Work Harder on Yourself

Yesterday, I drove to Indianapolis with some Toledo Truth At Work members to visit with an incredible company who does a great job of incorporating their faith into their corporate culture.

One of the things that stuck out to me is that they have a phrase which they share with their employees regularly, "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job." It is even on pieces of correspondence with employees.

Let me ask you this, have you ever worked for a company with this sort of attitude? Nope, me neither. Most companies I have worked for have had the exact opposite attitude. They gave me the impression that they wanted me and my coworkers to work ONLY on our jobs and they didn't give a rip about us as people. If it were up to them, they would have liked us to sleep at our jobs.

In spending several hours with some of this company's leadership, I can tell you that they walk their talk. They encourage and reward employees for reading leadership books, attending classes, volunteering in the community and going on mission trips. I talked with some employees who just returned from building houses in Mexico and they were stoked. They said it was the greatest experience of their lives. They even have free lunch Wednesdays where they buy lunch for each of their employees.

They have over 1600 employees and they are only 11 years old. They have been on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies in the US for the past several years. In walking around, it was clear that the employees wanted to be there.

The results show that this company's philosophy is paying dividends. And why shouldn't it? The people obviously feel cared for. This will in turn make them care more about the company. Jesus' advice about the golden rule was right on, even for leaders of companies!

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 7:12