The PF Women Team at our Annual Team Retreat ~ 2018 Today on Seth Godin's blog, he said: It's tempting to decide to make a profit first, then invest in training, people, facilities, promotion, customer service and most of all, doing important work. In general, though, it goes the other way. Yes, it does. If you are waiting to make a profit before you do these things, in my experience you're not going to make a profit. So many organizations, ministries and churches are struggling with financial issues. I know your pain. As anyone who follows our story knows, our ministry was in a ton of debt four years ago when I came on as director. Since that time, we've gotten out of debt and turned a profit every year. God has done amazing things through out team, for which we give Him the glory! I find that what Seth is saying here is absolutely true, with one disclaimer. For Christian leaders, spiritual disciplines must always be first. Before we started i...
This week in my meeting with Kathryn I learned once again how important a little flexibility is in a working relationship. When managing employees of the church, I've always been very flexible with personal appointments and needs, such as long as they are not lazy or take undue advantage. I have no tolerance for laziness though. I've said it before, lazy people cause me to shake. This is where valiums, brownies and lattes come in handy.
Kathryn is an amazingly flexible manager. I needed to ask her if we could change next week's meeting times because Larry is preaching at a Campmeeting in Northport and I want to go with him. I would prefer not to have our weekly meeting on the road, as it's harder for me to engage in conversation. Truth be told, I don't want to have a meeting with her on the run because I value the meeting too much. She quickly said, "oh of course..." and moved the meeting to morning. This might not seem like a big deal but I'm in Florida and she's in California, so there's a time difference of 3 hours. She will be meeting with me at 7 am her time. I am so grateful that she would accomodate my schedule that way.
The bottom line is, if you are an integral worker who doesn't take inappropriate advantage of such a situation, you will be granted the time by a good leader. Great managers know they have nothing to gain by refusing reasonable requests by good staffers. Also, when given this kind of flexibility it creates a desire to do an even better job for such an understanding leader. I'm sure Kathryn knows that which is why she does it, as well as the fact that she's an amazingly nice person, with the likeability factor.
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