There are ten principles that I will be utilising, and since our fundamental source as Christians is sola scriptura (Scripture alone), I will be backing up each principle with Scripture and/or aspects of God's character. As you read this, it is vital to keep in mind that it is not possible to practise every single principle in absolute perfection, but it is possible to put all these principles into practise to the best of your ability in order to be the best manager you can be.
1. Deal with the facts, not fiction.
Sounds simple, yes? If it were simple and therefore unnecessary to discuss, I wouldn't have included it as the first principle. As sinful human beings, we are all born with the propensity to lie, or to see something that's not actually there. What is the role of the manager? As manager, you manage people (duh) within the organisation — or more concrete, the subordinates that your boss puts under your watch. Now, what does managing consist of? Managing consists of cognisance, standards, control of those standards, admonition, and guidance. We won't get into all of those characteristics in this blog series, but when dealing with all those characteristics, the manager must deal with facts, not fiction. Don't pretend you're aware of what's going on in your department. Actually possess situational awareness and know what's going on within your department. Set some standards, but before you set those standards you first have to know what those standards are (e.g. how much pepperoni and cheese to put on a pizza, how much dough should be used for different sized pizzas, how long each size needs to be baked, etc.). Once those standards are set, control those standards through preventive controls, concurrent controls, and then feedback/evaluation. When tasks aren't done as efficient as you'd like them to be, practise admonition, and after admonition, guidance is necessary. I will go into more detail about management's composition in a future study, but those are the basics that you need to know for now.
Before dealing with a problem, or anything for that matter, know the facts. Don't consider just one option; consider all possible options. This will avoid bias and will enable you to be objective on a particular issue. Scripture has a lot to say about lying, especially the proverbs. Lying is so serious that God considers it an abomination (Proverbs 12:22). And what does it say God delights in? Faithfulness. In context, this refers to the faithfulness to the Lord, but God certainly delights in our faithfulness to each other ("love thy neighbour as thyself"). Faithfulness can be synonymous to commitment. Are you committed to your subordinates? What should you be committed to? At the root of it should be their individual growth. If you are committed to each employee's individual growth, you will not only be faithful to them, but you will establish trust as well. Proverbs 29:12 says, "If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked." If all you do is lie as manager, how do you think those under you will act? Not only your subordinates, but your managerial colleagues as well? Their work, behaviour, and attitude will only emulate your actions.
Honesty and dealing with the facts opens opportunities for trustworthiness, and it especially benefits the whole of the organisation. As manager, if you deal with your department in dishonest ways, it will only hurt the rest of the organisation.
2. Be a servant, not an authoritative boss.
Our Lord "came not to be served, but to serve" (Mark 10:45). If you go into a management position with expectations for your subordinates to serve you, chances are you'll get poor service. The image below gives a perfect illustration of the difference between leadership and authority.
Follow the advice St. Paul gave to the Philippians: "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves..." (Philippians 2:3). Humble yourself before your subordinates. A higher pay grade does not increase your value or importance as a person. Show your subordinates that you are equal to them in value. However, take heed. Sacrifice your desires for their needs, but don't sacrifices your needs for their desires.
3. Have the guts to say "no."
Cowardice and timidity are not attractive traits in anybody, no matter what role you play in any kind of relationship. But no one especially wants a cowardly and timid leader. Initiative and fortitude are admirable. If a worker asks to have days off a lot (and you're suspicious that they're being dishonest), have the guts to say no and confront their work productivity. When I was in the Army, I was NCOIC (non-commissioned officer in charge, which in civilian terms is basically a supervisor) of transportation when I was stationed with the 2nd Infantry Division Band in South Korea, although I wasn't an NCO. I was tasked with assigning drivers for the unit, scheduling when they had to drive for which gigs, certain paperwork, and coördinating the hiring of bus drivers to drive the entire band (or certain ensembles) to a specific area for a gig. I was in charge of all the drivers, even those who outranked me (but only when it came to transportation). As supervisor, I posted weekly schedules of which drive drove which vehicle on what day, when, and where. There was a particular soldier who happened to schedule all of his hospital appointments on the days he was supposed to drive. In the Army, hospital appointments come before work. So, the first few times, I permitted it. However, it started to get out of hand because I had to constantly adjust the schedule to meet this one soldier's needs. So eventually I told him "no," that he needs to schedule his hospital appointments more wisely during times that don't affect the unit's mission. Fortunately, he complied with no complaints or lackadaisical behaviour.
God is probably the most unafraid to say "no." And why not? He created the universe, after all. I've noticed a recent message being preached lately that teaches people how they can get answered prayer — that is, how to get God to always say yes to your prayers. There a couple of things wrong with this. First of all, in this way you are praying for your will to be done rather than God's will. And secondly, it assumes that when God says "no" or "not right now, but later," it's not an answered prayer. God answers prayer all the time; it doesn't have to be "yes" just for it to be answered. Sometimes God's answer, or will, is "no." The Rolling Stones put it well, "You can't always get what you want." Jesus said "no" many times, of which the most relevant may be in Mark 8:11-13. The context of this is when He fed the 4,000, and afterwards He left for Dalmanutha. Upon His arrival, the Pharisees demanded that Jesus perform a sign from Heaven, and Jesus replies with, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation" (Mark 8:12), and then He just leaves. Why would Jesus do this? He's supposed to prove that He was begotten of God, right? Not necessarily. He may have made it known (as it was necessary) that He was begotten of God and is God, but His primary purpose was to save mankind, not perform miracles at the whims of sinful humanity. Besides, He already established His authority and begotten nature; the Pharisees, Saducees, and Herodians just didn't believe Him. Jesus doesn't want us to believe by sight, but rather by faith. Consider what Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29b).
How does this relate to management? Sometimes, it's necessary not to give people what they want and just stick to the mission. There's a time and place for everything. According to Jesus' will (and therefore the will of God), Dalmunatha was not the place to perform miracles. No major event happens there, so Jesus and His disciples were probably just passing through on their way to Bethsaida. He didn't give what the scoffing Pharisees wanted and stuck to the mission by continuing His travel to His next destination. Jesus was, after all, on a schedule (leading up to His crucifixion). Let me use another example from the Army. As long as a soldier has enough days saved up to take a certain amount of time off for leave, he or she can do so, as long as it doesn't impede the mission. In the summer of 2012, I was going to take 25 days off of leave, but I was told by my superiors (management) to take only 21 days because they needed me for several missions on those other 4 days that I would've had off. I complied without any groans. As manager in the citizen world, if an employee wants something but it interferes with the department's or organisation's goals or plans, have the guts to say "no."
4. Follow through on your promises.
Nobody likes a liar. This kind of ties in with the first principle (deal with the facts, not fiction), but this principle is unique because we always make promises. On my free time, I'm a video gamer, believe it or not. One of my favourite lines int he video game Halo 2 said by the character Cortana is, "Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it." Not only is that true in a romantic relationship, but it's also very true in your relationships with your co-workers. There are two types of promises: what I call gospel promises and disciplinary promises. When you promise to do something for an employee that's beneficial to them, that's a gospel promise. When you promise to take disciplinary action against unwarranted behaviour, that's a disciplinary promise, which constructively benefits him or her and creates the possibility of reforming their behaviour. (Unless that disciplinary action is termination, in which case they don't have another chance. And what do you do after you terminate them? Recommend them to your company's competitors of course!) If you don't follow through on your gospel promises, no one will be able to trust you. If you don't follow through on your disciplinary promises, people will take advantage of you and walk all over you, and neither will they respect you.
God makes gospel and disciplinary promises all over the place. The first Gospel promise is the promise that God made (protoevangelium) in Genesis 3:15, when He promised Eve that her offspring (Jesus) would crush the serpent's head (Satan) as he bruises His heel. This happened at the crucifixion. Satan bruised Jesus' heel when He died, but Jesus had the victory that in His death, He saved the world, descending into Hell, being resurrected from the dead, and ascending into Heaven, crushing Satan's head. Anyway, every single promise God makes, He fulfils them. He fulfils His gospel promises, and He even fulfils His disciplinary promises. When God promises to destroy an unrepentant nation, He does just that if they don't repent (and the same applies to individual people). God is literally not a force to be reckoned with.
You don't want to be a feared leader, but you do want to establish respect. It is because of God's love, mercy, and even wrath that we revere Him. Likewise, following through on our gospel and disciplinary promises will establish respect. Not reverence, but respect. In the true sense of the word, reverence just means a deep respect, which would be great to have, but in its common use today it has a negative connotation that implies a little bit of fear that comes with the deep respect, hence our reverence for the Almighty God. Again, you don't want to be a feared leader, but you do want to be respectable. Nobody will respect you if you never fulfil your promises. Trust is established in the fulfilment of your gospel promises, and respect is established in the fulfilment of yoru disciplinary promises.
5. Communicate Effectively.
I put this principle right in the middle because it encompasses all ten of these principles. Communicate frequently, clearly, and openly. You don't want your reputation to reflect unavailability; you want to communicate with your subordinates as frequent as necessary, with clear instructions and definitions (no ambiguity), and with openness. As manager, when you're a poor communicator, the people you watch over will find you unreliable. You can't rely on someone who sucks at communicating, can you? In the workplace, there's nothing worse than a boss — or rather, a leader — you can't rely on and therefore trust. I've found that the best way to communicate openly is to hold an open door policy. Honesty is the best policy, and the best way to put that policy into practise is by holding one in which the door is open. When I was in the Army, every single First Sergeant and Commanding Officer I had held an open door policy. The CO is like the President of an organisation, and the First Sergeant like the Vice President. If we felt that we needed to talk to either of them about something, even a sensitive matter (whether personal or professional), we could easily do so; and indeed, it was very easy to approach our CO and First Sergeant about any matter, making it easy to trust them and rely on them because they showed that they cared. And as an extra benefit, we could each develop a friendship with them. I believe that doing this as manager can create the same trust in your subordinates. There's a risk in open communication, of course. By communicating openly with your subordinates, you show the human side of you and your flaws can be known. Most view this as a negative risk, but I see it as a positive. If employees see their manager as human rather than some authoritative figure on a pedestal, it creates a more positive and trusting environment. And I think we can all agree that the more positive the environment, the higher the worker productivity because the higher the worker productivity, the more happy you are to be there rather than dreading coming in to work every day.
God communicated His Word effectively by both direct revelation by saying it Himself and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by speaking to the patriarchal fathers and the prophets of the Old Testament as well as the Apostles of the New Testament. God speaks clearly on every issue, except for issues of adiaphora (like exactly what we're talking about right now). I've noticed that these issues of adiaphora only exist because of our modern times, so it only makes sense why you can't find certain issues in Scripture because they weren't unique to that time (e.g. marijuana smoking, cigarette smoking, euthanasia, abortion, the average Christian in the workplace, etc.). However, Scripture can help us to make wise decisions on such issues by studying His Word.
To Be Continued...
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