Christianity and Management Part 1

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This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Man Talk, brought to you by TAWCMN, talking and walking Christian men's ministry, where they're devoted to breaking down the walls of race and denomination and challenging men to take their God-assigned role. Here's our hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Welcome to Man Talk Radio. I'm Will Hardy, and we need to pray for our brother Roy.

He is not feeling well today, but we're thinking about him as we're doing the broadcast today. And today we want to talk about a topic that I think all of us can associate with, because at some point in time, if you haven't ever been a leader or lead people in whatever way that you lead them, or maybe you work for a company and you work for a manager who is a Christian, or you yourself is a manager who is a Christian, how do you reconcile the things of God versus the things of the company that you work for? See, that's a difficult question, really, to ask ourselves, because what happens is we have to come to an understanding when you're leading people or you're putting into a supervisory role that there are certain things as a believer that you simply cannot compromise. And, of course, you have to balance that against the company rules and regulations.

And see, sometimes that's a very fine line. And there is no company, don't get me wrong now, there is no company that exists out there when they make their processes and procedures. Of course, there are certain legal processes that they have to meet and procedures in reference to employee safety and regulatory and things like that. So those things are given, but what it boils down to is the people that you place in the supervisory, the management roles, or the lead roles, someone who is in authority. And what happens most of the time is we find ourself caught in a quandary of how do I best let my light shine among those who are my subordinates who report to me, who report to me, and yet fulfill the requirements that the company will have for me in the position of a manager and or supervisor.

So we want to talk about that today because a lot of times when we encounter people who are placed into supervisory roles, and I'm gonna use myself as an example in some of these cases that we're talking about today, because I was both a manager at one time and I was also a supervisor at one time. And what I saw in my years of managing and supervising people is one is that when you come in from outside into a company, people begin to look at you differently because, you know, they say, well, he or she really doesn't understand the processes and procedures that we do here at the company. And this is something that they have to learn.

So this is going to be a learning curve for them. Then you have those people who were inside the company, who as a result of their years of experience or doing a good job, upper management saw that they could be placed in a position to manage people or supervise people. And so they put them into the role. Now, what I saw in a lot of cases that folks who were placed into these roles weren't fully trained in how to deal with people. They may have known the processes, they may have known the procedures, but they just did not communicate well with people.

And it's that communication piece because the company can have all kinds of rules and regulations, but if you don't have the right people in place to enforce those rules, then I think that is where the large gap occurs when it comes to how successful a company will be. So with myself, for example, one of my first supervisory roles, I was a shift supervisor at a chemical plant and I was promoted through the ranks. I started off as an operator, moved up to an operator within certain equipment because in order to supervise, you have to, with this particular company, you had to put your fingers on basically all of the equipment that you would be managing people over. So I had to learn the processes and procedures and what to do in an emergency and all these things. So I went through all of that. And undeniably what happens is when you come through the ranks, is there's always someone who's there who feel that you should not be in that position.

You shouldn't be there. That they should be there rather than you. So that's the first hurdle that I had to overcome. I had to really look and see what's the individual's motive.

And of course, at that time I was born again and I was a little bit older than I was at the time I was born again. And I didn't see myself as a taskmaster because the guys who were working around the plant, they knew me because I came up through the ranks. But then I had a situation where there was always one or two people who attempt to try, try you to see how you would react under certain situations that they would bring up.

Oh, I have such and such an emergency. What do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?

You need to give me some direction on this, that or the other thing. So they would try and test you to see if you're able to succeed or pass. Then you would have those people who said, I'm so happy for you. I'm glad, you know, you, you are deserving to be in this position and we want to work with you to help you be a better person than you were when you worked with us on the operator level. And so I welcome that of course, with open arms. But again, it was those folks who said, you just, you shouldn't be there. And so as a person who I thought that I could do well with people, I asked the upper management, I said, well, you know, send me to some courses, you know, let me, let me get into some courses on how to communicate with people, how to supervise people effectively.

So I went to a bunch of these courses and I learned many things as a result from them, which I coupled with my, the Christianity. But there was also certain things that I saw that the company was enforcing that, that went against the principles of God. And so I'll give you an example of one of these things. You had an individual who, he, he was over our laboratory in the plant. And so as the supervisor, I had to sign off on a lot of the materials that was either coming in or leaving the plant. In this case, it was some drums of waste product. And of course the waste had to be tested. And regardless of the, the, the batch, each drum had to be tested because that was the process and procedure of the company. And so he ran, he came over and he said, Hey, hey, you need to sign this.

We need to get this truck on the, on the road. And so I looked through the paperwork and I said, so where's the analysis? I don't see any analysis. He said, well, yeah, there is an analysis right there for the whole batch. I said, wait, wait, wait. Each drum of this product has to be tested. We don't have time for that.

We don't have time for that. So he went on and on and on and on and on and on. And here I am now in between the rock and hard place. Do I just sign off or do I stick to the process of the company, which says each drum of the product had to be tested? And so I stuck to that because that was the right thing. It was what the process called for. I didn't see that it was a violation of anything that God had said. If anything, it was the contrary of that, that if I would have signed without these drums being tested, then I would be in violation of God's principles. Even though I would have made man happy in signing off and letting these drums go in the sight of God, it was not the right thing to do. And that weighed heavy on me. And so I told him, I said, well, the truck, truck can't leave and you need my signature.

Truck can't leave. So we have to test the remaining drums. And so we, he pulls samples from each of the drums and lo and behold, two of the 10 drums with the way that he had classified that particular material, which again was not in accordance with DOT standards, the way he had classified that material, it was not right because two of the 10 drums were, had some other contaminants in it that had to be listed on the paperwork. So if I would have signed that, I would have been in violation, but the company in which I represented would have been in violation. So see, there's, there's always this rock and hard place situation that anytime you, you are managing people, there is this fine line and you think that you might be getting away with just simply signing off. And I could have done that, truck could have been on the way. And in fact, nothing could have happened.

It would have arrived there at the facility and the people would have unloaded the drums and treated the waste according to what the paperwork said, but the paperwork was not reflective of what was in the drums. We're coming up on a break, but when we, when we come back from the break, I want to continue talking about this situation because we're going to be talking about this situation because you are going to be placed in times within your management and supervisory roles where you're going to have to make critical decisions. These decisions will depend upon whether or not you are a successful supervisor or not. We'll be right back after this. TAWCMM would love to have you join their community of men for breakfast every first and third Friday of every month. They have Bible discussions and fellowship after the best breakfast in town. The meeting location is at their gracious Host Church, First Christian Church in Kernersville, 1130 North Main Street in Kernersville.

They have a hard start at seven o'clock and a hard stop at eight o'clock. First time visitors eat for free. Join your hosts, Will Hardy and Roy Jones Jr., a black guy and a white guy. Affordable chiropractic in High Point, as you might tell from their name, affordable chiropractic, even for the cash patient. Dr. Jeff Fricke has been caring for patients in High Point for 34 years. Physical therapy such as ultrasound and spinal decompression for disc conditions such as herniation, comprehensive care for auto accident injury patients with no out-of-pocket expense. Remember, affordable chiropractic on West Lexington Avenue in High Point.

Call 336-885-1987. Oh, yeah. Oh, I just love that music. I love that music. Thank you, brother producer. Praise the Lord God. Hallelujah.

Just get me excited over here. Anyway, we were talking about, we're talking about Christianity and management and how as a born again believer, how do you interact with someone who is born again if you are not or how do you react to if you are the individual who is that born again believer? How do you react to the person who might be over you who is a born again believer?

So see, we have a lot of scenarios here. The one born again, one's not born again. And we know that the person who isn't born again, we are probably going to struggle with them until we understand what their management style is. And people had to understand what my management style is too, by the way, going into, you know, being a young manager and supervisor coming along, some of the things I had to be faced with. But I came to an understanding that I had to ask myself, who is really my manager?

Who is my boss? And, and when I came to the understanding to say, it's not the person who I'm looking at, who I'm working with. It is the Lord who I'm working for.

And born again believers, we ought to be the absolute best employees that a company can have. I know that you are faced with are faced with trials. You're faced with tribulations. You're faced every day because the enemy is bombarding us with this. You're not good enough or to think of something negative. This person who they put in this position, they don't know more than I do. They got them off the street. I've been in this company for such and such an amount of time, and they should have put me in this role instead of them.

How dare they? And so all of these things can start to bombard you and pull you away from the Lord Jesus Christ. Because remember what 1st John 1, 14, 15 says, every man sinned when he is drawn away by his own lust. So you can be drawn away through this hate.

And so you might say within your spirit, well, I don't want to participate or try to help this person in any way possible because I'm the one that should have been in that supervisory role. So I came to an understanding to know that I'm working for the Lord, number one. Now, number two is I came to an understanding to say, if this person who I'm working for either knows the Lord or don't know the Lord, how hard is it for me to love them when I know that they hate me or they have some ought against me? How can you love a person like that? And see, again, you know, human emotions and human feelings, they do get in the way.

They should not dominate us, but they do get in the way. And this is when renewing of your mind, Romans 12, one and two, has to be a priority when we get up every day. And there's times when I got up as a supervisor and I said, Lord, you have blessed me to rise up from my bed. How is it that I can glorify you, can glorify your name today?

How can I show your love through me? So that's the other thing I had to realize, that the person who may have ought against me, it's really not them. Because, see, if they don't know the Lord, it's the enemy using them to try and get to you. But even more than that, if it is a born again believer and they feel like that, well, this person here is really not doing what I would like for them to do. So we're going to find ways to either move them out the way or move them out. That's not them.

They have allowed their hedge to be compromised. And so it's the enemy that's dealing with you through them. And if their mind is not renewed, now I'm not saying a born again believer can be possessed, but their mind, this is why God tells us to renew our mind daily, because this is where the battle is. The battle is in the mind. The enemy, what he wants to do is he wants to appeal to your soul, the seat of your emotions, your feelings. This is what he's after, because he knows if, we've heard people say this before, I've said it to my kids when they were young, you are getting on my last nerve. We've said it, or we've known of people who said it, or we've known our parents to say it. That statement is actually true from the standpoint of this is what the enemy is appealing to.

He's appealing to your feelings, your emotions, and he wants you to get riled up. So what we want to do is to come to a point now to say, can we allow ourself to come under the Holy Spirit guidance and direction when it comes to being a manager or supervisor, because how you let your light shine will be, it will depend on how far a person really respects you. And so you have people who respect the position, but not the person. And you might have people who respect the person, but not the position. So you want to come to the point to be able to have people respect you, but also respect the position in which you are placed in. But if you fall short of any type of training, don't be afraid to ask.

Go to your management, go to your supervisor and say, hey, can I go to a course on how to deal with problem people or how do I write up a report or something like this? It is no shame in saying that there's areas where you're weak in and you need some guidance. Because if we fail to understand that it is God which works in us to do both his will and to do both his will, to do both his will and to do of his good pleasure. And if I know, according to Philippians 2 5, that I want to put on the mind of Christ, I want to think the way God think, I want those things to come out of me that are a true representative of the Lord.

I don't want to fall short and neither should you. Because there's times to when all of us will be at the position of managing people and we have to come to that understanding. Now we're going to continue with this subject on next week and we're going to be talking about, use the example of Daniel. Daniel was the model when it came to management, when it came to supervision and when it came to not compromising himself with the world. He is the absolute model when it comes to management and supervisory roles and we're going to dig into the word.

I wanted to this week to simply just set you up for next week so that, because we're going to talk about some acronyms on what you can do as a manager or as a supervisor to aid and help your people however they need assistance because they may not ask for it. But as a manager or supervisor, you have to have that godly discernment to be able to see that this person needs help or that person needs help and how can I put forth that effort to lead them out of the point that they're in. And see because remember what we talked about earlier, how that that particular individual wanted me to sign some paperwork of drums that were not tested. See when you when you put your friendship above your faith, then that's when you start to compromise yourself. Now from from that point forward, because I didn't sign and he you know he was upset at me, the person who was over the lab, but I think in the end he understood.

He didn't tell me this, but he understood if if an incident like this happened going forward, I'm going to check every single drum. I'm going to make an effort to do those things that are according to the legal aspects of the company and the company's processes and the company's procedures because all of us, all of us, we there is accountability in everything we do. And if we as God's people don't help our managers, even though that they are not born again, we need to still assist them in however way we can in helping them move forward because ultimately it is the people who make the company and not the company who makes the people.

We are the ones who bring forth and enforce the processes and procedures of the company. We are the ones who bring forth the guidelines, the commandments of God, and we bring those forward through our actions. And there are people who are constantly watching us every single day. They're watching to see what is it that you fail to do if you say that you were born again believer. And so if you stay the course to do what the Lord said, be faithful unto him, you'll always know that you can never go wrong because the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the just, and he's beholding the unjust.

And as God's people, we want to make sure that we are doing the right things in the sight of God, because we will be storing up treasures in heaven. So I want to thank you for listening to this podcast in reference to Christianity and management. As we wrap up today's show, be assured that TAWCMM, Talking and Walking Christian Men's Ministry, is building a community of men that are Christ followers with the desire to be servant leaders in their homes, communities, churches, and work environments. Check out our website for upcoming events and regularly scheduled meetings. Drop us a note for topics that you would like to have us visit in the future. Thank you for joining us on Man Talk today. Visit us at www.tawcmm.com. Men walking the talk.