Episode 10

Biblical Management Traits Every Entrepreneur Needs

Opening – Good Day everyone. In my last Episode 9, I spoke about how crisis could shape entrepreneur leadership. Today Episode 10 titled “Biblical Management Traits Every Entrepreneur Needs”. 

Christ-Centric Management Mentality

The vocation of Entrepreneurship encompasses ingredients of leadership, planning, execution and management. These ingredients are independent operations which go hand-in-hand. Every entrepreneur is a leader who directs and leads the business organization with an end in mind, which has clear missions and objectives. The missions and objectives need to be periodically managed and monitored personally by and large, because entrepreneurship is at stake in any confined sphere of personal resources. The style of leadership, planning, execution and management reflects the personality of each entrepreneur, which will strongly influence the in-house culture of the organization. The style of Western and Asian entrepreneurial leaders’ management generally has a lot to do with his / her cultural background and value systems. It is expected that a Christian entrepreneurial leader would embrace Biblical principles in ethics, ethos and logos. Interestingly, Darren Shearer has acutely observed and highlighted some concerns on “Christian leadership” and “Christian management”. 

What self-respecting young person would aspire to be a manager in our culture when office comedy movies and TV shows have portrayed managers with such contempt and ridicule? Many of today’s leadership gurus have been promoting the notion that managers do not care about the people, vision, or mission of their organizations. They are said to only care about non-human resources and protecting their systems and processes above all else, making sure they run as smoothly as possible. Such leadership pundits would have us believe that, if you want to make a real difference in the world in the lives of people, you aspire to be a leader rather than a manager. “Be a leader not a manager” has become a mainstream maxim among those seeking to make an impact in the private, public, and social sectors. What are the consequences of our society’s negative view of “managers” and “management” upon families, businesses, government, churches et cetera? Irresponsibility. Waste. Entitlement. Discontentment. Poverty. Un-fulfilment. And much more. I am not saying that we do not need to talk about leadership and management. It’s “both/and” not “either/or”. I am just saying that the idea of management has been all but replaced by the idea of leadership, and this has serious negative consequences for society. We love “Christian leadership” … not “Christian management”.

In Western culture today, the term “Christian leadership” is literally hundreds of times more popular than “Christian management”. There are 203 times more books on Amazon that include the phrase “Christian leadership” than those that include “Christian management”. Google generates a whopping 400,000 search results for the phrase “Christian Leadership Conference” while there are only 561 search results for “Christian Management Conference”. As a book publisher and marketer, I will confess that it is tempting to add the word “leadership” into book titles just to make them more marketable. Why is the idea of “Christian leadership” hundreds of times more popular than “Christian management”?

“It seems that many are eager to be great leaders while far fewer are eager to be great managers or entrepreneurs for that matter?” Implies Darren Shearer. For Christians in the marketplace, what are the Biblical ways to approach the execution of management? From Jesus’ spoken parables, there are many Biblical principles with spiritual leadership and management ingredients can be applied. Jesus’ parables have spoken categorially in the contexts of business, financial, and/or resource management. The parables were explicitly about “management” and “managers”. A Manager can be defined as one charged to be a wise and responsible steward with what he or she has been given. Following is a dozen of Jesus’ parables worth looking at in detail.  Due to limited space constraint of this book, only some brief Biblical principles of “management” will be under deliberation and further enlightenment.

The Workers in the Vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16)

The Two Sons (Matt. 21:28-32)

The Parable of the Tenants (Matt 21:33-41)

The Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14-30)

The Faithful Servant (Matt. 24:42-51; Mark 13:34-37; Luke 12:35-48)

The Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:3-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8)

The Parable of Shrewd Manager (Luke 16:1-13)

The Parable of Unforgiven Servant (Matt 18:23-35)

The Master and Servant (Luke 17:7-10)

Counting the Cost (Luke 14:28-33)

The Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21)

The Parable of Mustard Seed (Matt. 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19)

These Parables will serve as a gold mine of wisdom in management resources for entrepreneurial leaders as well as entrepreneur-like managers. They contain profound Christ -centric Biblical and Spiritual elements which can be summarised as follow:

1. Entrepreneur to honour an agreement made. (The Workers in the Vineyard - Matt. 20:1-16) It seems that the workers are not being treated equally – those who work longer hours are not fairly rewarded. The core of the matter is not so much about the difference of working hours. The landowner does not short-change his workers in wages. He honours what he has agreed with his workers regardless of how long or short the worked hours were. He does not show favouritism to any worker. He pays what is due and was agreed upon. He does not discriminate between his workers of different backgrounds of race, colour, class, and gender, but treats and honours each worker equally. He is generous in his promises.

2. Entrepreneur should not boast and pretend to be somebody of superiority if he/she is not. (The Parable of the Two Sons – Matt. 21:28-32) He/she must be honestly true to oneself. Be truthful to a commitment. The “Do what you say you will do” attitude is of utmost importance to prove one’s truthfulness, and not making excuses when a commitment fails due to incompetence or lack of effort. Trust takes many individual instances of commitments and years to prove one’s trustworthiness. Breaking promises by un-fulfilment is collateral damage to one’s reputation and future trust by others. As one saying goes “once bitten, twice shy.” Be humble and slow to commit with lip service.

3. Entrepreneur should be grateful and reciprocal in conduct. (The Parable of the Tenants – Matt. 21:33-41) The Entrepreneurial “start-up” opportunity always has a root from its origin. It may be a generous friend who comes alongside to assist either financially or in other resources. When the business is growing in health and wealth, remember its root and be grateful to those who assisted in the early days of “start-up”. Do not take personal pride in the business success, and then mistreat or cut off those who rendered help and support in the humble beginnings. Pride invites collateral damage to decades of a precious friendship.

4. Entrepreneur is to be a good stewardship in money matters. (The Parable of the Talents - Matt. 25:14-30) Status quo should not be in the vocabulary of any entrepreneur. Each entrepreneur should be faithful to the entrepreneurial calling, either by choice or design. This especially for those who inherited the entrepreneurship from a successful predecessor, and they should not be just sitting on that laurel without moving forward at the appointed time. The dynamics of the entrepreneurial calling is that the entrepreneur must show initiatives, make vital decisions, apply effort and take risks if necessary. However, he/she must not squander any valuable excess accumulated during the good and profitable time. He must understand the markets and their evolution. Innovate, inspire associates, and coordinate public resources for the common good. In good stewardship, an entrepreneur will not waste the opportunity to serve society at large whenever he has the capability and affordability. 

Ending – Thank You for listening and please stay tuned with us in my next Episode.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is that Christian Management skill so lacking behind Christian Leadership?
2. Does your culture play a big part in shaping your entrepreneurship make-up? What and how?
3. Do the parables spoken by Jesus still very much applicable in your own culture in entrepreneurship?