The Power of Work

Tom Shrader examines the biblical principles of empowerment in the workplace, using Moses and Jethro's advice from Exodus 18 as a model. He identifies common management failures like tacticians in strategic positions and micromanaging, contrasting energized versus de-energized work environments. The teaching emphasizes that effective leadership involves delegating tactical work to capable people while focusing on strategic responsibilities.

“The object in your life is to not do the work of 10 people - you're one person doing one person's work, but to find 10 people who will do their work.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Power Broker

Recorded: April 27, 2006

Duration: 43 min

Themes: leadership, empowerment, delegation, authority, stewardship, workplace, management, service, manager, supervisor, business owner, workplace leader, struggling with delegation, new to management, team leader, mentor

Scripture: Exodus 7:1-2, Exodus 18:13-23, Exodus 18:23

Theological Themes: biblical leadership, stewardship, spiritual authority, biblical management, calling, vocation, servant leadership, discipleship

Full Transcript

Introduction: Understanding Biblical Power

This is session four, I believe. Ten sessions in this series and we're just going to get right after it, work our way through the outline that you have in front of you. Let me remind you the series or the topic is the issue of power and maybe a little different than most of the discussions on the topic that you've seen before.

Here's the premise of the series: all power is generated by God. God's the source of all power. He transfers that power to us on a conditional basis. By that I mean He retains ownership. He's the source of that power. We are stewards of the power that He gives us.

That power is transferred to us through four sources. Those sources are government and work, family and church. So when we end this series, we look at those four power sources, work our way through them.

The Purpose of Power: Passing It On

Leading up to that, we're spending an awful lot of time trying to build a case for how you, and again I'm not sure the term's even the best term, but we use it, how you empower somebody. How you transfer the power. Subtitle of the series: power, how to get it, how to use it, how to pass it on.

That's the idea - that God puts power in your life and you are in some of those structures, government, church, work, family, whatever they are, you are in there and you are not the end user. The idea is that you use that power and you are passing that on. So if you are a parent in that power structure in the family, you are there to empower or transfer the power to the children. You see the same principle at work, same principle in these other areas.

Today's Focus: Workplace Empowerment

Today our focus is on work and let me just remind you, you may be here today and by choice you've decided that you will no longer work, you've retired. It's still important for you and if you're in the workplace, even more important, but it's still important for you even if you're not employed to understand this stuff so that you can be the conduit to pass these principles on. You're the people that people typically come to for advice.

So we'll just work our way through the outline. On point A, here's where we go. People are empowered when they are entrusted with meaningful assignments that allow them to maximize the potential of their proficiency.

People are empowered when they've been entrusted, they've been given a meaningful assignment. That doesn't mean that we all need to be working on the cure for cancer. That's not the point here. It's when I'm working on something that is significant to me, significant in my life, the task in and of itself may be menial, but the task is meaningful and it allows me to maximize this area of proficiency.

The Five Elements of Empowerment

Let me remind you what that is. We can do it by just going to those next five points in your outline. Proficiency is the first one. These are the importance of this progression that we're looking at.

Proficiency is finding the right person in the right place. I was talking to somebody who's in the third year of a very specialized four-year program and they just discovered three weeks ago they don't want to do this anymore. What do you do?

See, it may be in your life that what you are trained to do and what you're designed to do are two very different things. It may be that you've been trained in a specific area, that you got there just by accident. You got there because your dad always said, you know what? You got the gift of gab. You ought to be a sales guy. And all your life, you've never wanted to be a sales guy. You've always wanted to be an engineer.

It may be that somebody just said to you, you know what? Nobody in our families ever graduated from school and you're going to graduate from college. You're never wired for that. You're wired to work in the shop. You love to work on cars and you're the best in the world at it. But what you're trained to do and what you're designed to do may be two different things. Proficiency is having the right person in the right place doing what they're designed to do.

Ownership and Work Assignments

Here was the second thing and that was ownership. It was real simple and that's to say these resources are transferred to you on a, remember last week, on a temporary basis. These resources come to you temporarily as God lets you use them on a temporary basis.

Number three is work. That's the assignment we're talking about. And then the last two, encouragement. That's to keep your emotional tank filled.

The Role of Encouragement

You have a response. If you are a father, it's interesting how little the New Testament has to say to us about parenting. But it does say this to you fathers. Fathers, don't provoke your children. I would think the antithesis of this would be fathers, encourage your children.

As a power broker, you passing that power on, one of the great responsibilities you have is to be a source of encouragement, to pump courage into people, to take people who are deflated and inflate them. Not artificially, not blowing smoke at them, but to encourage them.

Learning to Release

Then we said the last point is to release. It's to let go. Most of the illustration we're talking about in a minute come from work. But we just, last, help me out, Sunday. Sunday afternoon was baccalaureate at high school and Haley's graduating. Haley graduates tomorrow night.

And we were there and so they had to go through a lot of stuff in order to get what was really important going and that was Haley's talk. And so they had to put this whole event together just to do that. And so when Haley got up, it was really, and obviously I'm her father, and so I assume I'm somewhat prejudiced in this. But I'm telling you, I've been through a lot of this stuff.

And it was her turn and she walked up there and she had this incredible, I am so happy that Susan caught it on tape, this incredible smile and delivered four or five minutes flawlessly, never broke stride, never stuttered and stammered, was talking about her sister, looked over at Sarah, was smiling at her, never missed a beat. It was, I mean, I'm just telling you, it was incredible. And when she walked and she sat down,

The Transition to Independence

I thought this is really significant. Susan and I—obviously Susan's sitting next to me and we're both doing the same thing—found this really interesting because it just marked a little point in the sand where we say, "You know what, we're moving to the next phase and we've prepared her." This has been our child philosophy forever: to make them independent of us and dependent upon God. This is the process.

See, I can get the right person in the right place, transfer the ownership, give them the work done, but if I don't release them, I've got to let them go. If you've got a 40-year-old calling you—your 40-year-old daughter—wanting to know what to do with her allowance, you've got problems. You haven't finished the job. We'll talk about that in a bit.

Work as Ministry

When we talk about work, and that's what we're going to talk about today, when we talk about work, we're talking about something that's a significant part of your life. It's probably half of your waking hours, five days a week. It's a gigantic portion of your time.

As we've said to you many times, if you don't see this work that you're engaged in as ministry, you're doomed to spiritual frustration. What's going to happen is you'll start to resent your work. You'll see your work as getting in your way of what you see as true spiritual growth. No, your work is an instrument to be used for your spiritual growth.

I'm talking to a young kid last night, and man, he was sharp. We brought him in, and we're just going through some stuff—church stuff. I just don't like it; it's time to freshen it up. I want fresh stuff, some fresh look, and get the website fresh. Stuff needs to be a little fresh.

So you bring this guy in, and anybody that does fresh website stuff is like 12 years old. This guy's very old—he's 24 in this industry. I'm telling you, he was so good. I told him afterwards, "What an honor to be able to meet with somebody who's service-oriented, who really cares."

He said, "Well, thank you." I was talking to him about work, and even in the course of his presentation, he said, "What you need ultimately is somebody who owns this, who has this as a job. They're handling all of our communications." I said, "Well, we can certainly create a lot of those things."

He said, "You know, it's not necessarily," which I thought was really cool on his part, "I just want you to know it's a position, but it's not one I would necessarily be in. I really think God's placed me in the workplace, with all these creative and lost people, to be salt and light there." Well, by George, he's got it. That's the whole point.

What's happening is, I think if you help these kids see it, they'll see it. We've got 26 or 27 young men right now who have infiltrated this community for Christ with exactly that mindset. See, so now that's where we are.

Understanding Your Frustration at Work

When we talk about work, I'll just tell you today, for those of you that are engaged in work, bells and whistles are going to go off. If you're a frustrated manager or owner, today you're going to go, "Uh-oh, I see why." If you're a little frustrated worker bee, you're going to today go, "Uh-oh, I see why."

Almost all of this—we got to take about 15 minutes to go through stuff as it relates to work, and then we'll give you the biblical principles that will solve this issue for you.

The Misconception of Management

Here's the misconception of management. Two points: One, management exists to do the important work in business. Secondly, the managed—that's the worker—exists to empower the management to do the important work. The misconception is that only management is important. That's not the issue. All of the pie is important.

Management, labor—both important. Those that are strategic, here's words we're going to use—strategic, which would equal management for sake of this conversation—and the tactician, the labor, the worker, whatever that is. Maybe labor digging a hole, it may be labor doing input, it may be labor checking people out, but the worker. Both are critical in this entire process.

The True Charter of Management

The charter to management, what management ought to be doing is this: maximize the potential of all available resources, especially people. In your business, I assume you understand that the most valuable resource that you have are the people that are there, the people that are working. Management's job is to maximize this. For most businesses, your greatest single expense is personnel. Management's there to maximize that.

How do they do it? Real simple. It's the role of the power broker. They assign the work in the business that's tactical—that's the worker stuff—and they assume the work on the business that's strategic. It's very simple. The tasks that need to be done and can be done at a level lower than them, they assign those and they assume the work on the things that are strategic.

If we're making widgets, they make sure the plant's running that makes the widgets. They have assignments that assume that works, but they delegate the work of getting the widget made. This isn't complicated stuff. This is really simple.

Why Simple Principles Don't Work

If it's so simple, how come it doesn't work? Let me give you four reasons here. Number one: you've got tacticians in strategic positions. You've got workers in strategic positions. You see it all the time in small businesses that have grown.

I was talking to a guy the other day who had a company that was in 400 square feet and they're now in 4,800 square feet. Seven months ago, four employees, now 14. When you get a business that's expanding like that, there are challenges all over—you know them. One of the problems can be the guy that started the business and invented the little product and made the little widget is now in a management position but he doesn't want to go there. He's not wired for that.

That makes you a good salesman oftentimes is the thing that makes you a lousy manager. So I got a salesman. What's a salesman love? He loves the freedom. He doesn't want to do a bunch of paperwork. He doesn't want to sell, rock and roll, lie a little bit, and get the product out there. That's a salesman.

Well, what's a manager? A manager is on the other side of the coin - a guy that's very much committed to the paperwork, the timeline, the detail. So what do we do? We take the person that's the best salesman and say, well, they got to be the best manager. Not really. Oftentimes, the guy who can survive as a salesman will absolutely thrive as a manager.

It may be that you have risen beyond really your capacity in this sense. You're a great salesman, you've become a manager, you're miserable there. You need to go in and fire yourself today and go back down the ladder. There's nothing wrong with that. That's a good thing. Last time we talked about this, there was a guy who went out and he did it. He went back to his boss and he said, "I know I'm in a management position, but you need to get me back in the shop. I belong in the shop. I live in the shop. I'm not sleeping. I'm not eating. I'm going crazy. I've risen too far." There's nothing wrong with this. When we say risen, we're not making value judgments here. But all of a sudden, I'm not going to empower people if I'm a worker here in a strategic position.

Three More Roadblocks to Empowerment

Here's the second thing. I'm going to have a roadblock to this if I've got a tactician that does not delegate. He can't let it go. He's proud that he does the work of 10 people. That's not his job. His job is to get 10 people to do their work. He can't walk through the plant without redoing everything.

Listen, when you delegate, that means that you pass on the responsibility and the authority to get something done and get out of the way. Why wouldn't you want to do that? Well, because it's not always going to get done the way that you would do it. Let me give you the other side of that - it sometimes gets done better. But it will stop the process when that manager won't delegate.

Here's the third thing. Tacticians are threatened by giving it away. If I assign this, I'm a manager, I assign this, I empower this, I transfer this authority, and it gets done, what happens in this whole process to me? Do I look bad? So all of a sudden I'm saying, "No, I'm only going to give them half of it. Or I'm always going to find something wrong with what they're doing." Because if I can find something wrong with what they're doing, my position is important. See how that works? So now everybody's frustrated.

Here's the last roadblock. Tacticians are confused by supervising strategic assignments. By that I mean that they've got roles that are all confused in the process. Some assignments are out and they're clear, all of this stuff. But the bottom line to these roadblocks is I got the wrong person in the wrong place. I've got workers in management. The manager's stopping this thing from flowing. All of our attention may go down to the production line, but the problem is strategic.

Measuring the Environment: Energized vs. De-energized

When I have an environment, I probably like you in the look on your face - I don't care that much about those things. I love, what's it mean? Well, how do I measure this thing? Well, I measure it real simply. When I come into an environment, it's either energized or de-energized.

When I come into a workplace, or I come into a family, or I come into a church, I can see this instantaneously. I happened to meet yesterday with an architect also talking about church, and this guy's feeling was, "These guys are great. I mean, they love their stuff." He said, "I believe somebody should walk into a church, and before a word is spoken from the front, they should be able to explain to you 80 percent of the philosophy of that church, by the building and what's around you." See, that's a guy that's energized by his business. But what he's saying is, when you come into an environment, you immediately can tell a well-run business.

We used the illustration a couple weeks ago. I can walk into the McDonald's at Indian School and Hayden, and I know in an instant that it's a company-run store versus a franchise store. You can tell what kind of boss you have. All you got to do is walk in.

If I have an energized environment, people are stretching, the manager is coaching, and people are flying. When I walk into a store, I can see that. When I walk into a law firm, when I walk into any company, any enterprise, any family - haven't you seen in a family? You walk into a family, people are energized, people are stretched, the parents are in positions of leadership, and that family's flying.

When I'm in a de-energized environment, people are stifled, everything's very rigid and boxed, the power broker is playing rather than coaching, and everybody's frustrated everywhere.

Real-Life Examples: De-energized Environment at the Library

Let me give you three concrete examples of this, and they're from my life, so they're very important, but I think you see the principle. The first one is a de-energized environment. This happened to me at the Tempe Public Library - absolutely true story.

I'm in there, and I'm trying to do some research. I hate doing this stuff. I'm not a research guy. I'm not very good at it. I wish I could, but it's just not something that's interesting to me. It's, again, the way I'm wired. If I could dish it off, I'd dish it off. So I'm doing some research, and I'm tracking this down.

I track it down. Do I need this magazine? I go to the desk. I give the gal the request. It's got to be written. Give her the written request. She brings me the magazine, and I said, "Thank you," and she said, "Well, I need your library card if you're going to take it," and I said, "Well, I'm going right over there," and I pointed 10 feet, 20 feet away.

So I'm going right over there. I'm going to copy this article, and I'm coming right back. I'll bring it right back to you. I'm not leaving the place. She said, "Well, I need your library card." I said, "Well, let me explain because I don't communicate very well sometimes. I'm going to take this magazine. I'm going to walk over here, make a copy of it, and then I'll come back. I'm not going to leave. I'm not going to do anything with it." She said, "I need your library card."

Well, I know that with the way life is, this person's going to be in church next week, so I have to be sensitive. I said, "You know, let me just explain to you. My library card is out in the car, and it's 158 degrees, and it just doesn't seem to me like it makes sense to do this. I'm just going there to make a copy." She said, "I'm sorry. I have to have the library card." I said, "Well, let's do this. I've got my keys, and I've got some cash. Let me leave that here." Absolutely true. She said, "I've got to have that library card."

So I go out to the car. This is so stupid to get my card. I give her my card. "Thank you, sir." I give the thing. I make a copy. I come back over. I give it back. She's in a rectangle area, and on that side, and on that side, the other side - now unbeknownst to me, you place orders at one side and pick them up at the other. On the other side, I'm asking her to do this. It's a stapler. I say, "Could you get that stapler so I can staple these, please?" She said, "No, I'm sorry. You'll have to come around to that side."

I said, "Okay." I walked around to that side, and she said to me, "How can I help you?" Like I was a brand new person that she'd never seen before. That's exactly what happened.

The Problem with Over-Regulation

Now, here's my point to you. I don't know this at all, but I would bet that the Tempe Public Library has an employee manual that's this thick that covers everything but xeroxing 10 feet away. The answer is a library card. What do you have? You have a stifled, sterile, bureaucratic, dead organization.

A Tale of Two Service Philosophies

Let me give you two examples on the other end. We're on vacation a couple of years ago, and I love to shop. I'm one of the few guys in the world that loves to shop. We go to Nordstrom's in the north, way up in the North Bay. I find a pair of pants, like $75 pair of pants for $25, but problem is - not an unusual problem - they need to be let out and shortened.

I said to the gal, "You know, I like these, but they don't fit." She said, "You know, even on our sale stuff, all the alterations are free on this." I said, "Oh really? Well then, you know, let them out about eight inches and shorten them about four." We did that, and she said, "When do you need them?" I said, "We're going up on the coast. We'll be up there a couple weeks. I'll pick them up on the way back. We're coming through on the way back."

We're driving down, and I'm not thinking about these pants. When we leave Sea Ranch, we drive to Phoenix. It's a 19 and a half hour drive. Well, actually, last time took us 21 hours. Everybody has fun, and it's war. We got to get through this. We got to get it done. I've got my ball cap and my fat pants on and my t-shirt, and I'm just really sloppy and disheveled and don't necessarily shower for that trip.

We're driving by, and my daughter goes, "Dad, you better go by Nordstrom's and get your pants." I said, "Oh, yeah." I'll get those slacks. So I go in, and I realized I don't have a claim check. My claim check is in my golf bag, which is under the tarp. I mean, it's just a ways. I thought, well, let's see what happens.

Service That Goes Beyond the Manual

So I go in, and I'm stumbling around, and I'm in the men's department. I can't find anybody. A lady comes over from another department, and she said, "Can I help you?" I said, "Well, I need to pick up some slacks." Here's what she said: "The men's department's not my department, but let me help." She didn't point me. She said, "Let me take you over. Let me help you here. Let me see if I can help you. You know, Barbara, can you help Mr. Schrader here? Mr. Schrader needs some help."

Barbara said, "What can I do for you?" I said, "Well, Barbara, I got a little bit of a problem. I was through two weeks ago. I bought some slacks. I don't have the claim check. Claim check's way out of my thing. You know, I can't get at it. I'm on vacation. I'm on my way back home." She said, "What's the last name?" I said, "Schrader, Tom Schrader." She said, "Okay, Mr. Schrader." I said, "I'm from Phoenix. That's all that information's on there. I'm on vacation."

She comes out. She's got the slacks. They're all perfectly done. She said, "Would you like to try them on?" I said, "No, not really. You know, they're going to be close enough." So I look at the package, and she packaged them up. I said, "I don't have that claim check for you. Would you like me to sign something?" Here's what she said: "Mr. Schrader, here's what we would like you to do. We'd like you to have a great vacation, and you take care of yourself and drive safely."

See the difference? I've got Tempe Public Library. Here's my employee manual, this thick. I got Nordstrom's employee manual: don't chew gum and make customers happy, this thick. Which one works?

Excellence in Action

Susan and I, the other day, I did a wedding at Greyhawk, which I'd never done up there. It was beautiful. So we spent the night up there, and we went up to Carefree. I hadn't been to Carefree in 10 years, and there's a place called the Ironwood Grill up there. We walk into the Ironwood Grill. I'm kind of hungry. Walk into the Ironwood Grill. There's this gal named Susie, and many of you, apparently you can tell by the smiles, have been in there.

But there's three or four rooms, and there's some outside. Would you like to eat outside? I said, no, we're locals, and we live here. I don't need to go outside. I got outside to get here.

She said, would you like to eat in this room? I said, well, there's that room in there would be the best room because there's nobody in it, and it's got all the linen out. It's obviously set up for dinner, and I'd like to eat in that room if I could. She said, if that's where you want to eat, you pick the room, and away we go.

We walked in. She said, which table would you like? I said, well, the one by the window. She said, that's the table right there. Almost every other place you've been in, they're going to say, no, that room's set for dinner.

Now, it's time to order, and Susan said, what's this blue cheese coleslaw? She said, that's part of the deal. That's one of the things. She said, let's do this. Susan said, well, I'd like to have... She said, let's do this. You order that, and take a couple bites. If you don't like it, I'll just get you a couple other things, and you just keep finding it until you find what you want that goes with your meal.

The Power of Employee Empowerment

I'm saying, so we're all done. I said, Susie, let me tell you something. I'm really impressed. Are you an owner in this? She said, no, I just work here. I said, well, I'm impressed by the owner, and I'm impressed by you, that you would have that comfort. Not be worried about us messing up the linen. Not be worried about us being the only people in the room. Not be worried about saying, we'll just keep bringing you stuff till you're happy.

She said, you know what? When you come to a place like this, you're going to spend a lot of money for lunch, and you should have a good experience. I said, a lot of money? Let me see that. I want to spend a lot of money for lunch.

So when it's time to tip, what do you think? You know, a lot of money. That's what you think. I think, hey, we haven't been in care for you in 10 years. She's not going to be here when we come back. We're out of here. So it's time to tip, so what does she get? She got the best. We always decide who tips, and she got the best end of the deal.

See the difference? That's an empowered environment, and that's the way it ought to be where you work. Your work should not be an endless source of frustration. You don't need a bunch of rules and regulations. You need some guidelines and some direction, and then you take those people, and you put them out there, and get the heck out of their way.

It's just like raising kids. Let them make their mistakes. Let them be training. Be oriented toward that customer, and figure out how to make money. That's why you're in business. They help you out. A lot of businesses have forgotten this. You know why you're in business? Not to serve the customer. Why are you in business? Make cash. That's the reason you exist.

Moses: A Biblical Example of Management

Now, when you take the Ironwood Grill, and that's the attitude, or Nordstrom's, and that's the attitude, I go back again. Let me give you a biblical example.

Moses. Moses was assigned a position that was strategic. Moses is given an extraordinary job. The Lord said to Moses, see I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron like a prophet, and you are to say everything that I command you, and let Aaron, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites out of the country.

Here's the strategic assignment that Moses had. Talk about a management position. God's assignment to Moses is to take two million Jews, and move them from Egypt to the promised land. That's a huge job. Think of the logistics of that. Think of moving, you know, essentially, probably what would you have? Phoenix and Mesa, and a good chunk of the valley. Imagine taking that group of people, and moving them to Yuma, and taking 40 years to do it. Imagine the logistics involved. That's Moses' job. That's a strategic job. That's a management job.

Moses' Tactical Mistake

Secondly, Moses is pursuing a predisposition that was tactical. Moses' approach is that of a worker. His father-in-law finally comes to him. Remember his father-in-law's name? That's right, Jethro.

He said, what you're doing is not good. So here's what he's doing. Let's make sure we understand the context. Moses is in charge of these people. Jethro now, we're in Exodus 18. Now time has passed. Jethro, his father-in-law says, what you're not doing is good. You and these people who come to you are wearing yourselves out. The work is too heavy. You can't handle it alone.

What a great principle. Let me say it to you again. The object in your life is to not do the work of 10 people. You're one person doing one person's work. If you are a manager, the object is not for you to do the work of 10 people, but to find 10 people who will do their work.

The Symptoms of Poor Management

Jethro looks at him and says, strategic, strategic, strategic is your job. You're down here trying to do everything. You're messing around with all this stuff. And consequently, you're wearing yourself out.

Are you pooped at the end of the day? Are you exhausted and frustrated and angry and don't want to go? Are you in one of those situations where every Sunday, about three in the afternoon, the stomach begins to churn and the knot starts to develop because you know, Monday's coming and here it goes all over again? That's where Moses was.

Jethro's Solution: Empowerment

Here was the third thing. Moses needed to pursue the empowerment of people. Here's what Jethro says to him. Listen to me and I'll give you some advice and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to Him. Teach them the decrees and laws and show them the way they're to live and the duties they're to perform. Remember what we've talked about? Proficiency,

ownership, work, transfer this. Here's what you need to do, Moses. You need to do your job. What is his job? The big picture. You teach the decrees and teach the laws and show them how to live and let them do their job. And all of a sudden, everything's going to work out.

Point four, Moses needed to assign tactical work to qualified people. Select capable men from among the people, men who fear God and who are trustworthy, men who hate dishonest gain and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, ten, have them serve as judges. Moses, let them do the work that you're doing. Do everything. Here you go.

This stuff is 3,500 years old and it's the stuff that they're now putting in the management books. Flatten out the organizational chart. Isn't that what you hear when you go to a meeting? Flatten out the organizational chart. Do all the things you can possibly do at the lowest possible level. That's what this is. It's common sense.

Delegating to Capable People

Jethro was saying, Moses, you're doing a bunch of work you don't need to do. There are people, capable people. So if you're running a business, what do you do? You get capable people, you give them an assignment and you get out of their way and you entrust them to do that. That's how I exist in the corporation. That's how I exist in the church.

If you're in a church and you got a bunch of little assignments going on, you need volunteers. Here's a principle. If you're involved in leadership in church, let me give you what I think is a generally accurate rule of thumb. Your volunteers are overqualified for the assignment you've given them. This guy is an executive vice president at Intel, but on Sunday he passes out bulletins and he picks up communion cups. He can handle the job.

If you want to frustrate people in a volunteer organization, take overqualified people and micromanage them. You're going to drive them nuts. Go into a church and listen. Watch what's going on. Is it in an energized environment or are they de-energized? And if they're de-energized, it's because you've stifled them somewhere along the way.

Handling the Hard Cases

Here's the fifth point. Moses needed to accept this work himself. He said, here's what's happening. Have them bring the difficult cases to you. The simple things they take care of. They will make your load lighter because they'll share it with you. Moses was told, you handle the hard stuff, let the little stuff go at the smaller level. Your load will be lighter.

When I first came to the valley, I worked at Motorola and I worked for this guy and I couldn't really understand it. This guy was the first one there in the morning, the last one to leave at night. He was the manager. And after a while, I said to somebody, why does he get here so early? And they said, well, he's setting an example. I said, well, that's no example I want to follow. I don't want to be the first one in here and the last one at night. You're telling me that he's got to work this hard? That's how much this takes?

This guy was a rising star at Motorola across the nation. This guy was a rising star. Took the promotion to San Diego that comes, got to San Diego and blew out. Why? I'll tell you why. Because he's trying to do the work of 10 guys. This is stupid.

The Results of Proper Delegation

Listen to this. 3,500 years old. Here's what he says. This will make your load lighter because you'll share it. And if you do this, two things are going to happen. Exodus 18:23. Number one, you'll be able to stand the strain. Number two, all these people are going to go home satisfied.

How'd you like to work in a place where management could stand the strain and everybody left satisfied? How about that for a work environment? How'd you like to be in a family where all the strain was essentially gone and everybody there was satisfied? How about being in a church where you don't have people burning out all over the place, but you have people who can stand the strain and everybody there's satisfied?

How do you do that? You have to put in place a system that transfers the load. I've got to distribute the load. That load's got to be distributed. And in a sense, when I get that done, now I've accomplished what God's had for me to do.

The Power Broker Role

Number six, and this is the key. Moses adopted a strategic role as a power broker. Listen to this. Moses does something now that most of you today will not do. Listen. Moses listened.

See, there's not one person here who can listen to this and say, well, that doesn't work. That doesn't make sense. You know it works. You know it makes sense. You know it's right. Then why doesn't it happen? You won't do it.

We can go back to the roadblocks because of ego probably. You're running a business probably because of pride and ego. Pride and ego's in the way. I haven't had a vacation in five years. What a shame. What a shame. Isn't that a sad way to live? Moses said, okay, and now he distributes this. Jethro goes home and everything works.

The Test of True Leadership

Two points and out the door you go. Here's the role of the power broker, to give away all your tactical work to proficient people who have the resources that they need to perform their assignment. See, that's what I need to do. I need to take this work as a manager and transfer it. Get rid of it.

If I do this, if the work stops when the boss leaves or the power broker leaves, the boss, the power broker, has failed to empower his people. If when you leave on vacation it all falls apart, then you are a lousy manager.

There's a store that I, out of necessity, go into frequently. And in there, I know the guy that owns the business and I talk with him. And this guy has had, he's had a series of the worst managers you can imagine. He's had seven or eight managers in three years. Let me tell you the problem, and I don't know anything about the business, but I

The problem isn't the manager - the problem's the owner. Either this guy can't hire, or once he hires the right person, he can't let him work in that environment. Ego is what creates this dysfunction.

When I go on vacation, as you know, I typically take all of August off, and I'm gone. When I come back, I'll say, "Well, how's everything?" "Great." "Any problems?" "No." "Great. Missed you. How'd it go? How are things? Any problems here?" "No." "Great."

There's something inside of you - a dark side that says, "Oh, I wish there would have been something that would have gone wrong, because it would have somehow lent validity to what I do." Exactly the opposite is the case. The fact that it worked is what validates what you do. That's the objective.

True Empowerment Means Growth and Release

In this environment, the work of the power broker is that people are empowered when they are entrusted with a meaningful assignment that allows them to maximize their potential. Here's what this means: it means people are continually moving on. Most people can achieve that within an organization, but sometimes they can't. Sometimes that means they have to go on.

It's interesting - we're working through a book at church staff right now called Leadership, Christian Leadership and Studies in Leadership, and this week's lesson was on when the leader leaves. That's an inevitable process. That's the growing and nurturing and releasing.

Work Should Satisfy, Not Frustrate

When we're talking about power, and as we've done in each one of these studies, one week it seems like it's always the family that gives the illustration, this week it seems like it's always out of work. If you're here today and your work is frustrating you, it's almost always bad management. That guy typically - or gal - not letting that position flow and develop.

Your work, let me say it again, should not be an unending source of frustration for you. It shouldn't be. It should be something that's satisfying and rewarding.

You are designed, and God created you, to work. Work preceded the fall. Remember that? Work became work after the fall, but you were designed to work.

Find Your God-Given Design

Let me just remind you - God's created you uniquely, and He's given you a spiritual gift, and He's given you a personality, and you're wired to do certain things in a certain way. Please, don't fall in the trap of spending the rest of your life trying to get better at something you'll never be good at.

For goodness sake, if you've been trained to do something, but God's designed you to do something else, begin the process of disengaging from the one job and engaging in the other. You ought to be satisfied in your work.

Now, you've got this guy - right person, right place. You've got this ownership, got this management thing. Now what? Encouragement. Next week we'll look at that.

Father, so often when we come to a study like this, we're looking for those spiritual truths. God, what a reminder today of how practical spiritual truth is. We pray that we are like Moses and that we'll listen. God, help us understand that we are not the center of the universe, and we don't have to do everything or it won't get done.

God, help us be people who don't need to do the work of 10 men or 10 women. We need to be a man or a woman who empowers the people around them to do what God's designed them to do, whether it's in the church, whether it's in the family, whether it's in the workplace, somehow even in the government. God, help us see that and have the courage to live this kind of life. We pray it to You in Jesus' name. Amen.