day 1345: Busted Brackets

"With their words, the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous."

Last Thursday morning, there were many billionaires in the making as millions of people joined in the NCAA Quicken Loans/Yahoo! Tournament contest.  By Friday night there were only four intact brackets left and the following day, no one was perfect and Warren Buffett's $1 billion dollars were safe. March Madness brackets can feel like a shortened version of what a year in business can be.  At the beginning of the year, all is possible.  By the end of March, the first quarter we can start to see slippage and begin to lose hope.  Even then, we need to be sure that if we are on the positive side of the brackets that we not get filled with hubris and chest thumping. The mighty can fall quickly and what looks so sure now, can slip beneath us without warning.

When the brackets bust in our lives and work, we can only hold onto what we know to be the truth.  God's Word draws us back, like being called back to the original playbook.  What we are given, if we trust and believe, will right and steady us. To think that we are the one to always beat the odds and try to go it alone without relying on our Lord, is to be foolish.  As we start this week, let's start with being reliant on Him so that whatever hits us, whatever feels like the bracket is lost,  we can handle, we can persevere and move forward.  

Reference:  Proverbs 11:9 (New Living Translation)

day 1151: The Search Is On!

"Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well..."

Many of us who are working today can remember work before the times of voice mail, email, cell phones, air cards, texts, wifi, gogo, and even the internet. It's hard to think about work before all of these great tools. They have made us more productive and yes, probably because of the always connected nature of these tools we have added some stress to our working (and outside of work) lives. I also marvel at what we did for knowledge accumulation and knowledge dissemination before the advent of the search engine. Google is a verb and a household word today. We turn to Google first (sorry bing and yahoo) to find something we don't know, for quotes, for articles, yada, yada. We turn to Google and the other search engines for just about everything we need or want to know. What did we ever do before search engines? But search engines can't tell us everything we need to know. We are faced with decisions each day at work about what is right and what it wrong. We can't (yet) put a decision in a search engine and have the search engine run an algorithm that will spit out what the is the right thing to do in that situation. Fortunately, for us we have the ultimate combination of a search engine that leads us in what these right and wrong decisions should be.

Between our prayers, the Holy Spirit, and the words given to us in the Bible and those who we are closest in our faith, we have our own algorithm that are built for each of us personally. And we can see in Galatians 6:4 that when we search to God for what is right and wrong that we can find what it is that we are supposed to do and find the outcome that we can expect; "Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well..." Today you may be searching for what is the right thing to do, the right decision, the right words to resolve a situation with a co-worker, or you may be looking for the right decision for what to do with your career. Today you can know that you have an even more powerful search engine to access for these decisions. You don't even have to be online as God is much closer even than that to you, if you allow Him to be so. A search engine even better than Google? Yes, you have it even closer to you than your fingertips.

Reference: Galatians 6:4 (New Living Translation)

day 1100: Where You Sit Is Where You Stand

"But the Lord’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken."

There has been even more talk about Yahoo!'s decision to remove telecommuting from their benefits for workers.  BestBuy followed suit last week with the removal of their flexible work program called "ROWE" (Results-Only-Work-Environment).  I remember back in 2005 when they introduced this program.  It was designed by two employees and it became a very positive PR and recruiting tool for the company.  The program was written up in every business magazine and was received very positively for BestBuy's forward thinking and innovation in the workplace.  Now, less than 10 years later, the new CEO is debunking the whole program and calling it a "failure". All of the accolades are being refuted by new management, once again proving that where you sit is where you stand.  Now that BestBuy does not sit in the seat of success, they are looking inwardly to change. I didn't have any problem with Yahoo!'s decision to bring back the telecommuters, but I will say that BestBuy's declaration that a set of leadership principles that allowed people to focus on results and productivity and hanging that out as the problem with the company, might be stretching it a little too far. We have to be careful in how we conceive and deploy broad-based leadership and work programs as indeed times and needs do change, but it's never good to be caught looking like you are going from guardrail to guardrail for each of these changes can bring a loss of credibility for leaders and for the next program.

We can rest assured as believers that God's plans will never change.  That is one thing we never have to worry about.  He sits and stands in the same place today as He has forever and all He is asking for us to do is to stand with Him. Are we standing with Him today or are we sitting someplace else that is causing us to change our stance?  As we go to work today and do all we can to bring glory to Him, let's consider where we are sitting and standing. If we don't like either or both, then let's use today to start making the necessary changes.  He will guide us and lead us to the right places if we only lean on and ask Him to be there with us.

Reference: Psalm 33:11 (New Living Translation)

day 1091: A Big Policy Change

"As for me, I am in your hands—do with me as you think best."

Last week there was a big hullabaloo about Yahoo!'s CEO, Marissa Mayer, calling back into the office all of the people who have been telecommuting.  There are people on both sides of this decision.  Some think it way to draconian and a take-away from the benefits that people have earned at Yahoo!.  Others, myself included, understand the decision and expect that this is a season that the company will go through and if the goals are met, then working from home could be restored.  There are many schools of thought as to why Mayer made this decision.  I suspect that in the turnaround mode the company is now in and the fact that Yahoo! long ago lost the edge in innovation that she is bringing people back together to find some sparks and see what can happen if ideas begin to flow more quickly and fluidly across Yahoo!'s employees.  I also think that when new in the CEO seat that one attempts to establish a work ethic, performance standard and achievement bar.  It may well be that she will sort the wheat from the chaff just by seeing who decides to comply and who decides to leave.  Lastly, I do think there will be turnover from the decision and for Yahoo! that is probably okay. Voluntary attrition is always better than forced layoffs and if they were already considering having to pare the workforce, this is a good way to do so.  It will be a big decision for many people.  Good news for the telecommuters who can't change is that the employment market is hot and there are plenty of other companies who need skilled talent that could care less where or when you work, as long as the job gets done.

As human beings we don't like being told what to do if what it is we are being asked conflicts with what we want.  We don't mind being "led", but we dislike being "controlled".  The controlling part of Yahoo!'s decision is certainly part of the backlash.  What I love about our Lord is that He gives us plenty of rules on how we are to live and conduct ourselves, but he constantly pulls us to Him versus push us.  We may not always like what we hear from Him, but ours is a love, faith and commitment that starts with a surrendering of ourselves just like Jesus surrendered His life for us.  We are in the lent season where those in the Catholic and liturgically based religions will "give up something for Lent" as a way of reminding ourselves daily how and what He gave up for us.  Today as we think about what is being asked of us, let's follow the words in Jeremiah and say to God, "As for me, I am in your hands—do with me as you think best.".  Remember, God never changes His rules or policies.  But, it is ours to follow them willingly and with full surrender.

Reference: Jeremiah 26:14 (New Living Translation)

day 944: Grown Ups

"Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth."

There have been a number of articles written over the last years about the changing face of Venture Capital and the type of companies now funded by VCs.  We are now, depending upon who you ask, in the third generation of West Coast Venture Capitalists.  From the early days of guys like Bill Draper who made Sand Hill Road synonymous with venture capital, to today when we are seeing those who reaped rewards from early successes like AOL, Yahoo!, PayPal, Google and Facebook become the next generation of VC's.  

I tend to think that this current generation looks more like the first in that we've learned a lot over the years and are now back to following the basic principles of business before the majority of investments are made.  Sure, venture investing is like trying to predict what an eight year boy will be like when he is 24, but it's been encouraging to see that the focus has returned to underlying fundamentals.  The second generation had some growing up to do and it seems to have worked. As we consider approaching investors now, we better have our ducks in a row because this time around we are pitching to grown ups.


Paul tells us clearly that we all have to grow up and put our immaturity aside and stay close to the truth. In our spiritual journey it is easy to fall back into our immature ways and lose discipline, focus and discernment.  It's no different than how we try to grow in our business life so that we become more knowledgeable, prepared, broadening our perspective and finding our points of view.  We don't get there by being lazy or flitting around our work.  We rise to the occasion because we are ready and have put in the hours, work and energy to do our best when called upon.  That is what Jesus wants from us too.  We can't expect to do our best if we continue to allow ourselves to develop spiritually in an immature fashion.  Consider today what you are doing to act like a grown up in the eyes of God?

Reference: Ephesians 4:14 (New Living Translation)

day 889: Background Accuracy

"I don't want anyone to think more highly of me than what they can actually see in my life and message."

The removal of Yahoo's CEO is a front page news story because once again, we see a senior executive not telling the truth.  And we wonder why we don't trust CEOs and companies?  I know the process of hiring a senior executive very well and in this case there were many misses that could have been easily avoided had everyone from the candidate, to the recruiting agency, to internal HR team who might have been working with the Board, whoever had responsibility for the background check, and of course, the Board itself and whoever was leading the search committee.  Wow, this story just goes to show the magnification of making a mistake but it also points to the importance of ensuring integrity is the backbone of the values and principles of a company.  Beyond the "miss", there was also the long days from the time of disclosure that it took the Board to make the decision to oust the CEO.  For many, that was just as troubling as missing that he has falsified his education credentials.  The fact that there was some debate over his removal could also be seen as a sign of integrity not being a foundational value of the company.  Let's consider and realize that this moment is one that should remind us that who we say we are and what we do are significantly intertwined and are being watched my many.

This lesson stands true in our own professional and personal lives as well. Paul tells us that he had real, legitimate and accountable feats to boast about but in the likeness of Jesus, he chose not to do so and instead wanted to be sure that the congruity between who he said he was and what he did was as flawless as a man could make it to be. It is a great lesson for each of us as there are many moments a day when we have the opportunity to inflate a story, or build up just a little our part in the effort, or position ourselves slightly in better light than others.  Let's check ourselves today and do our own background check to be sure that we are aren't allowing ourselves to think more highly of who we are than what others can see.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 12:6b (New Living Testament)

day 586: The Good Boss

Last week I wrote a blog for the U.S. News and World Report, which got picked up by Yahoo, entitled, "How to Work with a Bad Boss", (http://money.usnews.com/topics/author/rusty_rueff). I don't usually carry my blogs from other places that I write into Purposed worKING, but what I wanted to do here is point out that we also have many examples of good bosses sprinkled all throughout the Bible. As we have been exploring Purposed worKING for the past few years, we have seen many of those examples and can marvel in the earthly work that most of the Godly people we read about in the Bible had to do in order to have the credibility and the ability to relate to the people to whom they later ministered. We don't know about the years that Jesus hung out with other carpenters but if you have ever been on a construction site then you can only guess the characters that he witnessed and interacted with daily. By the time he started sharing his messages to others, I believe he was partly so effective because he could relate to the people and spoke in their language and into their concerns, cares, fears and emotions. At work we often talk about the best leaders being those who came from the shop floor or worked their way up through the ranks. The best bosses and best leaders understand their people at the granular level of who they are. When the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon, "How happy these people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day listening to your wisdom", she was saying what a good boss and leader he was. Let's start using the examples of good bosses that we can find in the Bible and learning from their traits and characteristics and build our own leadership model based on a learning that comes from them. I know you will find all all you need to be a great boss!

Reference: 2 Chronicles 9:7 (New Living Testament)