There's something I noticed early on when I began coaching and teaching spirit-rich solo business owners. When I ask them straight up if they positively impacted the lives of their clients through their work, they say, "Absolutely, no question."
Many of them can easily call up in their minds a significant list of clients who had experienced life-changing breakthroughs as a result of working with them. Even if they were brand new, often the people they had "buddy coached" or practiced their craft with received great value from them.
No doubts about their abilities. No hesitation on the value of their craft and their work, until... money enters the equation. Then they often told a different story, filled with second-guessing, self doubt, and lots of guilt.
In their power one minute, on shaky ground the next. When you really stop to think about it.... what the heck is up with that?
We're taught in our society that it's not spiritual to make a lot of money. Indeed, we're programmed every day to believe that having a lot of money is a bad thing, that "rich people" are selfish, insensitive, uncaring, et cetera. You see it in books, in movies, in magazines... all over.
And that sets us up for an enormous amount of conflict. Because on the one hand, as spirit-rich business owners, we value being a good person. On the other hand, we also want plenty of money in our lives - for our families, to create security, to give to charities, and yes... for ourselves as well.
One thing I know to be true - from my own experience, working with clients, and observing what's going on in the bigger circle - is that it's impossible to be successful in an area of your life when you have unresolved conflict. If you're conflicted about money and spirit, there is just no way that you will be able to step fully into your true work in the world - your purpose - and impact a lot of people.
That's why it's so important that spirit-rich, purpose-driven business owners heal the money/spirit divide within themselves. Here are 4 tips to help you do just that...
1. Remember that making money is an authentic, natural expression of living your purpose. Money is a mirror for how we value ourselves and our gifts. When you're doing the work you're meant to do and valuing it (in other words, NOT giving it away), you can't help but make money - it's just that simple.
Money is powerful feedback for how we're showing up in the world, living our purpose. And you get to make adjustments! If you don't like how money is showing up for you, you have the power to change that... and it starts from the inside. So cool.
Having more money doesn't change who we are, it allows us to bring more of ourselves forward. I like to think of it as turning up the dial on who we are already. And that's a beautiful thing.
2. Set boundaries. When you're trying to figure out on the fly if something is okay with you or not, it's really easy to question your judgment or let doubts creep in. Decide ahead of time where your money-and-spirit boundaries are, and stick to them.
For example, in my spiritual tradition, we do not accept money to teach our tradition. That's neither a "good thing" or a "bad thing" (and not everyone in the surrounding community agree with us, which is OK too) but it is a boundary that I happily agreed to. As I move forward with my work in the world, I seldom feel conflicted because I know where that boundary lies.
Another example is scholarship clients. Many practitioners want to work with people who may truly not have the money to pay their fees, as a give-back or some other reason that's important to them. If that's you, set a clear boundary as to how many scholarship clients you will take and what those scholarships look like. Be very mindful of who gets those spots and when they're gone, they're gone.
There is incredible personal power and healing in setting a clear boundaries that honor you, your clients and spirit. Remember, you are here to serve many people, not just a few!
3. Find role models. Look on the shelves of any bookstore, in the self-improvement or mind-body-spirit sections, and you'll see the work of many leaders who are both spiritual and financially prosperous. Indeed, I'd be willing to bet a milkshake (my favorite wager!) that at least one of your favorite spiritual authors falls into this category.
Select one or two of them to study. What values do they hold? What do their organizations or businesses look like? How do they show up with money and teach about money? Come up with questions of your own.
4. Reject the status quo programming. You can choose to say no to the "rich people are greedy and insensitive" message. Turn up your radar for these messages and as they come to you, ask, "Is that really true? Is this a belief I want to take on?"
Your research on role models will give you evidence to the contrary! Use your new role models - those who are kind, have integrity, do the right thing, are caring, are serving people in a big way AND are financially prosperous - to shape your thinking and your new, healthy beliefs about money and spirit.
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Integrity in South Africa
Last year while traveling in Jakarta, Indonesia, I shared a taxi with three other people. I ended up sitting in the back seat with a pastor who introduced himself and stated that he was from Cape Town, South Africa. I told him that we would be there a couple of months later. We shared business cards, and he subsequently arranged for us to come to his church while we were in the country. He personally called sixty business leaders, and on a stormy night, all sixty showed up. After our presentation, he made the following statement; "In the past, we have not emphasized workplace ministry, but I want you to be in a weekly group and even to lead one."
Before the meeting he made soup in the church kitchen and served us. After the meeting we had coffee, after which he took us on a tour of his clinics. During the tour, he told us the following story.
Five years ago he was told that in the black communities within blocks of his church, forty four percent of the people were HIV positive. As a pastor of a predominately white church, he felt called to action. Under his leadership, the church began an AIDS counseling program and established clinics. Four years later, they built a first class clinic for the critically ill, primarily those with HIV. The average patient is there two weeks before death. Each is treated with respect and loving care. Many find Christ. Establishing that clinic meant stopping progress on their own new church building, and funneling the finances into the clinic. They now have sixty one paid staff in the HIV ministry either running clinics or doing counseling. Many are located in the government buildings. John's church spends forty percent of their church budget outside the four walls in their surrounding community. What percentage does your church spend?
Last year their New Hope Ministry applied for a U.S. government grant. There were 450 other applicants from South Africa. It took a year to complete all of the paperwork. During the process, the application asked for written priorities of the program. John listed as the number one priority "to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and number two was to combat HIV/ AIDS. John's friends, staff, and board encouraged him not to list that as the number one objective. Even though it was known that the Bush Administration was positive toward faith based ministries, most felt that John needed to be more low key about stating their real purpose. John prayed and wrestled for weeks, but finally felt led to not change the written priorities. His reasoning: if they were awarded the grant under false pretenses, then they could be prohibited from doing priority number one.
The week before we arrived, John's church received word that they were one of the eighteen grant winners. Seven members of the Bush team flew to Cape Town to visit John's church services and the clinics. John found out that sixteen of the winners were hospital or research based and the seventeenth was another non-profit. John's ministry was the only faith based ministry to have won a grant. As the team left on that Sunday afternoon, Pastor John asked the U.S. team leader why their ministry was the only faith base ministry chosen. He responded, "That's easy. You were the only one to tell the truth. The others tried to hide their real motives, but you put your true intentions up front. We knew that if someone will mislead us on the application, they would not be truthful on the grant reporting." John learned a valuable lesson on integrity. Telling the truth will not always get the business, but the secular would is watching us to see if our words and actions show integrity. This pastor in a church in Cape Town, South Africa, gave us as business leaders a lesson in integrity.
Copyright, Kent Humphreys, 2010
Kent Humphreys has been a business leader for forty years. Kent is an established author, co-writing six books with his wife of forty years, Davidene. Kent has a business background in distribution, real estate, venture capital, and consulting.
Before the meeting he made soup in the church kitchen and served us. After the meeting we had coffee, after which he took us on a tour of his clinics. During the tour, he told us the following story.
Five years ago he was told that in the black communities within blocks of his church, forty four percent of the people were HIV positive. As a pastor of a predominately white church, he felt called to action. Under his leadership, the church began an AIDS counseling program and established clinics. Four years later, they built a first class clinic for the critically ill, primarily those with HIV. The average patient is there two weeks before death. Each is treated with respect and loving care. Many find Christ. Establishing that clinic meant stopping progress on their own new church building, and funneling the finances into the clinic. They now have sixty one paid staff in the HIV ministry either running clinics or doing counseling. Many are located in the government buildings. John's church spends forty percent of their church budget outside the four walls in their surrounding community. What percentage does your church spend?
Last year their New Hope Ministry applied for a U.S. government grant. There were 450 other applicants from South Africa. It took a year to complete all of the paperwork. During the process, the application asked for written priorities of the program. John listed as the number one priority "to bring people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ" and number two was to combat HIV/ AIDS. John's friends, staff, and board encouraged him not to list that as the number one objective. Even though it was known that the Bush Administration was positive toward faith based ministries, most felt that John needed to be more low key about stating their real purpose. John prayed and wrestled for weeks, but finally felt led to not change the written priorities. His reasoning: if they were awarded the grant under false pretenses, then they could be prohibited from doing priority number one.
The week before we arrived, John's church received word that they were one of the eighteen grant winners. Seven members of the Bush team flew to Cape Town to visit John's church services and the clinics. John found out that sixteen of the winners were hospital or research based and the seventeenth was another non-profit. John's ministry was the only faith based ministry to have won a grant. As the team left on that Sunday afternoon, Pastor John asked the U.S. team leader why their ministry was the only faith base ministry chosen. He responded, "That's easy. You were the only one to tell the truth. The others tried to hide their real motives, but you put your true intentions up front. We knew that if someone will mislead us on the application, they would not be truthful on the grant reporting." John learned a valuable lesson on integrity. Telling the truth will not always get the business, but the secular would is watching us to see if our words and actions show integrity. This pastor in a church in Cape Town, South Africa, gave us as business leaders a lesson in integrity.
Copyright, Kent Humphreys, 2010
Kent Humphreys has been a business leader for forty years. Kent is an established author, co-writing six books with his wife of forty years, Davidene. Kent has a business background in distribution, real estate, venture capital, and consulting.
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