This week's information was very thought provoking for me. It made me turn to myself and ask hard questions like: Why are you wanting to start a business? Is this the business that God wants you to start? Are you asking God for help, but not asking him what path he wants you on? What is your actual motivation? How will you treat those that you work for or with?
Some of these questions can be hard to answer. It was nice to have helpful guidance from people who have been there and done that to help guide me as I search for these answers. One place that I found some answers was in the article by Charles Handy called What's Business For? This article made some great points on how to run a business that treats people well.
He first discusses why virtue and integrity are so important in the business world. It seems to be getting easier to find success in a world where everyone is connected. But as Handy points out many CEO's are wanting to find success in order to make themselves look important. To lift themselves up in the eyes of others. When that is the main goal it becomes all too easy to cheat a little, or bend the rules a little. If a CEO is out there to serve the customer and make the world a better place, aka if they have integrity and virtue, they will be more focused on doing the right thing, even when it doesn't lift themselves up. With this type of leadership others will want to join your endeavors and success will come, this time not at the expense of others but at the benefit of others.
Handy also explains that the real justification for a business happens when they want to make a profit in order to "do something more or better." He says that this "something" is the real justification for the business. This made me wonder what that something would be in my life. Would it be to get a better house, or would it be to serve others? These are vital questions that need to be answered correctly if we want God's support and help in our business endeavors.
Handy suggests that in order to keep our businesses virtuous and to have a real justification we need to be treating our employees well. I found it interesting when he pointed out that many of the employees of a business have no say in how the business is run. I agree that when you give someone a voice on what is done, it will help them be more invested in a company. I also agreed that we need to treat employees like real people. We need to give them time away from work to decompress and relax. Requiring our CEO's to work so hard and so many hours takes them away from family which will always change a person for the worst. Making our companies a place where employees feel loved and listened to as an individual and a person, will help our companies grow in a virtuous way. This helps to justify our business because we are not only helping the customer get what they want, we are helping our family of employees succeed in their lives as well.
Some of these questions can be hard to answer. It was nice to have helpful guidance from people who have been there and done that to help guide me as I search for these answers. One place that I found some answers was in the article by Charles Handy called What's Business For? This article made some great points on how to run a business that treats people well.
He first discusses why virtue and integrity are so important in the business world. It seems to be getting easier to find success in a world where everyone is connected. But as Handy points out many CEO's are wanting to find success in order to make themselves look important. To lift themselves up in the eyes of others. When that is the main goal it becomes all too easy to cheat a little, or bend the rules a little. If a CEO is out there to serve the customer and make the world a better place, aka if they have integrity and virtue, they will be more focused on doing the right thing, even when it doesn't lift themselves up. With this type of leadership others will want to join your endeavors and success will come, this time not at the expense of others but at the benefit of others.
Handy also explains that the real justification for a business happens when they want to make a profit in order to "do something more or better." He says that this "something" is the real justification for the business. This made me wonder what that something would be in my life. Would it be to get a better house, or would it be to serve others? These are vital questions that need to be answered correctly if we want God's support and help in our business endeavors.
Handy suggests that in order to keep our businesses virtuous and to have a real justification we need to be treating our employees well. I found it interesting when he pointed out that many of the employees of a business have no say in how the business is run. I agree that when you give someone a voice on what is done, it will help them be more invested in a company. I also agreed that we need to treat employees like real people. We need to give them time away from work to decompress and relax. Requiring our CEO's to work so hard and so many hours takes them away from family which will always change a person for the worst. Making our companies a place where employees feel loved and listened to as an individual and a person, will help our companies grow in a virtuous way. This helps to justify our business because we are not only helping the customer get what they want, we are helping our family of employees succeed in their lives as well.
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