Hiring: Make Selection Your Top Priority

I'm re-reading a book by Brian Tracy called Hire and Keep the Best People. Here's a couple highlights from chapter one:

Make Selection Your Top Priority

• Nothing is more important to your future than your ability to select the right people to work with you to make that future a reality.
• Fully 95 percent of the success of any enterprise is determined by the people chosen to work in that enterprise in the first place. If you get this right, everything else will usually work out all right as well. If you select the wrong people, nothing else will work.
• Hire slowly and fire fast. Take your time to make the right decision prior to hiring in the first place.
• Hiring is an art. It cannot be rushed. You must take your time if you really want to hire well. Fast hiring decisions usually turn out to be wrong hiring decisions. The basic principle of going slow whenever you can is solid and irrefutable. It will greatly increase your overall success rate in hiring.
• The very best companies and the best managers have the best selection processes.
• Sometimes the best hiring decision you ever make is the one you decide not to make in the first place.

The Key to Godly Living

Why use up valuable time each day reading your Bible and praying? The apostle Peter gives us a great answer in 2 Peter 1:3, "As we know Jesus better, his divine power gives us everything we need for living a godly life." This verse teaches that as we spend time with God through Bible reading and prayer, God's divine power comes into our lives, and this is the power we need for living a godly life. This verse helps me know what to do when I'm losing the battle against temptation. Spend more time getting to know Jesus better! The more time I spend in prayer and Bible reading the more power is released to help me live a godly life. Temptation can be resisted, but it comes at a price. The price is taking time each day to know Jesus better. James 4:6 teaches that God gives us more and more strength to stand against evil desires. And that strength comes as spend time getting to know Jesus through Bible reading and prayer.

My Testimony

Imagine this...You're sipping a soda at a restaurant with a friend who doesn't know God yet, and you finally get your chance...your friend asks you why you've dedicated your life to God. Maybe he/she didn't word it like that, but that was the essence of their question...Wouldn't it be terrible if God provided you with an awesome opportunity to share your faith and you blew it because you couldn't clearly and succinctly articulate WHY you've dedicated your life to God? That would be horrible to me! That's why I've come up with a little acronymn that will help me do just that - succinctly share with others why I've dedicated my life to God. It's a work in progress so please feel free to leave comments that could help me improve it. Thanks!

TESTIMONY

T: I’ve been Totally forgiven (It brings me great joy to know that if I were to die this very instant I have peace with God through the forgiveness of sins Jesus offers).

E: I’ve been Enlightened on how to best live my life (I have principles, directions, guidelines for living my life).

S: I have a Source of power to live right (Freedom isn’t doing anything you want; it’s knowing the good you ought to do and having the power to do it).

T: I have Tranquility on the inside/in my soul (I have peace because no matter what I’m going through God is working in my situation for my ultimate good. Like the Psalmist I can say: I will lie down in peace and sleep [even during a difficult situation], Psalm 4:8.

I: I have a strong sense of self-worth because God paid Jesus for me (I’d feel great if someone valued my life at $1,000,000 – how much more so when God values my life at the price of his Son Jesus, who he sent to die in my place for my sins).

M: I have Motivation to get up every day because I have a purpose to live for (I exist to bring God pleasure in the way I live and to help to expand his kingdom). That brings meaning to my life.

O: I like the Outcome of my decisions (The Bible says you reap what you sow. And while I haven’t been perfect by any means, I’ve tried hard to follow God’s ways and have reaped the benefits of doing so in my relationships, my finances and my friendships.)

N: No fear of death (I know death is not a period, just a comma. And I know I’m going to heaven.)

Y: The same benefits God offers to me he offers to YOU, and to everyone.

Rough Around the Edges

People who aren't saved yet, or people that just got saved, can be very rough around the edges (to say the least!). How do we, as Christ followers, who are farther along in our spiritual development, respond to such people? I suggest we respond to them as Jesus would.

Here's an excerpt from a book by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room that speaks to this issue:

Jesus was fierce in his determination to look past ill-timed comments and inappropriate actions. He dreamed about what could happen in a person's life if God's power were released in them - and so he pushed through people's fear and sin, and he kept including people, loving people, and lifting people up to their fullest potential.

As you view people through this lens - you have new eyes to see things as Jesus saw them. You allow peope's foibles and failings and faults to fall away, instead seeing them in their potential, Spirit-infused state. You see filthy-mouthed, party-loving, woman-chasing Joe (or whoever), and you say, "What would Joe - even a guy like Joe - be like if God ruled and reigned in his heart? Joe would be incredible if Christ invaded his world!" You start dreaming of that day, in fact. You begin picturing him in his redeemed state. Your love for him grows and grows as you move toward him, engaging in the good, the bad, and the ugly of his life. You find yourself craving oportunities to be around people just like him - people who are on prayer away from becoming your eternal brothers and sisters.