The Extra Mile

This morning in our 3rd Tuesday Truth At Work roundtable group we had some great discussions. One of the things we spent a lot of time on was employee performance and when to keep or let go a struggling employee or someone who has certain issues.

This is something that gets brought up fairly regularly...the tension between servanthood and stewardship. The servant wants to keep a trouble employee and rehabilitate them and that is a noble cause.

However, leaders are given stewardship responsibilities over their company or department. So, the health of the overall group really trumps the health of the individual. In other words, if keeping an employee does damage to the overall company, oftentimes that person needs to go. Sounds harsh, but better to sacrifice one than many.

The bottom line is, if you are someone who is working for someone else, you need to take ownership of what you do so that you are not one that your boss is struggling to keep. The most valuable employees are those who do the job, and then some...the people who go the extra mile. They make a leader's job easy.

Whether on the job or not, whatever you are doing, are you willing to go the extra mile?

"If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."

Jesus in Matthew 5:41