When I was working on my masters in Clinical Psychology, I did my internship at the Department of Psychiatry of the local medical school. As part of my training, I worked under the supervision of several Ph.D. level psychologists and saw patients in the clinic under the guidance of the M.Ds in our department. The clinical staff took their roles as mentors earnestly. Their primary goal was to train quality psychologists and medical doctors. I was esteemed as one of these future generation professionals. It was a very nurturing environment. I treasure the memory of that time in my career. That feeling of worth–of being invested in–created a joy during my work hours that I have not since been able to achieve.
John Beckett would not be surprised by my experience.
This week we start Part Three of Beckett’s Loving Monday: Succeeding in Business Without Selling Your Soul. It’s called Applications, and that was just what I was looking for as I read chapters 12-14. We are on a quest for specific tools to help us find joy in the work of our hands.
In chapter twelve, Infinite Worth, Beckett shares one secret that sets his company apart from others in the business world.
I think the important thing is to view people the way God does…there’s something sacred about every individual. Since God attributes unique and infinite worth to the individual, each one deserves our profound respect…They must be viewed as valued, important, worthy. They bear God’s image. If they are of infinite worth in his eyes, they certainly deserve nothing less from us than our profound respect.
Beckett elaborates on how his company carries out this concept by sharing some of their programs to support parenting and education.
But how does this help me? The company that I work for is less concerned about the individual than about the number of units the individual is billing. This is great advice for a company, but how about the individual who wants to start Loving Monday? Such things as programs and policies are out of her hands.
But respecting others is not.
Certainly, seeing my colleagues as image-bearers of the One True God can impact my relationship with them–and as a by-product my job satisfaction.
When I look back on my time at the Department of Psychiatry, I see that it was more than program effectiveness that gave me pleasure in my work. It was the way my fellow-workers regarded me: with respect and value.
The quality of our interactions with one another can change how we feel about our place of work.
In the next chapter, Beckett goes on to discuss how important it is to find a person’s gifts and help him use them in his life work. He calls it God’s Blueprint, and he believes we are much happier when we follow the Master’s plan.
I feel we are at our highest and best as his employer if we can provide a context for his growth and enable him to find and fit in with God’s blueprint for his life.
Makes sense to me.
The last application we explore this week is a doozy.
We spend a lot of time planning and taking preventive measures to avoid trouble…Despite our best plans, however, trouble finds us. There is a reason for trouble, for pressure, for difficulties, for the hassles of life. The uncomfortable truth is they are part of God’s design.
Seems like a flaw in the blueprint to me. Nevertheless, Beckett speaks truth in this.
The way we respond to troubles can change the way we respond to our world. We can let them defeat us or grow us. The choice is our own.
So, our first three applications in our quest toward loving Monday:
- Regard every individual in our work environment with respect.
- Find work that compliments or utilizes our gifts.
- View trouble as a growth opportunity.
It’s all part of the Blueprint.
We’ll learn more next week in chapters 15-17.
Discussion Questions:
- Do you think these applications generalize well from a company administration perspective to an individual perspective? Are they as powerful when implemented by the worker as opposed to the CEO?
- What do you believe to be your main calling/gifting? Does your work fall within that sphere? If not, how can you better use your gifts in your life work?
- How do you view trouble or conflict in your work environment? Can you think of a way to better view these troubles as God’s instrument?
Related Posts:
L.L.’s Loving Monday: Blueprints?
Glynn’s What Is a Person Worth?
Lyla’s Loving Monday: What Are We Doing Here?
Monica’s Snowflakes and Fingerprints
Bonnie’s Anyone Seen My Blueprints?
Post by Laura Boggess of the Wellspring
Photo by h-e-d, flickr creative commons
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I think it’s good to encourage people in their gifts. I also struggle with this thought, since we can sometimes discourage people from reaching past what they see as their obvious gifts towards the more tentative, mysterious parts of themselves and their desires.
(none of this ever feels simple to me! I think I have the gift of complication. : )
heehee! As one who is forty years old and just feeling comfortable pursuing that quest to find “my gifts”, I felt a bit skeptical of this part of our reading this week. Finding what we are best at is often not a simple task. I did like how Beckett’s company encouraged their workers to keep pursuing different jobs in their company if one didn’t feel right.
But, come one. Most parents don’t do that, let alone bosses.
oops. There’s my skepticism! Perhaps I have a biased view here. It would be dreamy if everyone was given optimal time and space to do such a thing.
Had a fellow that worked for me at an insurance company I used to work for. When performance review time came around, he’d bring his forms over to my desk, plop down and say, “Okay, it’s time for you to help me self-discover.”
The funny thing is that even though in that company we were expected as managers to help employees find their strengths and their niche, it often looked more like a circus as managers and employees alike tried to circumvent the process and just do what was necessary to get the paperwork filled out. Instead of helping people be successful, it was viewed by many as just more HR busywork.
I’d love to see an environment where getting the right people into the right positions was an investment the company truly made.
A question that keeps running through my mind is the difference the CEO can make. There are many things that are possible in a company like Beckett’s — privately owned, family run, strong faith. While even that kind of environment has its challenges to operate on Biblical principles, a publicly owned company is in a very different position, and so are its employees. That said, all it really means is that we in public companies atill have to find ways to “be our faith.” We’re not excused from that responsibility.
Right-o, Glynn, as you so aptly demonstrate in the story you share on your blog. I found I had to remind myself several times today to be respectful of some of my co-workers and see them as God does. It didn’t make me feel good about myself to realize how negative I must usually be, but it’s a start.
I have to be honest, though. I’m not loving Monday yet.
For the #2, my problem is sorting out which of my “callings” should be the higher priorities! And although I would love to think that “pastry chef” is high on the list . . . *ain’t* gonna happen.
The part of #1 on a worker vs. a CEO implementing these concepts is always intriguing. The workers need to have that high level of respect for one another because peer encouragement is so powerful (coming from someone “in the trenches” with you). But coming from the CEO is also motivating, in a different way. Leaders that show respect are easier to respect and follow. When there is mutual disrespect instead of mutual respect, it gets ugly!
On finding work that suits our gifts, ideally it would be a CEO who is also a worker. He knows the big picture but also has worked closely enough with me to know first-hand where I do best. Nehemiah was like this—a good leader but not one who was detached from the workers.
You put it well when you said the quality of our interactions with one another molds how we feel about work.
Thanks, Laura, for leading our discussions. You have been that leader/worker to me!
Wow. This is a meaty post — with lots of servings available, Laura!
1. I think that if were talking about the framework of a company’s corporate culture, then it needs to stop at the top- with the CEO — bubbling down to the managers, that oversee and respond to the efforts of those who work. The culture is created by the leaders, who can pollute the atmosphere or brighten it.
But, on an individual level, you’re absolutely right — respecting others and showing a dignity for others as a team members does wonders to life at work. It can make a sucky job more bearable, bringing every day warmth to interactions, and consolation when it’s stressful.
2. What do you believe to be your main calling/gifting? Does your work fall within that sphere? If not, how can you better use your gifts in your life work?
I think gifts are more easily released when we are in the right work / job. But, a lot of us also end up in work/job that is more about putting food on the table and not so much about alignment of gifts. That is where the spiritual life comes into play. Our gifting can be practice with our family, at church, and also with our friends.
3. How do you view trouble or conflict in your work environment? Can you think of a way to better view these troubles as God’s instrument?
I think God does His work inspite of the trouble. I view trouble, not so much in the blueprint, but more like in the list of risks and environmental factors that God took into account, when he constructed our blueprint. He plan for us succeeds and can stand up to the weight, crush, and fall of natural “life” disasters and stresses.
I have to somehow find the encouragement and the support in His Word and with others when I encounter those times.
“The culture is created by the leaders, who can pollute the atmosphere or brighten it.”
I really like that thought, Bonnie. I wonder what we, as individual workers,can do to encourage our leaders to feel this responsibility down to their toes?
Hmm. I’m thinking about this one. We all are influencers, aren’t we?
I’m struggling some with this section, again with how Beckett seems to be speaking less to the average one of us and more to a business owner or leader. (I’m actually both right now — employee to one business, owner of another — which really complicates my perspective.) I appreciated how they work to make sure they hire right, get the folks on board that will be a good fit, and then the lengths to which they will go to help that employee find the right place. They want to keep the right people, and there’s something amazing that happens in the employer-employee relationship in that environment.
But I think there’s a huge responsibility that we have as the employee to BE the right person. That’s where it hits for me. What do I need to be doing to honor God and make my company successful?
I work in an industry with a pretty seedy reputation. I have a lot of Christians ask me how I sleep at night. I’ve found that it is possible to honor God in that context and still perform at an outstanding level for my employer. But even so, it’s not where I ever dreamed I’d be 20 years ago…
Very good points, Lyla. I found myself thinking the same as I read these chapters. Being the right person is sometimes the only option we have in some of today’s difficult work environments (I love your story over at your blog, btw. i was so sad to read of the loss of your friend–she sounded like a very special lady).
Being the right person is where I am right now. Trying to be, anyway. Some days are better than others.
Lyla, I can’t speak to your specific situation, but I promise I’m no business leader. On the other hand, we are all in positions of leadership and influence of some kind. I don’t mean that as some kind of generic feel good nonsense either.
I’ve seen strong individuals empowered by their personality and positive energy much more than weak individuals who should have had power and authority based on their position. There’s a story at TheHighCalling.org about someone who fixes the squeaky chairs. It’s one of my favorites because it shows that leadership is more about taking initiative than anything else.
Of course, when we take initiative, we have to be ready for the fact that others may not appreciate what we do. That’s why good leadership takes courage. God help me be a good leader!
This is really what I think the individual can walk away from these chapters with, Marcus: “On the other hand, we are all in positions of leadership and influence of some kind. I don’t mean that as some kind of generic feel good nonsense either.”
I think we can always influence our environments.
In my work, morale frequently takes a nose dive as individual workers are pressured by administrators to bill, bill, bill! Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the negativity that gets tossed around. Even lighthearted joking can undermine the ability to find satisfaction in my work. I’ve found that even small things can make a big difference. At one hospital where I worked, when morale was extremely low, I started to anonymously print a newletter with only positive stories about my co-workers in it. I was amazed at how excited they were to read good news about one another.
A small thing, but influential nonetheless. Since then, I look for these little things to d0–pick me ups, I guess.
And that’s not some kind of generic feel good nonsense either.
Marcus, wholeheartedly agree. Doesn’t matter what our role is, we all have influence. (Will we use our powers for good or evil?)
I think I was referring more to those who are in positions with decision-making, policy-setting authority. I love what Beckett was doing in his business. But I’d have to say that even as a small business owner I’m not in as great a position as he was to create that kind of environment through the company’s infrastructure.
That said, for another part of my day I’m also an employee with a boss, colleagues and customers — all of whom are in my sphere of influence. I have opportunity and responsibility to use that influence to honor God, to push out Kingdom boundaries.
In either case, it’s a matter of how we conduct ourselves, I suppose. Use the role we have for all its got.
Lyla, your aside about using our powers for good or evil struck me. Just the other night I was telling my son something like that. It’s not enough to be smart, I said. Super villains and evil scientists are smart, but they aren’t good. You have to be smart and good like the superheroes…
That’s pretty heavy tucking in conversation, Marcus! He can learn how to use his super powers from his father…our super editor! You do use your powers for good, right?
I love that he identified YOU as the one who helps him “self-discover”. That’s a pretty big compliment in my book, Lyla.