Nehemiah, Ezra, and the people of Israel, all experienced God’s miraculous involvement in rebuilding the walls around Jerusalem. Then Ezra shared God’s Word with the Israelites, resulting in a time of repentance and revival. Rather than let this spiritual peak subside, Ezra pulled all the key leaders together to study God’s commands and how to apply them to their ...
Doug Hundt, President of Vermeer’s Industrial division, recently shared with me how Vermeer began with core values to remind their team of Vermeer’s foundation of faith. But as the company grew, they needed to make their beliefs practical corporately, so they developed a Character and Behaviors document with related training. Their actions resulted in their employees knowing what was expected, ...
Today is Maundy Thursday. On the night of the Last Supper, Jesus, the Son of God, modeled for us a surprising act. In ancient times, Maundy, which means, “washing someone’s dirty feet,” was one of the worst jobs a servant could be asked to complete. Yet, on Jesus’ last night, He humbled himself and washed the feet of his disciples! ...
In this series, we’re talking about leadership lessons I learned from the many bank presidents I observed early in my banking career. My first example is Tom. Many bank presidents wanted a favorable audit, so they typically were somewhat courteous. But not Tom. He came across as aloof and too important to be bothered. Even Tom’s staff described their ...
As a young banker, I learned a lot about leadership by watching the many different styles of bank presidents I observed. In my role doing bank examinations at that time, I interacted with a lot of front-line people like tellers and loan clerks. The reactions and interactions these people had with the bank president were typically a truer reflection ...
For many of us, one of the hardest parts of leadership is speaking truth to one another. As someone who likes to please people, this has been particularly difficult for me over the years. If you desire your employees to become the best versions of themselves, it will occasionally require that you speak hard truths to them about the ...
Peter Mallouk, founder of Creative Planning, shared, at an event I recently attended, a lesson he learned about maintaining a strong corporate culture. Peter used to exhaust every option for keeping a troublesome employee. That is until a team of employees approached Peter about a problem employee. Peter had refused to fire this troubling employee, harming the entire team. Peter ...
On paper, the company’s decision to separate related functions into two separate divisions seemed like a good way to encourage healthy competition and accountability. In reality, the leaders of both divisions quickly lost focus on customers and instead fixated on how to outshine each other. Proverbs 4:25-27 reminds us to stay focused: “Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your ...
Professors Denise Daniels and Elaine Ecklund developed a Faith at Work Matrix for the different ways we can live out our vocational calling. The third way we leverage our work is to realize that work serves the common good. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy visited NASA. When he asked a janitor who was sweeping a floor what he did, ...
Christianity Today Editor in Chief Russell Moore recently reflected on lessons learned over 30 years of ministry. He observed that periods that feel dry or distant from God may be times when God is most active. “They are almost always the points where—much later in your life—you will look back and see that God was most at work, preparing ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
