You may have noticed in recent months an increasing emphasis in my messages toward the subject of prayer. Even this week’s messages on love stem from a heightened focus in my own life on prayer and on listening to God.
I believe that now more than ever we must return to this posture if we are going to fulfill our God-given purpose and take territory for the Kingdom of God - particularly in the marketplace.
This has put a burden in my heart to share with you one of the books that God has used to impact me heavily on this subject. My staff has been working to produce an electronic edition of a classic that I believe will change your life. I urge you to check it out right away.
In addition, they dug through our archives and located a teaching series that has previously only been shared with a handful of people that participated in one of my private coaching groups some years ago.
In honor of our celebration of the resurrection of our Savior this weekend, I instructed my team to put together a special price on these two items for you. It’s been a long time since we’ve ever offered anything at this low price point (below $20), but it’s important enough to me that you get these materials in your hands that I wanted this to be accessible to everyone.
One of our most responded to blog entries was when I recently mentioned (Feb 12th) the need for soft skills. I am proud to say I began with a discussion on humility. (o-; Today I want to introduce a soft skill Paul calls the greatest of all. It’s an awkward one to bring up in a business environment but it has the most transformational power.
I am talking of course about “love.” Talking about it is far less important than actually demonstrating it and there are countless ways we can do that. For example, love lays down its life for another. That’s what service is… laying down your life for the benefit of another. If you do this particularly well in business, you will generate high customer satisfaction and an incredible reputation.
As an example, my friend Wes Cantrell, the former CEO of Harris 3M and Lanier Worldwide told me when he became the CEO of Harris 3M he was in the position of actually chartering the purpose and vision for that company. That’s when they decided to build their purpose and business around the Scripture that says, “A good name is rather to be chosen than riches….” They focused on customer satisfaction and as a byproduct of that quality decision had tremendous growth and tremendous profits. He assumed the reins of a $93 million company and retired leaving behind a $1.5 billion company built on loving your customers.
P.S. By the way, if you’d like to hear more from Wes Cantrell, ChristianBusinessDaily.com is holding a teleseminar featuring him this week called “Insider Information - A Retrospective.” It gets underway on Thursday at 1PM Eastern, and is a fascinating look into the world of a major CEO who integrated his faith into the world of publicly-traded companies. Learn more about this event here.
A while back I wrote a blog on soft skills, chief among them humility. I well remember the time I went to hear a lineup of speakers at the 1993 Super Stars of Selling in Nashville, TN. The one speaker that stood out the most and the only one to receive a standing ovation was a man who, it seemed, was speaking before a large crowd for the first time. He was rather monotone, not at all flamboyant, cocky or arrogant and yet he held the audience in rapt attention. Sure, he had earned $3,000,000 in commissions and that was why he was invited, and sure, he had a good message about what he calls the five “F’s” of faith, family, friends, finance and fitness. But what carried the day was his profound humility. He was not boastful, arrogant or proud. His talk was the least exciting and lacked humor but it dripped humility. And the crowd was mesmerized.
There’s just something about humility that God seems to like and quite frankly, so do most people which is why when you combine humility with great talent, you get an overwhelming response. Consider Paul Potts, the cell phone salesman in England. He is not the picture of confidence, but as you will see if you watch this 4 minute video clip, he is immensely talented and genuinely humble. It’s his talent that got him on the program, but his humility that got the crowd to their feet.
What’s the lesson? Develop your gift. Follow your dream. Excel at it. And always, carry that gift with humility. Your gift will get you in the door. Humility will seal the deal. God resists the proud but exalts the humble. Don’t know about you, but I need all the help I can get, so I will choose humility while striving to always do my best and improve my gift.
Important Note: Our conference call for marketing and growing your business in the 21st century was one of our all time best attended. (If you missed it, you can listen online or download it here.) In that call we offered a 90-day mentoring program which begins this week. It has received our best response ever for this type of program. The door closes on that offer this week, so if you have a business that is in need of more business or a website that needs a lot more traffic, be sure to check it out. A lot of folks had some specific questions about the suitability of this program for their business and David Johnson agreed to extend his availability to discuss your unique situation through Wednesday of this week. You can either call Toll Free (877) 254-3047 or email him at appointment@sellingamongwolves.com to get your specific questions answered.
For the next while, I want to address the great need in the body of Christ and certainly in my own life for what I call the “soft skills.” Hard skills include things like workmanship, oratory ability, logistic ability, planning skills, and many, many more. But without soft skills, we are in great danger of a fall (Prov 16:18) and the loss of all we have worked so hard for. Worse yet… we may keep what we worked for and lose our family, our friends, our soul. (Mark 8:36)
Soft skills are so important that Solomon names two key soft skills (humility and the fear of the Lord) and claims they are the way to riches and honor and life. But then there are the fruit of the Spirit with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control. These are exactly the kind of soft skills I am speaking of.
I think it best to begin with humility because when we succeed in business (or even sometimes in our efforts to succeed), we can easily become prideful, boastful, and self-important. I know that is something I must fight. I don’t like to admit that, but it is true and I fear the consequences of a proud or haughty spirit. So what are the signs of lack of humility or pridefulness? We shall examine a few. But today I ask you… Will you walk on this journey with me? Will you contribute to the discussion? Specifically, will you share your insights on the telltale signs of pridefulness in our own life? I look forward to your thoughts…
