Video Transcript: "Training and Development"

In this video, we're going to talk about training and developing your people, and  this is the heart of what we're called to do as believers in the marketplaces.  We've been talking about biblical standards for businesses and revealing Jesus, that we really have to reveal Jesus to those that we work with. And so that's why human resource management, just like all of the rest of of the disciplines that  we've been talking about in business, the objective is to disciple in this case, is  to disciple your workers, your contractors, your your vendors, potentially,  certainly your employees. And this is what discipleship is, Imitate me as I imitate Christ. That's what Paul said there in I Corinthians 11:1. And so how do you train and develop your people? You need to encourage them. And this might not  come across explicitly right off the bat, but eventually they're going to want to  know the reason for the hope that's within you. They're going to they're going to  wonder, you know, there seems to be, you seem to be working for something, a  higher purpose than yourself. And that's what Colossians 3:23 says, is, so  whatever you do, do it with all of your heart as working for the Lord, not for men. So that, as we do that, as we're serving the Lord Jesus Christ, we are imitating,  we are encouraging other people to imitate us, and the cultural values that we  instill in our company to reflect those things, and that ultimately is a reflection of  Jesus Christ. That's really the bedrock for human resource management. And  with that we're we ought to disciple our workers holistically. So this isn't just in  terms of them knowing how to do a certain formula and Excel, or how to do a  certain task there on the assembly line, but you really ought to consider those  people. If we are to be disciple makers, then that means that we are concerned  for that person's family. We're concerned for the way that that person is coming  across to others. We're concerned with their their professional development. Not only that, they're going to get the job done today, but they're going to develop as people. And this is what discipleship is. It's more than just this is how you do this specific task. But as author Leonard Sweet said, a disciple was someone and  they're talking about an ancient Judaism and the rabbinical system, the disciple  system. A disciple was someone who learned a skill or way of life from a  teacher. With respect to Jesus, a disciple was a follower not just of a set of  teachings, but of an entire way of living. And I also love this passage, although it might not have been intended in discipleship sense when Andrew Carnegie, the  tight, big titan of industry, century ago, he was asked how he managed to hire a  reporter asked him, How did you manage to hire 43 millionaires? That's just  remarkable. And he basically was saying that that they became millionaires as a result of having worked in his company. He said, Men are developed the same  way gold is mined. Several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold.  But you don't go in into the mine looking for dirt. You go and looking for gold,  and that's what we ought to do in our training development of people. When we  bring them on, we recruit them into the company we ought to when we start to  see some of those issues, and I'm not talking about character issues. And I 

mean, if there are things that might the person's just coming across the wrong  way. They need to, they need to be let know about that. Otherwise, they need to  be let go and and and that. They need to go and find a really kind of work on  their character development if and when they decide to come back and  approach your company about getting their job back, but, but the point here is  that everybody's got junk in their lives and and so when you're bringing people  on just because they don't kind of have everything perfectly together, or what  they like to say in the HR World, they're not a rock star employee there, you  have to understand that there is still gold in that person. And I'm not just talking  about the revenue that they can bring in for your company, but this is a person  that you can help to disciple into the image of Jesus Christ, and if. People are  truly to develop and be discipled in your company to become all that God has  called them to be, then there really has to be an environment of trust and not  this sort of suspicion of not being able to entrust tasks and jobs and and this is  particularly true with smaller companies where the owner feels like he or she is  the only one that can get the job done. Well, you really have to trust people. And so we know that God loves us, but he sometimes we think about how he loves  us, kind of like you loved your crazy uncle, where you just sort of tolerate that  person, the kind of trust, the kind of love that God has in mind, as we read in I  Corinthians 13:7, is a kind of love that always trusts. So if you truly love  somebody, you trust them. And yes, some people are not going to receive that  trust. They're going to think about in the parable the talents, how this one  steward, he just buried his talent. He would not fully actually receive what the  master had entrusted had made available to him. He just was fearful, or  whatever, and he just kind of buried it. And I think that's what people do a lot of  times. But nonetheless, when you bring somebody onto your team, there is a  certain level of implied trust there, and that you need to deliver on if that person  is really going to develop, if they're really going to make an impact, positive  impact, in and through your company, so trust that person with responsibility and with that establish covenants with your workers. And as we talked about  previously in the customer care section, you can't uphold covenants with your  customers unless you uphold covenants with your workers, and so to promise  your customers that you're going to deliver on your promises, but you have  employees that don't deliver on promises, or you're not delivering on your  promises to your employees, it's just it's not going to add up, and it's eventually  going to catch up with The company, and the customer is going to see that  there's, I'm seeing something just on the tip of the iceberg, but there's something deeper there, and typically it's going to go back to those problems internally, of  of agreements cut, covenants not being upheld. And what is a covenant? It's an  obligation. It's not just an agreement. It's not just sort of a fair weather  handshake, kind of a thing where, you know, some days I might feel like doing  my part, or, you know, living up to showing up on time, all of those kinds of or 

treating people with respect on the shop floor, different things like that. Those  are all really ought to be part of the covenant of how we're going to agree to  treat each other here in this in this company and and with that mutual admiration that people really ought to feel honored to work at your company, especially  when they get a hold of the fact that you're committed to making disciples of  Jesus Christ and representing the Lord through your company. And they ought  to treat you. Know the golden rule there, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and so you as an employer or as a manager or as a entry level  worker, whatever your role is in your company, you really have to cultivate this  mutual admiration of gratitude that you get to work in the place where you work,  and then over communicate the covenant and The terms and what this is the  way we said we're going to treat each other here in this and I'm really gleaning  here from a man, a thought leader, that I really respect. In fact, my company  published his book. His name is Ford Taylor, and he's done this for multi million  dollar companies very effectively is to help them define how are we going to  treat each other in this company? And that book is relax, and I recommend that  you get a copy of that. And the idea of relactional in leadership is that that  relationships are important, yes, getting the transaction done. Getting the job  done is important, yes, but those have to be blended in a company in order to  get the job done and to make people feel valued. And ultimately, although he  doesn't talk about this explicitly in the book, it is about discipleship and revealing Jesus through our businesses. So. Establish how you're going to treat each  other and how you're going to treat your customers, and the the work ethic that  you're getting, the values that you're going to uphold in your company, and make sure that your team consists of people who will hold uphold that covenant and  and so when I think about that, this passage comes to mind this Good Shepherd passage in John 10:12-13, he who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who is  not the owner of the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the Sheep and  flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a  hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. And so certainly we are. We  get hired by companies to do different things. But here in this case, Jesus is  talking about sort of a hired hand mentality, kind of a mercenary versus a  missionary mentality, where I'm only here just to make money. I'm not here to  make meaning, I'm not here to make disciples. I'm just here to get a paycheck.  And those are not the kind of people that you want to have on your team. That  really it demonstrates a lack of integrity and and those are not the those are the  that's going to when you bring in people that have integrity, your company starts  to lack integrity, because your company is your people and and so when you're  recruiting, you don't just, you really want to think about recruiting. You're going  after people of integrity, people who have skill that's not always easy to find, and so you really have to go after them, versus kind of taking this hiring approach of, well, I'll just kind of beg for workers and just kind of take any warm body I can 

get and not really be selective about it. And so employees versus contractors.  Contractors can still have that hired hand mentality or not. Some of them, they  really will. In some cases, they are entrepreneurs themselves. And so when you  outsource work to them, that they are owners of their own company, and so they are going to make sure that whatever jobs their company touches, that they are  going to do pursue with excellence. And so sometimes you can get better work  from a contractor than you can from an employee. And I know you, some of you  know what I'm talking about. But then, although the you need to pursue people  that have that that don't have this hired hand mindset, but that have more  ownership of ownership mentality, we also have a responsibility as leaders at  whatever level of the organization we're in to help people buy in to the covenant, to help people buy in to what we're doing here and the culture and why we do  what we do, and help people to make meaning. And this is the advantage that  Christians really have in the marketplace. Is, is if, if people, as Simon Sinek  said, people don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. If that's true, and I  believe it is, then Christians have the ultimate advantage, because our why, why we do what we do is to make disciples, is to reveal the God of the universe to  humanity and to shape culture in that sort of a way. And so it should be easier  for us to help people buy in to that vision. And And lastly, here, when it comes to  training and development and and establishing covenant, and that covenant  keeping is part of the development. I mean that really is when people leave your company, the the way in which they were expected and that they had to buy in  to that culture. That is what is going to stick with them long after they leave your  company or not, if it's if it's just not present in your company yet, but, but some  people will just unilaterally decide that this isn't for me, and they're going to  leave and that's that's okay. Some people, they're going to violate the covenant,  but if you have clearly, you've over communicated the terms of, this is how we're going to treat each other. This is what's going to happen whenever we don't treat each other that way. And these are going to be the consequences and and so  you're making it that person's choice if, if it's their choice, if they want to leave, if  they want to break the covenant, they are saying, I am not part of this team. I  am not part of the the meaning making. I'm not part of what you're trying to do in this company. I'm probably just here for a paycheck and and when my  expectations don't get met, or I'm not getting paid enough, or, or, you know, I just don't like this emphasis on on character and having to just kind of live up to  standards that maybe they haven't been expected in places where there just  wasn't mentorship, there wasn't training, there wasn't personal development in a holistic, sort of a way that comes out of a heart of a disciple maker. And so  maybe that's just not for them. Maybe it's just not for them yet, but then they'll  realize, because you know, when you work in a culture like that, it is so much  more valuable than just the money that you're taking home in your paycheck to  be able to experience that level of a culture and and so other things you can do 

when it comes time to part ways with somebody, if they just decide that this isn't  for them, is to give them a day of reflection and say, Look, this is going to be a  paid day off. This is before you actually fire them and say, you know. And again,  I should use that, that term carefully. We're not. It's not as though you're firing  them because you've made it their choice, and when they decide that they no  longer want to live up to that, I mean, they have, they've made the decision. I  mean, there's a story that Ford Taylor tells in his book relactional leadership,  where in his Ford's T Shirt Company, he would work with a lot of employees that just had really rough pass, and some of them had been in and out of prison and  that sort of a thing. And one of the guys, he ended up stealing something. He  refused to fess up to it, and everybody knew that he did it, even though he  wouldn't fess up to it. And so finally, Ford just said, All right, if you don't come  clean by the time I'm going to walk up to my office, which is up those stairs, and  as soon as that door closes, this opportunity for you to come clean and to keep  your job is going to be off the table. You're going to be gone and and, and so the guy just didn't take him seriously. And right as for so for he walked up those  stairs the right as the door was shutting, he could hear the voice of this  employee saying, wait, wait, wait, but it was too late. He got up there and he  knocked on Ford's door. He comes in, and he tries to explain that this is that he  did it. He fessed up to it. He apologized before it had to tell him it's it's too late.  And years later, the guy ended up taking him to lunch and thanked him for his  commitment to his culture and for how that example just really transformed his  life. He was at a place where he was in a very vulnerable place, and that was  the wake up call that he needed, as Ford found out about years later, and that's  why it's always about discipleship all the way until the ends. So you may feel  like, if you have to let somebody kind of make their choice to leave, that you're,  you're doing them a disservice, but in many ways, that can be the best possible  thing for them. You're, you're just you're standing on the culture that God has  given to you, that that God is calling you to uphold for the benefit of the other  stakeholders in your company, the other workers, the customers, the vendors,  everybody that depends on your business and and so you just cannot allow a  lack of integrity to enter into your company, and otherwise it's just going to  eventually turn into a house built on sand that will eventually just collapse. And  so we need to always keep in mind that it's about discipleship all the way till the  end, with people see in the next video.