Christian Business Concepts
Christian Business Concepts
What Happens When Leaders Choose Persuasion Over Power?
We would love to hear from you. Send us a text message now by clicking HERE!
The subtle line between influence and manipulation marks the difference between godly leadership and toxic control. In today's competitive business landscape, your ability to persuade ethically doesn't just affect your bottom line—it shapes your legacy and testimony.
We begin by spotlighting Polydeck Screen Corp, a mining industry supplier whose transformation epitomizes the power of biblical persuasion. When Peter Fressel took the reins, the company boasted financial success but suffered from a toxic culture with 20% employee turnover. After a life-changing Christian retreat, Peter established new core values grounded in Christian principles and backed them with action—allocating 1% of profits to employee needs, community outreach, and recognition programs. The result? Turnover plummeted below 2%, and over 200 employees embraced Christ. This remarkable turnaround demonstrates how godly persuasion transforms not just operations but hearts.
True persuasion, we discover, requires building authentic relationships, sharing compelling stories, exercising patience, thorough preparation, and seeking divine guidance. Biblical examples abound—from Paul's reasoned defense before King Agrippa to Solomon's wisdom about gentle speech breaking bones. These principles stand in stark contrast to manipulation, which prioritizes self-interest through deception and pressure. We examine cautionary tales of manipulative leadership from Uber's Travis Kalanick to Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes, whose downfalls stemmed from exploitative tactics.
As Christian business leaders, our mandate to influence positively extends beyond profit margins to eternal impact. When we embrace persuasion as a tool for transformation rather than control, we don't just build successful businesses—we reflect Christ's character in the marketplace. Remember, persuasion isn't about winning arguments; it's about winning hearts.
How might your leadership approach change if you prioritized biblical persuasion over manipulation? Join our community by sharing this episode with colleagues who would benefit from these principles.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with your host, harold Milby. Christian Business Concepts is dedicated to guiding companies and business owners in becoming effective, efficient and successful through God's Word and godly principles. Now, here's your host, harold Milby.
Speaker 2:Thanks, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's Christian Business Concepts podcast. That's where we share insightful biblical principles that apply to businesses, that apply to our careers and even our personal lives. That will help us find true godly success. I'm your host, harold Milby, and I pray that today that you'll be enlightened, that you'll be encouraged and that you'll be empowered by what you hear today. Now I'm going to ask that you help us grow the CBC community, just by sharing this podcast with four or five other people, or by posting a link on your LinkedIn page or your Facebook page, and just help us to reach out and reach that community maybe where you're at, the people that you know and share this podcast with them. So we appreciate that and appreciate all that you do and hope that you understand our heart behind it and what we're trying to do to help build godly businesses around the world. Now, today, I want to give a big shout out to the capital city of Medellin, in the country of Colombia. We're so happy that you've decided to be a part of the CBC family. We hope you're blessed by what we share with you and we're so happy for you to be one of the countries one of the new countries that have started listening to the Christian Business Concepts podcast. So welcome, and we welcome all of you from around the world and in the United States. We thank you, we appreciate you all.
Speaker 2:Now, in the company spotlight this week, I'd like to tell you a little bit about a company called Polydeck Screen Corp. They make polyurethane screening material for the mining industry, and Peter Fressel came to South Carolina, which is where the business is, from, south Africa in 1994. And he was working for his father in South Africa, but he moved to the US after he got married to take over the business that they had here and over in here in the United States, over in South Carolina. Now, it didn't take long before that business was extremely, extremely successful, but it came at the expense of treating the employees in a very bad way. They didn't care about what their employees were going through, they just wanted them to work. They bullied them, they gave them a hard time, but they did everything to squeeze every drop of work out of them, and so, consequently, they had a 20% turnover rate with employees, and even some of the employment companies refused to send new employees to them.
Speaker 2:Now here's where it gets good. You know, peter, at the request of a friend of his, asked him to come on to a Christian retreat. Now Peter already, you know, thought of himself as a Christian and thought he loved God and felt like he loved the Lord with all of his heart. But Peter went on this retreat and it changed his life. It caused him to look up to God and then to be honest with himself.
Speaker 2:Now, as soon as he got back, things began to change, and the first thing they did was they changed the company's core value statement and it says this it says we are a company grounded in Christian values of humility, honesty, integrity, trust, respect, kindness, accountability and a sense of social responsibility. And that was just the changing of the core values. So you know, you can say one thing and do another and it doesn't really have much of an impact. So he knew he had to put his money, so to speak, where his mouth was. So he took 1% of their profits every year and they had a budget for what they called their caring committee and that money was used for things like emergency loans, car repairs, home repairs, you know, for their employees. And then they also gave money to create a budget for a community charity fund where they gave money to local charities and still do. And then they had what's called a reach-out fund, and the reach-out fund is where they took employees on mission trips to build schools and they conducted business workshops and just overall just shared God's love. And then they had something called a Katcha Caring Program. A Katcha Caring Program to recognize employees when they would get caught showing that they cared about people, and so they had this program that really recognized those employees. So their turnover rate went from 20% to less than 2%, but, more importantly, there were over 200 employees in a short period of time that gave their lives to Christ, and that's what makes it all worth it, and so we want to give a big shout out to them. We think they're a great company.
Speaker 2:Polydeck Screen Corp. We just thank you for what you're doing and we thank you for caring and we thank you for showing employees godly love, godly care, godly integrity. Keep up the good work. We appreciate you. So let's talk a little bit this change that Peter had at Polydeck.
Speaker 2:It takes me right into this week's topic because I want to talk about the power of persuasion. You know, it was the gentle persuasion of the Holy Spirit that changed Peter's heart and his company. And then he used persuasion to change the hearts of managers and board members. And so they used that persuasion. And as business leaders, you know, we're called not only to manage operations but to really influence hearts and minds, especially towards godly outcomes. And persuasion, when it's rooted really rooted in biblical principles, it really becomes a tool for transformation. It helps to guide your teams, it helps to guide clients and stakeholders towards. You know, whatever that shared vision may be, especially to honor God, and whether you're a CEO or an entrepreneur or a team manager, mastering persuasion, you know, will elevate your influence. And the one thing I know is that leadership is influence. You know, when Ben Franklin, that leadership is influence.
Speaker 2:You know, when Ben Franklin tried to get people interested in Philadelphia in street lighting, he wanted to have street lights in Philadelphia. He didn't really try to persuade them by just talking about it. What he did is he hung this big, beautiful lantern on a long bracket in front of his home and he kept the glass just spectacularly polished, I guess, you could say. And every evening when dusk, you know, right before dusk, he would very diligently, very carefully, he'd light the wick and people saw that light from a distance, and when they walked in its light they found that it helped them to avoid any stumbling stones or sharp stones or edges on the pavement. So other people begin to put a light at their home and soon Philadelphia recognized the need for street lighting. You know, and as other people learn of the peace and joy in your life in Christ, they'll recognize their need for him. You know, your witness through your personal testimony may be just what someone's waiting for. You never know, but Ben Franklin gave us a great example of persuasion. You know, and why?
Speaker 2:Why do leaders need to learn the power of persuasion? Well, first of all, realize that today's business is competitive. You know we're in a very competitive business environment. You know, and really leadership really extends, I think, between vision and then execution. It really enables leaders to motivate their teams to negotiate really effectively and drive innovation. You know, without it, without persuasion, I think even the best strategies fail to gain traction. And so I think it's important Now.
Speaker 2:In 2 Corinthians 5 and 11, it says that since then we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others. What we are in, or what we are, is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. So persuasion is tied to reverence for God, not just self-promotion. It's about transparency, it's about guiding others towards truth, whether it be the truth of your vision, the truth of God's word. But as Christian business leaders, we need to persuade clients to make ethical partnerships. We need to persuade employees to embrace change and always have integrity. You know, proverbs 29, 18 says where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint. But blessed is the one who heeds wisdom's instruction.
Speaker 2:A leader unskilled in persuasion fails to reveal the vision. It really results in a lot of disorganization amongst teams and it causes you to miss some opportunities. You know you got to consider Paul's encounter with King Agrippa in Acts, chapter 26,. You know, because even King Agrippa said do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian? You know Paul's reasoned defense nearly swayed that king to accept Christ. It's just persuasion, the power of persuasion. It's really kind of a high-stakes game. It's like pitching to investors or resolving boardroom disputes. You need to have it. So what does the Bible talk about?
Speaker 2:Research from leadership experts like John Maxwell from leadership experts like John Maxwell, who's been my mentor since 1990, say that without it, leaders risk a real high turnover, a lot of failed initiatives, you know, for instance, persuading a team to adopt new technology. You've got to address the fear. You've got to do it patiently. You've got to turn that resistance into kind of what's called a buy-in. You know, ethically, christian leaders persuade to glorify God. You know you need to avoid manipulation. We're going to get into that here in just a minute.
Speaker 2:But Colossians 2 and 4 says, I tell you this, that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments. So we're not here to deceive people, we're here to give them truth. But we need to learn this power of persuasion. So how do we do that? How do we learn the power of persuasion? Well, the first thing that you've got to do is you've got to build authentic relationships. You know persuasion really thrives. It's fed by trust. So you've got to start to foster genuine connections. You've got to have real sincere relationships with those people that you expect to allow persuasion to take effect. You've got to practice active listening in meetings. You've got to ask great questions from team members. That challenges them. That causes them to dig deep. You want to invest time in understanding what their needs are. That causes them to dig deep. You want to invest time in understanding what their needs are and you can role play conversations and what they need to get done and you can try to help them. But the bottom line is you're trying to build authentic relationships.
Speaker 2:Another thing that you need to do use stories, use testimonies when you're trying to persuade someone, uh to to something that you need to get done. It's part of the vision that you have, it's part of what God's showing you. Use stories. You know stories humanize persuasion. Uh, it makes really abstract ideas. It begins to make them relatable. You know, you, you share these personal let's say before and after experiences. It makes really abstract ideas. It begins to make them relatable. You know, you share these personal let's say before and after experiences, like Paul's testimony in the book of Acts. You know, nike persuades consumers by sharing these stories of perseverance, these stories of empowerment, through these athlete narratives, these stories of empowerment through these athlete narratives, and they create this emotional connection that drives loyalty and drives sales to their brand. And so what we need to do is we need to tell stories.
Speaker 2:You know Acts 26, 29,. It says Short time or long. I pray to God that, not only you, but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these change. Uh, you know he was in prison and chains changed when he wrote this. But you need to tell stories.
Speaker 2:Um, the next thing that you need to do is you need to exercise patience and gentleness. You know, you don't want to rush to persuade somebody because when you do that it alienates people. So you want to rush to persuade somebody because when you do that it alienates people. So you want to have patience, because that really kind of softens the heart. You know, proverbs 25 and 15 says through patience a ruler can be persuaded and a gentle tongue can break a bone. You know, we just need to pray for wisdom. You know James 1 and 5, it says you know, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not. So we need to ask for wisdom. You know, when you face resistance, you got to respond gently. You know, say something like you know hey, look, I understand your concerns. Let's kind of explore this together and get them to talk about it, and then you try to address the issues that they have.
Speaker 2:Another step that you need to take is you need to prepare. Prepare when you're going to persuade somebody, make sure that you have knowledge and you have integrity. Make sure that you know what you're talking about, that you're persuading them with facts and the stories as we talked about. You know, 2 Timothy 2.15 says do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed or who currently handles the word of truth. So we need to make sure that we're prepared, that we have the knowledge and integrity. If you're going to persuade somebody, you need to know what you're saying and what you're talking about. You need to know what the facts are. And then the next step is you need to pray and you need to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance, because true influence really comes from God. You know 1 Peter 3.15,. It says but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and with respect. So again, we are preparing with knowledge, we're being patient, we're being gentle, but you need to seek the Lord's help and he'll help you to become persuasive.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk a little bit about the difference between persuasion and manipulation, because there's a difference. You know, as Christian leaders in the business world, we're called to influence other people with integrity. We need to always be reflecting Christ's love and truth. However, that line between ethical persuasion and what I would consider to be unethical manipulation, I think sometimes that line gets a little blurred and it leads to a lot of harm to people, to teams, to organizations and even your personal testimony. So let's look at this, because to lead effectively, we've got to understand the real core differences between persuasion and manipulation.
Speaker 2:I have worked for owners of companies that were very manipulative. I don't stay long at those companies. If I see that happening, I'm pretty quick to either address it directly, even though I'm not the owner, but I will go to the owner and I will address that. You know, this is not just mere semantics. I mean I have to get involved in that because I can't trust somebody who is manipulative, and so it really impacts trust and impacts ethics, and it will affect the outcome in business and even in ministry, because I've seen a lot of pastors that are very manipulative. And so manipulation is not what we're going for. We're going for persuasion. So let's look at it.
Speaker 2:So what's persuasion? Well, persuasion is the ethical art of really influencing other people through transparent and reasoned communication that respects free will and seeks mutual benefit. It involves presenting facts and stories and appeals in such a way that invites agreement. You know, it often is building a stronger relationship even through the midst of the persuasion. Now, what's manipulation? Well, manipulation, conversely, is really. It's a deceptive, it's a coercive influence that prioritizes their self-interest at the other person's expense. It uses tactics like emotional pressure or maybe half-truths they're just giving you a little bit of truth because they found that that is helpful to help them manipulate you or hidden agendas to control behavior against someone's better judgment.
Speaker 2:And in a Christian context, manipulation I consider it to be spiritual abuse. I think it's where leaders force compliance rather than inspire voluntary commitment. You know, simon Sinek said if we inspire people, they will give us more than we ask for. If we manipulate people, they will give us exactly what we paid for. Uh, carrie West went on to say emotional blackmail is a powerful form of manipulation. It leaves you in a fog where there is a haze of fear, obligation and guilt. So I hope you can kind of see the difference.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, there's biblical perspectives on persuasion and manipulation. You know, corinthians 5 and 11 says since then we know what it is to fear the Lord. We try to persuade others and what we are is plain to God and I hope it is plain to your conscience. So Paul had a very transparent approach and that really models persuasion. And I think that the Bible really condemns manipulation. You know, Proverbs 12, 22 says the Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.
Speaker 2:So manipulation often involves lies or, like I said, half-truths, and it really undermines, you know, the trust. You know Psalms 101 and 7 says no one who practices deceit will dwell in my house and no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Again it rejects manipulative leaders who use lies. Colossians 2 and 4 says I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. You know Paul cautions the people in the Colossian church. He cautions them against manipulative what I would consider to be rhetoric that sounds appealing but it lacks truth. And then Ephesians 4 and 14 says that then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful scheming. So this kind of describes manipulation's instability, and when you contrast that with persuasion, persuasion creates a stability.
Speaker 2:So why does this difference matter? I mean, why does it matter that there's this difference between operating through persuasion and operating through manipulation? Well, manipulation may give you some short-term gains, but let me tell you something It'll lead to higher turnover rate. It can also I mean, you have to look at the legal risk that you take sometimes too and damaged reputations in your business, in your personal life, in your career. You know studies that are out there right now. They kind of show manipulative environments reduce employee engagement for up to 30%. So, in contrast, you've got persuasive leadership. It really fosters loyalty and innovation. You know.
Speaker 2:It reminds me of this story. You know, the day before Thanksgiving, an elderly man in Phoenix. He called his son in New York and said to him he said, hey, I hate to ruin your day, but I have to tell you that your mother and I are divorcing. 45 years of misery is enough. You know we're sick of each other. So you call your sister in Chicago and tell her. So the son, he's just completely frantic. He calls his sister. You know she explodes on the phone. You know, like heck, they're going to get a divorce, she'd shout back and she said I'll take care of this. And so she called Phoenix and called her parents immediately and said to her dad. She said hey look, you are not getting a divorce. Don't do a single thing until I get there. I'm calling my brother back and we'll both be there tomorrow, so until then, don't you do a thing. You hear me, and so you know. The dad hung up with his daughter and he turns to his wife and he says okay, honey, the kids are coming for Thanksgiving and they're paying for their own flights. So that's an example of manipulation. You know, that's a prime example of manipulation.
Speaker 2:So how do we practice persuasion to avoid manipulation? Well, you got to be transparent. You need to focus on mutual benefit of everyone and you need to use gentle approaches. Make sure you employ patience, use your stories, like we talked about, share testimonies, so that that'll inspire them, not coerce them. You want to inspire them. It's about inspiration and these are some, you know, tactics that you can use to avoid manipulation. So there's a lot of great examples of this.
Speaker 2:We had a CRM, a customer relationship management tool that was public domain, so you only paid for things that you wanted them to do, you got the CRM for free, but you had to pay for things. If you wanted them to host it, then you paid for it. If you wanted them to change things, you paid for it. But there came a time to when I noticed that we hosted our own. We hosted our own CRM, so it didn't affect us. But what I found out was is they shut down thousands of people's CRMs for a whole day, for 24 hours, and the reason that they did it was they said there's not enough people that are giving towards this great product that was free of charge. And they took donations and, like I said, you paid for the help that you got, and so, instead of making a plea, instead of coming and persuading them, they shut down every single CRM instance that they hosted. They shut it down for 24 hours and then said well, how do you like that? You know, I think they lost more people than any of the amount of money that they could have gained. It was such a turnoff. It was really a big turnoff for us. You know, fortunately they didn't shut us down because we had our own instance of that CRM on our own personal servers at work, but there's companies that do that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:You know Travis Kalanick he's Uber's co-founder and he was their former CEO. He resigned in 2017. But he was notorious for cultivating a very toxic and a very aggressive workplace. You know, he manipulated employees through intimidation, through sexism and a lot of deceptive practices, and that's one of the reasons he was pressured to step down as CEO, you know. And then there was Adam Newman, who he was the CEO of WeWork. That's not even in business anymore. He was ousted in 2019 because he had again this reputation for being manipulative. He was a very kind of a cult-like leader and he just exploited employees through emotion or just impulsive decisions and putting pressure on them, you know, and it was just really he was just trying, it was his personal gain at their expense. And then, of course, more recently, elizabeth Holmes. She was the founder and former CEO of Theranos. The company was dissolved in 2018, but she manipulated employees through this culture of extreme secrecy, very deceptive intimidation to conceal even at that point, to conceal her company's very fraudulent blood testing technology.
Speaker 2:So these are some modern examples, some modern examples. So you can see, as leaders, that we need to embrace persuasion as a godly mandate to influence in a positive way for our businesses, for our personal lives, for our careers and even for the kingdom of God. It's a tool to be used to build teams and to build cohesiveness, tool to be used to build teams and to build cohesiveness. And when you learn, and as you've learned, that it's essential and how to apply it biblically and professionally, I think you'll be able to transform your leadership, transform your team. I believe you can transform your company or maybe your department. But remember, persuasion isn't about winning arguments, it's about winning hearts. Remember that it's not about winning arguments, it's about winning hearts.
Speaker 2:Father, I thank you for every single hearing ear today that has listened to this podcast and, lord, I thank you for help. I thank you for the help that you give to those of us who've listened to this podcast. And we see the differences, lord. We see the differences between manipulation and persuasion. Help us to take inventory, lord, of our own selves and to give an honest assessment to determine, lord, if we're being manipulative towards other people for our own good or are we persuading other people for the good of others. Lord, we ask you to help us to be honest with ourselves and help us to learn how to be persuasive versus being manipulative, and, lord, we thank you for that. We praise you for it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen and amen. Hey, thanks for downloading this podcast for Christian Business Concepts and for sharing it with four or five other people. Well, our time's up today, so until next time, remember, jesus is Lord and he wants you blessed.