[management by God] free management training!

Written by Dan King

Christ-follower. husband. father. author of the unlikely missionary: from pew-warmer to poverty-fighter. co-author of activist faith: from him and for him. director of family ministry at st. edward's episcopal church. president of fistbump media, llc.

November 26, 2010

FREE! FREE! FREE!

Sign up now for the opportunity of a lifetime! We’re now offering FREE leadership and management training for everyone that is interested! Learn and practice the skills and special techniques that can make you one of the greatest leaders in your organization.

This course covers everything from balancing budgets to human relations to implementing your vision.

Don’t miss out on this special offer to take part in one of the greatest leadership development opportunities that will ever come your way!

Sounds great doesn’t it?

Where does one sign up you ask? Sorry, but not on this site.

As I continue in my discussion of the qualifications for the executive-leader, we come to a very interesting one… “manage his own household well.” On the surface this one may look pretty self-explanatory.

Think about working for someone who can’t keep things together at home. They have a rocky marriage, the repo man visits the office every month looking for their car, and they’re always trying to borrow money from you. It won’t be very easy for this boss to find people who’ll follow them, at least for very long. Right?

But if you look closely at the principles at play here, you’ll find something very interesting, especially if you ask the question, “why”.

Why is it important enough of a concept to make this list of leader qualifications? The answer is simple, and can be found in the Parable of the Talents. This is the story where a man went on a journey, and entrusted a certain amount of “talents” to each of three servants. If you know the story well, then you know that two of them invested or worked the money, and provided a profit to the man when he returned. Then one of the servants buried it and returned the same amount. Besides the fact that this last servant got punished for his lack of action, I want to focus on what the man said to the servants that used it to earn a profit…

His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.
— Matthew 25:21 (and 23)

The point that’s being made here is that the little bit of work (faithful over little) has resulted in much greater opportunities (set you over much).

Leadership and management skills are just as important in the home as they are anywhere else. In fact we could even argue that they’re more important in the home. While it’s not my desire to downplay the role of the home, I do liken it to the “little” that we must prove ourselves in before we can be given authority over much larger organizations (the much).

When you look at it in this light, the home is the training grounds for leadership in every other aspect of life.

When we want to develop our leadership and management skills, we should be looking to implement these skills in the home first. Why? Maybe it’s because those closest to us are more forgiving if we mess up once or twice. Whatever the reason, it’s a safe place to try new things, and practice new skills.

Take any one of the qualifications from the list for the executive-leader, and implement it at home first, then as you perfect the techniques, try them in the workplace. Not only will you start to build a stronger family unit and probably live more stress-free in that respect, but you’ll also get the opportunity to take advantage of the FREE training offer that I mentioned at the beginning of this post!

Questions to consider:

  • Where are you trying to develop you leadership and management skills?
  • How are you getting feedback regarding the new skills that you are working on?
  • Which one thing do you feel that you need to work on the most?
  • How can you practice that skill at home, right now, with your own family?
  • What benefits do you see in taking you leadership training home with you?
  • What drawbacks do you see?

See more from the management by God series!

2 Comments

  1. doug

    Thanks for the reminder that we need to be leaders in the home. That leaders in the Church have to have there act together at home also. That is the first requirement. I sure wish they would pick that up in corporate America. I don’t know how many people who I have worked for whose family life was a mess and how that effects the workplace.

    Reply
    • @bibledude

      I think that home is the best place to learn leadership, largely because those are the people most like to forgive you when you fail. I’ve seen people in high positions who have a messed up home life, but I rarely see anything lasting with them.

      One boss in particular told me that he knows that I love being with my family, but I shouldn’t let that get in the way of my career. He’s divorced, and didn’t work for our organization for very long… Hmm… seems like there might be a connection that he didn’t quite get…

      Reply

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[management by God] free management training!

by Dan King time to read: 3 min
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