There are ten basic principles that I will be using, and since our fundamental source as Christians is sola scriptura ("Scripture alone"), I will be backing up each principle with Scripture. As you read this, it's vital to keep in mind that it is not possible to practise all these principles in absolute perfection, but it is possible to put all these principles into practise to the best of your ability in order to be the best manager that you can be.
1. Deal with facts, not fiction.
This is simple, yes? If it were simple and therefore unnecessary to discuss, I wouldn't put it here, would I? As sinful human beings, we are all born with the propensity to lie, or to see something that's not actually there. What is the role of the manager? As manager, you manage people within the organisation — or more concrete, the subordinates that your boss puts under your watch. What does managing consist of? Managing consists of cognisance, standards, control of those standards, admonition, and guidance. We won't get into all of those characteristics today, but when dealing with all those characteristics, the manager must deal with facts, not fiction. Don't pretend you're aware of what's going on in your department. Actually possess situational awareness and know what's going on within your department. Set some standards, but before you set those standards you first have to know what those standards are (e.g. how much pepperoni and cheese to put on a pizza, how much dough should be used for different sized pizzas, how long each size should be baked, etc.). Once those standards are set, control those standards through preventive controls, concurrent controls, and then feedback. When tasks aren't done as efficient as you'd like them to be, practise admonition, and after admonition, guidance is necessary. Again, I will talk about all these characteristics another day, but those are the basics of what management consists of.
Before dealing with a problem, or anything for that matter, know the facts. Don't consider just one option; consider all possible options. This will avoid bias and will enable you to be objective on a particular matter. Scripture has a lot to say about lying, especially the proverbs. Lying is so serious that God considers it an abomination (Proverbs 12:22). And what does it say God delights in? Faithfulness. In context, this refers to faithfulness to the Lord, but God certainly delights in faithfulness to each other. Faithfulness can be synonymous to commitment. Are you committed to your subordinates? What should you be committed to? At the root of it should be their individual growth. If you are committed to each employee's individual growth, you will not only be faithful to them, but you'll be trustworthy as well. Proverbs 29:12 says, "If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked." If all you do is lie as a manager, how do you think those under you will act? Their work will only mirror your actions.
Honesty and dealing with the facts opens opportunities for trustworthiness, and it especially benefits the whole of the organisation. As manager, if you deal with your department in dishonest ways, it will only hurt the rest of the organisation.
2. Be a servant, not an authoritative boss.
Our Lord "came not to be served, but to serve" (Mark 10:45). If you go into a management position with expectations for your subordinates to serve you, chances are you'll get poor service. The image below gives a perfect illustration of the difference between leadership and authority.
Follow the advice St. Paul gave to the Philippians, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves..." (Philippians 2:3). Humble yourself before your subordinates. A higher pay grade does not increase your value or importance as a person. Show your subordinates that you are equal to them.
It's still important to exercise authority, however. Being service-oriented does not mean being tolerant of breaking the rules or the law. Jesus may be our Master and simultaneously acts as our servant (because He chooses to, not out of necessity), but even though He served us in humility He was not tolerant of sin. He still condemned sin with the authority of the Law, but He served us and saved us with the Gospel message. Likewise, as manager, still exercise authority by controlling company standards, rules, policies, and respecting the law; but don't be a hammer by nailing all these rules into the workers.
3. Have the guts to say "no."
Cowardice is not an attractive trait in anybody, no matter what role you play. Initiative and fortitude is admirable. If a worker asks to have days off a lot (and you're suspicious that they're being dishonest), have the guts to say no and confront their work productivity. When I was in the Army, I was NCOIC (supervisor) of transportation when I was stationed with the 2nd Infantry Division Band in South Korea. I was in charge of all the drivers of the unit, even those who outranked me (when it came to transportation). As supervisor, I posted weekly schedules of which driver drove on what day, when, and where. There was a particular soldier who happened to schedule all of his hospital appointments on the days he was supposed to drive. In the Army, hospital appointments come before work. So, the first few times, I permitted it. However, it started to get out of hand because I had to constantly adjust the schedule to meet this one soldier's needs. So eventually I told him "no," that he needs to schedule his hospital appointments during times that don't affect the unit's mission. Fortunately, he complied with no complaints or lackadaisical behaviour.
God is probably the most unafraid to say no. And why not? He created the universe, after all. When we pray, it is unrealistic to expect God to always answer with a yes. Praying for what we want is wanting our will to be done rather than God's will. Sometimes God's answer, or will, is "no." The Rolling Stones also put it well, "You can't always get what you want." Jesus said no many times, of which the most relevant may be in Mark 8:11-13. After He fed the four thousand, Jesus left for Dalmanutha. Upon his arrival, the Pharisees demanded that Jesus perform a sign from Heaven, and Jesus replies with, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation" (Mark 8:12), and then He just leaves. Why would Jesus do this? He's supposed to prove that He was begotten of God, right? Not necessarily. He may have made it known (as it was necessary) that He was begotten of God and is God, but His primary purpose was to save mankind, not perform miracles at the whims of humanity. This doesn't answer the question as to why Jesus said no here. Jesus doesn't want us to believe by sight, but rather by faith. Consider what Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29b).
How does this relate to management? Sometimes, it's necessary not to give people what they want. Let me use another example from the Army. As long as a soldier has enough days to take a certain amount of time off for leave, he or she can do so, as long as it doesn't impede the mission. In the summer of 2012, I was going to take 25 days off of leave, but I was told by my superiors (management), to take only 21 days because they needed me for several missions the week that I would get back. As manager in the citizen world, if an employee wants something but it interferes with the department's or organisation's goals or plans, have the guts to say "no."
4. Follow through on your promises.
Nobody likes a liar. This kind of ties in with the first principle (deal with facts, not fiction), but something else is included here: promises. On my free time, I am a video gamer, believe it or not. One of my favourite lines in the video game Halo 2 said by the character Cortana is, "Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it." Not only is that true in a romantic relationship, but it's also very true in your relationships with your co-workers. There are two types of promises: what I call gospel promises and disciplinary promises. When you promise to do something for an employee (a gospel promise) that's for their benefit, it obviously benefits him or her when you follow through. When you make a disciplinary promise by promising to take disciplinary action on an employee if he or she doesn't do something, it constructively benefits him or her and creates the possibility of enabling them to do it next time (unless that disciplinary action is being terminated, in which case they don't have another chance). If you don't follow through on your gospel promises, no one will be able to trust you. If you don't follow through on your disciplinary promises, people will take advantage of you and walk all over you.
God makes gospel and disciplinary promises too. The first Gospel promise that God made, or protoevangelium, is Genesis 3:15, when God promised Eve that her offspring (Jesus) would crush the serpent's head (Satan) as he bruises his heel. This happened at the crucifixion. Satan bruised Jesus' heel when He died, but Jesus had the victory that in His death, He saved the world, descending into Hell, resurrected from the dead, and ascending to Heaven, crushing Satan's head. Anyway, every single promise that God makes, He fulfils them. He fulfils His gospel promises, and He even fulfils His disciplinary promises. When God promises to destroy an unrepentant nation, He does just that. God is literally not a force to be reckoned with.
You don't want to be a fearsome leader, but you want to establish respect. It is because of God's love, mercy, and even wrath that we revere Him. Likewise, following through on our gospel and disciplinary promises will establish respect. Not reverence, but respect. Reverence just means a deep respect, which would be great to have, but in its common use it has a negative connotation that implies a little bit of fear that comes with the respect, hence our reverence for God. Again, you don't want to be a fearsome leader, but you do want to be respectable. Nobody will respect you if you never fulfil your promises
5. Communicate Effectively.
Communicate frequently, clearly, and openly. You don't want your reputation to reflect unavailability; you want to communicate with your subordinates as frequent as necessary, with clear instructions and definitions (no ambiguity), and be open. As manager, when you're a poor communicator, the people you watch over will find you unreliable. You can't rely on someone who sucks at communicating, can you? I've found that the best way to communicate openly is to hold an open door policy. Honesty is the best policy, and the way to practise that policy is to keep an open door policy. When I was in the Army, every First Sergeant and Commanding Officer I've had held an open door policy. The CO is like the President of an organisation, and First Sergeant like Vice President. If we felt that we needed to talk to them about something, we could easily do so; and indeed, it was very easy to approach our CO and First Sergeant about any matter, making it easy to trust them because they showed that they cared. I believe that doing this as manager can create the same trust in your subordinates. There's a risk in open communication, of course. By communicating openly with your subordinates, you show the human side of you and your flaws can be known. Most view this as a negative risk, but I see it as a positive. If employees see their manager as human rather than some authoritative figure on a pedestal, it creates a more positive and trusting environment. The more positive the environment, the higher the worker productivity.
God communicated His Word effectively by both direct revelation by saying it Himself and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by speaking to the patriarchal fathers and the prophets in the Old Testament as well as the Apostles in the New Testament. God speaks clearly on every issue, except for issues of adiaphora. I've noticed that these issues of adiaphora only exist because of our modern times, however, so it only makes sense why you can't find certain issues in Scripture (e.g. marijuana smoking, cigarette smoking, euthanasia, abortion, etc.). However, Scripture can help us to make wise decisions on such issues.
6. Don't assume anything.
This also goes with the first principle. Know the facts. Don't assume something to be true or untrue unless you have the cold hard facts. If an employee's level of productivity suddenly decreases when they have a history of great efficiency, don't assume that it's because they no longer care and are suddenly lazy. Something more serious might be going on, such as depression, or injury. This is what makes effective communication so important. If you communicate effectively, you'll be able to easily obtain all the facts (especially because they trust you) and won't have to assume anything.
As we know, God doesn't need to assume anything because He knows everything. As finite beings, we can't ever know absolutely everything about a particular situation, but we can gather the facts about a particular situation to minimise assumption making and make a wise decision. We all know the saying that if you make assumptions you'll just make an ass out of yourself. The language used in that saying may not be favourable, but it still rings true. Make too many assumptions, and you'll make a fool out of yourself.
7. Employ the social sciences of psychology and social psychology.
You don't need to be an expert in psychology in order to do this. Everybody practises these social sciences everyday. With psychology, we all observe human behaviour such as eye contact (avoiding eye contact is a sign of lying or being uncomfortable), hand gestures that may suggest being defensive or open, the tone of voice someone uses to express an opinion, etc. With social psychology, we observe how people interact with one another such as the amount of laughter and/or smiling, a furrowed brow during a discussion to suggest anger or frustration, who's the most and least talkative to suggest who's extroverted and introverted, etc.
As God is our Creator, He obviously understands us the most, so He has a greater advantage than the rest of us. This doesn't mean that we're incapable of understanding people, however. By using these two social sciences in our every day lives, we are all able to make inferences of how a person feels. Of course, you can make erroneous inferences, but making those inferences is still important because it leads you to understanding the individual. For example, as an introvert, I don't talk a lot unless I'm in a group of people with whom I'm very comfortable with. Someone who doesn't know me and therefore misunderstands me can infer that I'm a closed-off individual and therefore have a cold heart. The opposite actually happens to be true. As an introvert, I appear as closed-off at first because I need to spend time around a person before I decide to open up to them. The more time I spend around a person, the more I open up, and they come to find that I'm actually very open with how I feel and have a very warm heart.
This principles goes hand-in-hand with the fifth principle of communicating effectively. Employing the social science of psychology is not just observing human behaviour; it is also getting yourself involved with human behaviour — taking the time to talk to someone in order to understand them. The more you understand someone, the better the relationship will be. Observing how they interact with other people at work is also a good indicator of what kind of person they are. If you notice that they're rude towards their co-workers, you can then create methods to reform their behaviour. On the other hand, if they're kind and professional, you obviously don't need to do anything about how they interact with their co-workers.
8. Be professional.
You can tell someone to be professional, but they may not know what that means. This principle applies to all co-workers, but even more so as manager since you're the one who sets the standards. Being professional can mean a variety of things, of which the first is leave what you do outside of work at home; when you're at work, do what's necessary for work. For example, don't browse Facebook or Pinterest when you're on the clock (doing it during lunch is different). Or leave how you talk at home (e.g. vulgarity), and use professional and appropriate language at work. But the primary attribute of professionalism is sticking to the mission. Don't stray from the mission. The best person in history who stuck to his mission is Jesus Christ. Upon His incarnation, everything He did was for the purpose of saving the human race from sin. Every word He said, every parable He told, and every miracle He performed all had the objective of His mission in mind: spreading the Gospel and saving humanity. After His ascension, His subordinates (the Apostles and every Christian) continued His mission to spread the Gospel message, everything they do for the objective that they may be saved. And 2,000 years later, we Christians still work towards that mission today.
Likewise, at work, everything you and the people under you do needs to add to the company's or department's current mission/goal. If you're a manager, think of what your current mission or goal is. Remember that everything you do as manager is important and needs to continue the process that will lead to the final output of that goal. As manager, you may have several goals. Prioritise those goals and take on each of them one by one with actions that benefit each goal, and the final output will be accomplished.
9. Explain problems.
Arising problems are inevitable within any organisation. Any problem that arises, it's best to communicate those problems to the people you manage. If they know what the problem is, they'll be able to take measures to fix the problem. As manager, you don't have all the answers. Communicating the problem with others will create more opportunities for the problem to be fixed with ideas that you've never thought of. However, you may happen to know how to solve a particular problem, whether you come up with it on your own or upper management tells you how to fix it. This is when you need to both alert your department about the problem and then advise them on how to fix it.
Jesus never let people deal with their problems on their own. Whether He told people a parable to help them with a particular issue or directly fixed their problem by performing a miracle, Jesus always helped people with their problems. Likewise, as manager, you can't fix problems by yourself; you will need the help of the people underneath you. They can't help you if they're not aware of what the problem is and aren't advised on what to do if they don't know how to fix it. Fixing a problem is a team effort and the best way to do that is, again, communicating effectively by explaining what the problem is and the different methods you can use to fix it.
10. Measure your worth and the worth of other people in the eyes of God.
I saved this one for last because this is the most important principle. Not everybody you work with is going to be Christian. They may be atheist, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or any other religion. Having employees who aren't Christian is no excuse to treat them differently from those who are Christian. Indeed, their religion isn't any of your business, but if you happen to know what their beliefs are, that doesn't give you reason to treat them like crap. No matter what they believe, they are still human, meaning that they were also created in the image of God, meaning that God still loves them. God still loves them and therefore desires for them all to be saved. Even though they don't deserve to be saved (just like we Christians don't deserve to be saved), God still considers them worthy enough to be loved by sending His Son to die for them. Jesus didn't die for Christians alone; Jesus died for the whole world (John 3:16), and that includes those who aren't Christian. Therefore, people ought to be treated with respect no matter their religious beliefs because regardless of their religion, God still loves them and desires them to be saved. If your subordinates happen to know that you're Christian and you treat non-Christians like crap, how do you think that will reflect Christ? Doing so would be a misrepresentation of Christ and a failure of spreading the larger mission: spreading the Gospel message.
Just as you consider others as very valuable because of God's love, do the same for yourself. No matter your failures or shortcomings, God always loves you. God doesn't measure you by your successes and failures; He measures you in the blood of Christ. He sees you covered in the blood of Christ, forgiven and justified in the baptism of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Your worth is in Christ, not in the tasks that you do every day.
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