Jeff Johnston: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to you, depending on where you are tuning in from.

I’m Amanda Bolin, and I’m the manager at Kingdom at Work, and we want to welcome you to our live webinar. Um, at Kingdom at Work, our me our mission is to inspire, ignite, and equip leaders to find their why. We are so thrilled that you joined us today. Before we dive into today’s content, let’s go over a few housekeeping rules just to ensure a smooth and productive session.

So first and foremost, um, we want this webinar to be as interactive as possible. So please feel free to use the Q& A feature down at the bottom of your screen to ask questions or share your thoughts throughout the presentation. We value your participation. Now about questions. We will have a dedicated Q& A session at the end of the presentation where we’ll address many of the questions you’ve submitted [00:01:00] during the next few minutes.

So if you have burning questions, don’t worry, we will get to them. If for some reason we don’t get a chance to answer your question or we can’t address something that takes a more in depth response, fear not because we are committed to providing valuable content and some of the unanswered questions may be featured in our upcoming blog post.

So keep an eye out for our blog and more insights on those answers. Lastly, this webinar will be recorded and the recording will be available for you to view and to share with colleagues. We will send out an email with this recording link shortly after the event today. So, again, thank you for coming and I want to introduce our speaker today.

Jeff Johnson is the Marketing Manager over at Beat Bow Company. Jeff has spent his entire career in the advertising and marketing field. Thank you He’s run the gamut, working for [00:02:00] big corporate companies and small nonprofits as well. He loves storytelling and the ever changing landscape of the digital marketing world.

But more than both of those things, he loves spending time with people. Outside of work, you can find Jeff playing superheroes with his three toddler boys and beautiful wife, getting emotional about Texas Tech basketball games and various other sporting events, or enjoying a conversation with friends. So without further ado, the Kingdom at Work webinar over the humbling journey of culture.

Well hello, it is an honor to be here, truly I am humbled and honored to get to be here and to talk today about a lot of the mistakes that I have made in my career involving culture and what the Lord has taught me through those things. But before we dive into the content, let’s start in prayer. Jesus, thank you for today.

[00:03:00] Thank you for desire to grow, uh, in our leadership, desire to grow, uh, in our relationship with you. Uh, Lord, we just ask that, uh, you give us ears to hear right now what you want us to hear. And Lord, for me, I just, uh, ask that you cast out, uh, any, any pride, any, uh, feelings of wanting to, to perform. And just let this whole thing be about you and your kingdom, God.

Um, thank you for, for everyone’s, uh, um, desire to be here and to take time out of their day to be here for this Lord. Uh, Lord, we love you and we thank you for loving us first. Amen. Okay, I’m going to start with, with a really interesting quote that I heard a few weeks ago. Uh, and to kind of set the stage, the, the story here is this is a quote by a man named Ivan Illich.

And after decades of revolution in South America, he was interviewed by this journalist. And the journalist asked him the question, what is the best way to change [00:04:00] a society? Is it, is it violent uprising? Or is it slow, gradual change? And his response was neither. And then he went on further to say, and this is the quote that I want to land on here is, If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.

So to change a society, you have to tell an alternative story from the story that they have already heard and believed and experienced, right? And if you look at the life of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus, I think that this is a pretty accurate quote. I would probably add one thing to the end of it.

It’s to tell an alternative story and then to live out that alternative story. And so, you can, you can go throughout the Gospels and find numerous examples of this. Uh, two in particular. One is in Mark 9. 35, Jesus says, Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all. And so Jesus is telling them this alternative story, right, [00:05:00] of, hey, the first is the last and the servant of all.

And then he goes and he lives that out as the servant of all. Uh, and then again in Matthew 5, 43 and 44, it says, You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So again, there’s this story that they’ve heard, right?

You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. This is a story that they have heard, that they’ve maybe experienced or even promoted. Uh, and Jesus tells this alternative story of, No, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And then he goes and lives it out, right?

And that’s how you see Jesus changing this society, changing this culture. And so as I was preparing for this talk and thinking through what have I learned, what mistakes have I made, and what has Jesus taught me about building culture, building a kingdom culture, Uh, I started to think through what I’m calling work culture stories.

And [00:06:00] these are the stories that I think are pretty prominent in, In our work culture here in America and probably across the world to stories that I have experienced and at times that I have promoted myself and there’s four that I really want to hone in on today and I want to talk about these work culture stories and then the alternative story that a kingdom culture tells and so the first one is showing up early and staying late and really what that means is if you, you know, if you show up early and you stay late, You’re going to be viewed as the most committed, the most deserving of a raise, of a promotion.

Um, this, this is a work culture story that you’ve probably heard, that you’ve maybe believed or even taken part in yourself, right? Um, second one, look out for yourself. Put yourself first, make yourself irreplaceable, right? Uh, if you have to step on someone else’s shoulders to get yourself to the next thing, do it.

Look out for yourself, take care of yourself. That’s a work culture story that, that I’ve experienced, that I’ve heard. That I’ve fallen into. [00:07:00] Uh, put your head down and do your job. This is one, uh, that you can look at on both sides. Both, uh, as a, as a front line team member, Hey, I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna do what I’m told.

I’m gonna work really hard and do what I’m told. And then, as a leader, it’s, hey, just, just do your job. Do what I tell you. I’m in charge here. Do your job. And then the last one, leave your problems at home, right? Don’t bring your, your personal stuff. Don’t bring your, your personal issues and your personal life into work.

When you’re at work. Be there to work. So these are work culture stories, uh, that I’ve experienced a lot, that I’ve heard a lot, uh, and I have learned from mistakes in making these work culture stories part of my own work culture. And so I want to talk through each of these in more depth and dive into the alternative story that helps build a kingdom culture.

So let’s start with the first one. Showing up early and staying late. Again, this is a really easy one to fall into. You get a new job, and you get really, uh, excited about it, and you really want to prove [00:08:00] yourself, right? And so it’s, man, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be the first one there, I’m gonna be the last one to leave, and I’m gonna work really, really hard and prove myself.

Uh, and then, then you get into leadership, and, And you see that, and you think that that’s, that’s the right thing. Like, yeah, I love that person because they work so hard. And I can count on them to always be here really early and to do so much work. Uh, and man, my, my first ever direct report. Okay, I had, I had already been that myself.

Uh, and then I got promoted to, to a management role at my first company. And the first guy on my team, his name was Andrew. And It was exactly that, right? He was there when I got there in the morning. He was still there when I left in the evening. And this happened for a few weeks. I pulled him aside one day and commended him for it.

I said, man, Andrew, I have seen how hard you’ve been working. I see all the extra hours you’re putting in all the extra work that you’re doing. Uh, and I, I just want to say, thank you, man. That’s [00:09:00] awesome. I love that. Just keep, keep working hard. So what did I, what did I do there? Uh, in hindsight, when I looked back on that, all I was doing was telling him, dude, work is the highest priority.

It is the most important thing. Work. is your highest priority. Okay, that’s what I promoted. That’s what I essentially told him by commending him for those things. And what does that lead to? What does that lead to in your culture when you promote those things, and when you see those things and allow them to continue happening?

Ultimately, it breeds this attitude. That work is the most important thing, which then can lead to burnout. It can lead to a lack of passion. It can lead to frustration or a lack of effort eventually, and it definitely leads to unhealthiness, right? Unhealthiness physically, unhealthiness mentally, emotionally, spiritually.

So what’s the alternative story? Okay, so the work story here is a show up early, leave late. What is the alternative story to that? Simply put, it is a real work life balance. [00:10:00] There’s a lot of ways to promote this, right? Uh, one of my favorite stories I’ve heard about this is, a team member was staying late, uh, and the boss noticed, like, hey, uh, everyone else is gone, they’re still here, and he, he approached them and said, hey, hey, what are you, you know, what are you doing here, what are you working on?

And they gave a pretty generic answer, oh, you know, I’m just trying to get a few more things done, trying to, you know, cross some T’s, dot some I’s, uh, get a few more emails out and, you know, uh, just get a few more things done. And the boss’s response was, you Okay, I’ll just sit here and wait with you until you’re done.

And I love that because it kind of put it back in their tort of, okay, what are you going to decide, decide to do here? Are you going to keep working late, later than everyone else and keep your boss here with you? Uh, or are you going to leave work at work? Know that you can go back to it tomorrow and go home.

Uh, I love that story, and I think some other practical things with that are simply when you notice that team members haven’t taken a day off in a while or haven’t used their PTO, [00:11:00] ask them about it. Hey, when’s your next day off? When are you taking a vacation? What are you doing to relax and rejuvenate?

Um, And, and hey, one thing I really want to call out in this is, I know that there are jobs that entail working late hours from time to time. We have a video department on our team that helps with a lot of live events. And that means, hey, day before you’re there early and you’re working late to get everything set up.

Day of, same kind of thing. You’re working early, you’re showing up earlier than normal, and you’re having to work late to tear everything down at the end. So how do you promote this work life balance when that’s just part of the job? And the answer to that is give them the time back, okay? There are going to be days where, yeah, someone might have to work extra because that’s what the job entails.

Give them that time back when it’s over. When our live events are over, my team knows that, okay, you’re going to either get a full day off here after this, or I’m going to let you come in late or leave early, but give them that time back. And that promotes and instills in them that, [00:12:00] hey, I do care about your work life balance and I want you to have a real.

work life balance. Work is not the most important thing. So what does this do? When you push this work life balance, when you really instill that in your culture, what does that do? It brings more joy. It brings harder workers, greater efficiency, because hey, if This is the time that you have allotted for work, uh, and you know that this is the time you have allotted for work and you’re not going to get to extend it another three hours or show up another hour early.

You’re going to find ways to be more efficient in that. So it’ll increase efficiency for sure and ultimately it just leads to healthier team members. So instead of this story of showing up early and staying late, a kingdom culture tells the alternative story of a real work life balance. That’s number one.

Let’s go to the next one. Number two. Look out for yourself. Put yourself first. Make yourself irreplaceable. That is the work culture, right? That is the work culture story. Look [00:13:00] out for yourself. Uh, at my, at my first job, I was, I was so, Excited and just ready to take on whatever I could. I wanted to make myself irreplaceable.

That was important to me. And so I was hired on to write copy and edit some videos. And over the course of the first six to ten months, various people left the department for, uh, different reasons. And in the interim, they were looking for people to fill some of their responsibilities. And I just raised my hand for everything.

You need someone to learn the email system and manage our email account? I can do that. You need someone to, uh, handle all the analytics and reporting? Yeah, I can do that. You need someone to handle all the front end coding? Yeah, I can do that. So I just took all these extra responsibilities on. Uh, and I wish I could say I was doing it from this, this heart of like, well, I just want to serve the team and do whatever’s best for the team.

But it wasn’t that at all. It was this this point of pride for me. I wanted to be seen as the guy that knew how to do everything. I wanted to be seen as the guy that [00:14:00] had all the answers, who was the most valuable and who was irreplaceable to the team, right? So I took all this stuff in and over time did a couple of things, right?

One. I had this wildly self righteous attitude. As I learned all those different tools and was taken on all this extra responsibility, I just had this self righteous attitude, like, man, I do have all the answers. I am the irreplaceable guy here. Uh, and, and funny enough, on the other side of that, it also led to all of this bitterness, right?

Like, I designed this. I am the guy that took on all this extra work. I volunteered for this. But I would look at everyone else during the day and I’m like, man, they’re not doing nearly as much work as me. And it led to this bitterness that I had for some of my coworkers and my teammates. Uh, because I felt like I was doing more than them.

Which is just a, a weird, uh, back and forth there because it was my fault. And it was all pride, right? Pride just, just led this whole drive for me. And so, what did that do to the culture? Uh, it was disunity, right? There’s a lot of [00:15:00] disunity there. There’s a lot of silo. Uh, work being done there where I was focused on.

I’m doing all these things and you guys just do your job and I’m doing these things. Uh, selfishness, inefficiencies, and then a big one was it plateaued our, our effectiveness and it’s done a growth for myself and for everyone else. So, I was taking on so much that ultimately we could only get as high as me.

And so I plateaued our growth as a, as a company, as a marketing team. I also plateaued other people’s growth in their jobs, because if I just keep taking it and don’t share it with other people and don’t allow other people opportunities as well, man, I’m just plateauing everyone else’s growth. Uh, and there’s a lot of disunity and a lot of problems in that.

So, what’s the alternative story? The alternative story to looking out for yourself, uh, is simply give everything away. And Jesus shows us a great example of this, right? Look at Luke 9, 1 through 2. It says, When Jesus had called the twelve together, he [00:16:00] gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

So Jesus had been doing all these things, right? And then he gives it away. He gives them power. He gives them authority. And so what does this look like at work? To give everything away? It’s like, man, when you learn something. Share it with someone else. Show someone else how to do it. When you have new knowledge, uh, cross train, cross train on your teams.

Even in the most practical sense, does it not matter? Make more sense to have two or three people that know how to do this one task versus just one person that knows how to do it. Even practically speaking, that makes a lot of sense, but from a culture perspective, it is so big. It helps with collaboration, uh, and it helps with trust with each other.

There’s, there’s a guy, uh, on our team named Tyler who is an exceptional, uh, And he’s worked really hard at it. He’s got, he’s got a natural eye for it, but he’s worked really hard at honing in his craft. And he’s researched a bunch of things, watched a bunch of videos, done a lot of training. He’s gotten really, [00:17:00] really good at it.

And a few months ago, we hired another guy on our team named Matt. Who was supposed to come in and do various jobs. But one of the big things was we wanted someone else that could also do a photography. And it’s been really, really cool to watch Tyler over the last few months. Just give away all his knowledge to Matt.

All these things that took him a lot of time and effort and trial and error. to figure out. He’s just handing to Matt now. And so I’m watching Matt grow in his photography so quickly, so rapidly and Tyler at the same time. He’s growing in his ability to teach, but he’s also getting opportunities to grow in other areas now because Matt is now taking on a lot of the photography on from a culture perspective.

What’s that doing for our team? And it’s fostering collaboration for our team. There’s greater effectiveness on our team. There’s better ideas because it’s not just we’ll Tyler’s the photographer and we’re doing it Tyler’s way. Now Matt’s got great ideas too and he has his own eye for certain things.

And so there’s better ideas and that there’s trust among the team. There’s greater unity among the team because it’s not [00:18:00] this, this fear of like, well, are they going to step on my shoulder to get them to the next spot? It’s like, no, Tyler’s giving it away. So Matt trusts him and Matt knows Tyler wants the best for me.

And Tyler wants the best for the team. And that’s what that’s fostering in our team. That’s what it’s fostering in the culture of our team. So, instead of looking out for yourself, a kingdom culture tells this alternative story of giving everything away. That’s number two. Number three is don’t ask questions.

Okay, put your head down, do your job, put your head down, do what you’re told to do. I struggle with this so much to this day. I’ve struggled with this this week, honestly, uh, in my personal life, in my professional life of just passing on the need to know information, right? Just telling them, do this and go with it with, with my kids.

It’s so easy at times. I’m, I’m in the stage with my three year old where there’s the question of why to everything. And even if I gave him an answer, then. Why to that answer? And then why to that [00:19:00] answer? And so it’s a lot of times it’s a lot easier to say, because I told you so, right? Or just do what I told you to do.

Uh, and I fall into that at work all the time too. And I think what happens is, as leaders we have this, this struggle where we feel like we have to have the answer, right? We feel like, okay, well I have to come up with the solution to this problem and then I tell the team how to, how to make sure that solution gets done, right?

And that’s. That’s not Kingdom. So, so what happened, uh, one, one great example of this is I was given a project one time when I was working at a non profit and they said, Hey, we, we have this problem. We need more low level donors, meaning we need, we need more. 10 a month type donors and handed me the problem and instead of going to my team and kind of pitching the problem and collaboratively working through it, brainstorming ideas and coming up with a solution.

I just came up with a solution in my head. I’m like, all right, I’ve got the idea here. And then I just started telling people what to do. Hey, you design this thing, you [00:20:00] make this webpage, you write this copy. That’s all I did. Right. Uh, one, well, my solution didn’t work, but But more importantly than that, there was no passion in the work for the team, and there was confusion for the team, because I was the only one that was passionate about it, because I was the only person that actually knew what we were trying to accomplish there.

They were just, they were just order takers, right? My team had become a bunch of list checkers, and they couldn’t grow into anything else, because I wasn’t giving them an opportunity to grow into anything else. Uh. It’s, it’s like, you know, I, I view this like metaphor here of like, let’s say I have a puzzle, right, a huge thousand piece puzzle, and I have the box, I can see what the puzzle is supposed to make, and then you’re in the other room, and I walk in there with three pieces to the puzzle, and say like, hey, will you just put these together for me, and then bring them back to me, and I never show you the whole puzzle, right, you just put your three pieces together, and then you hand it back to me.

I’ll get that puzzle done eventually, uh, and you’ll have no idea like what you were doing. You won’t be [00:21:00] passionate about it. You won’t be excited about it when I finish this thousand piece puzzle. I will because I can see it all, right? But you, you don’t, you’re just doing what you’re told. And so, uh, When you tell people to put their head down, when you tell people to just do what you’re told, what you’re doing is you’re evaporating passion, you’re stunting growth for your team, you’re stunting good ideas, limiting creativity and effectiveness and you’re just promoting this, this confusion and ultimately you start promoting this, this disunity.

I’m in charge, I’m making all the calls here and y’all are just doing what I tell you to do and there’s, there’s this divide that you create with that. So what’s the alternative story? What’s the alternative story to putting your head down and just doing your job? It’s giving them the why, giving them the why, giving them the opportunity to ask questions, giving them the space to ask questions.

People become more passionate and act more like an owner when they understand the purpose and the benefit behind what they’re doing. I recently got [00:22:00] to have a lot of phone calls, uh, with employees and team members from, uh, this company called Vapor Thrift. They have a few thrift stores in Alabama. Uh, really, really cool company.

Uh, and by and large, thrift stores are, uh, I mean, it’s hard work, and it’s, it can be really mundane, tedious work, right? Hey, we just got in a ton of clothes and some toys, and I need you to sift through everything in the processing area over here. I need to make sure, you know, you need to put everything on the racks, make sure everything is organized and, and tagged correctly and priced correctly.

Like, there’s a lot of hard stuff there that can become tedious, that can become tedious. It’s mundane, but it’s fascinating talking to all these people about their jobs, uh, and one of the, one of the really cool things about Vapor Thrift is that the money that they, uh, the profit that they make there helps to, to feed, clothe, and educate kids all over the world.

And that’s what they hold onto. That’s what their motivation is and that’s, that’s their purpose there. And so they [00:23:00] talk about, yeah, you know, I, I sift through thousands of articles of clothing every week and I love it. And it’s not, oh yeah, I, I love, I love folding clothes or I love taking in clothes and sifting through things.

It’s like, I love the purpose. I love what we’re doing. I love how this thing that I’m doing right here ultimately connects to this thing over here. And that all started because the people in charge, We’re giving them the why, showing them this is how you connect the dots, right? What you’re doing here leads to this, which leads to this, which ultimately benefits these people over here.

And I realized that that is like a grand scale why, quote unquote why, right? And not every position has that. Not every organization has that, that grand scale there. But I think this is important even in the most granular sense, right? Let’s take invoices, for example. So, that becomes part of your job.

You’re going to get invoices from, from third parties, from partners that we utilize, and you got to get the invoices submitted [00:24:00] to the accounting team. Uh, you can just show your teammate, hey, this is how you do this thing, and leave it at that. And will they get the job done? Yes. Or, you can show them, hey, okay, this is how you do this thing, and here is why this thing is important.

This is what this does. One, externally, this allows for us to pay our partners in an efficient manner and pay them on time, which then allows them to pay their people on time. There’s a lot of importance in that. That is, people can’t get paid. People can’t work, right? And so there’s a lot of importance in that.

And then internally with the accounting team, too, it’s like, okay, by us submitting these, when we get them and not holding to the end of the month, and then like submitting 20 at a time, you’re allowing them to have more even flow and more process in their work, allowing them to close the books on time without a lot of extra stress added there.

And then ultimately that leads to us being able to make. More effective business decisions because we can then see, okay, how is cash flow? How are things moving here? What are we spending a lot of money on? What are [00:25:00] we not spending enough money on? Where is all of the money going? And so giving them that why, giving them that understanding, even if it’s something as simple and as granular as that, uh, really matters and it increases this passion, it increases effectiveness, more creativity and ideas, and it strengthens unity, right?

With with you and with the accounting team in that example, it’s like, okay, I’m in this with them now. I know what I’m doing here is helping them. Okay. And that strengthens unity between the teams. So instead of putting your head down. And just doing what you’re told, right? A kingdom culture tells the alternative story of giving your team members the why.

Giving them the why and providing opportunity to ask questions. That’s number three. Number four, leave your problems at home. Okay, leave your problems at home. Don’t ask questions, uh, about, or don’t, don’t tell people what’s going on in your personal life. Uh, just leave your problems at home, okay? When you’re at work, be at work.

Okay. There’s two sides to this one, right? There’s the frontline team [00:26:00] member piece of this, and there’s the leadership piece of this. From a frontline team member perspective, you can view that as being wheat, right? It’s like, well, if I share what’s going on in my personal life, they’re going to think that I’m wheat.

Or they’re going to just think that I’m weird, or they’re going to judge me, uh, and there’s fear in that. Uh, and then eventually what ends up happening in that situation is you start to resent your co workers and your boss. Because, uh, naturally, if you’re going through some hard stuff at home, it’ll bleed into your work, right?

And you’ll, you’ll miss, uh, deadlines, or you’ll, you’ll drop the ball on something. And if people don’t know what’s going on, their respect. What are you doing? And then in your mind, you’re like, man, if you just knew what was going on with me right now, you’d have a lot more grace for me. And so you start resenting, resenting them, being frustrated with them.

And then on the leadership side of it, you can look at your team members and you’re either oblivious to all this stuff because you’re not paying attention or you are paying attention and you notice it, but you have [00:27:00] fear of, well, I don’t want to overstep my bounds here. I don’t want to make them uncomfortable.

So I’m not going to ask anything. I’m not going to say anything. Keep treating them quote unquote normally. Andrew, the guy that I talked about earlier, my first ever direct report. This happened with him, and I did this so poorly at the time. So, he was clearly going through something, and I was paying enough attention that I noticed it.

I know he was going through something. But I’d already promoted this, work is the most important thing, told you with him, right? And so for him, he had this fear of looking weak. He didn’t want me to think any differently of him. So he was not addressing it on his side. I could see something was going on, but he wasn’t going to talk to me about it because I had already essentially told him, Hey, work is the most important thing.

Leave, leave your other stuff at home. Work’s the most important thing. And then for me. I had this fear of, I didn’t have enough relationship with him. And I was like, hmm, what if I asked him about it and it’s not something he wants to talk about? I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. Uh, I don’t want to overstep my bounds here.

He’s my, you know, he’s my [00:28:00] employee. He’s not my friend. I don’t know. Uh, and so I didn’t say anything either until it finally came to a head, right? He, he missed something that was pretty significant. So we finally had to talk about it. And I’m glad that there was, I can say there was a ton of grace in that once we finally talked about it.

But all of that could have been avoided if I would have just spoken up and asked them, Hey, what’s going on? Can we talk through this? And so, work culture tells you, you know, Hey, don’t, leave, leave work, uh, or leave your personal stuff at home and have time for work at work. Work is all about work. And that breeds fear, it breeds frustration.

The alternative story to that, Get to know and care for the whole person. Okay. Spend intentional time developing relationships with your team members. Ask them about your purse, about their personal lives and tell them about yours. Even the messy stuff, right? Uh, one thing that, that I find to be very interesting just in my life in general that I’ve noticed recently [00:29:00] is, I mean, we are all really, really good at sharing prayer requests for other people.

Hey, this person has this thing going on in their life. Hey, can we pray about this person? They have a surgery today. Uh, we are not so good. at sharing our own personal prayer requests. Hey, will you pray for me today? I’m just in a funk today for whatever reason. I can’t seem to focus on things. You’re like, hey, I am really stressed about this thing.

Will you pray for me today? And sharing that stuff with your team, letting them see the messy parts of you and what you’re struggling with. We’ll then influence them to do the same with you, and you can grow in this relationship with each other. And it becomes more than just, hey, I know that you’re a really, really good copywriter, or a really, really good graphic designer, or a really good builder.

It’s like, I know you, and I see you. And then you develop these relationships that allow for you to care for them holistically, right? You’re able to then notice when something’s going wrong and not have this fear of like, am I going to overstep my bounds? Because you’ve already developed that relationship with them [00:30:00] and you’re able to talk to them about those things and they can let you know what’s going on.

And there’s times where like, hey, that sounds really hard. I think you need to, you know, step away for the rest of the day or like, hey, there’s, there’s extra grace in that. Like, hey, yes, I know that this deadline was today. How can I help? How can I help you get through that? Or hey, we can push that one.

That’s okay. Let’s push that and focus on what’s more important here and that’s. Helping you get through this struggle. And so, what does that do? What does that do for your culture? Okay, that strengthens trust and unity and it enhances this joy and camaraderie among the team, right? You want, we all want to be fully known.

We want to be loved. We want people to see us for who we are. Imagine the people that you spend 40 hours a week with being those people. Imagine that. Imagine how much joy that would bring, how much excitement that brings when you walk in the door every day knowing that the people that you get to spend eight to five with are the people that know you, that love you, that care for you as a whole person.

So instead of leaving your problems at home, a kingdom culture tells the alternative story of getting to [00:31:00] know and caring for the whole person. Okay, so, so again, there’s these work culture stories, and this is not an exhaustive list by any means, but we have these work culture stories, and then these alternative stories that are the kingdom stories.

So just, just to comb back through them real quick. Work culture tells you to show up early, stay late, okay? That’s, that’s the way that you should work so that you can make yourself seen as, as the guy, right? Seen as the person that is the most committed. Um, the alternative story is having a real work life balance.

Promoting a real work life balance with your team. Work culture tells us, look, look out for yourself, okay? Put yourself first. Make sure that you’re making yourself irreplaceable. The alternative story, the kingdom culture, tells you to give everything away, okay, give away your knowledge, hand over what you’ve been working on to someone else, show them how to do it, give everything away.

Work culture tells us to, to put our head down and just do your job, just do what [00:32:00] you’re told and as the leader, that’s how you’re supposed to lead, right? It’s this, it’s this control issue that is disguised as leadership and delegation. But the alternative story, the kingdom story, is to give them the why.

Okay. Okay, give people an opportunity to ask questions, give them the why, help them connect the job that they’re doing with the reason as to why they’re doing it and what that can lead to. Give them the whole puzzle, not just their piece to the puzzle. And then work culture tells us, hey, leave your problems at home.

Okay, when you’re at work, be at work. The alternative story, the kingdom culture tells you to get to know your problems. And care for the whole person. Okay, focus on building that relationship. Get to know them. Care for them more than just, I want you to become the best designer possible. No, I want you to become who God created you to be.

And growing them in more than just the task. Right? And so my, my challenge now to you as, as I wrap up here is to go pray earnestly to God for him to give you clarity on, hey, [00:33:00] what is the work culture story? That I need to focus on and tell the alternative story and not just tell it but to live it out Okay, because I think we can all agree that yeah, it’s really easy to go tell everyone I want I want you to have a work life balance It’s a whole nother thing to then go live it out to actually mean it and put it into practice So I encourage you as we as we wrap up after all this today to go spend some time in prayer with the Lord and Asking him to show you what is the alternative story that you want me to focus on And that’s, uh, that’s all I got.

Again. What? What? Ah, what a privilege it is to be here with you. Thank you for letting me share a little bit about my own struggles. I hope something resonated with you and I’ll pass it back to Amanda now for Q and a Jeff, man. I think a lot of us were really, um, maybe Struggling a little bit because you might have hit some areas and veins that as leaders we’ve probably done and didn’t even realize through your [00:34:00] examples of humbly bringing your false and your mess ups and mistakes.

It hit each one of us, I’m sure, in different ways. So if you joined us a little late. One of the things we like to do is give enough time to do live Q& A, whether it’s over, um, an area that Jeff hit. Maybe the Lord put something on your mind. Um, we do have several questions, but if you have a question during this time, please use the Q& A feature that is at the bottom of your screen.

I said this earlier, we will cover as many of these questions that we can, and if for some reason we can’t address your question during the Q& A or if it requires a more in depth response, we will try to, um, answer that in our upcoming blog, um, so keep an eye out for that. So, we are going to jump into, um, some live Q& A.

So, first question, [00:35:00] how do you as a manager, not the owner, Create a better rhythm of a healthy work life balance when that’s not the culture that the owner has created. Wow, that is a, that’s a good question and that I can imagine there can be a lot of difficulty in that. I think there’s a lot of courage that you’re going to have to have in that.

Um, talking to, we actually, we had an interview with someone this week that actually is kind of experiencing that. Um, I think part of that is speaking up. Part of that is speaking up and talking to the owner of hey, this is, uh, this is how I’m experiencing this. This is what this feels like. I, you know, I have other things that are really, really important to me, whether it’s kids or friendships or spouse.

There’s all these things that I value and I want to be able to do these things and I think these things are important and speaking up in that sense. I think there’s also, um, if, if you’re leading a team, I [00:36:00] would say. Start with, with, with your team and emphasizing it to your team as well. Um, letting them see you take, take that and have a real work life balance yourself.

Uh, and then making sure that you promote it to them as well. And if they have, hey, my, my kid has this, uh, program at school today. Let them, let them go have time to be at that thing. Uh, and then. Whether it means you have to fill in for an hour or someone else has to fill in for an hour. Like, let them go be at that thing and be a team in that, being able to cover each other.

And that’s kind of where this cross training gets into it as well. Being able to actually cover each other so that they can go do those things. Uh, but again, I think Probably the biggest thing there is, is the courage to, uh, to Joe talk to, to the owner about it and explaining this is, this is what I’m feeling, this is what I’m seeing, and this is what I believe to be, uh, a really important thing in this work life balance and having, having that dialogue.[00:37:00]

So good, Jeff. Yeah, I agree completely. I mean, I think it does start with you, and if you are stewarding people, start with your own team, um, and start there. I love that answer. So next question we have, um, love this. I hear that the common thread of building a healthy culture is that of humility. What are some ways that I can start building a kingdom culture in myself?

Yeah, it’s, uh, it’s humility, right? It’s, uh, Asking God to help you see the areas where, where you are falling short, uh, and then owning those. And owning those both internally and externally. Finding people that, uh, that you can talk through those things with, that will call those things out in you, uh, and humility is, is, is yeah, definitely the, the root of that.

And that, that means humility. Owning the things that, one, you either [00:38:00] already know you’re not good at or asking the Lord to help reveal to you, man, this is an area of struggle for me. Quite frankly, over the last couple of weeks, I have been really, really convicted of my tendency to have a self righteous attitude.

I get to lead in a lot of areas of my life, and it’s really easy for me when I get out on a step with Jesus to think that I have, Uh, the right answer to everything, and to just start going that direction with stuff and making everyone come along with me, uh, and it’s like, man, I’ve got this, this attitude of, of self righteousness, and I think I’ve disguised it a lot of times myself as, uh, no, this is just me leading.

This is me leading people in, in a good direction, uh, and I’m not asking Jesus to die that I’m trying to die to myself, uh, and so, you Building kingdom culture and that, for me, is when I’ve noticed that, when the Lord has finally convicted me of those things, or He’s been convicting me, but [00:39:00] when I finally take note of it, is going and fixing that, right?

And that doesn’t mean like, hey, there’s some things that I can’t undo, but I can go apologize. I can go own, like, hey, I know we’ve gotten past this. I know it’s been a few weeks, but I just need you to know that what I said in this meeting, what I said in this Um, or what I did, the action that I had you take, that wasn’t fair to you, uh, and I’m sorry for that and owning those things and coming to those, uh, conversations humbly with just a posture of, uh, of apology and, and, uh, remorse and ready to, to head the other direction with it.

So that’s kind of a convoluted answer there, but I think, I mean, I think you kind of already nailed it on the head. But it starts with humility and that really means, uh, Owning the things that, that you’re struggling with and talking to other people about that stuff. And it also means the other side of that.

Owning things that you know you’re good at and then giving those things away, right? Not holding those things in.

So [00:40:00] good. I mean, really, you just opened into, um, actually another question that we had. Um, that, that talks about that control. And someone asked How would you suggest I work for someone that has created a culture of control? Um, and man, gosh, I understand that, and I think all of us that have worked at a lot of different organizations throughout our professional life, we’ve probably worked for someone that maybe it’s not one of the core values on the wall, control, but it definitely is seen rather than said.

So Jeff, what are some ways that you would? Just kind of give some advice to someone, um, some kingdom culture on how they work for someone that really loves to have control and has created that. Hmm. You know, I think with this, as I’m processing this question and the first question, uh, look, there’s certainly a lot of challenge and wanting to [00:41:00] change something.

Uh, but you’re not the head of the of the company, right? Um, There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of challenge in that. But I think, again, I was talking about the, the courage and speaking up about that stuff, but there’s also, uh, this ability of, hey, you, you have been given, uh, certain authority and certain, they’ve handed you certain things.

I would, I would honestly first start with like, okay, this control, uh, issue or this control struggle, is that bleeding into me? Am I doing that too? Uh, and I think, uh, like, ’cause I found myself in that, where I’m like, man, I’m frustrated with them because they, they just hand me stuff and I don’t, you know, I don’t have as much of a say as I want to have in this.

Uh, and then as I go reflect on it, it’s like, man, I’m doing the exact same thing to everyone else on my team. And it’s this trickle down effect of they’re starting that way. And then you continue it. And so I think what I would encourage you in that is reflect on that, and then if you have noticed, like, man, I’m [00:42:00] also being pretty controlling here, change that.

Change that on your side of things, okay? Give away what you can. Bring people in to collaborate as much as you can. Uh, instead of bringing solutions to your team, bring problems and goals to your team and let them be a part of coming up with the way you’re going to get there. Uh, uh, And, and I think what you’ll see over that is one, that’ll help your team immensely, right?

The culture of your team will grow immensely and the effectiveness of your team will grow immensely. And I, my guess is that when you come up, when the team comes up with something that is different than what’s been done in the past, or that works better than what’s been done in the past, that’s then your opportunity to say, here’s what I did here, I released control of this, okay?

I released control of this and that’s, we’ve got great team members here that are able to make something better than I could have made it. When you’re able to speak from experience, an example there, I think it gives a lot of validity and encouragement and conviction, hopefully, uh, to your boss to, to do the same.[00:43:00]

Absolutely. Thank you, Jeff. The next question, um, is in regards to something specific, um, so most organizations with large numbers have set time to report to work and set time to close and don’t tolerate lateness. How would this work for the whole organization if the managers don’t even show up on time?

Wow. Uh, yeah, again, humility in that of, uh, owning, and I’ve been pushing this, uh, agenda. We show up at eight and we leave at five kind of thing, but I’m not actually adhering it, uh, adhering to that myself. Um, and when you’ve developed, uh, a culture of trust. I think you’ll have people that, uh, will call you out on those kind of things.

There’s been, I’ve got people on my team that, uh, they did it this week. There’s things, there’s mistakes that I made this week that they called me out on that allowed me to, uh, [00:44:00] humble myself and apologize and know my mistake and correct, right? Um, I think there’s also, uh, I, I’ve actually, uh, I have friends that, uh, laugh at me because I, I am one that, hey, we show up at eight and we leave at, at five and that’s important.

One from a work life balance perspective, but also that’s the time that we’ve been paid to be here, so let’s be here and do that. Um, but I would, I think I would, uh, question like, okay, uh, are we being too religious with that? Is that something that we are holding more important than the person holding more important than.

Uh, the job itself, and because there’s, uh, there’s ways to get the job done even if you show up at 8. 15 instead of 8. Um, and so I think I would, there’s kind of a balance there, right, of hey, yeah, it’s not just free for all, um, but have grace in that, um, but also make sure that the grace is both ways. Right, so it sounds like in [00:45:00] this scenario it’s, there is, uh, we have grace for ourselves because we’re in charge and we can kind of do what we want, and there’s not grace for the team members.

But if you’re making the team members do something that you, uh, aren’t willing or aren’t doing yourself, um, there is some self reflection and some, uh, humility that needs to come from that. Uh, so if you feel like you have the, um, the courage and the confidence and the trust Leaders to to kind of call that out.

I would encourage you to do that. Um, but also, uh, with your own team, man, give, give grace. Hey, if you hit traffic, just let me know that you hit traffic. Uh, hey, if it’s a tough morning, let me know that it’s a tough morning and we can work past those things.

Great answer. Very good examples. So I have two more questions. One of the questions that was submitted. I love this really great [00:46:00] action. Um, they can leave with this. Where should I start in building a kingdom culture? So what would be the most important action that you’re like, man, what should I take from this?

Wow. Yeah. Uh, that’s, uh, I think you start with, with yourself, right? And evaluate. Uh, one, what, what is the culture that I have already developed, right? Uh, what is, uh, what, and, and really I guess, uh, to kind of use the terminology from earlier, like, what are the work culture stories that I have experienced, that I believe, and that I may be promoting now?

I’d start there. I think I would start with what are those things already, uh, and find what are the things in there that are not kingdom, okay? Is there a, have you, do you have your own mentality of like, man, I’m going to show, I know where it starts at eight, but I show up at seven 30 and I know where it ends at five, but I, I’m going to leave at five 45 and start with [00:47:00] yourself and look at yourself and what are you building through your own actions there?

Uh, I am guilty of that one a lot and what you’re doing there. Even if you’re not saying that, like if you’re saying like, no, you guys be here at eight and. And leave at 540, you know, and leave at 5, but you are starting at 730. You’re always there when they get there, and then you’re always there after everyone leaves, and you’re not leaving with them, or you’re not showing up with them.

Whether you’re saying it or not, what you’re promoting to your team is like, Hey, if you want my job, if you want to get up the ladder here, Uh, you’ve got to put in the extra work that I’m doing. And so I would just start with yourself. What are, what is the culture that you have already built within yourself and within your team?

And, hey, what are, what are the aspects of that that are not kingdom? I’d start there, make that list, look at that, pray through that, ask God to show you, uh, reveal things to you through that. And then start by fixing one. You can’t fix it all at the same time. Start by fixing one. Okay, I have promoted this culture of staying late.

Okay. I’m promoting, okay, I’m gonna, I’m [00:48:00] gonna focus in on that one now, okay? I’m gonna not only just emphasize, I want you guys To have a work life balance, I’m actually going to go act it out, I’m going to go live it out. Uh, or hey, I, I have promoted this culture of leaving your problems at home, because I don’t actually ever talk to anyone at work about my own personal stuff.

I never invite them to my house for a meal. I never go have coffee with them. I never get to know them as a person, let them get to know me as a person. Maybe that’s the culture that you have unintentionally developed. Start there. Get to know them, invite them over to your house. You know how, how jarring it can be if no one has ever seen you in anything other than your work attire?

Like you’re looking at me right now, this is not Jeff. Home Jeff is either in a t shirt or in the summertime, Jeff’s in a Hawaiian shirt at all times. Man, when your team can see that, even that sounds so dumb and rudimentary, but when your team can see that, I feel like they start to get to know who you really are and that’ll just grow your culture into a kingdom culture really quickly.[00:49:00]

Hey, Jeff, next time you do a webinar, let’s have you in a Hawaiian shirt, all right? I think everybody would like that. I’m in. Well, you actually answered, um, one of the other questions, um, that was going to be our last one in regards to where to start and get to know my team more. I think you gave that example of go have coffee with someone.

Just sit down and have a quick one on one with them, you know, if that’s not within your culture Start making it part of your regular rhythms But I love what you said Jeff that I think is the key piece in all this ask God where you’re supposed to start you know, where do I start and so I just love that and We are gonna move in Actually, we had one more question come in.

So let’s answer this. We’ll make this one our last one Just came in And then we’ll move into some areas to give you guys some information about some exciting things coming up. So, last question. [00:50:00] Um, keeping to time is difficult in our part of the world. Um, how do we make workers understand the importance of time in Kingdom culture?

So, I’ll preface this as you’re thinking of this. One of the great things that Kingdom at Work, uh, has done, Um, gets to partner with is not just people in the U. S., but people all over the world. And these are kingdom leaders, and so we appreciate those of you that are watching all over the world, part of this, um, we glean so much wisdom for you.

So Jeff reiterating again, keeping, um, to time, and that it’s difficult, um, where this individual lives, how do we make our team members understand the value and the importance of time.

Yeah, just to make sure that I understand this one, uh, are we saying that there, is this a question related to they’re working too many hours or they’re not hitting things [00:51:00] within the time frame allotted? Do you have, I want to make sure I’m actually understanding this one. I don’t have context on that, but I would say it is based on, in regards to stewarding their time well, uh, and, and being wise with the time that God has given them at work.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s funny enough. We just had a team conversation. We are a fun, loud marketing team, a stereotypical marketing team where we like to have a lot of fun. Um, Yeah. And we just had a conversation about that as a team today, actually, because there’s uh, you go through seasons of hey, I’ve got a ton of stuff on my calendar and a ton of deadlines this week and then the next week I don’t and there’s this tendency of okay, when, when I don’t have a ton on my plate, uh, I want to goof off more or I want to, you know, only do, I want to be reactive, I’ll just be reactive to the things that I have to do and then fill the rest of my time with uh, [00:52:00] Uh, or then on the other side of it, it’s like, I have so many things to do and I’ve said yes to everything and I have pushed every deadline as hard as I possibly can and so now I’m in this, uh, This, uh, issue of I don’t have a work life balance because I know everything has to get done, and even if I close my laptop, all I’m going to be thinking about the rest of the night is how do I get the rest of this stuff done tomorrow.

So I think there’s both sides to that, and since I’m not exactly sure, um, which way we’re going here, I’ll, I’ll try to speak to both of them. Um, a lot of it is a balance, right? Uh, on the, on the side of I’ve got too many things on my plate, uh, and stewarding your time with that. It’s what are the most important things, right?

Uh, and that’s where you can have others help you with prioritization of those things. What are the most important things that I need to get done? Um, what are the things that’s like, man, I’ve got six deadlines today. Uh, realistically, I’m going to only be able to get three of them done. Okay, let’s figure out what are the most important three and what are the conversations we need to go have with [00:53:00] other people to figure out if there is, uh, ability to move some of those deadlines.

But it’s And don’t, don’t tell your team what are the most important things and also don’t, don’t just, One of the things that we’ve struggled with is we say yes to everything and ask, when do you need this? Um, when you can simply say, hey, yeah, we can absolutely do that for you. Um, based on what we’re looking at here and workload wise, we think that we can get it done by this date.

Is that okay? You’re still giving them an opportunity at that point to speak in to, Um, Uh, when the deadline really needs to be when they actually need it, but you were helping dictate this is this is a healthy balance here. This is a healthy, um, amount of work in a time frame for this thing on the other side of that.

It’s really easy, especially I would imagine. I have not worked from home a ton or jump from home from seven months during covid. But with this new work from home culture, it it can be very, very easy to sway into like, All right, I really have to like four hours of work. Mhm. Uh, today [00:54:00] and I’m going to spend the other four hours doing what I want to do.

Um, and that’s not stewarding time well, that’s, that’s dishonest, uh, and so I think in those situations and that’s, that’s what, uh, I’ve experienced myself from time to time is, okay, proactivity, what are the things that I can get ahead on, uh, are there people that are overloaded when I’m underloaded that I can go help, um, are there organization things that I can help with.

Uh, and just seeking ways to be proactive with the time that you have. Um, and then kind of the, the important piece to all this on both sides of it is work is not the most important thing. It’s not the most important thing, but it is important, and God does care about our work. And so you want to do it well.

You want to prioritize well. Um, but you also don’t want to work yourself to death. And on the other side of it, while it’s not the most important thing, It is important, and God does care about it, and so do the best with what you have, even if it’s like, I’ve got this much today, but I have this much capacity.

[00:55:00] Okay, what are the ways that you can fill the rest of that capacity with something productive? I hope that that answers the question on whichever side it may have been. I hope that, I hope that that was helpful. Thanks, Jeff. Yeah. Well, um, webinar. I will tell several of you that. And some questions. Um, late.

Actually, next month, several of the questions were in regards to, I think, more coaching your team, and if they are showing up late, and how do you make sure that the culture, that we hold the standard of the culture, and that actually leads into next month, um, our webinar for April is going to be over coaching, and that is going to be next month, April 24th, and it is going to be over April 24th, and it is going to be over Um, coaching courage versus comfort and what that looks like and having coaching conversations with your team.

And that actually answers some of those questions that came in late. So we hope you can join us. You can take a picture of [00:56:00] that QR code with your phone, whatever device you’re on and get registered for that next month. Some other items that we have, um, coming up. We have our Kingdom at Work leadership workshop.

We do these three times a year and the next one is going to be May 7th through the 9th This is for business owners and their leadership teams This is, um, an event in Lubbock, Texas. We would love for you and your team to come in. And there’s another one in October. If you have any questions on this, um, please visit us at kingdomatwork.

com and my team would gladly talk to you, um, give you more context of these events, and as well answer any questions. Last but not least, one of the fun, exciting things we have been doing as a team Um, just to keep you getting snippets of being a Kingdom Leader is our social media. We have this on LinkedIn, Facebook, and [00:57:00] Instagram.

You can hit that QR code and you can start getting All Things Kingdom at work. We have reels with 20 second nuggets of truth. Really great just to be reminded throughout your day. Um, we would love to friend you on those. So we appreciate you guys. Joining us. Thank you so much. If you have any questions, please reach out to us.

This recording again will come to you later on this afternoon. Straight to your email. Have a blessed day. Thank you guys. Bye bye.

And we’re out. Done. Wow.