Documented Policies and Procedures are the Bible for Your Small Business

Jul 30, 2010, Written by Sue Miley

Our God is a God of order.  He knew right away that we weren’t going to make it on our own.  He created laws and commandments for us to follow.

Thankfully in the four gospels we have been able to document His “policies and procedures” for life.

Some of His teachings were policy type lessons like do not commit adultery.  Others were more procedural as He taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer.

Jesus had dual teaching going on.  He was teaching people how to live simultaneous to teaching the disciples His ministry. He wanted His ministry to run even when He was no longer physically present.

What Would Jesus Do?

That should be our goal for our business, too. Jesus teaching was so consistent and well communicated that we still hear today WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?).

Wouldn’t it be cool if you were on vacation and your team is in a pickle and instead of calling you, they all put their heads together and say “What Would Sue Do?” or “What Would Joe Do?”  And even more cool would be that you had created such a strong foundation of policies and procedures consistently applied that they would be able to figure out what you would actually do.

And if you want to top off the perfect scenario-

If you have built your business on your Christian values then in many cases your team could go straight to “What Would Jesus Do?” because they know that “What Would Sue/Joe Do?” would be the same answer!

Think about it.  If we build systems and teams on our Christian values we have such a foundation for our business.  Our employees will automatically know:

customer service – treat others how we would want to be treated

quality – in everything we do glorify God

service – Jesus washed His disciples feet

delegation – Moses found many other men to delegate the judging duties to

Christian Values = Good Business

It is amazing how good business lines up with our Christian values.

Having predictable, duplicatable systems is necessary for leading and growing a prosperous business for the long run.  No matter how passionate we are about our vision.  No matter how young or energetic we are.  No matter how gifted and talented we are and how many hats we can wear….eventually we need rest.  Eventually we need to pass the torch.

That’s What Jesus Did. And 2000 years later we are still following His policies and procedures manual (The Bible).  Two thousand years later the gospel is still being shared across nations.

You don’t have to worry about where you business will be 2000 years from now, but will your employees know what to do without your direct input 2000 days from now? How about 2 days from now?

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bradley J. Moore says

    Sue – This is great, practical advice on linking our spiritual life with our business life. I love it! You remind us how simple and natural it is for us to be living out our Christian life at work.

    We have a division of our company where the manager, Joe, passed away. He had such a strong impact as a leader, that this is exactly what the employees did after he was gone: they asked, “What would Joe do?” It’s ironic that you put this here because I just heard this story told by one of the employees a couple weeks ago. So, case in point.

    Have you considered joing the High Calling Blogs network? You would make a great addition! It’s a great way to grow your blogging community too. http://www.thehighcallingblogs.com

    Keep up the great blogging.

    • S_Miley says

      Hey Bradley, I have joined highcallingblogs.com; just haven’t spent much time there yet and still trying to figure my way around. I also haven’t figured out how to put the symbol on my blog so I can participate more. But do love it! I think I found your blog their and signed up. So I get it directly!

      Thanks for the comments!

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Sue Miley

Sue Miley MBA, MA, LPC helps small business owners build successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values. After 20 years in business, and 10 years as a Christian counselor, Sue uses a combination of faith, business and psychology to help clients in business and in life.

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