“I am because We are: Dependence on God

The way each of us acts and reacts in the circumstances that we come across in our Organization portrays the culture that we are in. What is this culture, we must have read in our school , college and university books, taught by our teachers, parents and in church too. Therefore, we are into some culture, which is exhibited by our behavior. It reminds me of the LCP tool, i.e. ABC ( Attitude, Behaviour and Culture), which we have used a number of times in our project pre and post assessment. The principles of ABC can be applied to our work culture too, our attitudes and our culture defines our behavior.

Before we go into any details, let me share with you some definitions to familiarize on the culture perspective. In the words of Hofstede (1980) culture is, “ The collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another …. The interactive aggregate of common characteristics that influences a human group’s response to its environment.” We can reword it for ourselves, it is a collective programming of the minds of colleagues in World Vision India which distinguishes us from other offices in the partnership as well as from other Organizations in the development field. We exhibit some common characteristics that influence our response to the environment. E.g. when we take a decision, why we take-when we take-what we take.

Work culture, on the other hand, is a totality of various levels of interaction among organizational factors (boundaries, goals, objectives, technology, managerial practices, material and human resources, and the constraints) and organismic factors (skills, knowledge, needs, and expectations) interact among themselves at various levels. Over a period they develop roles, norms and values focusing work and are called work culture.

Dependence on God means we completely depend on God acknowledging that He is the source of everything, staying connected with Him through disciplined prayer and intentional study of the Word, constantly aligning ourselves to the will of God so that our vision values and behaviour are congruent with His Mission. In every decision that we take we need to exhibit that we depend on God in our work, in all plans or designs that we make, in all strategies we develop, implementing them, we depend on God to manage our teams, perform in our work, deal with our internal and external stakeholders.

Another aspect of dependence on God show when we are worried.

Are you wondering how to make things happen the right way? Here is the simple formula= Do your best and trust God to do the rest.

We have often seen that while leading teams, or leading our work in our communities or carry organizational responsibility, we find more than enough reasons to worry – deadlines, financial pressures and economic crisis’s, changing stakeholder demands , multitasking demands, under-spending, boggle our minds, churns our stomach and account for many stressful situations. Nevertheless, Jesus cautions us against worrying about anything – even the food we eat or the clothes we wear: Matthew 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

As leaders in our teams and communities, we need to lead in a way that allows others to see our faith in God. If the communities see our faith in our God, when our team members see our faith in God, it is bearing witness to the kingdom of God at all times. One way we can do that is by depending on God in the face of our daily work pressures. The next time you are under pressure, pray for the grace you need to depend on God, who is perfectly and eternally worthy of your trust. Remember that those you lead (communities, volunteers or our team members) will see how you respond to such pressures and will follow your actions.

The distinct characteristic of those who have not placed their faith in God often live only for the moment. Their peace of mind or anxiety is tied to their work and life circumstances, its fire fighting always. However, those whose faith is secure in the One who is secure are able to live above the worries of this world. This faith is dependence on God, we plan our future and live or present in HIM. Here is a small reflection on the Organization’s characteristic i.e. Dependence on God.

A little extra helps...

How many times have you found this phrase a reality in your life. Human nature is such that being content is always with a little extra.

Funny but true, all the philosophies of contentment fails just in the moment when we look forward to a little extra. In life matters, be in money, relationships, dreams, achievements and more, in every matter a little extra always matters. There would be a hundred things that a little extra will help us but lets us look at few things that a little extra if we did, will really help us. Remember the times you have struggled in your work or life, had setbacks in life, if you think why me, then look the story from this angle, setbacks and struggles are inevitable but how you respond to them defines your success and achievements. The lesson from life what I have learnt and have believed thus far is that its better to focus on what we still have than to what we have lost. A loser always looks at what s/he has lost but a winner sees what s/he has gained from the situation. So lesson number one is to win in every situation. If situation wins over you then you are a loser , if you win over every situations in life then though you lose still you will be winner because you can never remain in the situation of losing, you will rise up to success. You need to have the willingness to work hard , have determination to succeed, and more than anything have the mindset of a winner. Just take life's challenges as one more challenge to overcome on the road to success.

When we live through the situations in life, it’s a rat race and the tragedy of the this race is that even when you win the race still you are “a rat”. So winning as you are and winning big makes you a winner. Everybody wants to be a winner, we run like we have machines performing at our best and if we do not we will be replaced. We just forget that everyone in this world is different with undoubtedly unique strengths and weaknesses. How is it to feel winning your own race rather than winning a race through cutthroat competition? Winning a race is always about how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. Winning your own race is always being a inspiration to your own world. You consider yourself to be the best in what you do and others perceive you the best in what you do and not what they do. So compete with yourself to excel in life situations, to win your own race. 2000 employees may not become the National Director or CEO of an Organisation, but definitely they can do their best in what they are good at doing. Comparing yourself with others is stress-diarrhoea, its just wont stop, so what do you do, just don’t compare yourself with others, do the best you can. That I understand as self direction, being a successful manager, being a successful specialist is big in itself.

I was watching this Jim Carrey’s movie, “Yes man”, apart from the comic timings of the actor, which is entertaining, what I liked is the message that came accross. We loose life opportunities when we say no, or keep saying no. Its an attitude as keep saying yes is. But helping people and saying yes to doing good always pays handsomely. Going an extra mile, lending an extra hand is always helpful for everybody. The world teaches us to be selfish, ask to yourself, who likes an selfish guy, you wont be a friend to a selfish guy, you wont marry a selfish guy or gal, so we all like people who can do that little extra, the simple logic is if we do the little extra people like us too. From my life experiences I have found that its very easy to say no and very hard to say yes, coz says yes means you are putting yourself into a situation where you have to do a little extra. Do an extra effort to help somebody, your friend, your colleague , your spouse, your kid, your neighbor, just a little extra will help you to be the influencer, leader and inspiration.

A little extra effort in your career will make you success, a little extra time with your spouse will make your relationship healthy, a little extra time with your friends will make them your best friends, and a little extra help work for your colleagues will make you a leader in your own right. Remember friends, life with a little extra always helps in a lot big ways. Keep doing the little extra and your Father in Heaven will bless you abundantly for the little extra that you do.