suddenly it hits me! Something one of us has just said strikes a chord inside of me and I get an immediate picture of a life lesson. In some cases, I file it away for later. Today, I felt the need to immediately share it!

Just this afternoon, I was in my office catching up on things with our chaplain. I described to him how I had been on my way out of town last night to watch my son’s last soccer match of the season. I had stopped for a burger and was hurrying to eat it while driving because I was running a little behind.

The Event

As I was taking a bite at a traffic light, I felt something drop onto my lap. As I looked down, I did not see anything on my pants where it hit, but I knew it had come from the burger. I figured it had fallen into that “black hole” between the seat and the center console, but I was not worried about it. I figured I would get to it later. After all, I was in a hurry and I would have had to pull over to dig down and find it.

I kept going and made it to the game with a few minutes to spare. As I got out of my truck, I knew I had better remove the box that once held the burger or else the cab of the truck would really stink later! I put all of the evidence of the burger into the box and placed it into the bed of my truck. I would throw it away after the game.

First Signs Of Trouble

After the game, I returned to my truck to find that removing the box was evidently not enough to prevent the smell. It was bad. Of course, after a few minutes in the truck, my son and I got used to the smell. So we headed home without thinking there may be more to the smell than just the bag. Once on the road (a two hour drive), we forgot about the smell.

I did not give it another thought when we arrived home just before midnight. Even if I had remembered, I am convinced I would not have crawled under the seat to investigate. As it was, I was tired and just wanted to get to bed so that is what I did.

It Still Stinks!

At this point, you are probably thinking that I making this up as I go. Unfortunately, I am not. This is all true. Fortunately, there is a huge amount of learning we can glean from my stupidity! Read on!

When I got into my truck this morning, the odor was terrible. The smell of onion was unmistakeable! So what did I do? I went back inside the house and came up with a brilliant idea.

Masking The Problem?

I remembered an old method I had learned in the past for removing odors from a used car. I put about two cups of fresh coffee grounds into a small plastic container and took it back out to the car with me. The idea is that the coffee grounds smell great AND they absorb odors.

Proud of my ingenuity, I drove to work. I parked my truck and did not return to it until lunch. I was fully expecting to open the door and feel like I was entering the local Starbucks coffee shop. Instead, I was shocked to smell coffee…AND onions! In case you are wondering, these two distinct smells do not go well together.

Final Resolution

Finally, I gave in. I realized that I would have to crawl in behind and under the driver’s seat and try to find whatever it was that had fallen in my lap the night before. It took me a minute or two, but I came out with a piece of an onion that was half the size of a penny! I could not believe something this small had caused so much damage!

Unfortunately, the truck still stinks. It will likely take a few days for all of the smell to go away. Until then, I will have to suffer through the consequences of my delay! Hopefully, I will learn from this!

Lessons Still To Come!

I apologize if you have gotten to the end of this post and you are expecting the lesson. Amazingly, I have run out of room in this post! You will have to wait until my next post to get the points I want to make.

While I am sure you already have a hint of the lesson here, I would encourage you to read back through the post and consider ALL of the points that parallel our experience with a “little sin.” Just like the game on the kids menu at your favorite restaurant, I will challenge you to see how many points you can find in this lesson!

How many points can you make about the lesson we should learn?

Why do we ever let this happen?

What is the best way to prevent it?

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6 Keys To Graceful Employee Terminations, Part 2

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When running a business, there are many things you will enjoy doing! Termination of an employee is most likely NOT one of those things. While it is not enjoyable, it is sometimes necessary.

In my last post, guest poster William Higgins wrote about the pain that can be caused with a poorly handled employee termination. William gave us his first 3 Keys in that post. The following continuation of this guest post from will give you the remaining 3 great tips on how to execute terminations with grace. William is Founder and Managing Director of Mindware, Inc., a performance development, consulting, and publishing organization.

termination

What Should You Do?

As an employer, there are numerous valid reasons for termination of an employee’s business relationship, and you cannot stop the pain the person experiences. The pain is real. The experience hurts. It’s condescending and degrading to just ask them to trust God and know it will all work out for the best. While it’s true God will work things out, that kind of observation minimizes their feelings.

You will want to be sure you coordinate with your Human Resources department to be sure you are abiding by federal and state laws. While you cannot sidestep the pain of a termination, there are things you can do to terminate with dignity, value, and grace.

Keys 4-6 For Graceful Terminations

4. Be affirming.
A termination can feel very demeaning to the individual being laid off. It’s like what they were doing wasn’t of value, like their time invested with the organization was wasted. Whatever the reason the person is being terminated, there is always something in them that can be affirmed. At one point they contributed something of value to the organization. Find that and reflect back to them the value of that contribution. Or, identify what you see as strengths they have at the present, and tell them about those.

If they’re being terminated for performance reasons, be sure to let them know their performance is not what it once was, with examples to demonstrate your point, and that they still have something to contribute to another organization. 1 Corinthians 12 is a chapter devoted to this purpose; everyone in the body of Christ has a purpose and is of value. So it is in your organization. Mirror that back to the individual being laid off.

5. Be helpful.
Provide resources to help the person move on with their life. They may feel like it’s the end of life as they know it when they hear the news, but you need to let them know they still have skills and abilities to contribute elsewhere. Be sure they understand that God has not deserted them just because they are now unemployed. When Jethro spoke to Moses in Exodus 18, he didn’t just tell him he was not being as efficient as he could be, he also provided resources in the form of counsel on how to delegate some of the responsibility to others.

Be sure the individuals impacted understand what their severance package includes; continued medical and other benefits, lump sum, continued salary period, etc. Provide all details in writing so they can refer to them later after the shock wears off. Also review work completion expectations and plans to transition their projects.

The person you are terminating requires resources to both affirm their faith and provide practical assistance in moving forward. Your Road to Damascus: 6 Biblical Secrets for an Effective Job Search does just that. This book integrates biblical guidelines and strategies with cutting-edge techniques to give the reader a spiritual advantage in their search. Outplacement assistance with Christian career coaches is also available for individuals and groups based on this book.

Go to www.MindWarePublishing.com for more information on the book or to Contact Us regarding outplacement service.

6. Be open.
Survivors need to know what the future holds. Let them know why this action was necessary, and how it will enable the organization to move forward to achieving the goals that have been established. Let them know the resources you are providing those individuals laid-off, to help them see that you’re not dismissing people without caring for their future well-being.

When Christ was preparing for the crucifixion and to leave His disciples He let them know what was going to take place, the resources they were going to receive in the person of the Holy Spirit, and how they were to move forward. In John 14-17 we read how He helped them understand that, while things were not going to be the same with Him gone, they were going to move forward in power.

While terminations are sometimes necessary as economies shift, suppliers change, product lines are altered, and organizational objectives transition to reflect other changes, a termination does not have to be a demeaning, distasteful, and destructive experience. It can launch the impacted individual into a whole new adventure with God, but it needs to be handled sensitively, with grace, and with the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

As a leader you model the person of Christ in your organization. How would He handle a termination? Actually He did. Read how He handled Judas in Matthew 26:20-25 and you’ll see He practiced what we’ve been discussing.

You can too.

I would love to hear what you think about this approach to handling employee terminations.

What do you think was the best tip of the six?

What struggles have you had in termination of employees?

Did you learn something here that will help in the future?