Christian Business Concepts
Christian Business Concepts
Unlock the Secret to an Open Workplace
Well, welcome to today's broadcast. We're really glad that you tuned in today. We're going to be talking today about building an environment of openness and trust. You know, it seems that you can't even open a newspaper today or watch a 10 o'clock news without hearing about the latest poll or survey about the lack of trust the American people have with Congress and government leaders. You know, in fact, a recent Pew Research Council survey shows that almost 80 percent of the United States do not trust Congress. Congress does not even trust itself. You know, political parties in Congress do not trust one another. There's government branches and departments that don't trust each other.
Speaker 1:In fact, the 9-11 Commission report that was published back in July of 2004,. You know they stated that the attacks may have been thwarted that we experienced on that day if there had been some interagency, collaboration and communication. Instead, the FBI was not sharing intelligence with the CIA and vice versa. The NSA didn't share information with anyone. No one was sharing information with the local law enforcement.
Speaker 1:So you know we have a lack of transparency, communication and openness, you know, with the American people and within our own country. You add on top of that all of the scandals that we've read about concerning this senator or that congressman. You know politicians are being videotaped participating in or masterminding illegal backroom deals, taking bribes, having affairs. You know the American people have been lied to and taken advantage of by not just the federal government, state government or local politicians. You know they make public promises and then they don't keep them. They say one thing and do another and then they act like we're just being naive because we're expecting them to be honest. And that's why one of the reasons that I have this true heart for Christian business, because God needs Christian businesses in this world today. You know, we see the same thing not just in politics, but we see the same thing mirrored in businesses, both small and great, both secular and nonprofit. Actually, there was a recent Gallup poll that shows that only 22% of the Americans have confidence in the news media. So trust and openness is, in short, demand today. We don't trust our school systems, we don't trust our doctors, we don't trust our hospitals, we don't trust the bank, we don't trust our neighbors, we don't trust our hospitals, we don't trust the bank, we don't trust our neighbors, we don't trust our spouses and, in some cases, we don't even trust ourselves.
Speaker 1:I mean, more importantly, there's a growing consensus report that came out Wall Street Journal and they analyzed thousands of reviews from jobs and career websites and you know those like Glassdoor or Indeed and once they completed all that information and they analyzed everything, they compiled a list of 11 companies with the lowest ratings and worst companies to work for. And in at number one is a company called Book A Million, where there was only 22% of the employees that gave the CEO a favorable rating and only 14% of the employees said they would recommend working for that company to a friend. Percent of the employees said they would recommend working for that company to a friend. Express Scripts is number two on the list and their CEO has a favorable rating of 28 percent, and the employee reviews show that having absolutely no work and personal life balance is one of the biggest issues. So there's a lot of companies that are demanding a lot out of their employees, but they're not getting that transparency and open communication that they should have and do deserve. So many of the others said that management thought supplying reports was more important than fixing customer problems. So this lack of trust and transparency is holding companies and employees back from opportunities and potential success. I mean, fortunately there are some companies who are bucking the trend. You know they understand that a lack of openness and trust has a negative effect on performance and productivity and profitability.
Speaker 1:But let me give you a wisdom seed. Can I do that? Here's a great wisdom seed. People trust those who are trusted by God and you're going to see that throughout the podcast today.
Speaker 1:So let's look at a couple of scriptures. So in Proverbs, chapter 22 and verse 1, it says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold. Proverbs 11 and 1 says a false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 28 and 6 says better is the poor that walks in his uprightness or another word for that is integrity than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich. Proverbs 6, 16 through 19 says these six things does the Lord hate yea seven are an abomination unto him A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaks lies and he that sows discord among the brethren.
Speaker 1:I remember back 20-some years ago when I lived in Florida and I was pastoring, I had done an editorial in the local newspaper and one of the things that I put in there was this passage and I talked about how that there were these six things that the Lord hated. And you would not believe the amount of phone calls and emails or not emails at the time, but actually letters that I received that said you know that I didn't understand God, that God doesn't hate anything, and I'm like I'm sharing the scripture with you. I didn't say that. I said God said this in his word, but yet people didn't want to see that and I think today we don't want to see it either. But there is definitely an environment of mistrust in our world today and I believe it needs to start changing, and it needs to start changing with businesses.
Speaker 1:In Titus, chapter 2 and verse 7 in the Amplified Bible, it says and all things show yourself to be an example of good works, with purity and doctrine, having the strictest regard for integrity and truth, and to be dignified. So trust in the workplace is the result of making conscious decisions, conscious words, thoughts, deeds. And you know, as we look at this and look at what really having a lack of openness and trust in a business will cost you, whether it be in a business or a church, but it's going to cost you employees. If you're a business, it'll cost you sales. It'll cost you vendors. You know I've dealt with companies. They treat their vendors horribly Well. Without your vendors you can't do business.
Speaker 1:So if you run all your vendors off and I'll be honest with you, we're vendors you know my company that I work for is vendors for a lot of companies and I got to tell you there are times that we actually fire the customer. You know, because they're so unreasonable you can't trust them. There are times that we actually fire the customer, you know, because they're so unreasonable you can't trust them. There's no openness and they just treat us so horribly. We just decide, you know what. You go find somebody else to supply what you need. We'll find another customer, and so you know it'll cost you vendors, it'll cost you credibility. It'll cost you credibility. It'll cost you respect. It costs you openness.
Speaker 1:It creates a low morale within the company. It'll cost you backbiting. You'll hear gossip There'll be, and this is a big one. You know if you're in business you'll get a lack of effort. You know if you have low morale, your efficiency goes down and you know that affects everybody, that affects your bottom line. But this lack of trust and openness also creates at times where there is disobedience of company directives. In other words, you have company directives out there and people just don't do it. The other thing that it can create is a or when that happens, I should say, a lot of times there's no vision, and a business has to have a vision. You'll create a high employee turnover rate. I mean, within our company, we look at departments and we see the turnover high rates of turnover within a certain department that we have to investigate and try to determine why there's so many people leaving that person's department, and a lot of times, what we find is there's a lack of trust and openness, there's a lack of loyalty and there's employee stagnation. I mean, according to research published by a Harvard Business Review and if you don't get that, you ought to, but it's got great information in there but stress levels, 76% greater engagement and 50% more productivity. Now, those are some statistics that I think every business ought to be looking for. I mean, if you take the time to look at the 2014 fortunes top 100 places to work, you're going to find a reoccurring theme Each of these companies have purposely set out to build a culture of openness and trust.
Speaker 1:Now what I want to do is share with you today the 23 do's and don'ts of creating trust and openness in your business. All right, so let's just kind of jump in right now. So first, do have open channels of communication. This is one of the most crucial areas in creating openness and trust. You've got to establish guidelines for effective communication. That goes both ways. It just can't come to you. You've got to actually communicate back as well. Next, do be open to others' opinions and ideas. Can I just tell you something for a minute? You ain't all that in a bag of chips. Can I just say that you know everybody has opinions. Everybody has ideas. Yours is not the only ideas and opinions that you should go after. You should be open to hear what other people's opinions and ideas are. In most cases, the best idea is born through the discussion of a lot of good and bad ideas from different people. Let's go to the next one.
Speaker 1:Don't make false accusations. People in general are quick to make judgments and accusations without first checking with the facts. You know the owner of our business, our prior owner to this business. The one thing that he taught me over the years was if you don't have a command of the facts, keep your mouth shut. And I think that really taught me a lot, because it was hard for me in the beginning to keep my mouth shut even though I didn't know all the facts. So don't make false accusations. There's been people's careers ruined by false accusations Career of both the falsely accused and the accuser. So don't make false accusations.
Speaker 1:Do encourage risk-taking. Innovation in any organization is key to future and present success. Without risk-taking there is no innovation. You've got to be willing to take the risk, john McMahon said one time. He said, yes, risk-taking is inherently failure-prone, otherwise it would be called sure-thing-taking. Well, we're not talking about a sure thing, we're talking about taking risk. Make sure your employees know that they have your permission to make mistakes. Then realize if no mistakes are being made, they aren't trying hard enough, they're not taking enough risk.
Speaker 1:Listen, I remember the first time I hadn't been with a company for a while. I had a regional territory that I covered and I went into a distributor and I started talking to the distributor and immediately he became combative and you know I handled it. You know I tried to handle it with a little bit of humor and, just you know, trying to peel the onion back to get at what he was upset with. Trying to peel the onion back to get at what he was upset with. But when I left that day I remember worrying that he was going to call the home office and then I was going to get in trouble. So I decided that I would be preemptive and I called my boss and I told him what had happened and I'll never forget. He said man, you just rang the bell. And I said what do you mean? I rang the bell. He said no, you did a good thing. He said if you let your customers walk all over you, then they'll do that all the time, and what you did is stood up for them. So I congratulate you on that. I'm not upset with that. You took a risk of running the customer off, but in so doing that you establish what the rules were for moving forward with him being a customer. He said so great job.
Speaker 1:So don't stifle your employees from taking risk. I tell my employees all the time look, don't call me if you're in the middle of a big negotiation to get my permission for something, and these are seasoned employees. I say make the deal, then come to me and I'll just tell you If it was a bad deal. I'll tell you it was a bad deal and why. But I would rather you take the risk. I'd rather you have the opportunity to make mistakes. So do encourage risk-taking. Okay, don't be over-critical.
Speaker 1:Constructive criticism is based on facts and a desire to help that person that you're communicating with. Non-constructive criticism is based on opinion and a desire to help yourself look good. I want to say that again Constructive criticism is based on facts and a desire to help the person you are communicating with. Of criticism is based on facts and a desire to help the person you are communicating with, not based on opinion and a desire to help yourself look good. So don't be overcritical. Step back. If you can't keep yourself from being overcritical in a situation, then let somebody else handle it or take some time before you actually address whatever that issue is. Before you actually address whatever that issue is, okay, do resolve conflicts.
Speaker 1:Unresolved conflicts can result in one or more of the following things you can get a decrease in your productivity, you get higher than normal employee turnover and you get divisions among departments and or employees. I have experience with the company that I work with. This goes back several years before it was ever dealt with, but our prior owner there were times that he allowed conflict. He thought it was a good thing. And I just want you to know conflict is never a good thing. It's not a good thing if it's not being addressed. I'm not saying that there can't be conflict. Sometimes conflict is a part of moving forward. Conflict is a part of innovation. You have it, but you can't be conflict. Sometimes conflict is a part of moving forward. Conflict is a part of innovation. You have it, but you can't let it fester. You have to deal with it. You got to be very straightforward and you've got to deal with it.
Speaker 1:All right, don't be closed-minded. Don't be closed-minded. Being closed-minded will keep you from having a broader horizon. It'll limit your problem-solving skills. It'll inhibit you from having a broader horizon. It'll limit your problem-solving skills. It'll inhibit you from having that creative thinking you know. It also keeps you from making good decisions.
Speaker 1:Being open-minded means being willing to change your opinion or ideas every once in a while. Hello, you hear that. You know, while people who are closed-minded are going around telling everyone why they are right, they miss the fact that someone else has the better answer. So don't be that person. Don't be closed-minded. Do be inclusive.
Speaker 1:A quick way to lose somebody's trust is to exclude them from discussions or special assignments or meetings or conversations. I see it all the time. Don't look for this person to speak or share any problem-solving ideas if you're always excluding them. If you're excluding a person because of this person's lack of skills or abilities, then make the effort to either overcome this with additional training or replace them. But you need to be inclusive.
Speaker 1:Don't say one thing but do another. I mean I've told my kids this growing up. I tell employees, action speaks louder than words. I know we talk about it, we've said it forever, but it's true. I mean, how many times have you been disappointed in someone who speaks or says one thing but then their actions communicate the exact opposite?
Speaker 1:You know, one of the men responsible for America's Industrial Revolution is Andrew Carnegie and he said later in his life he said as I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do. Benjamin Franklin, who's one of my favorite characters in our history of our country, he said one time well done is better than well said. That's one of my favorite quotes Well done is better than well said. What's the next thing? Well, you do need to give feedback. So give feedback. Without feedback, a company and organization will have a hard time with employee growth and improvement. I mean feedback ideally should flow in all directions and include from you and from others to you. You should not only be willing to use feedback to help others improve their performance, but you also really need to be willing to use feedback to improve your performance. Right? Because, as John Maxwell says, everything rises and falls on leadership. So you've got to be willing to improve your performance. That happens through feedback.
Speaker 1:All right, okay, don't complain down. So if you're a department manager, a regional manager, the owner, you know it's natural sometimes to want to blow off steam from time to time and to complain to employees. But let me just tell you, when you complain down, it makes you look unprofessional and petty. Keep in mind that when you complain down, you also may inadvertently be undermining your colleagues or your boss. It also causes a negative attitude among your employees. So don't complain down. You know I tell my employees all the time don't complain down to your people. You want to complain? You come to me. You complain up not down.
Speaker 1:Do acknowledge employees' work. Be sure to take time to acknowledge the commitments and the efforts of your employees. Make sure that you see what they're doing. You know there's a great book that was written years ago called Management by Wandering Around. So you manage your business by wandering around your company and watch what people do. You learn a lot from it. I mean, you learn a whole lot from it. You learn good things and bad things, and let me say this this is a wisdom seed that I have lived by in my life what gets inspected gets done. Let me say it again what gets inspected gets done. You're looking and inspecting their work and make sure you acknowledge it. Make sure you acknowledge it. In our company, in the corporate office in Oklahoma City, we have a cafeteria and so the managers within the company have tokens they may be $2 tokens, $5 tokens, whatever and if they see an employee do something really good, they'll walk over and give them a token and that token's good for food in the cafeteria. It's just a great way to recognize and acknowledge people's work.
Speaker 1:Okay, don't overpraise. So some bosses think that giving praise to employee is a way to develop loyalty. There are benefits to giving timely and legitimate praise, but it really should only be done when it's, you know, dictated by really high levels of performance. Praising employees at inappropriate times will eventually result in praise losing any positive benefits among employees. Now, I've worked for both types of people. I've actually worked for people who never give employee praise and just do it all the time. You just don't pay attention to it and it really loses its effectiveness. So don't overpraise.
Speaker 1:Do be an active listener. Good listening skills are important in our effectiveness as a leader and a boss. Good listening skills help you avoid conflicts and misunderstandings. It keeps you from taking advantage of employees. Taking advantage of employees by overworking them, taking them for granted or not giving them credit for their work. It creates a lot of resentment and it's one of the biggest reasons for employee turnover. How you overcome that a lot of times is just being a good active listener. You may hear them, but you're not listening. Listen, take the time to listen to what your employees are saying. Okay, do make important information and resources available. Make sure that you make critical information that's needed to complete a task available to your employees. Withholding resources needed to function in a specific position is a really good way to limit the success of your employees and yourself, for that matter, all right.
Speaker 1:Next, don't allow your ego to be in charge. Listen, everybody's got ego we all do but you've got to keep it in check. Unhealthy egos keep people from seeing their blind spots. I experienced that in my own personal life. I'll admit that to you. I'll confess that I've had that happen. You know it keeps you from receiving advice that otherwise might be really helpful, but you don't get it because of your ego. Now, healthy egos provide confidence and self-esteem, and that's important. But an unhealthy ego can become really entangled with emotions and then, before long, your ego's in control. A person's ego can be an asset or it can be a liability, and that person including you and me, we're in charge of making sure which one it's going to be. If it's going to be an asset or liability, all right.
Speaker 1:Next, do be transparent when making decisions. Nobody likes to be kept in the dark when it comes to making decisions. Everybody hates that. Those involved. They want to know the people they're dealing with are being genuine, are sharing their true thoughts and have pure motives. I mean, a person who's not willing to be transparent is you know. It just makes them feel like you've got something to hide, and people that have something to hide people don't trust those people when they're around them. So just be transparent when you're making decisions. Now, there's some things that are trade secrets or what have you and you can't, but try to be transparent when you're making decisions, all right.
Speaker 1:Next, don't blame others. The blame game doesn't work in government, corporations, non-profit organizations or even individual lives. Several research studies have shown that people who place blame on others for their own mistakes, they create a big loss of respect and creativity, much, much lower productivity and lower employee development and that's not what you want, all right. Next, employee development. And that's not what you want, all right. Next, do show support Supporting employees' efforts and suggestions, coupled with making training and learning opportunities available. Of course, you got to have that those things. When you put them together, they inspire and motivate people to perform well beyond what they even think they're capable of what they even think they're capable of. So make sure you show support.
Speaker 1:Next, don't be unreliable. Employees need a boss that they can depend on and rely on, so you need to consistently show that you're reliable, especially when things are tough. The people that you supervise they need you to meet those deadlines if at all possible. If not communicate, why Follow through on what you're going to say, you're going to do, and be dependable and dedicated. Get organized, but be reliable.
Speaker 1:All right, do stay away from management fads, and I'll just say this I mean following management. Fads can sometimes make bosses lose credibility, makes you look superficial, uncommitted, you can cause employees to become cynical. Not all management fads are bad, but you know some have value in increasing performance and growing employees. So I think you got to be at least open to evaluate fads. But you know, when you look at these fads and even buzzwords when they present themselves, you know, just be cautious. Make sure that you completely, are completely knowledgeable and ready to launch any kind of new management tool or methodology, but just try to stay away from the fads.
Speaker 1:Don't withhold an apology when one's needed. One of the reasons bosses today do not want to apologize for mistakes or a lack of good judgment is that they think employees will see that as a sign of weakness. And I'm just here to tell you that's not true. In reality. A boss who's unwilling to apologize when everybody else sees I mean you may be the one that don't want to recognize it, but everybody sees you're at fault and when you do that, you're not seen as strong, you're seen as weak, dishonest and just disingenuous. And I think that a timely and an appropriate apology it'll garner a lot of respect from your employees. It'll establish and affirm your leadership, and that's what you want. So don't withhold an apology Now. Don't go around apologizing for everything. That's not what I'm saying, but I do believe that you do have to make those apologies when needed. All right, do trust others.
Speaker 1:Now think about the early 80s. There was a new leader in the USSR. His name was Mikhail Gorbachev. It was through his reforms that communism fell and a new Soviet Union was born. The first and foremost of these reforms was his policy of glasnost, which in Russian it meant openness and transparency, and this was a complete change in the thinking of most people, if not all, especially of the Politburo. You know, gorbachev knew that this glass nose was the only thing that was going to save the country, and in order to accomplish it, he implemented another reform called perestroika, which literally means to restructure. So he understood that to make his strategy work, he had to restructure the government in order to support his reform of openness and transparency and, of course, the strategy worked I mean part of it worked because the Cold War was over. Now, during the same period, our president at that time, ronald Reagan. He has his own philosophy in support of Mikhail Gorbachev, and his policy was one that I can't pronounce it in Russian, but the English interpretation is trust but verify. So the combination of Gorbachev's restructuring, for all the openness and transparency, and then Reagan's policy of trust but verify it changed our incomplete and total world for the better and for generations to come.
Speaker 1:So the lesson we need to take away from history is a boss or a leader should be willing to allow a trust but verify attitude when trying to create this environment of trust and openness. You know, one of the things that I learned early on in my management career was that what gets inspected, gets done. We talked about that. While we are bosses and leaders and we place trust in others, there's still a need to inspect the assignments and the work that we're trusting them to do. I'm not saying to spy on employees, as this, then, would communicate the fact that you say you trust them, but your actions are telling them that you don't trust them. So that's not what I'm saying, but be sure to let the employee know that when the assignment is given to them, that you're going to be checking in with them to see how they're doing, see if they need anything, see if they have any questions or if they need any tools or anything to help them get the task done or if they're having any difficulties in carrying out the work. So a company or organization that has an environment of trust and openness will be happier, have more productive employees and will be a more productive and profitable company.
Speaker 1:Booker T Washington said one time Few things help an individual more than to place responsibility upon him and to let him know that you trust him. You know there was a man who lived on Long Island and one day he had this lifelong ambition by purchasing for himself a very nice, high-end barometer very expensive and when the instrument arrived at his home he was extremely disappointed to find that the indicating needle on this barometer appeared to be stuck and it was pointing to the sector on this dial and it was marked hurricane. So after shaking the barometer you know he shook it real hard a bunch of times and he just sat down. He wrote this horrible letter to the store from which he'd purchased this barometer, and the following morning, on his way to the office in New York, he mailed the letter. Well, guess what? That evening he returned to Long Island to find not only the barometer was missing, but his whole house was missing, because that barometer's needle had been right. There was a hurricane on the way and he just simply refused to trust the product he had valued enough to spend all that money on.
Speaker 1:So a company or an organization that wants to create a level of success that has never been seen before will come to see that you've got to have that power to create this atmosphere of trust and openness. Trust starts with you. You've got to set that power to create this atmosphere of trust and openness. Trust starts with you. You've got to set the stage. Wouldn't you want to create the same environment of trust in your business or church that Jesus has created with us? We can trust him. Can he trust others? Can he trust you?
Speaker 1:Peter Drucker said one time and he's a great leadership guy and I read a lot from Peter Drucker but he says the leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say I. And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say I. They don't think I, they think we, they think team, they understand their job to make the team function better, they accept responsibility and don't sidestep it. But we gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. That's just a great insight, so let me pray with you today, lord. I thank you for those who've chosen to listen to today's podcast. Lord, I proclaim that they will learn to truly trust in you and I proclaim that their business, their church, will become a place of openness and trust in Jesus' name. Hey, thanks for tuning in to this week's podcast and remember Jesus is Lord and he wants you blessed.