Category Archives: Weekly Devotions

Who do you work for?

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Another word for work is labor. The dictionary defines labor as hard physical work. If you’re not sure, ask any mother if labor was hard work and I’m sure she can give you a unique perspective on “labor”. Sometimes what we do, day in and day out, isn’t what we’d like it to be. It’s not that its too hard, it simply isn’t satisfying. When we lose our job satisfaction, we loose sight of our purpose and whom we’re serving. At times, we struggle to remain positive, to work hard and meet the mission or vision that is before us; complacency takes over and the “I don’t care’s” start to fly. As leaders, no matter what we’re faced with, we must keep our focus on the mission or the work before us. Are you a front line leader whose actions will have a direct impact on your customers or are you a support team leader that works to serve those impacting the customers? Complacency is where customer service starts to break down and in some professions, can become deadly. Think of the paramedic who is treating you for a heart attack, do you want the one who doesn’t care? Our job as leaders is to keep complacency out of our work and the work of our people.

Colossians 3:23-24 “What ever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

In times when we’re locked in a battle against complacency, we can be comforted in knowing that when we do our best work, with all of our heart, it is pleasing to God. God is with us all of time, even when we don’t feel like he’s there. When times get harder you should be focusing more on your relationship with God, not less. Our human instinct is to focus everything on the work before us and let the rest of our life take the back seat for a while. Nothing can do more harm than putting God in the back seat! Bring God closer; he will help you through the struggles of work or overcoming complacency. You are serving Him, doing his work as a faithful disciple. God cares about the work that you do and how well you do it. When you are feeling down about work, imagine God smiling at you because He knows what is in your heart. Look to him to get you through, He’ll light the way.

Through the waters

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Are you there for your employees? Leadership includes providing direction, vision and support for your mission. Your employees should be able to count on you to be there for them when they are struggling. It is important for them to know that they can count on your help when they need it. Imagine a child who is working through a problem and they need to find a parent to help them. As parents, we see them get lost very easily and just being there with a simple reminder is all that they needed. This is not to say that our employees are children, but a good illustration of an effective leader is someone who is a good parent. Leaders should want to help their people navigate through their challenges (waters) and when things get worse, you can stand by them so that they are not swept away. Do your people feel confident that you’ll be there through thick (rivers) and thin (water)?

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you…”

You can feel confident that God will be with you through thick and thin. This is another promise that God has made; to be with us in all that we do and that nothing will sweep us away – we have eternal life through Him. It is a great relief to know that we are not alone; we will not be challenged beyond what God knows we can handle. While we might think that we can’t possibly take any more and we feel like the waters are rising quickly, we should also feel the comfort and peace in knowing that He will be with us. If we develop trust and establish a relationship with our people, they will have faith in us to believe that we will take care of them. We too then, need to develop our relationship with God and continue to learn about His promises. Don’t rely on God only when you pass through the river, get to know Him and see what happens when you are only passing through the waters.

The Armor of Light

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Calling someone a Christian leader should naturally come with the assumption that they will lead ethically, unfortunately there is temptation everywhere. We all have the ability to justify any action we take, whether right or wrong; the devil is always at work to throw us off course. The Josephson Institute lists twelve rationalizations that people will use justify not making good ethical decisions: “1. It’s necessary, 2. if it’s legal, it’s okay, 3. it’s part of the job, 4. if it’s for a good cause, 5. doing it for someone else, 6. fighting fire with fire, 7. it won’t hurt anyone, 8. everyone’s doing it, 9. it’s okay if I don’t gain from it, 10. I’ve got it coming, 11. I can still be objective and 12. it’s creating necessity.” No mater how we try justify our actions, when we violate the trust of our people, we have lost the one thing that is hard to get back; their respect. If we think about what happened on “Wall Street” and compare the rationalizations listed, it is easy to see how things got out of control and greed took over. We must guard against temptation at every turn and stay vigilant against the pressures of world around us.

Romans 13:12 – “…let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

The “deeds of darkness” can be those things that we consciously do and those things that we do or think unconsciously. As Christians, we are under attack by the devil everyday; he’s trying to win us over from God. Remember how he tempted Jesus by offering him the riches of the world and how did Jesus respond? He used scripture to rebuff those temptations. God has given us everything we need in His word through the bible. If we have the word on our hearts and in our minds, we will know what to do when the urge to justify our actions starts to rise up. When we put on “the armor of light” we can hold our heads high and confidently look at ourselves in the mirror and smile knowing we did the right thing; even when it was hard to do. In the long run, people will respect you for acting ethically despite how they may initially respond. The struggle is daily but our armor will keep us protected.

Can you really do more with less?

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I mentioned earlier this week that I submitted an article on automatic aid to the International Association of Fire Chiefs. For my non-fire service readers, automatic aid is when two or more fire departments respond to emergencies in each others communities without having to be specially requested. It is an awesome concept in the Phoenix Valley where regardless of the name on the truck, if you need help, the closest truck will be there. Talk about customer service! All 26 agencies participate equally protecting 3.9 million people in 2,036 square miles.

I start to get a little heart burn when local government starts using the phrase “do more with less”. I’m finding out pretty quickly that it simply isn’t possible. You can do less with less or you can do what you did but not as well with less but not more. The federal government shows us that as they continue to trim billions of dollars we, the average citizens,  don’t really see or feel it. The bigger you get the less efficient you are. Think about your waist line, the bigger you get the less you can do without a little strain. You can also starve yourself resulting in malnutrition and simply move through your day not being exceptionally productive and just getting by. A number of federal agencies have duplicated efforts to serve the same population need but local government is, by its nature, not able to grow that big or be that inefficient. Elected Officials at the local level hold the purse strings a little tighter than congress does – thank God!

My point is this, we can’t do more with less and it may be time for the fire service to stop pretending that they can. Automatic aid can help fill the gaps on emergencies but can we do more together on other levels? Can we partner in administrative functions? If we can’t, perhaps its time to start talking about what we can’t do anymore because we have less instead of trying to hold on to what we have always done. There are always efficiencies to be found, that was all done a couple of years ago. Now we’re faced with trying to sustain a 40″ waist on a 32″ budget; you can only suck it in for so long before you blow the button off and kill someone.

Dwell Among Them

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Does your workforce get the chance to see you regularly and what do you leave behind as you depart? There is an old theory called the Seagull Management Theory – you fly in, leave droppings everywhere, and fly out. When was the last time you caught someone doing something right – and said something to them? Your workforce needs to hear from you, see you and be connected to you. Put your dwelling place among them. You don’t have to move your office and become a permanent fixture but become a “regular” in their space. You should strive to reach a point that when they see you, its not a cause for concern and they feel comfortable having you around. Walk among them, catch them doing things right and build unity of purpose. You’ll be amazed to see the results of a team built around the same purpose.

Leviticus 26:11-12 “ I will put my dwelling place among you… I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.”

The Leviticus verses are telling us that God intends to dwell with us, walk among us and be our God. It’s saying “God will lead you through it all, get used to Him because He’s not leaving, He’ll live with you, walk with you and never leave your side. God will be here for the good and bad times, you can count on Him – He is your God. We are His people today because we believe; we see His actions daily and feel His presence. Does your workforce believe in you?

Management By Walking Around is far more effective than the seagull management theory. Build a strong relationship by being present and engaged. You’ll find that the view from the ground is better than the view from above.

Chaos

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The old saying that chaos breeds discontent is very appropriate when it pertains to morale. In these economic times many people are leading as though “these people should be grateful they have a job, that’s the only morale they need to worry about”. The top employers remain on top because they remember who is on the front lines with their customers; unhappy employees have a direct impact on customer service. Some believe that keeping the peace means coddling people, they are dead wrong! Peace keeping can be multi-focused; it’s not always about benefits. Good supervisors offer coaching, provide developmental opportunities and encourage teamwork as a way to create a peaceful environment. Employees that are encouraged by their work, as Maslow told us, tend to perform at higher levels which often results in greater satisfaction and customer service excellence. Many managers will say that “our employees are our greatest asset” but when it comes to helping them be productive and happy; they are just another asset. As a leader, our job is to work with the employees toward a common goal. We all will work smoother and happier with a little order, routine and consistency, the opposite of chaos.

1 Corinthians 14:33 – “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace…”

God does not want us to live in disorder and chaos. Jesus Christ, His son, was known as the Prince of Peace. Jesus was a great reconciler for us; bringing us to peace with God our Father. Jesus taught us to be humble, loving and forgiving of one another. These are all synonymous with peace. God does not want us to live in fear but be loving and forgiving toward each other with the knowledge of everlasting life with Him through Jesus Christ. There is no greater display of peace but to promise ever lasting life in heaven with God our Father and His son, Jesus Christ. Now that’s peace! The disorder we see around us today is not created by God, it is the temptation to turn away and believe in our own power rather than rely on our God of peace.