Advice for work

Today I am answering another question: “What is your best advice when it comes to work.”

The list below is not exhaustive…just some of the principles I tried to follow as an employee and a manager. If you have any to add, please do so in the comments!

I have had some great bosses and co-workers through the years and I have learned something from most of them. So here goes, in no particular order.

LEADERSHIP IS NOT A TITLE, and you can lead from any position in an organization. People don’t magically become leaders because of a job description or title.

SHOW UP EARLY. If your work day starts at 8, arriving at 8 is late.

A LEADER SERVES. If there is a project that requires the team to work weekends, be there and do the dirtiest job on the list. A good leader serves his team rather than expecting them to serve him or her.

DON’T TAKE CREDIT FOR THE WINS BUT BE WILLING TO ACCEPT BLAME FOR THE LOSSES. More accurately, adopt an attitude of not caring who gets the win, and congratulate your team. Guide your team to making good decisions rather than making them for them.

IF A CUSTOMER ASKS IF YOU CAN DO IT, SAY YES AND FIGURE IT OUT. I learned this from Tony. He alway said “if somebody else can do it, so can I.” It has scared me at times, but being stretched and growing makes you better and breaks you out from the crowd. (Caveat: only do this if it is in your wheelhouse. If you run a bakery, and they want you to replace a transmission…well, this is not what I mean.)

YOU CAN’T WIN ON THE AIR IF YOU DON’T FIRST WIN IN THE HALLWAYS. If the culture in our building is toxic and our team is fighting and not moving in the same direction, our listeners will hear it and our product will suffer. I believe this to be true in any industry. You may be able to sustain it for a while, but not long term.

MISSION FIRST AND ALWAYS. Your mission should be written and agreed upon by your team, and then held up as the filter through which every decision is made. If it doesn’t fit your mission, don’t do it. Even if it is a good thing. Every person on your team should be able to recite your mission statement.

HIRE THE CHARACTER AND TEACH THE SKILL rather than the other way around. I can teach someone how to raise funds or operate a soundboard. I can’t teach them to be a decent human being.

CHARACTER, CHEMISTRY AND COMPETENCY are the three considerations when hiring a new employee. And I rank them in that order. Do they have good moral character? Will they fit in with our people and share our vision? And do they have experience, or the competency, to do the job?

HIRE SLOW. FIRE FAST. Making the wrong hire is worse than having an open position for an extended period of time. I have done it. And once you know that an employee needs to go, don’t delay the inevitable. It won’t get better.

PICK UP THE TRASH. See a piece of paper in the parking lot. Pick it up. Light bulb in the hallway burned out? Replace it. It speaks volumes.

CATCH PEOPLE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. The world beats us all down and that includes your employees and co-workers. A word of encouragement goes a long way. This is especially important with your front line people who are selling. They hear the word NO over and over, and the last thing they need to hear when they come back to the office is NO. Go out of your way to encourage them.

KNOW THE NAMES OF YOUR EMPLOYEES CHILDREN. And ask about them. Encourage your employee to leave early to watch them play in their soccer game. The hour they miss at work is not as important as the hour they spend with their family.

YOU’RE THE BOSS FIRST. This means you can’t be best friends with your employees. You can be friendly and social but you are their boss and not their BFF. Trying to be both is a tightrope that will fail you.

CELEBRATE WHEN YOUR TEAM MEMBER MOVES ON. One of our most valuable employees left us after seven years to take a job teaching business classes at Liberty University. It was a blow to us, but more importantly it was a huge blessing to her and her family, and I was genuinely happy for her. And God sent us a wonderful new person to replace her. A good leader always wants what is best for their team members, even if it means losing them.

YOUR EMPLOYEES DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING GOING ON BEHIND THE SCENES, AND THAT’S OK. This is a hard one because sometimes when you have to make a tough decision, you can look bad but you can’t always explain the details. Especially when it is a personnel decision. There’s a small book written by Chuck Swindoll called “The Lonely Whine of the Top Dog.” Being the top dog IS lonely and only other top dogs understand.

GOSSIP IS CANCER. It is a fireable offense at The Bridge. If you have a problem with a person or with the organization, talk about it ONLY with someone who is above you on the organizational chart, and who can do something about it. Otherwise it is gossip and it can kill your organization.

MONEY FOLLOWS MINISTRY. Dad taught me this one. When running a church or a non-profit organization, focus on the ministry (mission) and people will want to help support it. If you focus on raising money, they won’t.

CASH IS KING. Budget for savings, rainy day fund and vision. Six months worth of reserves in case there is an unforeseen crisis (Covid, anyone?) and a reserve of cash to take advantage of opportunities that unexpectedly arise. You won’t have time to raise the funds, or even borrow them, in every situation. And debt can kill an organization.

ERR ON THE SIDE OF THE CUSTOMER. Rules are important but not as important as your customer. It’s nice to be right about a misunderstanding, but it’s nicer to let a customer win and retain their business.

READ. STUDY. LISTEN. And don’t just read, study and listen to people in your industry. The best ideas can come from other industries. Curiosity is a key component of being an interesting person and a good leader.

HIRE GREAT PEOPLE AND LET THEM DO THEIR JOBS. I could have done the job of just about everybody at The Bridge (with a few technical exceptions), but I couldn’t do it as good as them. But even if I could, it would be a disservice to them and to the organization for me to micromanage them. Responsibility without authority keeps everyone looking over their shoulder in fear and nothing good gets accomplished. When someone comes to me with a question, they know I am going to first ask them their opinion, and 99% of the time we are going with what they suggest. My team knew they had the authority to drill a hole in our boat. If the hole is above the water line, they could drill and then let me know about it. If it is below the water line (meaning it could sink us) they had to talk to me first.

RIGHT BUS. RIGHT SEAT. This is a lesson from the book Good to Great. It is important to have the right people on your bus. It is more important to have them in the right seat. A couple of years ago I had an employee who fit our culture, was a hard worker and capable, but she was struggling and unhappy. I determined she was in the wrong seat. And that was on me. I put her there. So we created a new position to take advantage of her gifts and skills. She excelled at the new job and we were all better for it. An organization can’t always create new seats on the bus, but having someone in the wrong seat is unfair to them and to the business.

GET OUT OF THE WAY WHEN IT IS TIME. This one is tough for a lot of people. Organizations go through seasons. Ours was a 13-year season of startup and growth, and that’s what I am built for. I felt we were entering a season of depth and excellence and change, and I was not the guy for that. The person who succeeded me is a better manager of things than I am, and for our organization to get to the next level, I needed to get out of the way.

And finally, IT’S NOT YOURS, YOU ARE JUST A STEWARD OF IT. Your work, whether it is a one-man band, or a large organization, is a gift from God and you have been entrusted with caring for it. Do your best, be grateful, nurture and grow it, and do it to fulfill your mission and to the glory of God.

That applies to every aspect of our lives.