take initiative
[Easy Talk about Management Series]
Taking proactive actions is to actively create or change events rather than reacting to events reactively.
Caleb - a representative figure in the Bible who takes the initiative
According to the Bible record in Numbers 13, Moses sent twelve spies to spy out the land of Canaan, with one representative from each tribe assigned. After forty days of visiting, they returned to the camp and reported to Moses and the people. Although they praised Canaan as a beautiful land flowing with milk and honey, ten of the spies said that the residents of the land were strong and the cities were fortified and spacious, so they were like Grasshopper, if you attack, you will fail. Only Joshua and Caleb had faith. Amid the opposition and even wailing of the people, Caleb encouraged the people in front of Moses and said, "Let us go up immediately and take possession of the land! We are capable of victory." Because of Caleb's faith, God He especially praised him, saying, "But my servant Caleb, because he had another purpose and followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his descendants will inherit it." ( Numbers 14:24)
This shows the importance of being proactive. Among all the Israelites, only Caleb and Joshua saw the vision that God was going to give Canaan to the Israelites, and they took the initiative to go up and take possession of Canaan. Not only did all the other Israelite people who could fight die in the wilderness , and because of their unbelief it took forty years longer for all the Israelites to enter the land of Canaan.
How can we learn from Caleb’s proactive spirit?
1. Actively receive the infinite love of Heavenly Father
Only if we are willing to proactively receive the infinite love of our Heavenly Father can we be like Jesus Christ; even if he was betrayed by his closest disciples, He would not regret it and was willing to go to the cross to fulfill God's plan of redemption. If we receive the love of Heavenly Father, we can be released and healed from being rejected and hurt; even if we are betrayed by our closest people, we are willing to forgive from the bottom of our hearts, and we are willing to love others sincerely and not be bitter. , bound by resentment, and live a mature and perfect life. (See the 49th issue of this magazine, the Autumn 2017 issue "How to Have a Mature and Perfect Life?")
2. Actively respond to suffering with the love of Christ and live in abundance
In family, church, workplace and society, we should not be afraid of adversity, face pain proactively, have a comforting life, and live a more abundant life. The following Scriptures are our promises and assurance:
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
“The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I am come that the sheep may have life, and may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
“Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only So rejoice even in your tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put you to shame, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans) (Joshua 5:1-5)
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can be comforted with the comfort that God has given us. We who suffer from all kinds of tribulations, because our sufferings abound, so our comfort abounds in Him. If we suffer, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort; This comfort enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is certain, knowing that just as you share in the suffering, you will also share in the comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)
3. Proactively bring goal management into the organization
Management by objective can also be called proactive or proactive management. Proverbs Chapter 29 Verse 18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people run wild.” In addition to the organizational responsibilities, an excellent organization should also receive a vision, a mission, and set goals. , strategy. Only such a visionary organization can foresee crises and know how to avoid them, and predict new trends and develop new opportunities. Such a far-sighted organization knows that if it does not pay attention to organizational responsibilities and standard operating procedures (SOP), the organization will often go into trouble. But they also know that if an organization has no vision, mission, goals and strategies and only focuses on organizational responsibilities and SOPs, it can only maintain the status quo and may collapse in the face of crisis at any time.
Take, for example, the year 2006 when I took over as the chairman of the Taiwan Christian Mustard Seed Association (hereinafter referred to as the Mustard Seed Association). I took over twenty-three years after the founder, Mrs. Sun Lilian, passed away (in 1983). The Mustard Seed Association was the first social welfare organization in Taiwan to register with the government. During the heyday of Mrs. Sun Lilian's lifetime, it helped or resettled tens of thousands of people at any time. By the time I take over, it will have shrunk to only serving more than a hundred people, and every day. All affiliated institutions are scattered. In order to change this situation, when there was generally no salary increase in Taiwanese society and the average salary was declining, I took the initiative to make a positive adjustment to the salary of the mustard seed workers, so that the co-workers felt that in the mustard seed society There is hope in serving; and those who do well will not only have their salaries increased, but also their year-end bonuses. However, in addition to the salary increase, colleagues are also required to improve their work efficiency; everyone is encouraged to have new goals in their work, and proactively set long-term goals (proactive objectives) with colleagues, and set up key performance indicators (key performance index) as Assessment basis. Evaluate the performance of each department and staff every year to understand what needs to be improved, and formulate long-term goals, mid-term goals and annual goals for the entire organization for 40 years.
As a result of these changes, Mustard Seed has made many admirable advances over the past twelve years. Take a ministry launched in 2010 as an example. In order to break through the service business, we promoted a plan for churches across Taiwan to adopt poor children in the community, and the results were remarkable. Such changes and efforts, as of March 2018, have successfully led 482 churches to participate in this ministry, assisting a total of approximately 3,024 poor children in the communities where the churches are located. This is like mustard seeds fueling Taiwan’s 482 lighthouses, allowing the church’s light to shine farther and brighter. (See the article "Building an Organization" in the 46th issue of this journal, the Winter 2016 issue).
From your perspective, if you work in a workplace, I suggest you be more proactive than your supervisor, set work goals with your supervisor, strive to achieve the goals, and let your supervisor know your progress and problems in a timely manner, and effectively Solve problems, evaluate yourself, respect your supervisor and establish a good relationship with your supervisor, and you will become the backbone that everyone strives for.
4. Manage your body proactively:
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is from God and lives in you? And you are not your own." (1 Corinthians 6:19)
Having a good body allows us to do things more efficiently. In addition to aligning our "spirit" and "soul" with the Triune God according to the above principles, we also need to take good care of our "body" (the temple of the Holy Spirit). It is necessary to enhance immunity in daily life so that diseases will not invade easily; as soon as some symptoms show signs, appropriate measures should be taken to prevent the situation from becoming serious, because it is better to prevent the disease than to treat it. A balanced diet, regular exercise, and timely physical examinations are all proactive management of health. If you find that you have a disease, you should take the initiative and actively seek medical treatment, especially if it is a serious disease. If you unfortunately suffer from it, you must have a strong and stable mentality and actively improve your immunity so that germs or cancer cells cannot survive; at the same time, you must Don't delay in finding the most appropriate treatment.
In short, if we can build ourselves up with the above-mentioned proactive spirit, we will be good children, spouses or parents at home; we will be the pastor’s best co-workers and good evangelists at church; and we will be the boss’s favorite employees at work. Or a boss who is loved by his employees; he will bring out the infectious power of the love of Christ Jesus in society, and he will also be able to bring about the transformation of society and the country. Amen!
Elder Lin Yuanchang (right) is one of the founders of Lite-on Group and served as general manager and vice chairman of the group. After retiring from the corporate world, he served as chairman of the Taiwan Christian Mustard Seed Association.