Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Motivating Managers

"Choose your men with great care and consideration."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War



Business leaders and corporate managers should familiarize themselves with business wisdom that is derived from books such as The Art of War and Machiavelli's The Prince. Christian ministry and business leaders may also benefit from the wisdom of the likes of Dave Ramsey, Larry Burkett, Ron Blue, Laurie Beth Jones and John C. Maxwell. I like the Book of Proverbs for daily wisdom. Steve Marr does a great job with Daily Business Proverbs. You may even simply read the Bible as daily motivation beyond or as part of your daily devotion. I started a daily devotional method of reading Psalms morning (Psalms 1-50) noon (Psalms 51-100) and night (Psalms 101-150)based on Psalm 55:17. It allows me to read before, during and after work each day, reflecting on the day's events and recording my thoughts going forward into the next day.



The key is motivation that helps one lead and manage in business or ministry. As the primary leader of an organization- CEO, President, Executive Director, or even pastor or principal, you have to have a means and method for your motivation. Your leadership and management style can wear you out or down, but you need to find what sparks you and gets you going, so that you can share that with others who are under your supervision.



Here are some simple motivators:
  • Business & leadership biographies (Donald T. Phillips does a great job with leadership.)
  • Business & leadership autobiographies (I read Adam Clayton Powell's Adam by Adam and discovered more about political posturing than pastoring and community activism.)
  • Guidebooks (John C. Maxwell leads an exceptional editorial effort to produce Life @ Wok products)
  • Management and leadership "helps" like books and podcasts, even tweet feeds. (I love Ken Blanchard, especially concepts like "Lead like Jesus", "Fish" and "The One Minute Manager." I just started re-reading Raving Fans which has proved refreshing for me.

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