In the 1880s, Henry Crowell bought an oat mill to provide feed for horses. The business was struggling when Henry turned to God in prayer for a creative solution for his business woes. God led Henry to begin selling his oats to people as a breakfast cereal. This was an unconventional strategy, because oats were sold from insect infested barrels ...
The Peter Principle says if we continually promote high performers, we will eventually promote them to a level of incompetence. According to Harvard Business Review, Alan Benson and Kelly Shue tested this theory by researching how well sales people did when they were promoted to sales manager. They discovered that high-performing salespeople were often not good managers, affirming the Peter ...
Our digitally, interconnected world makes it tempting to watch the successes of others. By focusing outside our business, it’s easy to get caught in the game of “keeping up with the Jones’.” Attempting to keep up with the competition is a sure way to a company’s demise. We can continually chase new ideas or implement unsustainable practices, without having the ...
In a Harvard Business Review video, leadership consultant, Ron Carucci, claims that 50-60% of executives fail in their first executive role. He studied successful executives to find what they did differently. Carucci discovered four key factors. The second factor in our series is “Context.” Successful executives do the work necessary to gain understanding of trends in their culture, industry, and ...
Our pastor, Andrew, mentioned in a sermon that he used to hear frequently the belief that pastors and missionaries were the only ones who had a vocational calling. Now he hears more frequently a different concern. Some understand the value of people-oriented professions but wonder how accountants and other task-oriented occupations can minister to others. Andrew reminded the congregation that ...
Jack was born with a hearing deficiency. Even worse, as a young man, Jack became blind due to a degenerative disease. Then, as a young husband and father, Jack was laid off from his ministry job. Desperate, Jack turned to God. God challenged Jack to view his challenges as an opportunity, directing him to Ephesians 3:20 which says, “Now to ...
If you ask most people about St. Patrick’s Day, you might hear about drunken Irishmen, leprechauns, and lucky green shamrocks. St. Patrick would likely be appalled at how his legacy is now celebrated. St. Patrick was a 5th century Irish slave who later escaped and became a Catholic priest. Later, God called Patrick to return to a hedonistic Ireland! For ...
A recent Harvard Business Review article gave us some data and great encouragement that affirms our impact from our Unconventional Business Network events as well as for our new upcoming Unconventional Business Women Gatherings. Shawn Achor, a frequent Conference for Women event speaker, researched the impact that conferences had on the women who attended. He discovered that attendees were twice ...
CVS’ President Helena Foulkes announced in January that CVS stores are moving towards banning touched-up photos in its store displays. It has chosen to own its mission by helping young women overcome their self-image problem that results from comparing themselves to photo shopped models. Many companies have mission statements, but few have leveraged those statements to do good for the ...
As I watched the end of the Super Bowl last month, I was pleasantly surprised with the postgame interviews of the Philadelphia Eagles. The coach and quarterback boldly gave praise to our Lord Jesus Christ for their amazing victory. When we lead with excellence in any vocation, our expression of faith will be more tolerated and more powerful. However, some ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
