The Divine Exit Strategy

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.

                                                                                                                        Acts 20:24 (NIV)

 Where do you plan to take your business? What’s your exit plan? What will be your legacy as a business leader? In other words, how are you going out?

Some of us start businesses with a goal of maintaining an enterprise that can be operated for years to come and passed on to future generations in the family. Others start companies with the ultimate goal of attaining an IPO, selling the business, and moving on to another exciting venture.

A comprehensive exit strategy benefits you as well as your employees, investors, and constituents. It encourages you to give careful consideration to how your business will evolve and grow, and it forces you to establish succession strategies and a timetable for key targets and milestones. The section of your business plan, in which these strategies are outlined, is called the Exit Plan.

I recently had the honor of serving as a keynote speaker for Harvard Business School and one of the principles that I reinforced with their leaders is that it is important to realize that the legacy of your business and your legacy as an individual are inextricably connected.

You may already have an exit strategy for your business, or you might not have given much thought to one - - let alone considered its importance within a spiritual context. Don’t worry. Now is your opportunity to transcend beyond conventional perspectives of simply having an “exit plan” or “exit strategy” to actually establishing a divine exit plan for your life’s work that honors God.

Before we proceed, it’s important that we make the distinction between two commonly intertwined concepts: legacy and inheritance.

Legacy versus Inheritance

I like the way John Maxwell compares and contrasts the concepts of legacy and inheritance in The Maxwell Leadership Bible. He states that anyone can leave an inheritance. An inheritance is something, such as money or material possessions, you leave for your family or loved ones that may bring temporary happiness but fades as it is spent or used. On the contrary, he defines a legacy as something that you leave in your family, such as spiritual values, that permanently transforms them and lives on long after you die.

As Christians, we are called to manifest God’s glory on the earth so that His will is done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2). We are chosen by God for the High calling of priestly work

(1 Peter 2:9) and called to radically transform the world. For those of us who are planted in the business arena, the commercial marketplace is one of our target domains.

God is not only concerned about you getting into heaven, but He’s also concerned about you getting heaven into the business world. As Christian business leaders, we are to bring heaven to the earth in general and to the business world in particular. So, how do we, as His ambassadors in the workplace and the marketplace, accomplish this?

Following are three (3) principles to support you on your journey of leaving a positive, lasting legacy.

1. Be a Business World Changer.

2. Leave a Spiritual Legacy in the Commercial Arena

3. Realize that your history is actually a part of His Story.

Be a Business World Changer

As business leaders, we often think about the challenging and changing business environment we face, but we seldom think about how we should be challenging and changing the business environment we face in profound ways. Commit to challenging and changing the business world. Don’t let the business world change you in a negative way. Apply your Biblically based convictions to the commercial arena and become a true business world changer.

Don’t just seek to be successful in your profession just to benefit yourself or your family. Seek to benefit and be significant to future generations for the glory and kingdom of God. God told Abraham: “I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2, NIV). In this way, God’s plan wasn’t just to bless Abraham as an individual, but it was to bless him so that he could also be a blessing to others. Likewise, our blessings are not just for us and our families; they are also for others—our colleagues, employees, customers, clients, suppliers, and other associates.

Leave a Spiritual Legacy in the Commercial Arena

Make sure your pursuit of professional success reflects your spiritual obedience to God and not just your own egocentric desires. We’re not in business just to make money, be happy, and die. Make your business and ultimately your life count. Let them serve as blessings to generations of people who come after you so that they too may know God and walk in purpose. Vow to leave a spiritual legacy in the commercial arena.

The Bible says that David served God’s purpose for his generation and died (Acts 13:36). How are you using your God-given abilities and talents to serve your generation? In what ways are you storing up blessings for future generations? As God’s sons and daughters, we must be committed to leaving positive testimonies and life-enhancing legacies.

Your History is a Part of His Story

Jesus says that just as God sends Him, He, in turn, sends us (John 20:21). This means that our stories become joined with God’s bigger story as we serve as His ambassadors. So, your history is a part of His Story.

The greatest legacy of all is the knowledge of God (Philippians 3:8; Psalm 78:1-8; 3 John 1:4). This knowledge of God blesses others while they are on earth and once they transition from this life. While they are on earth, their relationship with God gives them innate joy!   Joy irrelevant of a spouse, house, career, car, tax bracket, and social status. And, their relationship with God offers ultimate salvation and eternal life.

The Bible says that a wise man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children, or his grandchildren (Proverbs 13:22). But, let’s go deeper. I challenge you to think beyond your own family lineage and bloodline. One of the greatest gifts that we as Christian business leaders can give God is a generation of future business leaders who know Him and who understand the importance of connecting their business plans with God’s purpose and plan for their lives. Because, ultimately, we want to hear God declare: “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21-23, NLT).

WHO MATTERS MOST?

Who are the most important people you serve – the owner, the boss, the customer, the employees? Which one is your primary focus? When I joined Popeyes in 2007, my first day was the international franchising conference in Orlando, Florida. As you would expect, on my first day I was brimming with excitement and anticipation about this challenging new leadership opportunity. This would be my first chance to meet the Popeyes franchise owners – the people who own virtually all of our restaurants – the entrepreneurs who have made Popeyes their livelihood. Certainly, they would be excited to meet me too?

It didn’t take long to understand that the franchise owners were not excited to meet me. They had met seven CEOs in the prior four years. I was just “CEO Number 8.” They were in year eight of a downturn in the sales and profits of their restaurants. They were tired of the situation – and if they had chosen a slogan, it might have been “Not Going to Take It Anymore.”

In fact, one veteran franchisee put it this way. “You see Cheryl. We are abused children. And you are just another foster parent. Don’t expect us to trust you anytime soon.”

Long pause on my end. In fact, these words still give me pause.

How many people in the workplace feel like abused children? How many of them think their leader is just another foster parent; “don’t expect us to trust you anytime soon.”

I’m afraid the number is much higher than we want to think.

As you think about your leadership, who are the people counting on you to serve them well? What would serving them well look like? How would they know that? How would they measure that?

“It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.”

Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant As Leader

At Popeyes, we chose our franchisees as our #1 priority and determined we must serve them well. Here is what our franchisees tell us matters to them:

1. They want to be listened to, demonstrating that we truly value their experience and point of view.

2. They want us to be honest with them, especially when we make mistakes.

3. They want to be part of the decision-making process, not the recipient of our decisions.

4. They want us to be accountable, to actually do the things we say we are going to do.

5. They want our ideas to deliver positive results to their business.

Is that too much to ask of the leader? Listening. Honesty. Inclusion. Accountability. Results.

Isn’t that what you would like from your leader?

You have an opportunity to serve the people you lead well.

Who matters most in your organization? Will you serve them well?

Fulfillment

You wake up in the morning hoping your actions will have purpose. You want the work you do during the day to be affirmed, to be directed towards a meaningful end, and to have an impact on the lives of those around you.

You want to lie down at night and feel satisfied, content that the work you did was your very best and made a difference in the grand scheme of things.

You want the peace of mind, the satisfaction that comes with living out your purpose in the world.

You want fulfillment.

And you know what? You can find it. Everyone can.

Each person is created in God’s image, and like him, has the desire – and the ability – to be creative and find fulfillment using their God-given talents.

You can find fulfillment in many ways, by knowing your place and purpose in your community, your family, your church, and especially in work.

You can find fulfillment by living into who God created you to be, and doing what he created you to do.

In short, you find fulfillment when you discover and carry out your calling. This fulfillment finds expression in many ways – in serving your community, church, and family. In these places, you can make contributions that have eternal significance.

Work especially is an area where you can find fulfillment. Your daily work provides you with the challenges and opportunities to serve God and others. In fact, it’s the best way to serve others. And service is key – ultimately, work isn’t just about your personal fulfillment. It’s about serving your neighbors and even complete strangers by using your God-given gifts, talents, and resources to help meet their needs. Your service gives people a glimpse of how things will be when Christ returns and restores creation in full.

There are, of course, times when work may be difficult. Some days you feel the “thorns and thistles,” the stress, the burden of your responsibilities more than others. Through it all, work remains a formative activity for finding fulfillment by teaching us about God and ourselves.

Fulfillment can be found in whatever work God places in front of you, regardless of whether it’s your dream job or not. When we work hard everyday at the work God has given us, it’s pleasing to him and way more fulfilling for us.

Ultimately, fulfillment is not found in our circumstances, but in the actions – and attitudes we take towards our work, family, church, and community each and everyday. It’s found in working diligently to glorify God, serve the common good, and advance the kingdom of God in all that we do.

Originally published by the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE). ©Institute for Faith, Work & Economics 2015. Used by permission.

3 Reasons Why One Company’s $70,000 Minimum Wage Hurt Everyone Who Got It

There are three big reasons why this is destructive, and such a bad idea for the people who work there.

Dan Price, the CEO, thought he was giving everybody a great gift great four months ago. Everybody loved it up front. But big cracks are appearing in the idea, because giving everyone a $70,000 minimum wage simply continues the archaic wage practices of the Industrial Age. And it has the same effect—destroying the human spirit. Here’s why.

Reason #1—People Want to Make Meaning, Not Money In her research on Generational Differences in Work Values, Jean Twenge found that Millennials to Baby Boomers are all motivated by the same thing—Making Meaning. A recent Salary.com survey also found that people who are focused on the size of the paycheck are less motivated.

Semco is a billion dollar company with 3,000 Stakeholders. They require people to determine their own pay. Every six months you go to a computer and plug it in. You would think chaos would ensue. But the company regularly has to adjust pay UP as people fall behind the industry average. Why? Because Semco leadership is focused on ensuring everyone finds their work extremely meaningful. For the last 30 years, Semco’s retention has hovered around an unheard of 99% per year. And almost no one makes more than the industry average. Meaning trumps money every time.

Another study by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, on attracting and keeping the best people, shows that at least three things motivate people more than money; flexible work schedules, praise and recognition, and breaking up the work day with walks, bike rides, swims or other non-work activities. A simplistic $70,000 pay raise addresses none of these more important meaning-oriented motivations.

Reason #2—Meaningful Work is Results-Based, not Time-based This $70k minimum wage is a throwback to an archaic system.

For thousands of years people got paid for how many shoes they made, and how well they were made. The better the shoe, and the faster they made it, the more money they made. They were solving problems and Making Meaning, and money came to them as proof.

Along came the Industrial Age Factory System and all that changed. For the last 175 years, and for the first time in human history, we have paid people simply for time spent working. How dumb is that? Gravity Payments fell victim to the Industrialist’s mindset—paying people without regard to production.

In an interview with the New York Times, Price said, “I want to fight for the idea that if someone is intelligent, hard-working and does a good job, then they are entitled to live a middle-class lifestyle.” Interesting quote, because his solution does not reward people for that hard work or for doing a good job.

Alan Wyngarden owns a mortgage company and went results-based. He reduced his loan processor’s base pay from $55,000 to $24,000, then incentivized her for how many high-quality mortgages she produced each month. Within a year she was producing three times as many mortgages at a higher quality, and making $135,000 or more per year. When pay is disconnected from results, people find it hard to be motivated to do great work. It’s basic capitalism.

You can see the angst creeping in. People know that getting paid without regard to performance is a bad idea. Stephanie Brooks, an administrative assistant, said, “Am I doing my job well enough to deserve this? I didn’t earn it.”

Reason #3—Raising Everyone’s Pay to $70,000 is LCD Management Lowest Common Denominator Management levels everyone with broad, sweeping policies that ignore individual performance and team contributions. Everyone “gets an A” (or an F) no matter how they perform.

Marisa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, found some people not working well from home. So she just herded everyone back into the office day care center to be supervised. In this case, she gave everyone an “F”, even those who deserved an “A”. Motivated people got the same “reward” as the lowest common denominator.

Dan Price at Payment Systems has given everyone a de facto “A”, which treats lazy people the same as top performers. Grant Moran, a web developer who got a $20,000 pay raise but quit after the $70k minimum wage was enacted said, “Now the people who are just clocking in and out are making the same as me, It shackles high performers to less motivated team members.” LCD Management—the great leveler.

Maisey McMaster quit because, as she put it, “He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump.” Everyone gets an “A”.

How to Fix This People are motivated differently, and one size does not fit all. Great incentives include a variety of rewards and take into account individual motivations. Bad incentives are simplistic, focused solely on money, and imposed by a top-down hierarchy (Industrial Age LCD management) which assumes it knows better what you need, without including you in the solution.

Tying income directly to production helps people love their jobs. At our company, nobody will ever get a pay raise because they hung around another year. They get them because they add more value than they used to—a very capitalist idea. As a result, people are more motivated to work, create, solve, and innovate, and get pay raises that reflect those results. We’ve had zero voluntary turnover in nine years. Why would people leave a results-based system that focuses on making meaning, and doesn’t shackle them to people who aren’t as motivated?

Great companies focus first on:

a) building meaning into their work,

b) tying pay to results, and

c) creating a Highest Common Denominator workplace that celebrates great contributions and reaching for the stars.

People will raise themselves to our lowest expectation of them. The most motivated achievers with brains are leaving Price’s company, and over time, only the least motivated will stay. Play a game that motivated adults want to play, and great achievers will rise to your greatest expectations of them.

Making meaning, and results-based incentives always attract great people. LCDManagement makes them leave. Your choice.

Article as seen on Inc.com

Team Success

My former mentor and boss Zig Ziglar taught me to keep it simple. So when I am asked by my clients how to make their team work I answer with a simple acronym T.E.A.M.

T is for Trust.

The biggest factor in building a strong team is trust. Trust is defined as firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. So that’s simple right? Well not exactly. Trust starts with the leader! Your leadership must be a model of reliability & truth. If your team trusts you and knows you stand by your actions, it empowers them to act in the same manner. Your team must also feel that everyone in the organization can be trusted to do what’s right.

E is for Engagement

If your team has mutual trust they will naturally be engaged, especially if they have a clear sense of your company’s purpose and vision. Establish your vision. Make sure your team understands their role and how it impacts your organization’s purpose, which will encourage engagement. Keep in mind that only about 30% of any organizations people are truly engaged.

A is for Alignment

Alignment comes through a singleness of purpose around your company’s vision. Alignment in critical to get everyone pulling in the same direction. Are your goals clearly stated so that everyone can work together for the common good? Look for areas where unity is not taking place and the folks back in alignment.

M is for Measured

For a team to function you must have a clear way to measure performance and keep all concerned accountable. A major failure in many organizations is the failure to hold everyone accountable. Put into place clear benchmarks to keep progress moving forward toward your team goals. Hold regular meeting to measure accomplishment and make course correction where necessary. All in all, if you keep Trust, Engagement, Alignment and Measurement at the forefront your team will move forward and enjoy great success!