Video Transcript: Hiring

All right being an effective manager. Task 15, hiring and firing. Paul fires. John  Mark Acts 15. After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, let's go back and visit  each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord and see how the  new believers are doing. Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark, but Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia  and had not continued in their work, so Paul, in a way, fires John Mark. We don't know really what the circumstances were. Barnabas then takes John Mark and  goes a different direction. Paul then takes someone else, and they both go their  own direction, and maybe in God's plan, it was like now we got two sets of  missionaries going out rather than one. But sometimes relationships don't work  out. Verse 39 their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas  took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and he left,  and the believers entrusted him to the Lord's gracious care what to look for  when you hire someone paid position. So that's on the hiring side. Look for a  person who's good at what you are looking for. You want someone who is  talented in the area or in the need that you have, not just a nice person, but  someone who actually has the gifts in the area that you're looking for, follow up  on references, find out what other people think. Now, a lot of times the person  that you hire is giving you the references, so hopefully they're, you know, giving  you people that are friendly towards them. But a lot of times people will be be  truthful. They don't want to lie about things and and they will tell you the truth.  It's good to get someone else's perspective. Of course, a person that wants to  be hired puts their best foot forward. They're going to say things as positively as  as as they can. Sometimes they don't tell you what they're really good at,  because they feel, you know, humble about it, and they certainly don't want to  always tell you the bad things, either. So you want to hear from other people.  Ask to see past accomplishments. People can want to do things. They can be  trained in all kinds of things. But what have they really done in the past? You  know, a lot of people see themselves as leaders. You know, I think I can lead  people, I think I can manage things and so on. But really, just ask, What have  you done? What have you led while you were in school? Did you lead anything  when you were part of some other church? Did you lead anything? Did you lead  a small group? Did you lead a committee? Were you on a committee? We're in a small group. I mean, a lot of people think they can lead something, but they've  never even been in it. If you're in a Christian organization, look for someone who has a passion for Christ and your organization. Did they really believe in the  vision of your church? I've been in different organizations and had employees  working under me, and the people I really liked are the people that actually lived  and were passionate about what we were about. And then I had a number of  people who were there because it was a job, and they just needed a job, and  they're willing to do the job, but they didn't passionately own the vision of the  organization. All things being equal, it's good to have someone that has passion 

and energy for the thing that you're promoting. Otherwise you're promoting  something to other people, and your own staff doesn't follow. So when I worked  for the Bible League, the one thing I wanted our people to do that were on my  team is to be reading the Bible. Use the Bible in your own life if we're going to go around the world. The Bible league brought the Bible to all kinds of poor  countries around the world. And in effect, we were saying, as an organization,  we were seeing to people who were poor, we're seeing people who were  hungry, people that didn't have jobs, people that had health issues, were saying, you know, I know you have a lot of problems, but you what you really need is the Bible. The Bible is the real answer to all your problems. Now we're saying that to people like that, and then in our own lives, we're not turning to the Bible for our  problem. With our problems, you know we have to live what we're teaching and  what we're selling. If you're in a secular business, look for someone who really  believes in what your organization is doing or selling. Don't hire someone that  doesn't believe in the product. That you have, or the service that you have in  your organization. As Will Rogers once said, If you want to be successful, it's  this simple, know what you're doing, love what you're doing, and believe in what  you're doing. Secondly, a person who fits in with the team. When you're looking  to hire for someone you know, maybe they're talented, maybe they're gifted in  the area that you want, but how well is this person going to fit in with the team?  In fact, let the team be in, in on the hiring process. They're going to see  something about that person that you don't and if you make a mistake in hiring  the person, then at least the whole team made the mistake with you. Find a  positive person. There are so many negative people. They can be talented, they  can be gifted, but if they bring all this negative energy to your team. It'll affect  everybody. When I was working at the Bible League, I had one person who was  in charge of a program, and he hired a secretary to help with his program. And  that person was so negative, negative about you know, the other staff person  negative about me, negative about everything. And soon the whole staff was  negative about things. People were complaining about things. And finally, that  that person had to go, and when that person left, everything got better. So look  for someone who, you know, sees things as opportunities, not as problems,  believes in people isn't, isn't always critical of people, or especially someone  who's gossiping, someone who is willing to talk negatively about someone else  behind their back. You don't want people like that number four, a person of  energy to get things done, you have to have energy. If someone's always  dragging and they're always down, they're always discouraged, they're always  depressed, then you'll spend most of your trying time trying to lift them up. You'll  spend most of your time trying to Okay, yeah, but we can do this, and you're  always having to give a pep talk to get anything done. You want someone who  adds energy to your organization, and not someone that takes it away. Find a  teachable person. You get someone who knows it all. You can't teach a thing, 

and they're not open to new things. You want someone who is eager to learn.  You know, I don't know this, but I'll study it. I know I can learn it if you show me  where to look, or I'll find where to look. You know, someone who is self  motivated that you don't have to keep pushing and shoving, someone who can  learn things on their own. Well, what if the hired person doesn't work out? So the manager is in charge of hiring people. We need people. He has to assess  whether another person would really help in our situation, or whether we just  buckle down and make this happen. What's the return on investment if we hire  another person? Remember, if you hire another person, that's another salary,  and you have to get the money for that from somewhere, you either have to sell  your more product, or you have to get more offerings or something, you have to  get money from somewhere. So what is the return on investment with this  person? Well, what if you do all the diligence? It seems like it's the right person,  but for whatever reason, it's not working out. How do you fire someone? How do you how do you reverse this process? Well before you fire number one  community, communicate clearly or disab dissatisfaction with the performance or the attitude of the person. You can't just you know what happens is, you have  this person, they're not working out. You keep giving them assignments. They  don't do it. There's problems. There's issues. You keep pushing you subtly try to  say things, and then all of a sudden you're just fed up with it, like you're patiently trying to deal with the person, patient, patient, patient, patient, finally, your  patience runs out, and it's like we just got to get rid of that person. Okay, I've had that many times where you're patiently trying to do the right thing, trying to make this work, make this work this make this work. But all your energy went into that, and finally, that energy is gone, and now you have no energy, and you just want  the person gone. Before you do anything like that, you really have to  communicate clearly. You're dissatisfaction. Look, it's not working out here, and  but I need to give you another chance, so I'm clearly telling you what is wrong,  and I'm clearly telling you what you need to do to fix it. Number two,  communicate clearly how the person can improve the performance of the  attitude. So here's what's wrong, here's what you need to fix it, and it's clear  who. Write both of these things down and sign it. So here is what I think is  wrong. That's my opinion. I'm signing that. I want you to sign it. I'm going to write what we need to fix. I want you to sign it. I will sign it. So there's no question  about it. We agree on this number four. If it still does not work out, give them a  second chance. So you know, you've done all this, I've told you, and now you  know, if you don't do it, I really want to let you go, but I really need to do it one  more time. So I got to do the whole process again. Got to write clearly that, look, I told you all this, that I was still that I'm what I was unhappy with and I'm still  unhappy with it. You're still doing it, and I'm going to write down again what I  need you to do, or maybe there's some little adjustments. You write it all down  again, and you sign both of them. If it still does not work out, then you need to 

let the person go. And that's a difficult thing. I've had to do it a number of times.  That Secretary that was hired by someone in my department was causing all  this trouble. I said to the person, you know, you got to fire this person. You got to meet with that person, but he would meet with her, and she was a good  communicator, and she was a good negotiator, and he'd come out of the  meeting, and she still was not fired. So finally I had to go in with both of them.  And you know, I went in with the mindset that this has to happen. And, you  know, the tears and all these things are not going to matter, because I guess  there's one more thing. Let the evidence speak for itself. You clearly said what  you were dissatisfied with. You clearly outlined what needs to be done and and  the evidence is you didn't do it. I mean, let the you don't have to argue. You  have to fight with this person, because the person will want to fight. They want to argue. Yeah, but there, there was these circumstances. And you know, you don't fight with a person. You let the evidence speak for itself, you don't argue back  and forth and you don't get angry. If you get angry, if a manager gets angry, all  you're doing is telling the other person that they're right in how they're feeling.  That's what anger does. Anger makes the other person feel justified with  whatever they're thinking. As a parent, too, you want to punish your kids, and  you want to do it in anger. If you do it in anger, the kid is going to go, this is  unfair. And everything you said, all the logic, all the the positive things, and all  the right things that you said, are just going to go right out the door, because  they're going to say, this is all unfair. They're angry, and that's that's the proof of  it, proof of it. So don't get angry. You remain calm. They may get angry. They  may call you things. They may call you names. It doesn't matter you don't get  angry. Sympathize and pray for this person, if that's the appropriate thing. Let  the evidence speak for itself. And you know that's that's what it is. Don't confuse  firing with unforgiveness. So especially in a Christian organization or in a  church, when you let someone go, it feels like like you're not loving them. I  mean, after all, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. So if God can put up  with our inadequacy, then why can't the church put up with this inadequacy? But accepting someone and salvation, those are different issues than working for  someone. Okay, we're not talking about someone's salvation, and we're not  talking about whether I love you or not I can my love for someone is  unconditional. Doesn't depend on what they do. Our salvation in Christ does not  depend on what we do. Jesus died on the cross for us, but our sanctification our becoming made like Christ and be, you know, improving and becoming better  and better. That that requires work. People confuse justification, where we're  saved by grace and sanctification, where, where God is shaping us and molding us into something new. People confuse those two things. Sanctification takes  work. If you want to learn how to play the piano, God gift by His grace gives you  the ability, he gives you fingers and gives you a mind that you can actually learn. But if you want to become a good piano player, you actually have to work at it. 

You have to practice, and if you don't practice, you won't become very good at it. If you want to be a good father, you know, by Grace, God lets you be a father.  But if you want to be a good father, you have to work at it. You have to, you have to, you know, so employees have to work at it. And if they don't work at it, and it  doesn't work out letting them go doesn't mean that you don't love them. It's not  about unforgiveness. You can forgive all the things that they do, but it still isn't  going to work out. So don't confuse firing with unforgiveness. Firing. In fact,  sometimes letting someone go is the best thing for them. I mean, if it's not  working out, it's not working out, it's just going to lead to more frustration and  more problems and more fights, and eventually the whole thing is going to blow  up anyway. So sometimes you just have to recognize what is you've given  chances. You've worked at it as best you can. Sometimes things just don't work  out. It didn't work out for Paul either. Now, in God's Grace, God, we don't really  know what happened to John Mark eventually, but I'm sure that God used him  and made things good things happen, because God has an ultimate plan. So,  you know, do your best in hiring. You don't want to hire people. Then have to let  them go. But sometimes that's what you have to do.