HOW TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS by THE BOOK

-A Biblical Blueprint to Bless Your Business

By Dave Andersen

QUICK TAKES

Though is anchored on the Bible, the principles shared in this book are generally applicable for those who are interested in learning how to build solid organisations, families and careers. Here are the quick takes from the book plus executive summaries of four of the chapters.

CHAPTER 1: A SIX-PACK OF PRINCIPLES FROM A KING AND THE KING

CHAPTER 2: FOUR MANDATES TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME

In this chapter, you will learn four ground-breaking time management techniques they don’t teach in business schools.

CHAPTER 3: HOW TO OVERCOME THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF MANAGEMENT FAILURE

This one particular principle can salvage your organization from collapse if applied as suggested. You will learn to deal with and overcome your pride and your ego and it shows you how every other conceivable management failure is rooted in this single evil. Pay attention to it.

CHAPTER 4: FIVE STEPS TO BUILD ROCK-SOLID CHARACTER

This is not your typical chapter on character. Instead, the author presents a handful of flaws that you may have overlooked in the past and practical steps for overcoming them and building credibility and competence that ensures that you will become a leader who lasts long over the long haul.

CHAPTER 5: THE “HIGH FIVE” PRINCIPLES TO ELEVATE YOUR PEOPLE SKILLS

These five principles succinctly explained and illustrated by the author will help you to instantly impact others with stronger connections and build a higher level of personal charisma that you may not have thought possible

CHAPTER 6: FOUR KEYS TO CREATE LIFE-WORK BALANCE

This author shows you in this chapter four key areas in which you must pursue life-work balance and then provides strategies to address each area. This is the chapter you are most likely to re-read and refer to again and again to improve your personal life as well as your effectiveness at work.

CHAPTER 7: HOW TO MANAGE YOUR MONEY BY THE BOOK

This is a primer on how to get ahead in your finances. You will learn about practical strategies for giving your money away, making business partnerships and others.

CHAPTER 8: FOUR STEPS TO BUILD A TEAM BY THE BOOK

This chapter closes the book with a blast. It offers real-world strategies for hiring, creating vision, establishing values, setting performance expectations, holding others accountable, and building an inner circle of leaders to help you accelerate the growth of your organisation.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CHAPTER 1: A SIX-PACK OF PRINCIPLES FROM A KING AND THE KING

In this chapter, the author presents six dynamic principles based on the lives of David and Jesus that you can internalise into your personal leadership style to immediately and measurably elevate your effectiveness. The principles shared were picked from the lives of David and Jesus. Here are the principles.

DAVID

David assumed leadership traits of a leader before he was in the Leadership position.
Don’t wait until you are appointed a leader to act as one; instead, use your current position to demonstrate that you deserve that leadership position and if you are already a leader, aspire to the next leadership phase.

More importantly, prepare for every leadership opportunity which may come in the form of problems…practise how you will act long before you get to the scene.

David honoured the leader above him
Once God allows you to be placed under a boss, regardless of his or her weakness, you should take it as if you are working for God: honour him and refuse to talk ill about him in your conversation. Don’t expect God to move you further up the ladder until you are willing to hold steady the ladder for the leader whose authority you are directly under; the only exception is when you are being asked to participate in activities that violate Biblical principles.

David confessed his sins and genuinely repented when he fell
When you fall, or sin, admit very quickly with any excuses but please note that confessing a sin does not absolve you from the consequences; it only serves to mitigate it. When you make a mistake, the way of wisdom is to admit it quickly and learn from it so that you do not repeat the mistake and understand that failing to do this quickly is another mistake in itself.

JESUS

Jesus created clarity of vision, values and performance expectations
You must continue with the pattern of intimately declaring your mission, values and what is expected of the followers. Once you define clarity, you must model it and share it repeatedly. There are many aspects of your job you can delegate as a leader, definitely, defining reality is not one of them.
Jesus held others accountable for results
The whole purpose of accountability and consequences is to improve performance; it is not meant to humiliate. Where a worker performs, hold him for more responsibility and don’t forget to call out a consistently non-performing worker.
Jesus served others
Serving others with your talents is a mark of greatness. Managers want to be served; leaders serve others. Serving is a mindset; it reminds you that leadership is about performance, not about position. Jesus served for three years mentoring, training
and pouring his soul into the lives of his disciples.
There are four Cs you must watch out for in a leader:
a) Character
b) Competence
c) Compassion
d) Consistency

CHAPTER 2: FOUR MANDATES TO MAXIMISE YOUR TIME

In this chapter, you will learn four ground-breaking time management techniques they don’t teach in business schools.

Mandate 1: Get in your zone and stay there
Strip yourself of every other engagement and concentrate on that area of your responsibilities in which you think if you invest with focus, it will bring the greatest return. Part of the leadership maturation process is being able to look yourself up in a mirror and know what you are good at, acknowledge what you are not good at and be at peace with both.

Go for complementarity, not clones. Build a team with complementary skills so that you can spend time in your zone. Narrow your focus: make the shift from doing many things well to doing greater things with greater execution.

Mandate 2: Give up to go up

You must be willing to decide what you are willing to give up to grow up. Adding more tasks to your to-do list is not the key to being more effective. First, you must begin a ‘stop doing list’. Don’t let easy things or urgent things get in the way of the first things as you move towards your goals. Learning to say NO keeps you in control of your time.

Mandate 3: Without knowing God’s will for your life, you will continue to drift, dart and dabble with no sense of direction. If it is not in the will, it is not worth it. Discovering your will involves God’s part and your part. Interestingly, discovering God’s will for you is easier if you understand his providential and moral will.
Providential Will: Includes things God says he is going to
do regardless. You don’t have to pray for these to happen. God needs you and me to fulfil his providential will: position yourself to be a vessel to be used. Jesus’ second coming and all the prophecies in the Bible
Moral Will: God’s moral will includes the various commands: thou shall not; thou shall, scattered on the pages of the Bible. Should I lie or not
Personal Will: Should I take a job or not? Here is the point: the more familiar you are with the first part and the more obedient you are to the second, the easier it is to work in the third.
Knowing God’s will for your life and focusing on accomplishing it simplifies your life.

Mandate 4: Pursue the gift you have, not the gifts you want

Whenever you invest time in your gift zone, you accelerate results. This is because it is easier to build on a foundation that is already established than to erect a foundation from scratch which leads to mediocrity. You can make each day a masterpiece as you narrow your focus and work with the discipline of priorities as dictated by your talents. Then you can delegate, outsource or stop doing anything else.
You think you don’t have great talent? Don’t worry. Work on the little God has given you and give it back to him and he will do amazing things through you with it.

CHAPTER 3: HOW TO OVERCOME THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF MANAGEMENT FAILURE

This one particular principle can salvage your organisation from collapse if applied as suggested. You will learn to deal with and overcome your pride and your ego and it shows you how every other conceivable management failure is rooted in this single evil. Pay attention to it.

The number one cause of management failure is pride.

12 causes of management failure traced to pride:

1) Failing to build a team and becoming overwhelmed
2) Perpetual plateau as a result of becoming unteachable
3) High turnover within a department
4) Low morale due to lack of positive reinforcement
5) Distrust from employees because of character issues like failing to admit mistakes
6) Unwillingness to listen to others or involve them in the decision-making process
7) Becoming selfish and territorial
8) Putting your agenda ahead of the team’s
9) Failing to accept responsibility for your actions and results
10)A variety of character flaws
11)Becoming isolated and out of touch

EIGHT WAYS TO CULTIVATE HUMILITY

1) Know that you are not superior to anyone else
2) Do not be obnoxious in appearance or behaviour
3) Do not be assuming
4) Do not be scornful or contentious
5) Don’t always insist on having your way
6) Submit to authority
7) Seek out and be open to biblical instructions, reproof, rebuke and constructive criticism
8) Learn to receive

We recommend that you read this chapter on your own to expand the basic outline above. Pay attention to the lives of the three Bible leaders used as examples: Samson; Jehoshaphat and Saul to understand the role of pride and humility

CHAPTER 8: FOUR STEPS TO BUILD A TEAM BY THE BOOK

STRATEGY 1: HIRE SLOWLY AND STRATEGICALLY
Hiring recklessly is one of the costliest mistakes in business: the cost of one bad hire is too much for an organization.
Here are the three tips for hiring right:

1) Pray before making a hiring decision. Build this into your hiring process. Jesus did this in all his hiring exercises and you should – Luke 6:12.

2) Hire those who are already working and productive. Change your strategy to focus more on attracting qualified, passive job candidates into your organisation rather than attracting a team of eagles from among the unemployed. Jesus followed this, and you too should- Matthew 5:9.

3) Hire people who give you something to work with.
You can teach skills and knowledge but you cannot teach talent, character, drive, attitude or energy. You must hire these five into your organisation. One of the helpful tips you should put in front of you is that you can help people become more of who they are but you cannot make them something they are not.

STRATEGY 2: DEFINE REALITY IN YOUR ORGANISATION

Reality is made up of three components: vision, values and performance expectations.

1) Vision: This defines direction in a clear, measurable manner. Read the book of Nehemiah to gain understanding – Nehemiah 1:17. What is the vision for your organisation? Is it measurable? Does it influence the daily behaviours and performances of your people? If not, then it is impotent. To know if your vision is real, all you must do is pass out 10 index cards to 10 different employees and ask them to write the vision for your organisation without conferring with one another. If all the answers are identical, you are game, if not you have a lot to do.

2) Core values: These are the behaviours you have decided you are unwilling to compromise on. As a leader, not only must you set the values, but you must model them for them to make any meaning. Examples as set by Jesus: Matthew 5:44

3) Performance expectations: These are the specific outputs you have outlined as non-negotiable numbers. They may include metrics ranging from the number of sales, a certain number of appointments set, a specific quantity of presentations given, a total amount of gross revenue worth of products or services sold and the like.

Establishing core values and performance expectations accomplishes several key leadership objectives:
It helps define reality in your organisation
It establishes a benchmark of accountability
It removes grey areas and takes away the excuse of ignorance that people can and will claim if what you expect is cloudy
It makes it easier for you to make decisions
These three components define direction, boundaries and criteria for measuring performance, making decisions and solving problems.

STRATEGY 3: ESTABLISH A HIGH ACCOUNTABILITY CULTURE

To succeed in this area, you must develop a low threshold for excuses for the following reasons:
1) Excuses are the natural assassin of progress
2) Excuses are a distraction and a diversion
3) Excuses are the DNA of underachievers
4) One of the best days of your life is the day you renounce excuse

STRATEGY 4: DEVELOP AN INNER CIRCLE

One of the best strategies you can adopt in building a strong team is to spend a greater amount of time with smaller numbers of strategic people mentoring, sharing and reproducing yourself into their lives. This smaller number of people is your inner circle. Every effective leader needs to build an inner circle that helps him or her carry the load.

3 STEPS TO DEVELOP YOUR INNER CIRCLE

1) Identify and invest more in those in your organisation with the highest upward potential
2) Give up power so that you can go up higher! You will never build an inner circle if you continue to do too much of the work by yourself. The measure of your leadership is not how much you can do personally, but how much you can get through others – Jesus demonstrated this: Matthew 10:1-2.
3) Hold your inner circle accountable for results: Set the criteria for performance very clearly and reward people who follow and sanction those who consistently fall short. Don’t make the mistakes most leaders make: giving the benefit of the doubt to poor leaders. Jesus reacted sharply to the unproductive fig tree Matthew 21:18. You can see that every strategy shared here still revolves around getting the people right without which success will be limited.

QUOTE
One of the best strategies you can adopt in building a strong team is to spend a greater amount of time with smaller numbers of strategic people mentoring, sharing and reproducing yourself into their lives. This smaller number of people is your inner circle. Every effective leader needs to build an inner circle that helps him or her carry the load.