Читать книгу The Faithful Manager: Using Your God Given Tools for Workplace Success - Anthony E Shaw - Страница 8

Faith is more powerful in the world and in the workplace than any other force – ambition, passion, despair or greed. A Christian commentator remarked that he sees many Christians who are afraid to talk about their faith, as if stating you have faith is somehow embarrassing. The same attitude can be found in some Jews, Muslims and the faithful in other religions.

Have faith in miracles and you will be in enviable company.

“A national survey of 1,100 physicians . . . found that 74% of doctors believe that miracles have occurred in the past and 73% believe they can occur today.”

I had a discussion with a neighbor about faith in the workplace. I guess you could characterize the discussion as a disagreement. I said successful managers need to have faith. He said he was suspicious of anyone who made a big deal about having faith because more wars had been started and people killed over conflicts about faith than over anything else. I considered his point and replied that the faith on which I rely is an individual’s essential belief in and acknowledgement of God. However, it was my firm belief that individuals’ expressions of their faith had helped and saved (and continue to help and save) many times more lives than were hurt and lost in conflicts that were wrongly described as motivated by faith. We ended up not agreeing.

It is my firm belief that successful managers need to have faith. Faith is the first necessary ingredient for this journey we all must take.

That faith is in the soul of the successful manager and it is that manager’s own personal light. That light illuminates the manager’s authentic self. It is “. . . this precious treasure – this light and power that now shine within us . . .” (2 Corinthians 4:7). It guides the manager throughout the workday, during interactions and in decision making. It is the light in the open door that makes colleagues comfortable to come in and talk. It is the light of the manager’s credibility. It is the light of conscience. It is the essence of the manager’s spirit and humanity. While it may seem easy to put a cover over it, it takes an awful lot of effort to extinguish that light.

Think about people who give deathbed confessions and ask for forgiveness at their final hour. It would seem that at that point in a life, a confession wouldn’t mean much to the confessor, after all he or she is checking out, right? I guess they do it because they want to check out with the light on, not off.

For some people, that light is visible with the human eye. Some thirty-five years ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mother Theresa at a church in the South Bronx – me and 300 other privileged people. She came to speak at the opening of one of her missions in New York City. Sitting in a pew in the back of the church, I stared at this tiny, short figure of a person dressed in white standing in front of the altar, surrounded by dozens of taller, bigger figures. Mother Theresa, however, was the only figure that was shining. Yes she was glowing, literally. It wasn’t because there was a spotlight on her: this was a poor and simple church in a devastated neighborhood, it didn’t have any spotlights. And at that time, unlike now, my vision was certified 20/20. Was I imagining this singular glow? My wife nudged me and asked, “Do you see it?” “The glow around Mother Theresa?” I asked in reply. “Yeah, that glow,” she responded. We both turned to our friend who had accompanied us. Even though there were tears streaming down our friend’s face, she could see it too. It was a powerful light, even more so when Mother Theresa insisted upon greeting and blessing each person present that day, as we filed out the door one at a time. Face to face, with Mother Theresa grasping my hand and saying, “God bless you,” the light from her was dazzling.

Listen to this one finding:

“. . . ‘A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America,’ published in October (1999) by Jossey-Bass, found that employees who work for organizations they consider to be spiritual are less fearful, less likely to compromise their values, and more able to throw themselves into their jobs.”

Isn’t that the organization you want to build and represent? Isn’t that the employee and manager you want to be?

This essential faith requires us as managers to believe in and demonstrate compassion for one another. I remind myself daily to practice compassion and to be a compassionate example, especially for my colleagues and my children. I admit to lapses in this regard but I catch myself quickly because I realize that my faith cannot be real without compassion as its expression.