Leadership Lessons from the Bottom #2

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been able to write anything. I've been thinking about a principle that I've come to learn from the restaurant industry, but I'm not sure how it could or should apply to ministry.

In the restaurant industry employees should never use the word "no" to a customer. No matter how annoying or difficult it would be to complete their request you must comply; with a smile. If a customer asks for something completely unreasonable you simply have to explain that you are very sorry, but there isn't any possibility of completing their request.

For those of you in ministry I'm sure you are aware that you cannot simply comply with every request that is made of you, especially when requests for different people conflict. If every request for a new ministry, change (or reversion) of musical style, and special treatment of one child would be accommodated ministers would find themselves without time to develop themselves spiritually; let alone find time to be with their families. I suppose the greatest difference between the ministry scenario and my current position is that in the restaurant industry you are trying to please individuals, whereas in ministry you are in the business of pleasing God.

It would seem that today we have the idea that everything should be about us, and what we want. This viewpoint seems to have spilled over into our ideas about Christianity. Sometimes we are tempted to view the church in a product/consumer mentality. The ministers are the suppliers of a service that the parishioner consumes, and the suppliers are then compensated by the consumers through "charitable donation". This view is grossly misguided and dangerous to the spiritual health of everyone involved.

What do you think about this? Has consumerism crept into the church? What are some of the repercussions of this thinking?

Leadership Lessons from the Bottom #1

The other day I was working at Bob Evan's in the most humiliating position possible, and I could help but think; "Why would God leave me in this place?" After, a little while I began to realize that I'm in an excellent position to learn how to lead while being led.

The first thing that I came to realize began while I was still in college. Those in leadership should expect excellence from those they lead. There are a few different managers who work at Bob Evan's, but so far there is only one I know who expects excellence from his employees, we'll call him "John". You can tell the difference in the employees when John is working, they do their jobs better and they don't do the things they aren't supposed to do (at least while he can see them). Even I find myself thinking, "John's working tonight, I better do this right."

There are two things that you should do to communicate that you expect people to be excellent. First you should always reward those who perform excellently, this doesn't just mean to reward the best of the best, but also those who are improving or doing their best. The other important factor in communicating that people should be doing there best is to never accept mediocrity. When people can get away with doing less than their best, even those who really want to perform with excellence will find themselves without much reason to improve.

What do you think? Let me know by leaving a comment below.