Faith at work

Many have boasted about St. Vincent and the Grenadines being a Christian nation. In fact, our country has long been referred to as the Land of the Blessed. I can recall as a child, that it was compulsory that prayers be said several times during the school day. Even today you can almost set your clock by the consistency of these religious rituals in our educational institutions. Despite that, not many of our corporate leaders incorporate Christian godly principles in their business operations.

Recently, while compiling the chapters of my newly published motivational devotional book, Lifeline, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of biblical principles that are also tried and tested business management principles. For instance, the bible speaks about being good stewards of whatever is entrusted to your care (Mat 25:21-22) and giving an honest day’s work (Col 3:23). These principles translate into your employees being accountable for their job responsibilities and making every effort to ensure that they give 100%, 100% of the time.

Another biblical principle is that, you should work in the best interest of, and pray for the establishment in which you find yourself, since the welfare of that establishment determines your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7); this holds true even if it is not where you desire to be. Could you imagine the metamorphosis that would take place in your business and work environment if these principles were adopted? Just these two out of numerous similar biblical principles have the potential to significantly raise the level of employee engagement, transparency and accountability in your operations.

Unfortunately, it has become noticeable that many have gone to great lengths to separate their faith from their work.

Since your faith dictates your belief system, code of conduct, and moral compass, then separating your faith from your business could be to your detriment. Be careful not to misunderstand my philosophical proposal. I am not suggesting that you attempt to indoctrinate or radicalise your staff. I am also not proposing that you hold your employees captive by the manmade doctrines that have so widely divided the Christian community. Instead, I put forward that, since we claim to hold godly principles in such high esteem in our country, then we may consider challenging ourselves and our employees not to compartmentalise these ideologies, but to embrace them in every aspect of our operations.

Dr. Wendyann Richardson is a Management Consultant who specializes in corporate governance, business operations management and refining of skills through training. She can be reached at refiningleadersinstitute@gmail.com