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Archive for the ‘Seven Pillars of Faith and Work’ Category

A New Vision for Work/Life Balance

Posted in Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, Vision, Balance, Culture, tagged , , , , , on March 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

We are an activity-based culture in the United States today. We are busy. Some of us complain about our busyness…some of us wear it as a badge of honor. Regardless, we need help. We need solutions. Try this on…I think it will give you a new vision (literally) for living your life with purpose, not busyness.

Do you know how this woman keeps her balance? She maintains her balance by looking not at her feet, but at the other end of the line!

When I first started driving, I would exhaust myself trying to stay in my lane. I was constantly adjusting the car in relation to the center line. But then my Dad told me to not look at the center line, but far down the road and trust myself to make the adjustments needed. I can still remember the revelation that was to my daughter when she was learning to drive.

It’s the same for us in keeping balance in our lives:  when we have our eyes on the end — where we want to arrive — then we begin to automatically make small adjustments all day long to keep on track.  Sure, the occasional squirrel will dart into the road and we’ll have to make some sudden course adjustments, but we know where we want to return.

Balance can be a tricky business, but when we’re sure of our center of gravity, and our end goal, then adjustments start to become automatic.

WorkMatters is the original brainchild of Tom Frase. He is a 20 year veteran of the advertising industry, and an ordained Methodist Pastor. He’s been there done that…he gets it.

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10 Attributes of a Humble Leader

Posted in Faith and Work, Servant Leadership, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, Bible, Serve, Humble, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

All of us want to be humble leaders. It sounds good. It sounds right. But pride is a mighty warrior. It fights for the enemy. And we so easily fall prey to the enemy.

Some of us seem to be born with more humility than others. Some of us have great mothers or fathers that modeled humility. But most of us get out in the world, especially out in the marketplace…and humility doesn’t seem to win. It doesn’t seem to get promoted. It doesn’t seem to get talked about or noticed.

So pride drives until we GET humbled. Then, we begin to open our eyes. We develop a vision for a greater purpose for our lives and our work. The Bible begins to show us that humility has value!

Our friends at Catalyst have shared some great ideas on working to become a humble leader. If you are intrigued with these ideas, click over and read the Catablog for the details.

10 ATTRIBUTES OF A HUMBLE LEADER

  1. Dangerous trust
  2. Sincere investment
  3. Gentle, but strong
  4. Readily admits mistakes
  5. Forgives easily
  6. Quickly diverts attention
  7. Remains thankful
  8. Recognizes limitations
  9. Shares authority
  10. Invites feedback
Marketplace Scripture:
“For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great.”
Luke 14:11

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Discovering Your Calling

Posted in Calling, Faith and Work, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, Planning, Purpose, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Why should we care what work we do? Why should we care where we work? It’s just work right? It’s something we have to do. We have to pay the bills, so we work.

          If that is our perspective, we are surrendering half of our lives                     to the landfill. 


One of our WorkMatters Seven Pillars of Faith at Work  is CALLING. This is the idea of aligning our God-given gifts and skills and passions with our work. But why should we care? How about this:

  1. We spend half our lives working. Shouldn’t it have purpose and meaning?
  2. Work is hard. Many of us are dissatisfied and frustrated.
  3. God cares about our work!

Let’s clarify what Calling is. As human beings, we are called into a personal relationship with Jesus. Then as believers, He calls us all to “go and make disciples of all nations”. This is a universal Calling which applies equally to all of us.

But, we have a 2nd Calling…to do the work that God created us to do! In Jeremiah 1:5, God said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God has a job for us to do!

The question is, will we invest the time and effort to better understand our calling? Most people don’t. They are essentially stagnant until they feel forced to make a move or they are reactive to a phone call. We need to be proactive in understanding who we are, what our skills are and what brings us joy.

Seven Ideas to Discover Your Calling

  1. Intimate relationship with God: pray, listen, wait, obey
  2. Learn who you are
  3. Step out of your comfort zone
  4. Determine the difference between a great idea…and an assignment from God
  5. Seek counsel
  6. Beware of your Enemy
  7. When its time…be courageous!

This should get you started. Don’t wait until you are forced to consider your calling. Invest some time now. Stay true to your current work. God has you there. Do it with Excellence. But spend some time on these seven ideas. It will change your life!

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Who Cares?

Posted in Excellence, Faith and Work, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, Pride, Work, tagged , , , , on January 26, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

I love today’s blog post from Seth Godin! Especially this point…”Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.” One of our Core Values at WorkMatters is Excellence. It is also one of the Seven Pillars of Faith at Work. Excellence is so often found in the details. Enjoy Seth’s wisdom below:

Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges.

Often it’s the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team.

You’ve probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn’t answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the same, but gets the details right.

It’s obviously not about access to capital (doing it right doesn’t cost more). It’s about caring enough to make an effort.

If we define good enough sufficiently low, we’ll probably meet our standards. Caring involves raising that bar to the point where the team has to stretch.

Of course, the manager of the mediocre hotel that’s reading this, the staff member of the mediocre restaurant that just got forwarded this note–they have a great excuse. Times are tough, money is tight, the team wasn’t hired by me, nobody else cares, I’m only going to be doing this gig for a year, our customers are jerks… who cares?

Caring, it turns out, is a competitive advantage, and one that takes effort, not money.

Like most things that are worth doing, it’s not easy at first and the one who cares isn’t going to get a standing ovation from those that are merely phoning it in. I think it’s this lack of early positive feedback that makes caring in service businesses so rare.

Which is precisely what makes it valuable.

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Generous

Posted in Faith and Work, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, Giving, tagged , , , , on January 10, 2012 | 1 Comment »

gen~er~ous: adjective 1. liberal in giving or sharing; unselfish.

Why are people generous? What makes someone want to give? Is it how they were raised? Or is it in their DNA? Is it because they have excess riches? Or is it a product of their heart?

I don’t pretend to know the answers to these questions, but I have experienced first hand the incredible blessings of generosity.

WorkMatters has been a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization for eight years. We have had the opportunity to help bridge the gap between faith and work for thousands of people largely due to the generosity of people in northwest Arkansas and across the US. Each year we faithfully share our vision and our needs…and you give. Each year we are challenged to live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

On November 1, 2011 WorkMatters launched One Day at a Time to pray and work to raise $120,000 by December 31. Because of the faithfulness and generosity of many of you, we not only achieved the goal, we exceeded it!  We now begin 2012 with great confidence to continue to grow and impact more leaders through the marketplace.

Thank you! We are incredibly grateful for each of you who prayed and invested in this mission and vision.  Lives are being impacted, culture is changing.

2012 Challenge

I want to challenge you to make your faith at work a priority in 2012. Don’t compartmentalize your faith. Explore what it means to take whatever faith you feel you have, and live it equally in your work.

WorkMatters can be a powerful and valuable asset in your journey. Study the Seven Pillars of Faith at Work. Determine where you need to concentrate first. And let us know how WorkMatters can impact your life and work in 2012.

Blessed and excited,

David

Proverbs 11:24 – One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.

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The Intention in Influence

Posted in Influence, Leadership, Mentoring, Serve, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, tagged , , , , on December 21, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

We have been teaching, writing and talking about Influence this month, one of the Seven Pillars of Faith at Work. As leaders, walking (sprinting is more like it) through the end of 2011 and into a fresh new year, Influence has to be omnipresent.

I am reading Leadership is Dead: How Influence is Reviving It by Giant Impact CEO Jeremie Kubicek. Jeremie says “great leaders with true influence build relationships by serving the needs of those within their spheres of influence, even as they serve the needs of their businesses.”

It is the “even as they serve the needs of their businesses”  phrase that we should consider. There are certainly numerous opportunities for us to have influence in our personal lives. What about work? In the busy lives that we lead today, how can we be more intentional about influencing in the flow of our day at work?

Here are a few suggestions for you to consider.

  1. Encourage – take the time to share with someone what you see in them. Their gifts, their skills. It doesn’t have to be a long discussion. It can follow a meeting where you simply pull that person aside and say, “you are really good at…”
  2. Mentor – a big, sometimes scary word. That man or woman 5, 10, 20 years younger than you? Their watching. Show them the way. Maybe you can take them to lunch one day. Pour a little of what’s in your cup, in their cup.
  3. Serve - we are pro’s at hiding when we are hurting, especially at work. When you see or hear that someone in your work is going through a difficult time, there is no greater time to serve. Maybe it is an encouraging private word. Maybe it’s an email. Maybe it’s a cup of coffee. Remember those people who came along side of you in your time of need? Now you can use your experience to serve another.

Lord, slow us down enough to notice. Plant the seed in us to be intentional with the influence that you give us, especially in our work. Amen

“You’re here to be light…If I make you light-bearers…shine! By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God…” Matthew 5:14-16

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Living Out Colossians 3:23

Posted in Excellence, Faith and Work, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work on November 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Apostle Paul can be intimidating. He writes: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”  I don’t know about you, but thinking that the Lord God Almighty supervises my work intimidates me considerably.  It makes me think that everything I do at work must be perfect.  But I don’t think that’s what Paul is trying to say to us.

            Who we are, and whom we represent, even in our work, means what we do reflects on more than ourselves.  As Christians, we have an association with the Lord, and so our actions, including how we do our job, reflect on that association.  Let me give you two ways Paul talks about this.  First, Paul speaks of us as belonging to God as a slave belongs to the one who purchased them.   He writes: “God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.”  (1Corinthians 7:23 NLT) In Romans, Paul says we are part of God’s family: “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs.” (Romans 8:15-17 NLT)  Both of these share the same idea.  In the time of Paul, the household you represented meant everything.  If you disgraced yourself, you disgraced your household as well.  Therefore, when we work, we reflect the household to which we belong.  As Christians, we our work reflects our Lord.

So for me, whatever I do, I should excel at it.  That does not mean that I do everything with the same quality or intensity level.  Rather, it means that I try to figure out what I’m good at, what my job is, and what expectations are upon me.  So when Paul made tents he might not have kept the cleanest shop in town, but perhaps he did make excellent tents at a fair price. Ultimately, if you pay someone to make you a tent, you don’t care quite as much about how often they sweep up their scrap as you do about the quality of the tent maker measurements, cuts and stitches.

Determining what would make us excel in our job and demonstrate true excellence will be different for each of us.  Excellence is as diverse as we are uniquely gifted and in unique circumstances.  But figuring that out puts us on the road to excellence, and I believe the Lord will be pleased with his child’s work.

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The Excellent Hedge Hog

Posted in Excellence, Faith and Work, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, tagged , , , on November 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »

WorkMatters founder Tom Frase taught on the pillar of Excellence at our November Eight to Five.  He will continue to share his thoughts over the next few weeks defining more clearly how we achieve excellence in our work.

Collins in his book Good to Great says that great companies find their “hedgehog idea.”  If you’ve not read the book, let me explain the idea briefly and inadequately.  (You should really read the book.)  He says that great companies find where three different ideas converge: What they can be the best in the world at; what drives their economic engine; what they are deeply passionate about.  He says that where those three circles overlap, that’s your hedgehog idea – that’s the idea that you always stick to, and that’s the idea the makes you great.


I think this can apply to our personal lives as well.  But with a bit of modification.  I would argue that the three circles for an individual seeking excellence in their work are: Our unique gifting (strengths), Our unique circumstances, Expectations from those we serve, both employers and customers.  When these three circles converge, we can demonstrate excellence, even in a job that perhaps is not our favorite job in the world.  That means that a street sweeper, or marketing manager, or third shift supervisor can demonstrate excellence in their work, even it their work is not their dream job.

Now I also believe that we should strive to find the job that we are best at in the world, that we are deeply passionate about, and that someone will pay us to do.  That makes excellence easy, but in reality, most of us will not find that in our work.  And it’s because work is never going to be paradise.  I am blessed to feel like I am working in my calling, working in my strengths, and I have an organization willing to pay me for the work.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t have frustrations, stress, failures and fatigue.  Work will always be work.

But we should show excellence regardless of how “perfect” our job is for us.  We may be under employed, have a terrible boss, difficult clients or a declining market.  Nevertheless, if we can align our gifts and talents with a clear understanding of how we see excellence in our job, and in line with the expectations of those who pay us and those we serve, we can demonstrate excellence.  And when that happens, we have a much better chance of making a difference in our world as well as our future.

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Integrity in our Words

Posted in Integrity, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, tagged , on November 9, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Our final guest blog on INTEGRITY comes today from John Roberts, CEO, J.B. Hunt Transport. John has begun blogging inside J.B. Hunt to share ideas and create a dialog between associates. He agreed to share this thinking with you today.

We have talked a great deal about our Team and the People that make it work.  Each day, every one of us makes commitments and promises to other people no matter what job we are doing.  These vows we make to each other drive us forward.  The company has been built on that principle of integrity from the very beginning.

It is said that you don’t need to add incremental promises to your word by swearing an oath.  You word is good enough on its own.  A good line is…”your word is the only thing you can give and keep at the same time.” Every day, we are a surging mass of connections and commitments, all working together.  That means that we are entirely counting on each other to do whatever it is that we said we would do, every time.

I will work hard to do my part.

John

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Leading the Next Generation

Posted in Influence, Seven Pillars of Faith and Work, tagged , , , on November 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

A quick off-ramp from our Integrity focus for a word on Influence from our close friend, Steve Toth.

As an up-and-coming young professional, I just wanted to fit in.  Specifically, I wanted to fit in with the president of the company, and the rest of the over-achieving workaholics he ran with.  Work was my #1 idol, and making money, the bling-bling fruit of my labor! Work hard-play hard was my motto; but frankly the “play hard” part got lost somewhere…  I was consumed by the cash and status surrounding my definition of success at work and in life.

Much like me in my early career, the young professionals in our workplaces just want to “fit in”, as well. Maybe they have a role model parent to emulate, or maybe a leader at work they choose to identify with.  They might choose the path of the workaholic, placing work on top of their list of idols. Who will help guide them?  It has to be us (the 35+ crowd)!

So, what’s our role? What are we doing to encourage the next generation of leaders to pick a healthy, contributing, and sustainable path? More specifically, what steps can we follow to lead the next gen to a better life and career?

  1. Choose to invest. Making this simple choice will help you recognize opportunities to influence as they cross your path. This is very easy; just decide!
  2. Move your feet – invite a next gen to lunch and get to know them. You won’t get permission to speak into their lives if you don’t know them and they don’t know you.
  3. Be transparent; those watching you will find your honesty attractive and enduring. You may even find a new level of humility in the process…

We have a job to do, and it’s a job beyond our daily deliverables. Jesus wrote “To whom much has been given, much is expected.” (Luke 12:48)  One of our life’s most important roles is to help lead the next generation to find their greatest contributions …

In the soup with you,  Steve

Resource: Becoming a Coaching Leader  – Daniel Harkavy

This is a guest post by Steve Toth. He is a husband, father of two wonderful children, and the business unit leader at Novar. He was the marketplace teacher at our recent Eight to Five event focused on INTEGRITY, one of the Seven Pillars of Faith at Work. His teaching is available to you now in Video, Podcast, and Executive Summary formats.

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