I try to coach or mentor 1-5 businesspeople at a time.  I believe this is part of my calling. I want to strengthen others in business and use biblical principles in my mentoring. My perspective is that most business owners and leaders don’t see themselves as mentors. Some large corporations may have structured programs for mentoring, but most do not.

For example, you can read a sales book, attend seminars and even engage in expensive training as a part of a mentoring program. These may provide an excellent return on your investment. However, there are many aspects of sales that you cannot learn from a book or training session. Selling involves reading the prospect’s body language, discerning what the customer wants and reacting to questions that are not predictable or can be scripted.  I read that no battle plan survives the initial contact with the enemy.  Similarly, most sales plans don’t survive much past 60 seconds into a customer contact.

Committees and local boards are always looking for new members who will go to their meetings and share the workload. Most of the time, I decline to join committees. However, I may offer to assist or cooperate with a committee in a specific way.  I just don’t have to go to endless meetings.
 
When someone does ask me to be on a committee, I ask several questions.  What do you want me to contribute to the group? How are the meetings conducted? Do you follow an agenda?  Is there a time budget for the meeting? Are there clear objectives for the gathering?

During World War II, many items were in short supply and even rationed. A slogan widely used was “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” The point was that everything needed to be utilized and nothing should be wasted. 

In business there are times when we can repurpose business assets. We see an example in Scripture, “For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses in this city and the royal palaces of Judah that have been torn down to be used against the siege ramps and the sword.” (Jeremiah 33:4, NIV) Hopefully we won’t need to tear down our house and  repurpose the materials to defend our lives.

When a prospective client asks for my opinion, usually they simply want me to affirm what they’ve already decided to do. They really don’t want an independent perspective. We see an example in scripture where a prophet of the Lord was pressured. “Meanwhile, the messenger who went to get Micaiah said to him, ‘Look, all the prophets are promising victory for the king. Be sure that you agree with them and promise success.’ But Micaiah replied, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I will say only what the Lord tells me to say.’” (1 Kings 22:13-14, NIV)

Clearly, the messengers only wanted Micaiah to affirm what the other advisors had already determined was the correct action. Unfortunately, the king ignored the prophet’s advice which was the opposite from the other prophets and the king was killed.

When I work with clients and their businesses, I try to point out different options with the pluses and minuses of each choice. For example, one client wanted to hire a family member.  I asked the question, “If you needed to fire that person, how would it impact family relationships?” The client admitted it would be serious and make for a very difficult Thanksgiving dinner. My advice was not to hire the person because the consequences of the arrangement not working out would far exceed the temporary pleasure of hiring a family member. Despite my advice, the client hired the family member.  Six months later, my client had to terminate the relative.  It took several years to heal the relationship.

A staff member, who reported to me, had messed up; and I was explaining the situation to my boss.  To lessen my responsibility, I said something like, “I didn’t know.” The immediate response from my superior was, “If you didn’t know, you should have known.” In retrospect this rebuke was spot on. In fact, I’ve stolen this response several times when I dealt with colleagues.