Transcript 

Welcome to the hundredfold business podcast where Christian men learn the principles, strategies, and tactics to grow their businesses top line, bottom line, and finish line. I want you to discover the secret to applying biblical truth to business growth for the greatest kingdom impact. So in the end, you hear from your heavenly father, well done.

Welcome to the hundredfold business podcast where Christian men learn how to grow their businesses top line, bottom line, and finish line. And I'm your host, Josh Fonger, founder of 4th Soil Ventures. And today I'm looking forward to bringing you essential 10 of 12, all about how you can grow your hundredfold business.

During these 12 essentials, we'll be going to God's word first, and then learning how to integrate our faith into our work for the greatest results. And if you need help along the way, you can always go to 4thSoilVentures.com and I can help you implement any of these 12 essentials. I would say that what we're covering today, essential 10, is one of the most critical essentials.

If you are feeling stuck, plateau in your business, and also feeling overwhelmed, like you don't know how to grow it from where you are right now. And this essential is called manage your operations. As a business consultant, this has been one of the primary focus areas of my career, which is helping those business owners that are plateaued in their growth.

They want to grow, but they don't know how and setting up those management practices so they can grow, they can scale in a healthy, profitable way. And what I love about today's session is that even though there's a lot of management books that tell you a lot of great stuff about how to run your operations and make it more efficient, more profitable, is that all of those books really are built on the foundation of what we're going through today. So God's word does have a lot to say about the foundation of good operations.

So if you and your team are feeling stuck, overworked, and overwhelmed, then this is going to be the critical essential for you all to master. And today we'll be going to the Bible text that is in Exodus chapter 18 verses 17 through 23. This is, you know, shortly after the Israelites have, they fled from Egypt, they've crossed the Red Sea, they're in the wilderness, they have not received the law of Mount Sinai yet, but they're in the wilderness and that's where this is taking place.

Let me read this section to you now, and then we're going to draw some points all about how you can manage your operations. And just for more context, this is Moses is currently leading about two to three million people and single handedly judging all their disputes. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good.

You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice.

I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.

Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe. And place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times.

Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you.

You will be able to endure and all of those people also will go to their place in peace. So Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, in this passage is providing some great wisdom, I think we can all learn from, and we're going to see this the same pattern of delegation also from Jesus and his disciples and his disciples when they're getting the 12 people to help serve in acts and also with Paul and Timothy and Titus. So this is a very common pattern.

So today we'll be looking at Godly men in the Bible, like Moses with Jethro's help, and how they managed their operations, how they delegated to their team specifically. And it seems very simple when you look at it at face value. But what I've realized in my career is that some things that are simple are not always easy to execute on.

As we walk through the text today, we're just going to be scratching the surface with regards to all the things you need to know to run a solid operation and how to manage it well. But the main focus will be on delegation, and there's going to be four key elements of delegation that we'll be really hitting on during today's lesson. And those four key areas are, one, you need to tell your people what to do.

Two, you need to choose good people to manage. Three, you need to delegate the work. And lastly, number four, you get to share the burden.

Let me start by reading a passage from Exodus 18, verse 20, to get this started. You shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they are to walk and what they must do. So the first part of this passage, we're going to go through all about telling your people what to do.

We can see that Jethro is telling Moses, hey, let them know the laws and the statutes. And so I would equate that to letting your people in the company know the company vision, the values, the mission, all of those core guiding documents so that they know the laws and statutes of your business. And we talk about that a lot in essential five, about developing your culture, and essential two, all about visions.

You can find out a lot more about that there. The second thing that's mentioned in this passage is that Moses is directed to tell them how they are to walk and what they're supposed to do. And so for you as a business leader to manage your operations, you need to actually have, you know, standard operating procedures, you need to have systems in place, you need to have checklists, guidelines, there needs to be training in place, there needs to be job descriptions, all those things need to be in place so that your people actually know, what am I supposed to do? What does good work actually look like? I was once consulting to a company that was about five years old, and they had 15 employees.

And the owner came to me and said, hey, Josh, I really want you to teach me how to scale this company the right way. And I said, well, what do you mean by that? He said, well, when we started out, we had three employees, and then we grew it to 100. But now you can see we're back down to 15.

So we made some mistakes along the way, can you show me how to not do that again. And I quickly figured out why as I opened up the hood to the business, I realized the company actually had no documentation in place with regards to Vision Values Mission. They also had no standard operating procedures, there were no job descriptions, no org chart, really no structure that could be used to delegate work from the top down, there actually was there's no way to teach or train.

And therefore, so as they scaled up, and as they grew, the people didn't actually know the right way to do the work. And as you can imagine, chaos ensued. Top line, bottom line, finish line.

If you're not growing all three, we should talk. Too many business owners are struggling alone, stuck in the same cycle, going nowhere fast. Scripture says that in an abundance of counselors, there is victory.

And I want to be that resource for you. For over 15 years, I've helped hundreds of small business owners break through their limits, build a solid plan, and multiply their impact. Go to 4thSoilVentures.com, schedule your free discovery call.

And let's build your business by the book. Life is too short and eternity is way too long to build it any other way. So the first step to managing your operations is you actually need to tell people what to do.

They're not mind readers. And so they need that clear recipe that those instructions so they can do the work well repeatedly. And as things scale, the chaos and the inefficiencies don't scale with it.

Now let's get to point number two, which is choosing good people to manage. Let me read the next passage. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy, and hate a bribe.

And place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. So at this point, we can see that Moses is maxed out and Jethro can obviously see that from the outside looking in. And this is a place a lot of business owners find themselves, is that they're maxed out and they need to find good people.

And as they're looking for good people, they realize they're hard to find. And so they either give up on trying to find good people, and then they just they plateau their growth, or they compromise and they grow with people. They're just the wrong people.

So let's go highlight the four criteria that Jethro just gave Moses. So the next time you're looking for someone to lead, someone to manage your operations, someone to delegate to, you know what you're looking for. The first one on the list is that they're able.

And this one is obvious enough, this means they have the physical capacity, the mental capacity, they have the right pedigree or training or background, so that when you give them the work, they're actually going to be able to do the work and do the work well. So that's the one I think is most obvious and most people screen for and contest for. All right, the second one on the list is fearing God.

And so in Israel this time, this is a theocracy. And so if we look at the chain of command, the highest supreme leader is going to be Yahweh, and then working way down, Moses, and then down to the leaders that he's delegating to. And so what you want, if I'm going to translate this to business, is you want someone who is honoring authority, respects authority, is humble, is coachable, and they want to be held accountable to that authority figure.

And so if they are not willing to work in that kind of structure, and if they're not willing to submit to authority, then they're not going to be a very good manager underneath you. The third one on the list is that they are trustworthy. So which means that they have good character, that you can depend on them, that when you give them an assignment, they're going to actually follow through with it, and that they're not going to deceive you, not going to be dishonest, but they're going to be trustworthy.

And you can just imagine that if you have people that you don't trust, how difficult it is to manage how much time and energy and effort it takes to manage someone who's not trustworthy, and then you multiply that by 10, 100, 1,000 employees, it doesn't compute. You can't manage your operations effectively if you can't trust the people underneath you. The fourth one on the list is hating a bribe, or it's also translated as hating covetousness or hating dishonest gain.

And so you want someone who doesn't just know right from wrong intellectually, but they emotionally, they hate doing the wrong thing. It's repulsive to them, and they love doing the right thing. That's really the kind of person you want to have in leadership.

And it's so important because you don't want to be micromanaging every decision that your people make. You want to be able to trust that they're not going to do something that's going to put your company in jeopardy or do something illegal. You want them to internally hate doing evil things.

And love of money or covetousness is a snare. You really don't want the leaders in your business to have because it's going to compromise their decision making because they'll be thinking more about themselves short term than about the long-term mission of the business and sacrificing for that mission. Finding good people to delegate to is very hard work.

And that's why so many people, they stop short, and they just find people who are able to fit the role. And the issue with that is I've just heard so many horror stories over the years and been a part of trying to help clean the mess of so many companies where they had people who were able, but they didn't have the character, they didn't fear God, they were fine with covetousness, and they end up stealing hundreds, thousands, millions of dollars from the companies right from underneath their noses. And it really came down to bringing on the wrong people.

So Jethro gave four essential non-negotiables to putting people in leadership and their essentials to scaling out your operations, manage your operations well. And now let's get to point number three under the banner of delegating the work. Let me read this passage.

And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they should bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. Now, if you told people what to do and how to do it and you found good people to actually do the work, the next step is to actually let them do the work.

And in ideal circumstance, like with Moses, if you were doing the work previously, then you, because of that experience, should be pretty good at managing and overseeing them doing doing the work. But let's look at this baton transfer a little bit more carefully. And in the passage, we'll see that Jethro actually tells Moses, hey, let the people decide everything themselves and let them do all the small matters themselves.

And so very clear direction is that, Moses, you need to get out of the way. You need to let them do the small matters and let them let them judge for themselves. And that's going to be the first key is don't micromanage, don't hold on to the work.

You need to let it let it go. And oftentimes at this point, there needs to be an update to the organizational chart, possibly the job descriptions. And so both the subordinate and the manager are both aware of the role change and how this relationship is going to work going forward.

And then this transfer has to happen in conjunction with the leader, the manager, the one who's going to be overseeing taking on different work. And you can see that Jethro says to Moses, and now you're going to just be doing the great matters. And so they're going to do the small matters.

You're going to be doing the great matters. And this means that someone in leadership needs to be thinking at a higher level. And they're often solving bigger problems, longer term problems, but different work.

So when you're delegating work downwards, it doesn't mean you stop working, it just means that you're doing new work and different work. I once was working with a very large church helping them with their operations. They had a lot of staff that were overwhelmed, burnt out, high turnover, frustrated.

It wasn't going very well. And so when I got there, I spent some time with the staff. And one particular situation, I was working with the head of marketing.

And as I was talking with him, he was putting those metal grommets into a vinyl sign so he could hang it up the next weekend. And as I was talking to him about delegation, the need to take some of the tasks he's working on and move them down, he just said, I'm too busy. I'm too busy to delegate.

I just need to get this done. I got deadlines. And he was a hard worker.

He was a good worker. He was a hard worker. He was a smart guy, a sharp guy.

But what he found himself in was just buried in work. And so me trying to be like Jethro in this circumstance, I said, hey, let's call him John. I said, hey, John, the work you're doing right now is important, but you have a staff underneath you who want help.

And you also have a thousand verified volunteers in this church who want help as well. They want to be a part of this. They want to be the hands and feet that help this church be a success and reach people.

The whole community out there counting on you as the head of marketing to reach all these people to make a big impact. And so part of the way you do that is by equipping them, enabling them, and delegating the work to them. In this case, this particular task you're doing right here in front of me is something that I know that any of these volunteers could do, anybody in the youth group could do.

And so that's let that work go and delegate it so that you can do the work that no one else can do. No one else can set the strategic vision for the marketing. No one else can write the copy.

No one else can develop the strategy and organize and manage this department but you. And so instead of doing the task that lots of people can do, you're refusing to do the work that only you can do. And that is what the church in this case is paying you to do.

And so that was a big eye-opener for him. And again, this guy, the head of marketing, not a bad guy, really sharp, hard worker, very dedicated, loves Jesus and wanted to make an impact. He was in the middle of the work and couldn't see the forest or the trees.

And that was what he needed. He needed someone to say from the outside and say, hey, there's a better way to do this, better way to manage this, a way to make this scale and multiply. Now, before I get to the last point of the day, I think it's so important that we analyze the heart of someone who's delegating because there's wrong ways to do it, right? You can delegate saying, hey, I'm too good for this.

I need to push this down because I don't have time for this. I'm too important. I'm too good for this.

That's not the right way to do it. Obviously, Jesus showed us what servant leadership's like, and he was extremely humble, a most humble man on earth. Going from being God to being a man, he showed his humility.

And Moses is also described as the most humble man on earth when he was alive. And so humility is a big part of this. And so making sure that your leaders, as they are delegating, they stay humble.

So in a healthy organization, yes, there are roles, responsibilities, there's structure, there's hierarchy, there's management. But there also needs to be this culture of humility, a culture of honor, a culture of respect, and a culture that sees no work as more important than other work, that all the work's important, and that they really see the organization as a team, and they honor each other regardless of where they fit in the hierarchy. Now let's get to the last passage after all this operational work is done, and that's going to be called sharing the burden.

So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure, and all of these people will also go to their place in peace.

So if you effectively put this Jethro principle, this operational strategy into place, what you're going to find is that it's going to be a blessing for your people. It's going to be good for you, it's going to be good for your employees, your team, and it's going to be good for your customers. We can see a very similar pattern in the book of Acts when the twelve disciples were just overwhelmed with serving tables, and so they found seven men to delegate to, and we can read exactly what happens next.

Let me read it to you. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So after delegation happened, multiplication happened.

And Moses and the disciples, they both had a pure good heart desiring to serve the Lord, and with this strategy in place, they were able to serve at a higher level and not be completely overwhelmed. It was good for them, it was good for the people that they were serving, and of course it allowed the work to multiply. Now let's get to the application steps from today's lesson, and as always, prayer is going to precede progress for any of these steps.

So number one for application is, does your team actually know what they're supposed to do? And this is the, you know, the company vision, values, mission, but also down to the systems, the SOPs, the checklists, the guidelines, the job descriptions. Do they actually know what they're supposed to do and what good work looks like? Because if they don't, if you delegate work down to them, you're going to expect increasing levels of mistakes, chaos, inefficiencies, and problems. The second one on the list is making sure that you don't just have able people in leadership and management, but you also have those other character traits that Jethro is teaching Moses, that they are trustworthy, that they fear God, and that they hate dishonest gain.

So making sure you have people with that kind of character is going to be essential as you scale out your operations, and if you don't have people like that, that's who you have to be looking for. That is hard work, but that's the second application steps. And lastly, you need to make sure that the baton exchange actually happens.

And so this is going to be making sure that the changes happen to the organizational chart, those in leadership and those who are the subordinates, and also their job descriptions change so that people know who's responsible for what work, and really making sure that the leaders and start doing the lower level work, that they actually stay at that higher level, and they're doing the work that a manager is supposed to actually be doing. Most important part of essential number 10, manager operations, is that we need each other. We need to bear one of those burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

And this is very, you know, applies directly to work, right? We need each other to bear the burdens. We need people with different gifts, different talents, different abilities, and it needs to be well-ordered, it needs to be managed well. That's going to be the key to effectively scaling and growing your hundredfold business.

And it's the same with the church, right? All those different giftings and abilities coming together, being the body of Christ. And so very similar in the organization of a business, that's what we need. We need those different giftings and abilities.

So now you can go manage operations biblically. And instead of, you know, fearfully or pridefully or foolishly holding on to all the work yourself and do it all yourself, you can, you know, carefully and wisely and humbly go about delegating this work. Because of that, you can grow maybe 30, 60 hundredfold.

And if you need help with this essential managing operations, and you feel like you are the bottleneck in your business, feel free to reach out to me directly at fourthswellventures.com. And next time, I'm looking forward to bringing you essential 11 or 12 of a hundredfold business. And that's going to be called stewarding your money. Now, the Bible mentions money over 2000 times.

And so there's a lot to cover. And so what I'll be doing is distilling down the essentials that you as a business owner need to know. Finally, if you like this episode, make sure to like, subscribe, share with a friend.

And I appreciate you brothers for tuning in. And until next time, grace be with you.