Tug of War

Handling decisions that conflict with your religious beliefs can be a real challenge for corporate managers. Often times it’s a real rope tug between your values and the choices on the table. Many of my Christian colleagues have expressed that they have had many times when their values made decision-making a more difficult and thoughtful process.  

When this happens, you may feel that your job is at risk and the conflict becomes even more stressful. Knowing what the right decision is usually isn’t the hard part. Having the courage to stand behind that decision, even if your job is at risk, is where the challenge lies. This is when your faith has to be greater than your fear (no small thing).

I have had to make a few really “tug of war” decisions in my career. One of the hardest decisions involved the termination of four of my most valuable employees all at once.  I labored with the decision and couldn’t sleep for days.  I prayed and looked at all of the options relentlessly. To make matters worse, the perception that this would create with my boss was not going to be good.  To help me with the decision, I studied scriptures, called on friends in the faith for guidance, and prayed, prayed, prayed. 

In the end, I did release all of them and lost a few friendships in the process, but I just couldn’t find any other acceptable option. This was a time that I really had to allow my faith lead the way! 

Do you have any experiences that you would like to share? Your comments would be appreciated and could be of help to some of my readers.

Some of the resources that I use are:

Christian Leadership Alliance
http://www.christianleadershipalliance.com/

Servant Leadership 
By Robert K. Greenleaf, Larry C. Spears

Christian Leadership World
The Tea Trust – http://www.teal.org.uk/