Dear NIFW friends,
As many of you would attest to, when we engage in conversations around what it looks like for each of us who know Jesus to serve him faithfully with our gifts and abilities, with a sense of openness to how God might lead us in new ways, we put ourselves in a position before the Lord that is both exciting, as well as uncertain. It has been my joy to have these kinds of conversations with many of you about your faith and work journey through the ministries of NIFW.
I have a theory that my job as a supervisor is to manage relationships on my team, not just manage people. Every relationship needs to be monitored by the leader. The chain is only as good as its weakest link. Everyone must relate to each other, not just to the boss. I am responsible to facilitate, improve, and maintain relationships between employees and not just my relationships with them.
When I was working in higher education, conversations around vision and culture were common topics. We would discuss “tone setting” and “vision casting” as often as we discussed the local game or the new special at our favorite restaurant. It was common for our office to focus on casting the vision for our team on why we do what we do.
As I thought through how I wanted to cast the vision to my team, I thought through how to communicate that the work we do is integrated into our lives because it is all-encompassing–
It is compassion integrated with accountability
It is tenacity integrated with grace
It is faith integrated into our work
Nashville Institute for Faith and Work recently sat down to talk about faith and entrepreneurship with Courtney Gould Miller, Chief Strategy Officer, Head of Digital Marketing, and Legal Counsel at MKJ Marketing, a leader in market research serving thousands of clients worldwide in the funeral industry.
Courtney completed her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, focusing on Human & Organizational Development, and earned her law degree from UCLA School of Law, after which she worked in International law for six years. Having completed graduate studies in Digital and Content Marketing from Duke University, in 2016 she established MKJ’s Nashville office where she leads MKJ’s continuously growing digital team. Courtney also recently founded Lumen Cremation in Nashville, Tennessee to provide dignified individual cremations that can be arranged entirely over the phone or online.
The conversation with Courtney that is abbreviated below focuses on how faith shapes her life as an entrepreneur, the challenges entrepreneurs face, and the role that NIFW’s Entrepreneur Support Group (ESG) has played in her life as a leader. If you are interested in learning more about the Entrepreneur Support Group, our program that offers a confidential space for entrepreneurs to gather for community and spiritual formation, you can learn more and apply here. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Email info@nifw.org with questions.
Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW): As a Christian, how does your faith influence the way you lead your business?
Courtney Gould Miller (CGM): When I think about calling and what I’m here to do, one of those callings has to be leading a team and continuing my parents’ legacy [in the business]. Whether it be my staff or the vendors we work with, these are people that God has made me responsible for. If part of what I’m doing every day is caring for these people, I want to do that as well as possible. By praying before making important decisions or having tough conversations, I find that I come from a better place. Prayer helps me see people as people [made in God’s image].
NIFW: What initially drew you to the Entrepreneur Support Group? What were you searching for?
CGM: When I moved to Nashville 5 years ago to open the second office of MKJ Marketing, it was just me and one other person at the beginning. There were some very low days, and it was a hard time early on, so I was desperately looking for community. I happened to look online for any groups for entrepreneurs, hoping that maybe there would be something here for me. I found the Entrepreneur Support Group through my church and knew it was exactly what I was looking for.
NIFW: What are some of the unique challenges that you face as an entrepreneur?
CGM: Often, being an entrepreneur means not having anyone around you. Everyone’s looking at you to have the answers, but we don’t have all the answers just because we’re the leader. As one of my friends [and ESG member] explains, “The role of a leader is to manage uncertainty for others.” The paradox is, many people think you can manage the uncertainty [on your own], but you can’t. As entrepreneurs, we are the ones who live with the uncertainty. That’s what’s hard about it.
NIFW: How do you manage the pressure that “I have to make something happen here”?
CGM: At the beginning, I had a lot of thoughts of “I’ve got to make this happen, this is all on me.” Something I’ve learned over time is that if you think you’re going to control your business, you’re living in a fallacy. One of the gifts of entrepreneurship is that you realize that we’re all actually living without control. Entrepreneurs are even closer to that reality and live it all the time. It’s taught me to surrender the business up to God. Through the group, I’ve also realized how some of the biggest wins in our business were things I wasn’t even responsible for.
NIFW: What difference has it made for you personally to be in a spiritually-formative community with other entrepreneurs?
CGM: Both my faith in Christ and the support from the group is so critical because the life of an entrepreneur includes times of serious doubt. The biggest benefit for me has been knowing that I’m not alone. While it looks different across businesses, everyone is dealing with similar issues. Having a community of entrepreneurs has been essential to point me back to: “Okay, this is what’s happening in the business, but what is God doing in this? What am I learning from this?”
NIFW: From a business perspective, how has being a part of ESG positively impacted how you lead your organization?
CGM: First, I’ve definitely benefited tactically from being in the group, especially when it comes to working through difficult employment relationship issues that often come up. Second, when I came into the business and opened the Nashville office, I knew I wanted to focus on establishing a strong culture and values and articulating them clearly. Being a part of ESG helped me think critically about and write our core values and mission statement, and inspired me to begin leading staff retreats for the first time. Culture holds us responsible to each other. It’s made a difference in employee happiness, reducing our turnover, and increasing clarity on what others can expect from us.
Learn more about NIFW’s Entrepreneur Support Group; applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The next group will begin in Fall 2021.
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Workplace conflict carries a variety of connotations, depending on who you ask. Some employees thrive on it, others defuse it, and more may attempt to ignore it altogether. Regardless of your feelings about and attempts to manage conflict in the workplace, one thing is certain: conflict at work is inevitable.
In Romans 12:18, Paul writes that, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” While the call to unity is clear, Paul acknowledges that perfect harmony simply is not always possible. Anyone who has spent any time working on a team will recognize this reality. Whether it’s friction over a missed deadline or frustration due to unclear expectations, conflict at work is a daily reality—and a costly one. In fact, in the United States, 79% of workers experience unproductive workplace conflict, costing businesses $359 billion annually in lost time and productivity. If conflict at work is here to stay, can we leverage it for good?
“If conflict at work is here to stay, can we leverage it for good?”
Dr. Nate Regier thinks so. According to Dr. Regier, CEO and co-founder of Next Element, a global training advisory firm specializing in leadership communication, conflict offers us an opportunity to honor the dignity of our co-workers and create something new together. The key, according to Dr. Regier is “Compassionate Accountability®,” struggling with others through conflict. In his book Conflict Without Casualties, Dr. Regier outlines the process of effectively navigating workplace conflict through the Compassion Cycle, a model aimed at aiding employees to avoid typical drama roles and develop critical compassion skills instead. In this article, we’ll highlight seven important quotes from Conflict Without Casualties that will help you begin to rethink the way you engage in conflict at work.
“Drama is the result of mismanaging the energy of conflict” (11). While every conflict isn’t necessarily intense, each moment of conflict at work involves people’s emotional needs and desires. Drama at work happens when employees struggle against each other to justify their behavior, while compassionate conflict is the process of relying on the compassion skills of openness, resourcefulness, and persistence to struggle with others.
“Compassion is the result of people taking ownership of their feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, and choosing to spend the energy of conflict pursuing effective solutions that preserve the dignity of all involved” (12). At the heart of our working relationships should be remembering that all of our co-workers are made in the image of God. Our conflict at work, then, offers us an opportunity to engage in such a way that affirms people’s inherent dignity and worth.
“Compassionate Accountability® is the process of holding someone (including yourself) accountable while preserving their dignity” (50). John 1:14 says that Jesus came “full of grace and truth.” Dr. Regier’s concept of “Compassionate Accountability®” mirrors this and wisely highlights that loving our co-workers will require both grace (compassion) and truth (accountability). As. Dr. Regier explains Compassionate Accountability® involves honoring other people’s emotions and boundaries (including your own) while pushing back against any drama-inducing behavior.
“Compassion is the engine that turns conflict into a creative force” (50). Dr. Regier regards conflict as not merely something to be mitigated or reduced but rather leveraged for the flourishing of individuals and organizations. This reminder of the creative potential inherent in conflict reminds us that in and of itself, conflict is not bad.
“Compassion without accountability gets you nowhere. Accountability without compassion gets you alienated. Blending the two is the essence of leadership” (66). Leaders may believe that compassion is the opposite of accountability, which simply means punishment for wrongdoing. However, such a narrow view of leadership limits the potential of every employee. The key is to hold both compassion and accountability together.
“Behind most drama roles are latent or misused positive qualities” (168). Empathy is at the heart of conflict handled effectively. This quote reminds us to look for the gifts people (including ourselves) may possess, even as people contribute to unwanted drama at work. As an example, Dr. Regier explains that behind every “Rescuer” (one who offers unsolicited advice) may be someone who is highly “Resourceful” (one who can come up with many solutions to a problem).
“Leading self and others out of drama with Compassionate Accountability® starts and ends with emotional responsibility” (172). The emotional reality of conflict, naming and owning what we’re feeling and what is important to us, and asking the other person to do the same, is critical. Emotional responsibility, as Dr. Regier reminds us, helps us move from a blaming culture to one of healthy accountability.
Reflect on a few diagnostic questions adapted from Conflict Without Casualties to help you gauge your current conflict attitudes and patterns at work.
What is your relationship with conflict? How have you experienced it in the past?
Do you tend to fall into any predictable patterns of conflict, either at work or outside of work?
What does unproductive conflict (drama) cost you personally and professionally? Consider the emotional, psychological, and social consequences.
What’s a recent example that comes to mind when you were involved in productive conflict? What about unproductive conflict? What sticks out?
What gifts do you bring to managing conflict at work? What difficulties do you have with navigating workplace conflict?
When have you experienced or witnessed creative conflict that generated a new idea or innovation?
Watch a recording of “Conflict Without Casualties: Finding Creation Amidst Differences” with Dr. Nate Regier on Thursday, April 8.
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Nashville Institute for Faith and Work recently sat down to talk about life as an entrepreneur with Erick Goss, co-founder of Minno, a faith-based media platform for children that includes streamable shows as well as a children’s publishing group. Drawn from the Greek verb “to abide,” Minno exists to help parents disciple their children in the digital age through Gospel-centered content for kids.
Before co-founding Minno in 2018, Goss attended the Naval Academy and ended up working as a Pentagon Spokesperson after originally intending to become a Helicopter Pilot. After acquiring his M.B.A. from the University of Michigan, Goss spent seven years at Amazon working in different roles as a Senior Manager of Marketing, Books, and Magazines.
Desiring to “take the excellence of Amazon and infuse it with the kingdom of God,” Goss eventually became Co-CEO of Creative Trust Ventures, where he worked closely with VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer in the development of Buck Denver Asks...What’s in the Bible? In late 2018, Goss and his business partner bought the assets to Creative Trust Ventures and JellyTelly, which Goss also co-founded, forming Minno.
The conversation with Goss that is abbreviated below centers around the difficulties and joys of being an entrepreneur, how his faith fuels and gives shape to his daily work, and the role that NIFW’s Entrepreneur Support Group (ESG) has played in his life as a leader. If you are interested in learning more about the Entrepreneur Support Group, our program that offers a confidential space for CEOs to gather for mutual encouragement and practical support, you can learn more and apply here. Applications are now open; the next group will start in Fall 2021. Email info@nifw.org with questions.
Nashville Institute for Faith and Work (NIFW): When developing the idea for Minno, what needs did you identify and how does Minno step into those gaps?
Erick Goss (EG): For me, Minno is about what it means for the kingdom of God to show up in the world of media and technology. In late 2018, while I was working in children’s Christian media, I felt the Lord saying to me that Christian parents don’t have the type of resources they need to help children grow as Christians. At the same time, I began to realize how difficult it was for Christian creatives to find people to market and produce their work. The heart of Minno is: what can we do to create a platform to help Christian families find life in Christ?
NIFW: How has your walk with God influenced and re-oriented your approach to entrepreneurship over time?
EG: Like many entrepreneurs, I used to operate with a sense of, “I know what I need to do today and how to get it done.” Over time, I’ve realized that while I can try to take control of my work, in reality it is the Lord who makes good works for me to walk in (Ephesians 2:10). Instead of telling myself, “This is what I’ve got to get done today,” my perspective has changed to now ask, “What is God going to reveal today?” I’ve moved from a perspective of agenda to one of revelation. I want to partner with God in my business, because ultimately it’s not my business anyways—it’s His.
NIFW: As an entrepreneur, how does your faith inform the way you think about your work when it comes to performance and outcomes?
EG: To me, performance for the Christian means being faithful to those good works that God has created for me to do today. One of the phrases that I carry with me is: “Outcomes belong to the Lord; my job is to abide.” To be clear, God cares deeply about excellence. However, my approach to outcomes is that while I may not always get the result I hope for, I want to be faithful with the process. The question is, can God still be good to me if what I want doesn’t happen?
NIFW: What are some of the unique challenges that entrepreneurs face as CEO?
EG: First, most entrepreneurs embrace the idea that everything is on their shoulders. When things aren’t going well in the company, oftentimes it is the founder who becomes the target, and that hyper-responsibility becomes a heavy burden to bear. Second, when you become an entrepreneur you immediately put yourself at risk of isolation. You face a unique level of risk involved in your venture, and yet in many smaller founder-led companies, CEOs can carry a sense of, “I’m supposed to figure this out by myself,” and so they don’t pursue the community that they need.
NIFW: Why is isolationism a significant problem in the lives of entrepreneurs?
EG: Culturally, we celebrate the independent entrepreneur. Most entrepreneurs don’t have community, and they don’t seek it out because they don’t feel that permission to do so. Having community matters, though, because discerning God’s will is a community activity, and the Lord provides wisdom through others.
NIFW: How has being a part of Entrepreneur Support Group helped you navigate the emotional and practical challenges of entrepreneurship?
EG: One of the best parts is the ability to say, “I’m thinking about making this decision, what do you all think?” Most entrepreneurs don’t get the chance to ask that question, because it can be seen as weakness or self-doubt, and yet the reality is that the life of an entrepreneur most times is self-doubt. Additionally, I’ve found it hugely helpful to have people around me who understand the pains of being a CEO, from having to make hard personnel decisions to dealing with disgruntled investors. It’s a blessing to know I’m not alone in those challenges.
Learn more about NIFW’s Entrepreneur Support Group; applications are now open. The next group will begin in Fall 2021.
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ERICK GOSS BIO:
Erick Goss is CEO and Co-Founder of Minno, a Nashville-based media and technology company focused on serving Christian kids and families through an ad-free subscription-video-on-demand platform, parent resource blog and children’s book publishing program, anchored by the best-selling Laugh and Learn Bible for Kids. Goss earned a reputation as an innovator in digital marketing at Amazon, where he was instrumental in the launch of Amazon’s first e-book and print-on-demand businesses, Amazon’s Visa Card, and the now-famous Super Saver Shipping program, and later as Chief Marketing Officer at Magazines.com.
This expertise, coupled with his passion for ministry, led Goss to co-found Creative Trust Ventures—where he ran JellyTelly and launched the best-selling video series Buck Denver Asks...What’s in the Bible?—a success that led him to create Minno. Beginning his career in the U.S. Navy, where he served as a helicopter pilot and later as a spokesperson at the Pentagon, Goss is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and has graduate degrees from the University of Michigan (MBA) and Troy University (MA). He is an Adjunct Professor for Digital Marketing at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Erick, his wife, and three daughters live in Nashville where they are active in their local church. Goss is also involved with the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work.
Philippians 2:3-7 (ESV)
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Leadership advice can be found almost anywhere; articles on communicating well, videos about fostering healthy relationships with your employees, books on setting boundaries, and presentations on resolving conflicts. But are we loving the teams we lead well?
With an abundance of resources, perhaps what we need even more so is an example. In Philippians 2, Paul gives us the ultimate example to follow for authentic, self-giving, sacrificial leadership in the person and life of Jesus.
“Christians in leadership positions don’t just have a responsibility to perform well; they also have a calling to love well.”
Philippians 2: 3-7 presents to us a staggering Christology: Jesus, who was fully God, came to earth as a humble servant and offered his life as a means of sacrificial love. As Matthew 20:28 puts it, “...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In other words, the most powerful person to ever walk the earth didn’t wield his power over others but instead used his authority to serve others.
This humility that Jesus displayed is in contrast to how we often lead in our work. While Jesus emptied himself, we tend to make sure that our needs are filled first. While Jesus took the form of a servant, we often want others and our work to serve us. While Jesus leveraged his power for others, many times we want to climb the ladder for our own glory. In short, we have a tendency to pursue and hold onto power—influence, social capital, wealth—for selfish gain.
When we meditate on the weight of this passage, we come to an important conclusion: power gained for the sake of power is toxic; power leveraged for the sake of others is transformative. As Christians, we have a calling to selflessly steward the influence that God has given us for others as much as for ourselves.
This reality has important implications for our work. Realizing that whatever job we have is a gift from God, we see that the authority and influence God has given us in our work is to be leveraged for human and organizational flourishing. We are commissioned, as Christians, to count employees as “more significant than yourselves.” We have a responsibility to design and implement processes and cultures that uplift our coworkers in meaningful ways. We have a calling to consider the needs of all the voices in the room.
One of the dangers with separating our faith from our work is the way that such disintegration prevents us from thinking and acting redemptively in our work. We often fall into the trap of seeing our work as separate from loving our neighbor, our customers, or our team, rather than seeing our work as a conduit of grace and vehicle for human flourishing. Many leaders see the workplace as a separate domain from their faith, instead of a primary arena for expressing it. However, Christians in leadership positions don’t just have a responsibility to perform well; they also have a calling to love well.
“This labor of loving others through our work isn’t a side-gig to our mission as Christians, but is central to fulfilling it.”
How does your work offer you a chance to love and serve the people you encounter in your work? Cultivating a redemptive imagination allows us to consider the many possibilities in light of Jesus’ example to us, described in Philippians 2.
While COVID-19 has created an immense challenge for leaders everywhere, it also offers an opportunity to model the love of Christ to those we work with. Jesus has given us a template of leadership for how to love and lead well. With Jesus as our example, here are three principles for servant leadership:
Consider the needs of others: Consider how to help solve your customer’s problems, while solving your own (Philippians 2:4). Consider the Nashville-based fundraising and donor management platform, Kindful, who is allowing current and new customers to have a flexible pay-as-you-go plan with no minimum contract, giving their customers the ability to adapt to the economic circumstances that come with COVID-19. If you work for a B2B company, could you serve your customers by leveraging your economic resources to offer flexible payment programs for financially-stressed clients?
Creatively serve your team: Look for ways to meet the needs of others, not only how to maximize their performance (Philippians 2:7). The technology company HP found a creative way to help working parents meet the demands of balancing a job and facilitating their children’s remote learning by offering employees access to online resources including weekly literacy activities curated by education leaders. If you manage a team who are working remotely, could you take the time to listen to the different challenges they may be experiencing and genuinely seek to find solutions that work for both the company and your team members?
Bless others in your work: Be quick to honor the work others are doing, rather than being consumed by your own (Philippians 2:3). Our team has set aside time at the end of each week to specifically call out appreciations about the people on our team in addition to sharing one thing they are proud they accomplished that week. In your meetings, could you commit to time spent affirming your team’s major accomplishments and asking how you can empower them moving forward?
This labor of loving others through our work isn’t a side-gig to our mission as Christians, but is central to fulfilling it. Every place of work is part of a larger system, and it is the calling of all Christians to promote systems that create human flourishing. If you don’t know where to start, ask God to cultivate a redemptive imagination in you, and to help you identify the brokenness within your workplace, industry, or city that you might have the opportunity to address in your work.
If you feel overwhelmed by the challenge of serving others through your leadership, remember that Jesus isn’t just an example to follow but a life-giving Savior who forms and fashions us to love more like Him every day. As leaders, remember, too, that grace abounds when your best efforts fall short (Romans 5:20).
As Andy Crouch writes, “Leadership does not begin with title or position, it begins the moment you are more concerned about others' flourishing than your own."
In a world obsessed with status, how will you instead utilize your God-given agency to serve and love others through your daily work?
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Your network can be one of the most valuable assets in your business, but as a Christian in the workplace, do you consider what it would mean to serve your network while growing it?
Recently the Nashville Institute for Faith & Work sat down with Blain Wease, President of Provincial Development Group, who will share on “Growing versus Serving Your Network” at our upcoming October 23 Faithfully Working Lunch.
Tickets are going fast for this gathering, so reserve your seat and join us on October 23.
Question: What have you learned about integrating your faith into your work in the past few years?
Blain Wease: Divine partnership and the importance of mystery.
Q: What idols most plague you in a working environment?
BW: Allowing my work to become too much of a priority.
Q: Why do you think it is as important to serve your network while growing it?
BW: Because service is essential to the nature of genuine faith.
Q: How does your network impact your faith?
BW: We are not designed to operate void of relationship.
Q: How does your faith impact your network?
BW: [By] giving and investing in them, [and] seeing the person first, [while] discerning the nature of the relationship.
Q: Where do you feel your network at tension with Christianity?
BW: [I feel it in] responding to people that are on a very different page, or [when] their approach to business is incompatible.
Q: How does the image of God being imprinted on every person affect and influence the way you enter into networking and connecting?
BW: It’s a fundamental reminder, and [it] also requires faith to know and understand my role, whether big or small, or not at all.
Blain Wease is the Founder & President of the Provincial Development Group, a Nashville-based professional services firm that advises Wealth Management Firms on the business side of their practices. Their work focuses on five primary aspects: Leadership, Strategy, Team & Culture, Client Services & Experience and Growth. Blain has experience in a wide variety of professional roles, beginning as an entry-level sales associate, to serving as a senior level executive, and ultimately becoming an entrepreneur. Regardless of the position or title, his contributions have consistently served as a catalyst to the growth of profitable revenue in a healthy, sustainable manner and developed leaders to maximize their impact for good. In addition to the client work that Blain enjoys, he is a frequent speaker at various conferences and events.
In 2012, Blain founded the Nashville Leadership Luncheon, which is held at the Bridgestone Arena and has grown into one of the region’s premier leadership events. It attracts a notable guest list of entrepreneurs, senior-level executives and aspiring leaders. The event is hosted in partnership with the Nashville Predators and Bridgestone Arena.
Blain was the past Board President of the Scott Hamilton Foundation, a Nashville based organization, dedicated to fighting cancer through innovative research that facilitates treating the disease, while sparing the collateral damage to the patient. Blain has routinely served in several other charitable and community-based roles.
He was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Blain has been married for more than twenty-five years to his wife Shaloma, and they have four children. Their family resides just outside of the beautiful Nashville Metro Area.
The Nashville Institute for Faith and Work and Lipscomb University's Spark Idea Center are excited to partner and present a weekend Enneagram seminar with Ian Cron, author of The Road Back to You and host of the podcast "Typology." Ian will help participants investigate how the Enneagram, a powerful ancient tool for understanding personality type, might inform us of our specific wirings and giftings to better understand the work we do and inspire us towards more fruitful work and workplaces. Join us for this Friday evening (5:30-9 p.m.) / Saturday (8 a.m.-4 p.m.) workshop. Read below to see a few thoughts Ian has offered as a preview for his talk in April.
Q: In what ways do you see that the Enneagram can help enhance the workplace?
A: The Enneagram offers amazing insight into how our personality types engage in relationships with partners, friends, and coworkers and what we most need and fear from those interactions. It’s the best tool I know for cultivating self-awareness. Self-awareness means knowing your strengths and weaknesses, what your triggers are, and how you make decisions, among other things. It’s the ability to monitor and regulate your thoughts, feelings, and actions, and the effect they have on others. How does this translate to the workplace? Well, a leader who knows the inner workings of their personality type and those of the people they lead gets way ahead of the curve. They learn to understand their coworkers and use different techniques to motivate their team members based on their different personality styles. It changes the dynamic of the workplace when you can identify the different strengths and challenges of your coworkers by allowing you to move from a space of mindless reactivity to mindful responsiveness. You can really transform a workplace when coworkers learn to take a moment to pause and ask themselves, “What’s happening in this moment? And how do I need to regulate my response to actually bring about the healthiest, best outcome in this situation?” It improves the communication skills of your entire team and reduces conflict in the workplace.
“You can really transform a workplace when coworkers learn to take a moment to pause and ask themselves, ‘What’s happening in this moment? And how do I need to regulate my response to actually bring about the healthiest, best outcome in this situation?’”
Q: In what ways do you see that the Enneagram promotes dignity and flourishing for all?
A: For centuries great Christian teachers have insisted we can't really know God until we FIRST know ourselves. For instance, Calvin said, "Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God” and St. Augustine prayed, “Lord let me know myself, that I may know thee." As we develop self-awareness and self-knowledge we learn to accept that grace requires nothing of us. We are all worthy of honor and respect just for being our authentic selves. Inside each of us is a hidden gift that reveals something about God’s heart. So, when we are tempted to prosecute ourselves for the flaws in our own character, the Enneagram helps us pause and remember that each type is, at its core, a signpost pointing us to travel toward and embrace an aspect of God’s character we need. Growing in this understanding promotes dignity for each of us and opens the door to true transformation. The Enneagram is a tool that helps us awaken both self-compassion and our compassion for others. When we learn self-compassion and allow our hearts to expand we can stop trying to change people and simply love them for who they are. And, that’s when we truly begin to flourish.
“We are all worthy of honor and respect just for being our authentic selves. Inside each of us is a hidden gift that reveals something about God’s heart.”
Q: Do you have any specific examples of ways you've seen or experienced more fruitful work due to incorporating the Enneagram into the workplace?
A: On the most recent episode of Typology, I interviewed a band with 12 members (including staff). They tour together on one bus with 12 bunks for months at a time and are with each other day-in and day-out. For them, studying the Enneagram has reduced conflict among the group by giving them a new, common vocabulary that has helped them to understand where each other are coming from. They can better understand each other’s strengths and challenges and have used that knowledge to pause and act intentionally toward each other rather than mindlessly. They are learning to see themselves in real-time and self-regulate when speaking with each other. The Enneagram has given them each a new starting point for communicating with each other in a more empathic and compassionate way. And they are better able to see each other’s vision for the band and then take that knowledge to make decisions as a group that improve their performance at each show.
Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, nationally recognized speaker, Enneagram teacher, trained psychotherapist, Dove Award-winning songwriter and Episcopal priest. His books include the novel Chasing Francis and the spiritual memoir Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me. Ian draws on an array of disciplines—from psychology to the arts, Christian spirituality and theology—to help people enter more deeply into conversation with God and the mystery of their own lives. He and his wife, Anne, live in Nashville, Tennessee.
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The Nashville Institute for Faith and Work is excited to welcome Pastor and Author Scott Sauls for our April Lunch & Learn on the topic of “From Weakness to Strength: How Vulnerability Can Enhance Your Leadership” on April 18 from 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. Read Scott’s thoughts below in anticipation for his in April.
Q: What inspired you to study the ways weakness can enhance a person’s leadership?
A: Two reasons, chiefly. The first was that in the course of eighteen months, five of my friends lost their positions of leadership due to a moral failure. The second was an awareness that, given the right set of circumstances, I might be equally as vulnerable to a collapse in character. You might say that I wrote the book chiefly for my own protection and that those who have read the book are eavesdroppers on my own internal monologue -- on the "sermons to a leader" that I regularly preach to myself.
Q: Why do you believe traits like weakness and humility can be so transformative and foundational to a healthy leader?
A: The first reason is theological. When we find Jesus repeatedly saying things like, "The meek will inherit the earth" and "The first will be last and the last will be first," we are wise to tune in to discern what such declarations mean for us. The second reason is practical and intuitive. We are all drawn to follow those who lead from a place of humility and other-centeredness. Conversely, we generally struggle to trust leaders who do not assume these qualities.
Q: What does it look like, from your perspective, for leaders to practically gravitate towards weakness in their endeavors?
A: Henri Nouwen put it best, I think. Nouwen, whose career included teaching posts at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, as well as a prolific speaking itinerary, spoke of a type of "downward mobility" that is far superior to our infatuation with upward mobility. Jim Collins called it the "Level Five" leader. It's the leader who is more interested in the flourishing of others and the organization than s/he is in hearing the sound of her/his own name.
Scott Sauls is husband to Patti, dad to Abby and Ellie, and serves as senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Nashville, Scott was a Lead and Preaching Pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City after planting two churches in Kansas City and Saint Louis. Scott has authored three books, most recently a book on the character of a leader called From Weakness to Strength, and blogs regularly at scottsauls.com. His work has also been featured in Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, Qideas, Catalyst, Leadership Magazine, aholyexperience, OnFaith, The Gospel Coalition, and Key Life. Scott can be found on Twitter at @scottsauls.
You can register for the April lunch HERE or register for any of our other upcoming events HERE.
As part of a research study examining the connection between work and meaning, psychologist Dan Ariely paid participants to construct figures out of Legos.
For each consecutive figure, the price dropped by several cents. By decreasing the financial incentive, Ariely was trying to find other factors that influence productivity.
In a not-so-surprising conclusion, he found that one group of participants—a group who had their figures taken apart in front of them while they worked on the next one—was the least productive.
Ariely concluded, “In our view, meaning, at least in part, derives from the connection between work and some purpose. … When that connection is severed - when there is no purpose - work becomes absurd, alienating, or even demeaning.”
In his study, Ariely writes often of “meaning,” as “a connection between work and purpose.”
But he never explicitly names what seems to be the theme of his least productive group: their longing for permanence.
If we are to endure in our work, we want to believe that our work will matter into eternity. It often leads us to ask God if he, like the researcher in the Lego study, will ultimately dismantle our efforts.
Is work nothing more than part of the curse—a toil meant to punish mankind for our sin in Adam? Or has God given us work merely to distract us while He implements His plan for salvation?
Scripture suggests otherwise.
The implications of these two verses show that God is using the work of his people in his plans for the new heaven and the new earth:
Isaiah 60 prophesies that the fruits of human labor will appear in the New Jerusalem.
Acts 3:21 depicts Christ’s work as restoration for all of creation and the cosmos.
This knowledge gives us the confidence to strive for excellence in all our work, knowing that God will use it in some way to usher in his salvation for all of creation. He’s not breaking down our proverbial Legos. He’s using them.
“This knowledge gives us the confidence to strive for excellence in all our work, knowing that God will use it in some way to usher in his salvation for all of creation. He’s not breaking down our proverbial Legos. He’s using them.”
There are many ways to find purpose in our work. We can and should contribute to the flourishing of creation and to the correction of injustice, but if our worldview tells us the end of all our work will be nothing, then any purpose we’ve found in our work becomes temporary at best and meaningless at worst. We become like Ariely’s Lego builders who found no purpose in their labors.
This is precisely why embracing biblical faith and work theology has breathed new life into the vocations of many Christians who have lost a sense of purpose in their jobs.
In the final reckoning, the efforts of our hands will not be disassembled like the Legos, but redeemed. In fact, looking around, there is evidence he’s doing just that, right now.
How can faith practically serve as inspiration for those in corporate America?
This question is complicated in a time where 70 percent of workers are disengaged in their day-to-day work.
Looking at the Bible a few things are clear: we were created to work (Gen. 2:15), work is broken (Gen. 3:17-19), through Christ’s work on cross all things, including work, are being redeemed (Romans 8:20-21), and we are playing a part of redemption in God’s unfolding story (1 Corinthians 10:31).
With that being the case, how do these principles manifest themselves in workplaces where conversations around faith aren’t encouraged or condoned?
It begins and ends with a reminder that work in Corporate America is just as honoring and glorifying to God as work in ministry or the nonprofit sector.
“In the same way that God created structure out of chaos while creating the heaven and earth, we, too, mimic God in the ways we bring structure out of chaos and call it good (Gen. 1:1-2:3).”
In the same way that God created structure out of chaos while creating the heaven and earth, we, too, mimic God in the ways we bring structure out of chaos and call it good (Genesis 1:1-2:3).
For example, bringing structure out of chaos could be scrubbing a spreadsheet or facilitating budget meetings among departments or easing tension between disgruntled employees.
The Institute for Faith, Work, and Economics recently wrote an article that focused on an unlikely corporate value that can transform the corporate workplace: warmth.
Paul calls us to a lifestyle of genuine love and tenderheartedness (warmth). We are to put off the character of war – bitterness, wrath, anger, slander, and, instead, be imitators of Christ by putting on the character of peace – kindness, tenderheartedness, forgiveness. Jesus often showed warm affection for those he met, especially those who were suffering (Matthew 9:36, 14:14). And, of course, in dying in our place, he made the ultimate peace offering.
Is your workplace one where people thrive and enjoy working?
If you’re looking to continue further contemplating this question in your work, join the Nashville Institute for Faith and Work and ProviderTrust CEO Chris Redhage for lunch and conversation on “Lessons in Building Healthy Corporate Culture” on December 6 at Adele’s.
