A Bit of Advice – Relational Currency

Photo by David McBee on Pexels.com

The rise in the valuation of bitcoin has me thinking about currencies.  There are traditional currencies like the dollar and cutting edge currencies like bitcoin, but there seems to be a currency that contains real wealth that few consider.  There is a currency that gets transacted upon in every aspect of our lives but I have never heard it discussed in terms of currency.  Relational currency might be the most significant medium of exchange you handle. 

Are not relationships of tremendous value to you?

What if you were to categorize the relations in your life in terms of the currencies from the United States, Venezuela, China, Bit-Coin?  All currencies fluctuate in their valuation.  Most of those fluctuations are associated with the stability, the retained wealth, and long-term potential of the entity behind the currency.  Consider the relationships we value the most.  Those valuable relationships tend to be stable.  You can count on that other person to consistently respond in a predictable trustworthy manner.  High-value relationships are those that you can rely upon. 

I have relationships that are as stable as the US Dollar.  In times of crisis, I move my other relational speculations back into these high-value people because I know they are going to be there for the long-term.  I know other people value them. They are widely considered wise.

I have relationships that have devalued faster than the Venezuela Bolivar.  There were events that made me question the fundamentals of the relationship.  These are the relationships that I put at arms length when character issues arise that indicate an untrustworthiness.  At best, these devalued currencies have to be hedged against.

I have relationships that I suspected are as manipulated as China’s Yuan. Many people will tell you what you want to hear just to try to get something from you.  Often, the thing they want is something that you would have been willing to give without all the manipulations.  It tends to be all about appearances.  It is unfortunate, but it is what it is.  These relationships are valued for what they can provide today but the future is always uncertain.

I have relationships that are so confusing but represent such an intriguing upside that you have to play it out, just like bitcoin.  These are the folks that represent the wild-ride of life.  They will take you to incredible highs and devastating lows.  These are the folks that you can’t go all-in on.  You can have them in your portfolio of relationships, but do not get overextended on the number of these folks in your life.  They will drive you crazy.  (note: do not marry a bitcoin person)

There are two sides to every relational currency.  I control only one side.  My goal is to be the type of person that has the fundamentals of a high-value relationship.  I want other people to be able and willing to highly value their relationship with me. This goal requires that I adhere to a set of character standards which are inherent to a stable relationship.  I know that the value of my relationships can dip on the most trivial of fluctuations in an expected response.  I am continually amazed at the disregard that is often given to these trivial elements of relationship that have significant impacts upon a relationships valuation.

I manage employees.  I am not a micro-manager of employees.  This requires that I trust those whom I am managing.  It requires that I have a high-value relationship with my employees.  High-value relationships do not just happen upon the first day of employment.  These relationships are built over time.  Trust is not a right.  It is a privilege.  It must be earned.  I must earn it as an employer and employees must earn it with me.  This happens through an accumulation of a variety of signals over time that demonstrate someone can be trusted.  These signals lie among the trivial decisions that every person makes.  It is shocking how naïve people are to this basic principle.

Photo by Marc Mueller on Pexels.com

I have people lie to me on a regular basis.  They are not big lies, more like minor deceptions, mis-directions, exaggerations.  I know that they are ignorant to my devaluation of our relational currency.  I know they are ignorant to it because I often don’t tell them.  The issue is trivial but the ramifications are not.

As an example, it is very illustrative how employees manage their “paid time off” (PTO). 

• There becomes a trust issue, when an employee goes on vacation, has handed off all her projects, yet logs more work hours than PTO at the beach resort.
• There becomes a trust issue, when an employee consistently does a little bit of unnecessary work on their day off because it looks like they are gaming the system.
• There becomes a trust issue, when an employee is “working” from home but cannot be reached for hours or doesn’t complete what normally should have been done.  There probably should have been a mixture of PTO in that work day.

These trivial issues are never about the value of PTO.  It is about the devaluation caused by the doubt in the relational currency.  I absolutely hate discussions about the proper use of the trivial amount of a 1/2 hours use of PTO.  I just want to trust them.  I want to trust their integrity and honesty.  I want to trust them not because I am worried about getting ripped off on a 1/2 hour of PTO.  I need to trust them because I have much more valuable responsibilities that I hope to give to them. 

If I have doubts about their trustworthiness in managing their PTO, such a small thing, I cannot trust them with responsibilities that have significant consequences.  As an employer, I have found that employees either have integrity or they don’t.  It is difficult for me to change that.  We can create a company culture that values and encourages integrity, and that is worth doing.  However, some will just play along;  a manipulated currency if you will.   It is really hard to distinguish between the honest and the manipulative. 

Therefore, if you are a person of integrity, do not get lackadaisical on the trivial.  Do not inadvertently plant a kernel of misplaced doubt.  Do not be naïve in thinking the trivial does not matter.  Everyone’s relationships fluctuate.  The valuation of these relationships have significant implications for the future. 

The Biblical principle is true.  Those who are dishonest in the little are likely to be dishonest in the large.  Those who are honest in the trivial can be trusted with the significant.  How you handle the trivial might just be your path to the significant.

Leadership for the Right Purpose – Proverbs 28:11

“A man of wealth is wise in his own eyes,
but the intelligent poor sees through him”

Position sways responses.

I learned this early in my career as I was in a contracted regulatory role.  I was the final gatekeeper for those who wanted approval for their developments. As a result of my position, I regularly had my ego stroked.  One would have concluded by the praise that I was a sage.  I was not.

I have done this with clients throughout my career. I need a client’s business so I moderate how I interact with them.  I try hard not to manipulate but I equally try to stay within a realm of professional client development. This means that I work to assuage unpleasantness in favor of the client’s position.  I have worked for clients who are not very good at their job.  I would never tell them they are inadequate.  It is not my job to change the image that they have of themselves.

I am now President of the company where I have worked for over 20 years.  It is strange to witness the change in behavior as one ascends the corporate ladder.  People treat you differently.  U have learned that just because no one disagrees with you, doesn’t mean they’re in agreement.  It is easy to get an inflated image of oneself.  It is easy to misinterprete modulated responses for admiration.

One’s position sways how people  react to you.

Therefore, those in leadership, positions of authority, have to fight becoming wise in their own eyes. Here are some suggestions for that fight:

• There are few truly brilliant people in this world.  Just assume you are not, no matter what people say.  Remember, in comparison to God, you an imbecile.
• Share your mistakes, concerns, and uncertainties.  Allow people, under your authority, to know that you don’t have it all figured out and that you need their help.  Be confident enough to allow your true level of wisdom to be seen. Be humble so that you won’t have to be humbled.
• If you feel like responses are too restrained, then create safe “devil’s advocate” opportunities for sharing opinions without them having to be in direct contradiction to your own.  It is hard to stand up to authority, even in the safest of places, so make it easier.
• Keep your opinions to yourself.  Others will have the tendency to reflect your opinions back to you.  We all like giving the “right” answer.  Ask for opinions before you share your own.
• Delegate problem solving.  Allow space for other’s ideas and allow the idea to remain theirs.  Work with your problem solvers to get the idea in a form that you can agree with, but go the long route to make sure it is still their idea. Do not take it over.  You don’t have to own everything.  Treat others as you would want to be treated, and that includes other people’s ideas and work.
• Titles are intoxicating.  Remember that you are in leadership to serve, not to be served.  If you are pursuing leadership for the perks and how you think the position will make you feel, then you are pursuing it for the wrong reasons.  You are in danger of becoming wise in your own eyes.  So, downplay your title.  Remember that all things are a gift from God.  Pursue leadership for the fulfillment of the gifts that God has given you. He has you in your role for a purpose.  That purpose is to glorify Him and not yourself.

I hope these thoughts are helpful, but then I might just be wise in my own eyes.

https://ref.ly/Pr28.11 via the Logos Bible Android app.

“MONDAY MORNING GROAN” Jan. 7

“And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,for out of it you were taken; for you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”  Genesis 3:17-19

Photo by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels.com

I do not till the soil nor do I cultivate seeds. I am not a farmer.
I am not a rancher. I do not graze livestock nor do I breed cattle.
My wages do not come from agriculture.

My wages are derived from services rendered in an office. I manage and design through contracted fees for purposes greater than my participation. While I don’t wield a pitchfork, my work is still exhausting. While I don’t lift produce, my efforts exceed my energy. I return from my daily labor exhausted but rarely is that exhaustion physical. My labor is of the mind and so is my fatigue.

Yet, I am under the same plague as those in agriculture. I work under the same curse of their labors. It is a curse long ago placed. There are no eyes remaining that saw its origin. It is a curse of such history that to imagine a world without it is akin to fantasy.

I know that this coming week of work will be filled with problems; political consequences upon our capacity, strategies for emerging trends, termination of a troublesome employee, delivery of a poor performance review of another, addressing of unseemly salutations of a third, and an assortment of challenges as yet unknown.
It will wear me out by the end of each day, but I will have lifted nothing. I will have pushed and persuaded but never engaged a muscle. I will have pulled an organization while never registering a watt.

These are the days that do not endear me to my job.

Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

I observe social media feeds of individuals apparently free from my travails. Traveling the world without a care toward employment; engrossed in the pursuit of their passion. I know workers who have completed their term and are enjoying the fruit of a pension. They are free from the duty due a paycheck and the obligations of a position.

Yet, I know that it is all an illusion. We are all caught between a blessing and a curse. We have lived in this middle ground for so long that we no longer even recognize it.

My exhaustion does not come from my work. I was made to work. From the beginning of creation, mankind was created to work. Adam was placed in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Adam was made to work. I have the same form as Adam. I was made to work.

My work is a blessing. Work was given to us by God as our purpose. Work was to be pleasant, delightful, and fulfilling. Yet, it often isn’t but that is not the fault of work.

The fault lies in the unacknowledged curse. We live in a fallen world. The earth was cursed in response to Adam’s sin. Our work was intended to cultivate and keep the blessings of the Lord. Sin resulted in a twisting of that purpose into hardship. Work became labor and toil.

We were to live in harmony with creation as stewards of blessings. Sin exchanged harmony with difficultly. Nothing is easy under the curse. Work became a source of exhaustion. We were to be joyful stewards of bounty. Now, we are slaves to the dust we were formed from.

This is why I groan every Monday. This is why it is so hard to crawl out of bed on a workday. This is why the whole of creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth (Romans 8:22). We are laboring under the curse; Slaves to Murphy’s Law.
This is why I know that those who have achieved the blessed age of retirement are not freed from exhaustion. It is why I know the liberty of the jobless world traveler is an illusion.

We walk in blindness and insensibility when we don’t accurately attribute the source of our Monday morning groaning. The fallacy is the attribution of sadness and discontent to our employment. Problems will find us wherever we flee.

This is why I don’t place my hope in this world. The problems that await me within my week of work are simply inherent to this fallen world. I recognize the dreadful results of disharmony with our Creator.

This is why I collect the tokens of God’s goodness, which He has generously sprinkled throughout a world corrupted by the rebelliousness of sin. I might not be able to see a world as pure as that which appeared to Adam. However, I still can acknowledge the mercy and grace given by God to an undeserving world.

Therefore, I will appreciate my work, my purpose. As I ready myself for another week, I will strive to redeem my labor to its original creation for the glory of God as a faithful steward. I will separate my purpose from its problems. My purpose is the holy occupation that I have been blessed with. The resulting weariness and groaning are merely another reminder of my need for a Savior.

I am thankful that I have one.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

PRAYER: Lord, thank you for my job.  Thank you for giving  employment to provide for my needs and the needs of my family.  Help me to see beyond my groanings.  Help me to see the holy in my purpose.  Give me strength to endure the curse that is upon this earth for your glory.  Open me eyes to see all the blessings I have .  Thank you for the promise that one day your children will be freed from the corruption of this place.  Thank you for making a way through the salvation of Jesus Christ alone.   I pray this in the precious name of your Son,  Jesus Christ.   Amen.

SHARK TANK – Dec. 3rd

“The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.” Luke 16:8

There is a reality TV show called the “Shark Tank” that provides a glimpse of a world that most of us never get to be a part of. The show is about small business people with an idea or a product that are seeking investors, who are the “sharks”. These small business guppies are pitching their great new thing to the moneymen of the shark tank with hopes of obtaining a partner that will enable them to make a fortune. The problem is that these “sharks” are shrewd and they know the game better than most and the “guppies” of the show face a real risk of getting swallowed whole.

It is a fascinating look into the shrewdness of capitalism. One will quickly understand the axiom of “it takes money to make money” and why “the rich always seem to get richer”. The “sharks” are experts at identifying an opportunity. They also have the resources to act upon those opportunities.  That combination sets them apart. I have a MBA so I know the theories of that world and I work in management but I am not a “shark”. Whatever your opinion of these businessmen, one has to admit that they are very good at what they do.

The Bible tells us that we Christians can learn a thing or two from these “sharks”. “Sharks” are primarily driven by a purpose of maximizing profits. Christians have a purpose – “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever”. Now, what if we believers pursued that purpose as shrewdly as a “shark” pursues profits?

Just consider all of the opportunities that we are provide to bring glory to God, how many of those do we act upon? Are we even looking for opportunities? Are we actively out there trying to make our purpose happen?  Do we even know our chief purpose? I am ashamed to admit that shrewdness does not describe my purposefulness. Lackadaisical may be a more appropriate word.

That is not the way it should be. We should know how to deal with our own generation. We all will face a day when we will no longer be able to use our wealth and gifts for our chief purpose.  Now is the time to be making the most of the opportunities that we have to glorify God and be “making friends” for the Lord. There is an amazing promise here in verse 9 of being welcomed into heaven by those individuals who we had a part of reaching for Christ.  Will there be anyone to welcome you?

There is still time to invest wisely and seek opportunities. Only the exceptional, will be called a shark. Let’s strive to be exceptional for our Lord. Let’s be diligent about our purpose and act as shrewdly as any shark with the opportunities we are given.

PRAYER: Lord, Thank you for all the opportunities that you have given me to serve you. Forgive me for “cherry-picking” the ones that are most comfortable to me. Forgive me for not considering which opportunity will give you the most glory. Lord, I want to be a good servant. Give me a heart to desire to be about your purpose in all that I do, every day, this very day.    Amen