June 18, 2025 • 33 mins
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The difference between worldly success and godly success is evident in how we manage our businesses and organizations. As Christian leaders, we're called to approach management not merely as a means to achieve profit, but as faithful stewardship of the resources God has entrusted to us.
In this transformative episode, we dive deep into the five core dimensions of management through a biblical lens: strategic, operational, financial, human resources, and ethical/spiritual. Each dimension offers unique opportunities to glorify God and serve others while building organizations that reflect Kingdom values.
Strategic management begins with aligning your vision and mission to God's purpose through prayer and discernment. We explore practical tools like SWOT analysis, SMART goal setting, and key performance indicators (KPIs) that help track progress toward God-honoring objectives. As Proverbs 16:3 reminds us, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans."
The operational dimension focuses on excellence in day-to-day activities, reflecting Ecclesiastes 9:10's call to work "with all your might." From process optimization to quality control, we share software recommendations and practical steps to maintain operational integrity while avoiding employee burnout.
Financial management embodies true stewardship, requiring transparency, wise budgeting, and ethical investment strategies. Beyond profitability, we discuss the importance of generosity and giving back as expressions of faith in business.
Perhaps most meaningful is how we approach human resource management—recognizing employees as image-bearers of God deserving of development, respect, and purpose. We offer insights on creating effective onboarding programs, performance management systems, and workplace cultures that nurture both professional and spiritual growth.
Underpinning all these dimensions is ethical/spiritual management, ensuring every decision aligns with biblical principles of integrity, compassion, and service. This cornerstone element transforms ordinary business practices into powerful testimonies of faith.
Join our growing Christian Business Concepts family and discover how these biblical management principles can bring sustainable success to your organization while honoring God in everything you do. Share this episode with fellow business leaders who might benefit from a faith-centered approach to management!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, Harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners in becomingeffective, efficient and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now, here's your host, HaroldMilby.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's
Christian Business Conceptspodcast.
I'm your host, harold Milby,and each week I try to share
biblical business principlesthat'll help you find true godly
success, and I hope today'spodcast will encourage you,
enlighten you and empower you tobecome the best godly business
(00:41):
leader or business owner thatyou can be, and I'm asking that
you help us grow the CBC familyby sharing this podcast with
four or five others and bysharing the link to this podcast
on your Facebook or yourLinkedIn page.
I'd greatly appreciate that.
I'm so humbled by the number ofpeople who download this
podcast every week and who arepart of the CBC family and it's
(01:05):
just incredibly awesome and thenumber of countries that are
represented.
And before we get started today, let me give a big shout out to
a new country that has starteddownloading our podcast, and
that's the country of Botswana.
Botswana is in the southernpart of the African continent
(01:25):
and we just want to thank youall who have downloaded these
podcasts there in that country,and we hope that this will
minister to you and help you tobecome a great leader, whether
it be in an organization, yourbusiness or whatever it may be.
We pray that God helps you findtrue godly success, because
(01:47):
we're not looking for theworld's success, we're looking
for godly success.
Now, today, I want to talk toyou about management as a whole.
You know, in a Christiancontext, it's not merely about
achieving your organizationalgoals.
That's not what management is.
But in a Christian context,it's more about being a good
(02:11):
steward over God's resources,about serving others.
It's about glorifying Himthrough making decisions based
on godly principles.
And today we're going todiscuss the five core dimensions
of management, and they arestrategic.
Number two is operational, thenthere's foundational or
(02:36):
financial, and then humanresource, and then, lastly,
ethical or spiritual.
And as we do that, we're goingto provide you with some
detailed insights, somepractical applications and
biblical foundations, obviouslyto guide you as a leader in
building your company or yourorganization or department or
(02:59):
whatever it may be, but you doit in such a way that reflects
God's kingdom values.
So let's talk about strategicmanagement first.
So strategic management isreally the process of defining
your organization's long-termdirection.
(03:23):
It's about aligning its vision,its mission and objectives with
its purpose and then developingactionable plans, plans that
can be taken action on toachieve sustainable, not just
(03:44):
quick success, not just shortsuccess, but sustainable success
.
You know, for Christian leaders, this dimension, this strategic
management dimension ofmanagement, it's an opportunity
that you have to align the goalsthat you have within that
organization with God's callingand that helps to ensure that
(04:10):
the strategies will reflectthese biblical values that we
talk about so much, such asstewardship and justice and
service.
So some of the key components,first of all, is vision and
mission development.
So vision, which is a clear,very inspiring statement of your
(04:36):
organization's future state,what it's going to be like in
the future, and it needs to berooted in God's given purpose
for you.
For example, maybe a Christiannonprofit might envision, let's
say, a world where everycommunity experiences Christ's
love through service, and thatwould be a vision.
(04:57):
A vision statement Now amission statement is more of a
concise statement of theorganization's purpose, in other
words, what the purpose is, thevalues and how you approach it.
It answers the why we exist.
Why do we exist, why does thiscompany, why does this
organization exist?
(05:17):
And it should reflect biblicalprinciples like compassion and
integrity.
So vision and missiondevelopment you've got to
develop that.
That's part of strategicmanagement, that's part of your
strategy.
Another thing is the analysisthat you need to have as you
(05:39):
work on this particular part ofmanagement, and that is that you
need to conduct a SWOT analysis.
Swot we've talked about thisbefore.
I've had one podcast, nothingbut about SWOT.
But basically SWOT stands forstrengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats.
(06:00):
You need to do that to assessreally what your internal
capabilities are, what's theexternal market conditions.
You know there's other types ofanalysis that you can use.
There's one called the PESTLI've never used that one before,
actually but it stands forpolitical, economic, social,
(06:24):
technological, environmental andlegal.
Now, in a SWOT analysis, all ofthese things kind of flow into
that through your strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and
threats.
So you kind of have to do aSWOT analysis.
Currently, I suggest you takeSWOT analysis at least once or
(06:44):
twice a year.
You find out where you're at,where you're moving, how well
you're doing, and then anotherpart of it is goal setting.
So you've got to develop yourgoals.
They need to be specific, theyneed to be measurable,
achievable, relevant and theyneed to be time bound.
So we call those SMART goalsS-A-M-A-R-T specific, measurable
(07:10):
, achievable, relevant and timebound.
They need to make sure thatthey align with the mission and
vision.
So everything kind of startswith the mission and vision.
Don't do everything and then goback and try to do the mission
and vision.
You need to know that up frontand I've said this a million
times If you cannot articulateyour mission or vision in a
(07:34):
statement in two or threesentences, if you can't do that,
if you can't write it down onpaper, then you don't have one.
So make sure that you put thattogether.
That's where everything kind ofhinges on.
So you know you've got to setyour goals.
So you know.
An example of that would bemaybe to if it's a nonprofit
organization maybe increase yourcommunity outreach programs by
(07:57):
20% within 12 months to servethe underserved populations.
So that could be a smart goal,but again, it needs to be
measurable.
You've got to be able tomeasure it.
So you've got to createstrategies that, once you have
your SWOT analysis, then youcreate strategies that leverage
(08:20):
your strengths and opportunities, while you address the
weaknesses and threats.
But your strategies need toleverage your strength and your
opportunities.
So it's very, very importantand you've got to assign roles
and responsibilities and youestablish timelines and then you
(08:41):
allocate resources to help youreach those goals.
And then you allocate resourcesto help you reach those goals.
And let me say this I think it'simportant that you create and
we miss this in business so manytimes we do not have key
performance indicators, kpis.
You need to have KPIs for allof these goals.
(09:02):
In other words, how do you knowyou're reaching your goal?
Well, because I know I have totalk to X amount of people.
I know I have to do X amount ofthings.
Then write those things downand these are your KPIs.
These are key performanceindicators and that way you can
look at those indicators.
Whether it be your sales team,whether it be your marketing
(09:22):
team, they need to have KPIs andthen you can develop those KPIs
around those goals, around thestrategy, and then you can check
them.
It's measurable and you cancheck those KPIs and see how
you're doing.
You know Proverbs 16 and 3 sayscommit to the Lord whatever you
do, and he will establish yourplans.
(09:44):
You know strategic managementfor Christian leaders it begins
with a lot of prayer andprayerful discernment.
You're seeking God's guidanceand that's what you're doing.
The Bible talks about humility.
You've got to have thisopportunity to model humility,
(10:07):
as it talks about in Philippians, chapter 2, in the beginning
part of that chapter.
And you know there might be aChristian business that might
prioritize ethical type ofsourcing over cost cutting to
reflect the proper things thatyou're believing for or your
(10:29):
proper ethical guidelines thatyou have.
So some of the practical stepsyou could develop a three to
five year strategic plan withvery clear objectives and
timelines and resourcerequirements what they are and
be sure to track your KPIs.
You know I'll give you somesoftware that I think is a good
(10:52):
thing for you to use.
You can look at Trello, asanaor Mondaycom.
Monday is a great customerrelationship management tool,
but it's great for trackingtasks as well.
So Trello is great too.
It's a great product for you tobe able to use and to
(11:14):
collaborate with your team.
Again, asana does the samething, and so does Monday.
So Psalms 32 and 8 says I willinstruct you and teach you in
the way you should go, andthat's part of what you do in
the strategy.
Now the second phase, and thesecond, I should say the second
part of management isoperational management.
(11:36):
It focuses on leadership andefficiency, your day-to-day
activities that deliver yourproducts or services, whatever
it may be, ensuring quality, andall of that while you're
(12:05):
maintaining this commitment toexcellence and service.
So some of the key componentsare your process optimization.
You need to use some kind of amap workflow to identify what
all these processes are and thenlook for your inefficiencies,
in other words, look forbottlenecks, look for
(12:26):
redundancies and see what youcan eliminate.
You could probably implementeither lean or six sigma
methodologies to reduce all yourwaste and maybe improve
qualities.
Now I'm getting kind of deepinto this, but this is important
for you to know if you're goingto be successful.
And then there's resourcemanagement.
(12:48):
That's one of the keycomponents.
Resource management when youlook at your operations and then
you've got to look at qualitycontrol, you know you've got to
have standards and then metrics,in other words like defect
rates and customer satisfactionscores.
You've got to have standardsand then metrics, in other words
like defect rates and customersatisfaction scores.
You've got to have that.
That's important.
(13:08):
It's important for you to have.
You've got to use, you've gotto plan around your capacity and
you've got to balance yourworkloads.
You've got to avoid burnoutwith people.
So there's so many things thatare involved in operational
management.
But what are some of thepractical steps?
(13:29):
Well, you could implementresource management software.
There's one out there that I'venever used, but I've heard
about it's called Resource Guru.
You can use that to optimizeyour staff, to optimize your
equipment, and you can use flowcharts.
(13:51):
You can use things likeLucidchart.
I've used Lucidchart before tovisualize what your workflows
are, and then you can identifythose areas of improvement.
And then, of course, you've gotto have your quality control.
You've got to have yourstandards and metrics that you
develop, and then you've got tohave technology.
(14:12):
There's lots of tools out therefor that, like enterprise
resource planning.
That's an ERP system.
I don't have time to get intoERPs, but if you're a
manufacturer at all, you've gotto have an ERP system.
I don't have time to get intoERPs, but if you're a
manufacturer at all, you've gotto have an ERP system.
Most companies should have anERP system.
You should also have a CRM, acustomer relationship management
tool.
We've talked about that beforeon one of our other podcasts.
(14:35):
But check into customerrelationship management or CRMs.
They are vital to your company.
One of those is mondaycom.
We just talked about that.
Salesforce is another one.
There's all kinds of them outthere.
There's suite CRM, s-u-i-t-esuite CRM.
That's another one.
(14:55):
So you need to automate as muchas you can If it's a repetitive
task, if it's something that'sdone time after time after time.
Make sure that you try toautomate, if you can, any kind
of repetitive task, because thathelps free up time, you know,
for a lot of other priorities.
So the other thing that youhave to deal with here is you
(15:15):
have to deal with riskmanagement.
Risk management, so you need toidentify your operational risks
.
What are they?
Are they supply chain issues?
Maybe there could be somedisruptions, or maybe equipment
failures?
Maybe you've got some oldequipment.
Are you practicing really goodpreventive maintenance?
(15:35):
If you don't have a preventivemaintenance program, you're
really doing yourself adisservice because basically,
what happens is you don't planwhen your equipment fails, so
when it fails, it could fail atthe worst time of the world.
You want to do preventivemaintenance and you choose when
you take down the equipment.
So that's important.
(15:56):
So what are some practical steps?
Well, you know, with resourceallocation, you can implement
resource management software.
We talked about that.
You can develop your qualitycontrol checklist and train your
employees to make sure theyunderstand what the expectation
is for the standards, for thequality standards, I would say
(16:21):
you want to conduct your monthlyquality reviews.
You want to look at that on amonthly basis.
You don't want to let that getout too far.
I would say it's not going tohurt you to have something on a
weekly basis where you look atit weekly.
And then you need to look attechnology and look and see
where that you can havetechnology that will help you do
(16:41):
and carry the load, keep youorganized in your operations,
and so those are very, veryimportant.
Again, software that can helpyou Microsoft Project is a good
one for scheduling, or Zapierfor automation.
There's Tableau for datavisualization.
So there's all kinds of thingsthat you can do.
(17:03):
You know, ecclesiastes says in 9and 10, it says whatever your
hands find to do, do it with allyour might.
I think that's very important.
You know 1 Corinthians, 10 and31, it says do all for the glory
of God.
That's what we're doing.
If we're going to do this,let's do it to the best of our
abilities.
All right.
(17:24):
So now let's look at this thirddimension of management and that
is financial management.
So that ensures that yourorganization is physically or
physical healthy.
You do that through having somevery effective and thought-out
budgeting.
You do forecasting, costcontrol and then reporting.
(17:51):
You've got to report all thatinformation.
You need to gather thatinformation.
For Christian leaders, it'sreally a form of stewardship.
You need to manage God'sresources and you need to do it
with transparency and wisdom tosustain your mission that God
has put upon your business oryour organization, and so you
(18:14):
need to make sure that you havean effective budget, that you
have forecasting.
What's it going to be?
Look, forecasting is a guess.
It's not exact, but once you'vedone this, year after year
after year, you're going to bepretty close, even with your
forecasting.
Cost control.
That's something that changesall of the time.
You've got to have good peoplein purchasing, or you've got to
(18:37):
be the purchasing person andyou've got to be really smart
about your cost control andunderstand there's a difference
between price and cost.
I just want to hit this for alittle bit.
Price is what you pay forsomething.
Cost includes price, but italso includes a lot of other
(18:58):
things.
It includes logistics.
How's it get to you?
How much does it cost?
Is it cheaper to buy itoverseas?
But then the cost to get ithere.
Really, you're better offbuying it locally.
So there's lots of things thatgo into cost.
So you need to have a really notonly good budget, but you need
to have good cost control, andthen you need to be able to have
(19:21):
a good system that reports allthis data to you.
You know you need to createvery detailed budgets when you
can your operating expenses andthen you've got to look at what
your capital investments are orwhat they need to be.
Maybe you've got some newequipment that you need to buy?
(19:42):
What kind of reserves do youhave?
And so I think that's all sovery, very important that you've
gotta be able to do.
You've gotta have and this issomething again, I don't have
time to go into the details ofit, but you need to learn this
and that is you need to haveaccurate balance sheets.
(20:03):
You need to have incomestatements, cash flow statements
, and that will help you toensure that you are in
compliance with a lot ofregulatory requirements that you
have either you know whether itbe IRS guidelines or whatever
it may be.
You need to make sure that youhave these reports and that
(20:26):
they're accurate, right, and youneed to make sure that, if
you're going to invest yoursurplus funds, make sure it's
ethical, make sure you'reinvesting ethically in whatever
it is that you invest in.
You know the Bible in Luke,chapter 16, 10, and 11,.
It teaches that whoever can betrusted with very little can
(20:47):
also be trusted with much.
So financial management reallyrequires integrity, transparency
and a focus on the kingdompriorities that God's put in
your heart for your business.
And you also hey, I'm justgoing to say this you should
practice generosity as well andyou take a certain amount of
(21:11):
your resources and supportcharitable causes.
You know, because you want toavoid at every turn.
You've got to avoid greed,you've got to avoid unethical
practices.
You know give back to God'swork is always a very practical
expression of your faith.
(21:33):
So make sure that you do thatand so you can get that done.
So there's some great softwareout there for you to utilize.
One is QuickBooks foraccounting, excel for
forecasting I've never used thisbefore, but there's WAVE.
It's called W-A-V-E Victor VWAVE for small businesses.
(21:58):
So you can check that out whenyou get time.
So you want to look at thosekinds of things.
But the next thing that we needto look at as far as the next
dimension of management is humanresource management, hr or HRM
human resource management and itreally focuses on recruiting.
It focuses on developing and,most importantly, retaining a
(22:25):
workforce that really embodiesthe organization's mission and
values.
For Christian leaders, humanresource management is about
nurturing people as being imagebearers, if I can say it that
(22:46):
way, image bearers of God.
You foster this workplace thatreflects grace and respect and
purpose, and some of those keycomponents for that is
recruitment and selection.
You've got to develop some jobdescriptions.
It's amazing to me it really isamazing to me, how many
(23:07):
companies are out there thatdon't have job descriptions for
especially their key positions,for their key positions.
You need to have those.
You need to have jobdescriptions and you need to use
these times to sit down andassess people, assess their
(23:27):
competence, you assess theircharacter.
But that's all part ofrecruitment and selecting the
right people.
And then there's training anddevelopment.
So you need to have a goodonboarding program that
integrates new hires into yourcompany and into the culture of
your company or organization.
And then you've got to providesome ongoing training, whether
(23:50):
it be in technical skills orleadership and even spiritual
growth.
I think that's important as aChristian organization or
business, but I think it is soimportant that you have a good
onboarding program.
I always tried my best to havea great onboarding program,
(24:12):
always tried my best to have agreat onboarding program.
So when an employee comes inthe very first five minutes,
they feel like that they areimportant and they feel like
that they matter, that theymatter to the company and that's
all done in the first day, thatfirst day that they come to
your company to go to work.
You need to have a goodonboarding program.
So I encourage you to studythat and find out a little bit
more of that.
(24:33):
So then you have performancemanagement.
You've got to, you know, dothat.
It's not just about hiring newpeople, but you've got to manage
your current people and helpthem to perform at a high level,
and you can set very clearexpectations, and you do that
through your job descriptions,you do that through performance
(24:58):
agreements.
But you've got to have regularfeedback sessions with people
and you've got to be able to dothat to foster the growth that
you want.
But you've also got to bringinto play employee well-being.
You can't underplay that.
So you need to implementpolicies for, like, a work-life
(25:18):
balance you need to have, maybe,maybe in your company, you need
to have flexible hours or youneed to have some remote work
options.
I'm not for that for everythingand everybody, but sometimes
that's needed.
That for everything andeverybody, but sometimes that's
needed.
Make sure that you offer mentalhealth resources such as
counseling, wellness programs.
You need to have a system forconflict resolution that is
(25:42):
biblically based.
You need to train your peopleto listen actively listen
actively.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4and 11 and 12, it says equip his
people for the works of service.
(26:02):
So we have to equip them.
Yes, I understand that'stalking about the body of Christ
, but I got to tell you in aChristian business, we are
talking about the body of Christand we need to equip people,
and your human resourcesmanagement is the opportunity to
do that.
And you can also discipleemployees.
You can help them grow in theirGod-given talents.
Well, I can't do that becauseI'm a business.
(26:23):
That is absolutely not true.
There are laws that protect youand allow you to share your
faith, even in your business,and I would encourage you to
find out what those are or goback and read one of our listen
to one of our podcasts that weaddress that.
So the HR is a very, veryimportant system.
(26:48):
There's a lot of software outthere.
There's Bamboo HR, there'sWorkday if you want to track
their performance, and thenthere's a lot of LinkedIn
Learning has some really greattraining that's out there too.
So you need to be that, becauseColossians 4.1 says masters,
(27:09):
provide your slaves with what isright and fair.
I think that's partly trainingas well.
I believe that's important.
Let's look at number five, thefifth dimension of management,
and that is ethical or spiritualmanagement, and that ensures
that all organizationaldecisions that they practice
(27:31):
alignment with biblicalprinciples.
That helps you to foster thatculture of integrity and
compassion and spiritual growth.
It's really the cornerstone ofa Christian leader's guiding
light.
It helps you to develop everyother one of these dimensions in
management, and some of the keycomponents are your ethical
(27:55):
decision-making.
You should have a code ofethics that's based on biblical
values, in other words, honesty,fairness, humility and you use
that framework to make sure youmake those great decisions and
you make ethical decisions Also.
Another component is culturalleadership.
(28:17):
You need to foster thisworkplace of culture that
reflects Christ's love, hishumility, his service.
Celebrate diversity.
You know, not everybody isgoing to be the same Now.
You can actually have the sameshared faith values, but they're
(28:37):
going to be different people,different personalities,
different backgrounds, differentexperiences.
And then there's spiritualleadership.
You've got to encouragespiritual disciplines like
prayer and Bible study.
You can't force employees to dothat, but you can make it
available and you are protectedto do that.
(29:00):
Or maybe you may even say hey,you know Wednesday's a fast day,
you know, for those of you whowant to participate, you know
whatever, but you can modelChristlike character through
humility and forgiveness andgenerosity and people can see
that and they can see that's thekind of culture that's within
(29:20):
your company.
You know Matthew 5, 16, it urgesthe leaders to let your light
shine before others.
And we think that ethicalspiritual management it's really
about living out your faith andliving it out authentically.
It ensures that every decisionreally glorifies God, it really
(29:41):
serves others.
Leaders should seek the HolySpirit's guidance.
John 16, 13 prioritizes loveand justice and mercy in all
actions.
So I think it's important.
You know some of thosepractical steps are having a
(30:02):
code of ethics.
You know, make sure that yourcommunication with your
stakeholders are recent or notrecent, but they're frequent.
I should say you should holdsome town halls if you need to,
or newsletters, or share updates, whatever you can.
(30:23):
And then leadership modelingMake sure you demonstrate
ethical behavior, Admit to yourmistakes, seek forgiveness when
you need to Prioritize otherswhat their needs are above your
own.
And then make sure you have acommunity impact.
You need to partner with localchurches, partner with
nonprofits, to serve thecommunity and reflect God's love
(30:47):
outwardly.
So these are the fivedimensions of management, and I
believe that Christian businessleaders are called to manage
with excellence.
I believe they're called tomanage with integrity and with
heart of service, and bymastering these dimensions, I
(31:08):
believe that you can build yourorganization in such a way that
it honors God, it serves peopleand it makes a real, lasting
impact.
You know, psalms 37 and 5reminds us commit your way to
the Lord, trust in Him and hewill bring it to pass.
So make your leadership reflectthis passage in Psalms 37 and 5
(31:36):
.
Make sure that your leadershipreflects that.
Make sure that you understandthat completely.
So we want you to continue togrow as a leader and to
understand the importance andthe power of these five
dimensions of management.
Lord, I come before you and Iask you right now, lord, I ask
(32:00):
you that each person who havelistened to this podcast, that
Lord, that they understandmanagement in a greater way
today than they did before theylistened to this.
I pray, lord, that they wouldapply these principles that we
spoke about today and that, lord, that it would bring great
(32:20):
success to their organization ortheir business.
Lord, I speak success intotheir lives and, lord, I ask you
that the seeds of greatnessthat you have planted in them
begin to grow and bring a greatharvest.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Well, thanks again for takingthe time to listen to this
(32:43):
podcast and for being a part ofthe CBC community.
Well, that's all the time wehave for today, so until next
time.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Remember jesus is lord and he wants you blessed
thank you for tuning into thisweek's christian business
concepts podcast.
Go tochristianbusinessconceptscom for
more information and resources.
Be sure to check out otherpodcasts that will help you take
your business and your personallife to a whole new level of
(33:10):
success.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with
your host, Harold Milby.
Christian Business Concepts isdedicated to guiding companies
and business owners in becomingeffective, efficient and
successful through God's Wordand godly principles.
Now, here's your host, HaroldMilby.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Thanks, kelly, and welcome everyone to this week's
Christian Business Conceptspodcast.
I'm your host, harold Milby,and each week I try to share
biblical business principlesthat'll help you find true godly
success, and I hope today'spodcast will encourage you,
enlighten you and empower you tobecome the best godly business
(00:41):
leader or business owner thatyou can be, and I'm asking that
you help us grow the CBC familyby sharing this podcast with
four or five others and bysharing the link to this podcast
on your Facebook or yourLinkedIn page.
I'd greatly appreciate that.
I'm so humbled by the number ofpeople who download this
podcast every week and who arepart of the CBC family and it's
(01:05):
just incredibly awesome and thenumber of countries that are
represented.
And before we get started today, let me give a big shout out to
a new country that has starteddownloading our podcast, and
that's the country of Botswana.
Botswana is in the southernpart of the African continent
(01:25):
and we just want to thank youall who have downloaded these
podcasts there in that country,and we hope that this will
minister to you and help you tobecome a great leader, whether
it be in an organization, yourbusiness or whatever it may be.
We pray that God helps you findtrue godly success, because
(01:47):
we're not looking for theworld's success, we're looking
for godly success.
Now, today, I want to talk toyou about management as a whole.
You know, in a Christiancontext, it's not merely about
achieving your organizationalgoals.
That's not what management is.
But in a Christian context,it's more about being a good
(02:11):
steward over God's resources,about serving others.
It's about glorifying Himthrough making decisions based
on godly principles.
And today we're going todiscuss the five core dimensions
of management, and they arestrategic.
Number two is operational, thenthere's foundational or
(02:36):
financial, and then humanresource, and then, lastly,
ethical or spiritual.
And as we do that, we're goingto provide you with some
detailed insights, somepractical applications and
biblical foundations, obviouslyto guide you as a leader in
building your company or yourorganization or department or
(02:59):
whatever it may be, but you doit in such a way that reflects
God's kingdom values.
So let's talk about strategicmanagement first.
So strategic management isreally the process of defining
your organization's long-termdirection.
(03:23):
It's about aligning its vision,its mission and objectives with
its purpose and then developingactionable plans, plans that
can be taken action on toachieve sustainable, not just
(03:44):
quick success, not just shortsuccess, but sustainable success
.
You know, for Christian leaders, this dimension, this strategic
management dimension ofmanagement, it's an opportunity
that you have to align the goalsthat you have within that
organization with God's callingand that helps to ensure that
(04:10):
the strategies will reflectthese biblical values that we
talk about so much, such asstewardship and justice and
service.
So some of the key components,first of all, is vision and
mission development.
So vision, which is a clear,very inspiring statement of your
(04:36):
organization's future state,what it's going to be like in
the future, and it needs to berooted in God's given purpose
for you.
For example, maybe a Christiannonprofit might envision, let's
say, a world where everycommunity experiences Christ's
love through service, and thatwould be a vision.
(04:57):
A vision statement Now amission statement is more of a
concise statement of theorganization's purpose, in other
words, what the purpose is, thevalues and how you approach it.
It answers the why we exist.
Why do we exist, why does thiscompany, why does this
organization exist?
(05:17):
And it should reflect biblicalprinciples like compassion and
integrity.
So vision and missiondevelopment you've got to
develop that.
That's part of strategicmanagement, that's part of your
strategy.
Another thing is the analysisthat you need to have as you
(05:39):
work on this particular part ofmanagement, and that is that you
need to conduct a SWOT analysis.
Swot we've talked about thisbefore.
I've had one podcast, nothingbut about SWOT.
But basically SWOT stands forstrengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats.
(06:00):
You need to do that to assessreally what your internal
capabilities are, what's theexternal market conditions.
You know there's other types ofanalysis that you can use.
There's one called the PESTLI've never used that one before,
actually but it stands forpolitical, economic, social,
(06:24):
technological, environmental andlegal.
Now, in a SWOT analysis, all ofthese things kind of flow into
that through your strengths,weaknesses, opportunities and
threats.
So you kind of have to do aSWOT analysis.
Currently, I suggest you takeSWOT analysis at least once or
(06:44):
twice a year.
You find out where you're at,where you're moving, how well
you're doing, and then anotherpart of it is goal setting.
So you've got to develop yourgoals.
They need to be specific, theyneed to be measurable,
achievable, relevant and theyneed to be time bound.
So we call those SMART goalsS-A-M-A-R-T specific, measurable
(07:10):
, achievable, relevant and timebound.
They need to make sure thatthey align with the mission and
vision.
So everything kind of startswith the mission and vision.
Don't do everything and then goback and try to do the mission
and vision.
You need to know that up frontand I've said this a million
times If you cannot articulateyour mission or vision in a
(07:34):
statement in two or threesentences, if you can't do that,
if you can't write it down onpaper, then you don't have one.
So make sure that you put thattogether.
That's where everything kind ofhinges on.
So you know you've got to setyour goals.
So you know.
An example of that would bemaybe to if it's a nonprofit
organization maybe increase yourcommunity outreach programs by
(07:57):
20% within 12 months to servethe underserved populations.
So that could be a smart goal,but again, it needs to be
measurable.
You've got to be able tomeasure it.
So you've got to createstrategies that, once you have
your SWOT analysis, then youcreate strategies that leverage
(08:20):
your strengths and opportunities, while you address the
weaknesses and threats.
But your strategies need toleverage your strength and your
opportunities.
So it's very, very importantand you've got to assign roles
and responsibilities and youestablish timelines and then you
(08:41):
allocate resources to help youreach those goals.
And then you allocate resourcesto help you reach those goals.
And let me say this I think it'simportant that you create and
we miss this in business so manytimes we do not have key
performance indicators, kpis.
You need to have KPIs for allof these goals.
(09:02):
In other words, how do you knowyou're reaching your goal?
Well, because I know I have totalk to X amount of people.
I know I have to do X amount ofthings.
Then write those things downand these are your KPIs.
These are key performanceindicators and that way you can
look at those indicators.
Whether it be your sales team,whether it be your marketing
(09:22):
team, they need to have KPIs andthen you can develop those KPIs
around those goals, around thestrategy, and then you can check
them.
It's measurable and you cancheck those KPIs and see how
you're doing.
You know Proverbs 16 and 3 sayscommit to the Lord whatever you
do, and he will establish yourplans.
(09:44):
You know strategic managementfor Christian leaders it begins
with a lot of prayer andprayerful discernment.
You're seeking God's guidanceand that's what you're doing.
The Bible talks about humility.
You've got to have thisopportunity to model humility,
(10:07):
as it talks about in Philippians, chapter 2, in the beginning
part of that chapter.
And you know there might be aChristian business that might
prioritize ethical type ofsourcing over cost cutting to
reflect the proper things thatyou're believing for or your
(10:29):
proper ethical guidelines thatyou have.
So some of the practical stepsyou could develop a three to
five year strategic plan withvery clear objectives and
timelines and resourcerequirements what they are and
be sure to track your KPIs.
You know I'll give you somesoftware that I think is a good
(10:52):
thing for you to use.
You can look at Trello, asanaor Mondaycom.
Monday is a great customerrelationship management tool,
but it's great for trackingtasks as well.
So Trello is great too.
It's a great product for you tobe able to use and to
(11:14):
collaborate with your team.
Again, asana does the samething, and so does Monday.
So Psalms 32 and 8 says I willinstruct you and teach you in
the way you should go, andthat's part of what you do in
the strategy.
Now the second phase, and thesecond, I should say the second
part of management isoperational management.
(11:36):
It focuses on leadership andefficiency, your day-to-day
activities that deliver yourproducts or services, whatever
it may be, ensuring quality, andall of that while you're
(12:05):
maintaining this commitment toexcellence and service.
So some of the key componentsare your process optimization.
You need to use some kind of amap workflow to identify what
all these processes are and thenlook for your inefficiencies,
in other words, look forbottlenecks, look for
(12:26):
redundancies and see what youcan eliminate.
You could probably implementeither lean or six sigma
methodologies to reduce all yourwaste and maybe improve
qualities.
Now I'm getting kind of deepinto this, but this is important
for you to know if you're goingto be successful.
And then there's resourcemanagement.
(12:48):
That's one of the keycomponents.
Resource management when youlook at your operations and then
you've got to look at qualitycontrol, you know you've got to
have standards and then metrics,in other words like defect
rates and customer satisfactionscores.
You've got to have standardsand then metrics, in other words
like defect rates and customersatisfaction scores.
You've got to have that.
That's important.
(13:08):
It's important for you to have.
You've got to use, you've gotto plan around your capacity and
you've got to balance yourworkloads.
You've got to avoid burnoutwith people.
So there's so many things thatare involved in operational
management.
But what are some of thepractical steps?
(13:29):
Well, you could implementresource management software.
There's one out there that I'venever used, but I've heard
about it's called Resource Guru.
You can use that to optimizeyour staff, to optimize your
equipment, and you can use flowcharts.
(13:51):
You can use things likeLucidchart.
I've used Lucidchart before tovisualize what your workflows
are, and then you can identifythose areas of improvement.
And then, of course, you've gotto have your quality control.
You've got to have yourstandards and metrics that you
develop, and then you've got tohave technology.
(14:12):
There's lots of tools out therefor that, like enterprise
resource planning.
That's an ERP system.
I don't have time to get intoERPs, but if you're a
manufacturer at all, you've gotto have an ERP system.
I don't have time to get intoERPs, but if you're a
manufacturer at all, you've gotto have an ERP system.
Most companies should have anERP system.
You should also have a CRM, acustomer relationship management
tool.
We've talked about that beforeon one of our other podcasts.
(14:35):
But check into customerrelationship management or CRMs.
They are vital to your company.
One of those is mondaycom.
We just talked about that.
Salesforce is another one.
There's all kinds of them outthere.
There's suite CRM, s-u-i-t-esuite CRM.
That's another one.
(14:55):
So you need to automate as muchas you can If it's a repetitive
task, if it's something that'sdone time after time after time.
Make sure that you try toautomate, if you can, any kind
of repetitive task, because thathelps free up time, you know,
for a lot of other priorities.
So the other thing that youhave to deal with here is you
(15:15):
have to deal with riskmanagement.
Risk management, so you need toidentify your operational risks
.
What are they?
Are they supply chain issues?
Maybe there could be somedisruptions, or maybe equipment
failures?
Maybe you've got some oldequipment.
Are you practicing really goodpreventive maintenance?
(15:35):
If you don't have a preventivemaintenance program, you're
really doing yourself adisservice because basically,
what happens is you don't planwhen your equipment fails, so
when it fails, it could fail atthe worst time of the world.
You want to do preventivemaintenance and you choose when
you take down the equipment.
So that's important.
(15:56):
So what are some practical steps?
Well, you know, with resourceallocation, you can implement
resource management software.
We talked about that.
You can develop your qualitycontrol checklist and train your
employees to make sure theyunderstand what the expectation
is for the standards, for thequality standards, I would say
(16:21):
you want to conduct your monthlyquality reviews.
You want to look at that on amonthly basis.
You don't want to let that getout too far.
I would say it's not going tohurt you to have something on a
weekly basis where you look atit weekly.
And then you need to look attechnology and look and see
where that you can havetechnology that will help you do
(16:41):
and carry the load, keep youorganized in your operations,
and so those are very, veryimportant.
Again, software that can helpyou Microsoft Project is a good
one for scheduling, or Zapierfor automation.
There's Tableau for datavisualization.
So there's all kinds of thingsthat you can do.
(17:03):
You know, ecclesiastes says in 9and 10, it says whatever your
hands find to do, do it with allyour might.
I think that's very important.
You know 1 Corinthians, 10 and31, it says do all for the glory
of God.
That's what we're doing.
If we're going to do this,let's do it to the best of our
abilities.
All right.
(17:24):
So now let's look at this thirddimension of management and that
is financial management.
So that ensures that yourorganization is physically or
physical healthy.
You do that through having somevery effective and thought-out
budgeting.
You do forecasting, costcontrol and then reporting.
(17:51):
You've got to report all thatinformation.
You need to gather thatinformation.
For Christian leaders, it'sreally a form of stewardship.
You need to manage God'sresources and you need to do it
with transparency and wisdom tosustain your mission that God
has put upon your business oryour organization, and so you
(18:14):
need to make sure that you havean effective budget, that you
have forecasting.
What's it going to be?
Look, forecasting is a guess.
It's not exact, but once you'vedone this, year after year
after year, you're going to bepretty close, even with your
forecasting.
Cost control.
That's something that changesall of the time.
You've got to have good peoplein purchasing, or you've got to
(18:37):
be the purchasing person andyou've got to be really smart
about your cost control andunderstand there's a difference
between price and cost.
I just want to hit this for alittle bit.
Price is what you pay forsomething.
Cost includes price, but italso includes a lot of other
(18:58):
things.
It includes logistics.
How's it get to you?
How much does it cost?
Is it cheaper to buy itoverseas?
But then the cost to get ithere.
Really, you're better offbuying it locally.
So there's lots of things thatgo into cost.
So you need to have a really notonly good budget, but you need
to have good cost control, andthen you need to be able to have
(19:21):
a good system that reports allthis data to you.
You know you need to createvery detailed budgets when you
can your operating expenses andthen you've got to look at what
your capital investments are orwhat they need to be.
Maybe you've got some newequipment that you need to buy?
(19:42):
What kind of reserves do youhave?
And so I think that's all sovery, very important that you've
gotta be able to do.
You've gotta have and this issomething again, I don't have
time to go into the details ofit, but you need to learn this
and that is you need to haveaccurate balance sheets.
(20:03):
You need to have incomestatements, cash flow statements
, and that will help you toensure that you are in
compliance with a lot ofregulatory requirements that you
have either you know whether itbe IRS guidelines or whatever
it may be.
You need to make sure that youhave these reports and that
(20:26):
they're accurate, right, and youneed to make sure that, if
you're going to invest yoursurplus funds, make sure it's
ethical, make sure you'reinvesting ethically in whatever
it is that you invest in.
You know the Bible in Luke,chapter 16, 10, and 11,.
It teaches that whoever can betrusted with very little can
(20:47):
also be trusted with much.
So financial management reallyrequires integrity, transparency
and a focus on the kingdompriorities that God's put in
your heart for your business.
And you also hey, I'm justgoing to say this you should
practice generosity as well andyou take a certain amount of
(21:11):
your resources and supportcharitable causes.
You know, because you want toavoid at every turn.
You've got to avoid greed,you've got to avoid unethical
practices.
You know give back to God'swork is always a very practical
expression of your faith.
(21:33):
So make sure that you do thatand so you can get that done.
So there's some great softwareout there for you to utilize.
One is QuickBooks foraccounting, excel for
forecasting I've never used thisbefore, but there's WAVE.
It's called W-A-V-E Victor VWAVE for small businesses.
(21:58):
So you can check that out whenyou get time.
So you want to look at thosekinds of things.
But the next thing that we needto look at as far as the next
dimension of management is humanresource management, hr or HRM
human resource management and itreally focuses on recruiting.
It focuses on developing and,most importantly, retaining a
(22:25):
workforce that really embodiesthe organization's mission and
values.
For Christian leaders, humanresource management is about
nurturing people as being imagebearers, if I can say it that
(22:46):
way, image bearers of God.
You foster this workplace thatreflects grace and respect and
purpose, and some of those keycomponents for that is
recruitment and selection.
You've got to develop some jobdescriptions.
It's amazing to me it really isamazing to me, how many
(23:07):
companies are out there thatdon't have job descriptions for
especially their key positions,for their key positions.
You need to have those.
You need to have jobdescriptions and you need to use
these times to sit down andassess people, assess their
(23:27):
competence, you assess theircharacter.
But that's all part ofrecruitment and selecting the
right people.
And then there's training anddevelopment.
So you need to have a goodonboarding program that
integrates new hires into yourcompany and into the culture of
your company or organization.
And then you've got to providesome ongoing training, whether
(23:50):
it be in technical skills orleadership and even spiritual
growth.
I think that's important as aChristian organization or
business, but I think it is soimportant that you have a good
onboarding program.
I always tried my best to havea great onboarding program,
(24:12):
always tried my best to have agreat onboarding program.
So when an employee comes inthe very first five minutes,
they feel like that they areimportant and they feel like
that they matter, that theymatter to the company and that's
all done in the first day, thatfirst day that they come to
your company to go to work.
You need to have a goodonboarding program.
So I encourage you to studythat and find out a little bit
more of that.
(24:33):
So then you have performancemanagement.
You've got to, you know, dothat.
It's not just about hiring newpeople, but you've got to manage
your current people and helpthem to perform at a high level,
and you can set very clearexpectations, and you do that
through your job descriptions,you do that through performance
(24:58):
agreements.
But you've got to have regularfeedback sessions with people
and you've got to be able to dothat to foster the growth that
you want.
But you've also got to bringinto play employee well-being.
You can't underplay that.
So you need to implementpolicies for, like, a work-life
(25:18):
balance you need to have, maybe,maybe in your company, you need
to have flexible hours or youneed to have some remote work
options.
I'm not for that for everythingand everybody, but sometimes
that's needed.
That for everything andeverybody, but sometimes that's
needed.
Make sure that you offer mentalhealth resources such as
counseling, wellness programs.
You need to have a system forconflict resolution that is
(25:42):
biblically based.
You need to train your peopleto listen actively listen
actively.
The Bible says in Ephesians 4and 11 and 12, it says equip his
people for the works of service.
(26:02):
So we have to equip them.
Yes, I understand that'stalking about the body of Christ
, but I got to tell you in aChristian business, we are
talking about the body of Christand we need to equip people,
and your human resourcesmanagement is the opportunity to
do that.
And you can also discipleemployees.
You can help them grow in theirGod-given talents.
Well, I can't do that becauseI'm a business.
(26:23):
That is absolutely not true.
There are laws that protect youand allow you to share your
faith, even in your business,and I would encourage you to
find out what those are or goback and read one of our listen
to one of our podcasts that weaddress that.
So the HR is a very, veryimportant system.
(26:48):
There's a lot of software outthere.
There's Bamboo HR, there'sWorkday if you want to track
their performance, and thenthere's a lot of LinkedIn
Learning has some really greattraining that's out there too.
So you need to be that, becauseColossians 4.1 says masters,
(27:09):
provide your slaves with what isright and fair.
I think that's partly trainingas well.
I believe that's important.
Let's look at number five, thefifth dimension of management,
and that is ethical or spiritualmanagement, and that ensures
that all organizationaldecisions that they practice
(27:31):
alignment with biblicalprinciples.
That helps you to foster thatculture of integrity and
compassion and spiritual growth.
It's really the cornerstone ofa Christian leader's guiding
light.
It helps you to develop everyother one of these dimensions in
management, and some of the keycomponents are your ethical
(27:55):
decision-making.
You should have a code ofethics that's based on biblical
values, in other words, honesty,fairness, humility and you use
that framework to make sure youmake those great decisions and
you make ethical decisions Also.
Another component is culturalleadership.
(28:17):
You need to foster thisworkplace of culture that
reflects Christ's love, hishumility, his service.
Celebrate diversity.
You know, not everybody isgoing to be the same Now.
You can actually have the sameshared faith values, but they're
(28:37):
going to be different people,different personalities,
different backgrounds, differentexperiences.
And then there's spiritualleadership.
You've got to encouragespiritual disciplines like
prayer and Bible study.
You can't force employees to dothat, but you can make it
available and you are protectedto do that.
(29:00):
Or maybe you may even say hey,you know Wednesday's a fast day,
you know, for those of you whowant to participate, you know
whatever, but you can modelChristlike character through
humility and forgiveness andgenerosity and people can see
that and they can see that's thekind of culture that's within
(29:20):
your company.
You know Matthew 5, 16, it urgesthe leaders to let your light
shine before others.
And we think that ethicalspiritual management it's really
about living out your faith andliving it out authentically.
It ensures that every decisionreally glorifies God, it really
(29:41):
serves others.
Leaders should seek the HolySpirit's guidance.
John 16, 13 prioritizes loveand justice and mercy in all
actions.
So I think it's important.
You know some of thosepractical steps are having a
(30:02):
code of ethics.
You know, make sure that yourcommunication with your
stakeholders are recent or notrecent, but they're frequent.
I should say you should holdsome town halls if you need to,
or newsletters, or share updates, whatever you can.
(30:23):
And then leadership modelingMake sure you demonstrate
ethical behavior, Admit to yourmistakes, seek forgiveness when
you need to Prioritize otherswhat their needs are above your
own.
And then make sure you have acommunity impact.
You need to partner with localchurches, partner with
nonprofits, to serve thecommunity and reflect God's love
(30:47):
outwardly.
So these are the fivedimensions of management, and I
believe that Christian businessleaders are called to manage
with excellence.
I believe they're called tomanage with integrity and with
heart of service, and bymastering these dimensions, I
(31:08):
believe that you can build yourorganization in such a way that
it honors God, it serves peopleand it makes a real, lasting
impact.
You know, psalms 37 and 5reminds us commit your way to
the Lord, trust in Him and hewill bring it to pass.
So make your leadership reflectthis passage in Psalms 37 and 5
(31:36):
.
Make sure that your leadershipreflects that.
Make sure that you understandthat completely.
So we want you to continue togrow as a leader and to
understand the importance andthe power of these five
dimensions of management.
Lord, I come before you and Iask you right now, lord, I ask
(32:00):
you that each person who havelistened to this podcast, that
Lord, that they understandmanagement in a greater way
today than they did before theylistened to this.
I pray, lord, that they wouldapply these principles that we
spoke about today and that, lord, that it would bring great
(32:20):
success to their organization ortheir business.
Lord, I speak success intotheir lives and, lord, I ask you
that the seeds of greatnessthat you have planted in them
begin to grow and bring a greatharvest.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Well, thanks again for takingthe time to listen to this
(32:43):
podcast and for being a part ofthe CBC community.
Well, that's all the time wehave for today, so until next
time.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
Remember jesus is lord and he wants you blessed
thank you for tuning into thisweek's christian business
concepts podcast.
Go tochristianbusinessconceptscom for
more information and resources.
Be sure to check out otherpodcasts that will help you take
your business and your personallife to a whole new level of
(33:10):
success.
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