Modern-day Elijah & Elisha

 
When I moved from Grand Rapids to Chicago back in the late nineties, I was blessed to meet someone that changed the course of my career. Deb is a veteran salesperson, greatly respected for both her talents and her character. Over time, she began to mentor me (although I’m not sure I ever called her [...]

Spiritual legitimacy

I love to read history, particularly about the formation of the U.S. during the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary years. I’ve been Reading a book about Hamilton by Ron Chernow that reminded me that winning the war against Britain was just the first step towards creating a legitimately independent country. The second step, which was nearly as [...]

You can quote me on this, part deux

A quick add-on to yesterdays post…
As powerful as quotes can be in terms of enlightening and persuading others, have you ever noticed how few people seem to be able to quote (or paraphrase) scripture naturally into conversation? This is particularly important when talking with non-Christians who aren’t used to pulling numbered quotes out of their [...]

Wronged at work

One of the best parts of working in corporate America is that it gives us the chance to be involved with people that we’d probably never spend time with outside of work. However, one of the downsides of working in corporate America is… that we work with people we’d probably never spend time with outside of [...]

Age and advice

 
I recently got reading yet another article about the generational dynamics happening within today’s workplace. It seems that this is the topic-du-jour right now, and on one hand I’m sick of reading about it, but on the other hand I’m fascinated by it. With millions of Baby Boomers exiting the workforce and only about half as many Gen [...]

Like a good wine

Last week started off with about a dozen key unresolved issues at work. By late Tuesday, I found myself getting more and more frustrated that resolutions seemed nowhere in sight. But as the week wore on, many of the issues that had been stressing me out seemed to get resolved, often in just the manner I had hoped [...]

Where’s the fruit?

Remember Clara, that old lady in the “Where’s the Beef?” commercials. I loved those commercials (I know that I’m dating myself here). Well today I had a Clara moment.
I was headed into a meeting that I really didn’t want to be in. I had some frustrations that I feared would inappropriately be visible to others [...]

The risk and rewards of Christian enterprise

 
Most of my blog posts are about what it’s like to be a Christian in corporate America, but today I’d like to touch briefly on something even more specific – Christian companies. There are a small number of entrepreneurs that have started these organizations - companies that have explicitly Christian missions - who try to balance profits with purpose.
I’ve [...]

God’s Number Ten – The Ugly Side of Ambition

 Today we’ll conclude this week’s focus on the Ten Commandments with a look at Exodus 20:17.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
I’ll admit it – I’m an ambitious person. I like to [...]

Input, please.

 
When was the last time you sought some input from someone a little lower down the organization chart from you? It’s easy to get in the habit of only seeking input from our peers and managers while forgetting the valuable counsel available from others. Even worse, I’ve known co-workers who rarely sought input from anyone else, which invariably led to relationships lacking in trust.
The [...]