¹⁴If you sell land to any of your own people or buy land from them, do not take advantage of each other. ¹⁵You are to buy from your own people on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And they are to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. ¹⁶When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what is really being sold to you is the number of crops.

In today’s competitive world, companies are experiencing pricing pressures like never before. Being a second or third choice of customers will more than likely put you out of business. The knee-jerk reaction to cut corners, short customers, overcharge or underbid a job with the intention of up-charging later is all too real.

Be diligent in your decision-making; be faithful and so shall HE

Every day, you and your employees are faced with making choices, choices to do the right thing even when you believe it may ultimately harm your company. But that, dear reader, is faulty thinking. Organizations that have solid Mission, Visions and Core Values and lean into them during hard times will prevail. When we put our trust in Christ and do the right thing, make the right choices and stay truthful in our business lives, we will outlive the others. Build a “Kingdom Minded” Organization today, trust in Christ, and be diligent.

Help our community of readers

What have you experienced in this area that you can share? Can you witness to us an organization that has fallen on hard times, yet maintained its ethics and, in a brief time, returned to great reward? We would love to hear from you below.

¹¹Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

One of the seven deadly sins is sloth. Many leaders look at their people and accuse them of sloth-like behavior, yet, if they examined themselves more closely, they would discover that they are equally guilty of being sloth-like, maybe not in the sense of their rate of production, but in the time spent in fantasizing about their business objectives.

 Sloth-like leaders dream too much and yield little

We all have lofty dreams — big dreams and pie-in-the-sky thoughts. And organizational vision is paramount to the success of every organization! The problem is that dreaming all day won’t satisfy your customers or get the widgets out the door! As Christian business leaders, we all need some time to ourselves to dream big for the creation of our goals and vision for our companies. Sometimes, though, we have witnessed leaders getting so caught up in big picture thinking that they lose their way in daily transactional business leadership, and their teams go astray, feeling they have no leadership. Leaders: if you find yourself disconnected from your teams and your businesses because of your lack of attention, focusing only on your lofty goals, wake up! If you can balance both day to day focus and big picture thinking, you are building a “Kingdom Minded” Organization.

When John Piper Reads “Pilgrim’s Conflict with Sloth”- You realize just how bad sloth behavior can be.

Help our community of readers

Have you witnessed a sloth in the workplace? What was the remedy? What have you done to combat your own sloth behavior?

Give your employees hope and a bright future in this upside down world.

Now more than ever, organizational leadership needs to create a platform to help employees succeed. Come and learn how to do this by implementing processes that will lead your organization to High Performance.

Leading an organization with clarity in Mission, Vision and, most importantly, Values makes good business sense. We call organizations that do that successfully, “High Performance Organizations,” or simply HPO’s.

The HPO experience:

• Lower absenteeism
• Higher quality products
• Less employee morale issues
• Safer work environments
• Better perceived by customers and vendors

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mark will inspire you with his no nonsense approach to developing High Performance Organizations.

The Mansion at 5th
450 Cumberland Street
Lebanon, PA 17042
Friday, July 12, 2013 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)

Bring your whole Team! 

About The Speaker

Mark A. Griffin is the founder and chief consultant of In HIS Name HR LLC, a human resources outsourcing and career coaching firm created to help companies pilot the complex issues of managing HR.

As a human resources professional with 20-plus years of experience in both public (Quaker Oats Company, Kodak Inc., Merck Inc.) and private companies (Woolrich, Conestoga Wood Specialties, Valco Companies Inc.), Mark is passionate about building high performance workplaces through utilizing best practices while leading companies with strong values.

While serving in the United States Air Force, Mark received his Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resources Administration from Saint Leo University. He earned his MBA from Bloomsburg University while interning for Congressmen Kanjorski as a Military Liaison during the first Gulf War. Mark has completed several executive education programs at the University of Michigan and is a certified practitioner of the Myers Briggs Type Instrument MBTI®.

Mark and his wife, Gail, have two children, and recently celebrated their twenty-sixth wedding anniversary. They attend LCBC Church, where he is a career coach and volunteer leader for The Career Network, a ministry focused on assisting career explorers in the community.

A recently published author (How to Build “Kingdom-Minded” Organizations) , speaker and accomplished HR consultant, Mark A. Griffin gives Christian leaders encouragement in building values-led organizations during these difficult economic times.

Concerned?  You should be.

Read the entire guest post here. 

¹²Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.

We, as Christian Business Leaders, have gotten far away from this. We continue our lives and work straight through Sunday. We say things like, “We can’t not work on Sunday; the competition does!” Or, “We have always worked Sundays.” Well, don’t be convinced it is impossible; Chick-Fil-A has been doing it since they first opened! Growing up in Northern New Jersey, all the stores were closed to give employees time to spend with their families. Biblical scholars, pastors, and Bible believers all have their own interpretation of what the Scripture means.

Don’t shoot right through Sunday, without honoring God

I believe that the bottom line is we should honor God at least once a week by spending time relaxing with our families, enjoying the outdoors and partaking in worship. We owe it to ourselves, our families, and, most importantly, God. If you run an organization that honors God by ensuring you honor your employees by not working on Sundays, be blessed in the knowledge that you are building a “Kingdom Minded” Organization.

Help our community of readers

What is your company’s perspective on honoring God? Are there any customs, practices or procedures that you think might make you unique? Let us know and help build our community.

¹¹Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.

Have you watched a business grow quickly and reap much cash and then, just as quickly as it grew, come crashing down? Oftentimes, when you dig deeply into what happened, you find there were dishonest business practices occurring, misrepresentations of products, and not much substance surrounding the basis of the company’s success. Although some fail quickly, some dishonest businesses seem to go on, regardless. But they will fail at some point, and the failure may be far greater to the owner after a sustained period of time rather than if the company had crashed within the first year.

 All good ideas need time to grow

My experiences tells me that, when leaders are deliberate in making choices, and slow in the development of their strategies and plans, favor seems to come from God. Any good idea needs time to grow, and any great business was not developed overnight, but little by little, as the Scripture states. Take your time, dear Christian business leader, and don’t rush your plans for prosperity. If you are enjoying the little-by-little approach to earning your profits, if you are content in building deliberately and with faith, you are building a “Kingdom Minded” Organization.

Help our community of readers

How do you develop your ideas? How does your company ensure success in decision-making? Have you done any really interesting inclusion lately with your employees? Inspire our readers. We would like to know.

Enjoy reading our full post on the Christian leadership Alliance blog.

Full Post

We are honored to be the Christian leadership Alliance Human Resources contributor.

¹⁴From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward.

When our words help and benefit our people, we honor God. People who experience kindness and encouragement will surely bear good fruit. Many leaders do not realize that what is in their hearts comes out of their mouths, In other words, “What is in a man comes out of the man.” If one’s heart is filled with evil, then he will speak evil.

If Jesus is in his heart, then Jesus is what will come out

This is why we should, as Christian Business Leaders, be constantly filling ourselves to the brim with goodness, not despair and disaster or things that are not wholesome. How do we do this? Here are a few suggestions:

• Spend time reading God’s Word
• Have a relationship with God by fellowshipping with other believers
• Volunteer in a Ministry in which you can impact the world
• Devote time with your family sharing your life with Christ
• Connect in a Bible study or start one yourself
• Help grow the Church that you attend
• Encourage and minister to our youth

All these opportunities are important; because they will help you become more like Christ. What you feed your spirit is what will come out. When a person’s life is filled with Jesus, then his works (the work of his hands) will be blessed. Be assured that you will be a blessing to others. So, beloved Christian Business Leaders, if you are committed to being more Christ-like and you embrace partaking in several of these bulleted recommendations, you will be a light unto your people, and you are building a “Kingdom Minded” Organization.

 Help our community of readers

What have you done to help fill yourself up with Christ? How do you ensure you never get near empty? How can you help others in your workplace to do the same?

Feel like you don’t need them? Here are 10 great reasons that should change your mind.

Enjoy reading our full post on the Christian leadership Alliance blog.

Full Post

We are honored to be the Christian leadership Alliance Human Resources contributor.

Evangelical’s Myerstown Campus, 121 S. College Street Myerstown PA 17067-1299

Doors open at 6:30, Breakfast 7:00, adjournment by 8:30.

Guest Speaker: Mark A. Griffin, President of In HIS Name HR Christian Business Consulting and author of How to Build a Kingdom-Minded Organization. Mark knows what works and does not work, and most importantly he sees the world through the employee’s perspective! He believes in treating everyone with dignity and respect, because after all, your employees are part of your company family.

Learn more about the series here.

Register online here.