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.

I'm your host Josh Fonger, founder of 4th Soil Ventures, and today we'll be talking about the fourth of 12 essentials for how you can grow your Hundredfold Business, a business that glorifies God as it grows. During these 12 essentials, we'll be looking at God's Word first and having it inform us about how to grow and run our business, and we're gonna find out is that God's Word actually has a lot to say about how to run a business if we just take the time to look. And of course, as always, if you need help along the way, you can always go to 4thSoilVentures.com and I can help you out there.

Now, for this episode, we'll be talking about the importance of execution and how to do it well. I like to call this essential executing your plan, and in Proverbs it says that in all toil there's profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. So, having the right mindset and vision and mission and values and strategy, all those planning documents are really important.

They're essential, but if no one gets to work making them happen, they're basically worthless. That's why execution is so important, and what I'd like to do is share with you a story that I think will really encapsulate why it's so important and what this lesson today is going to be all about. In my 20s, as a young business consultant, I got a chance to learn this lesson firsthand as I was flown into a difficult Chapter 13 reorganization of a flooring store.

Actually, five locations, about 50 employees, and so I did an assessment, found out what their needs were, and then built a plan. The plan had some actionable items, some things that were gonna be done, you know, daily, weekly, monthly, some accountability, and built this plan out and presented it to the owner, and then this is what he said. He said, in front of his leadership team, he said, Josh, I'm so excited to finally get this work done, this work of getting a budget done, a forecast, and having an organizational chart, and job descriptions, and performance-based play plans, you know, all these objectives.

These are great. You know, I've been trying to work on this for some time now. It's been on my to-do list.

My leadership team knows all about it, and I said, okay, well, that's great. I'm glad that we're thinking the same things. Is there something I can work off of? Do you have some previous notes? You know, how far along have you come? He said, well, we haven't actually started any of it yet.

It's been on our list for about 15 years now, but we haven't actually started doing the work. Fifteen years of planning and talking about doing the work with the leadership team, but none of it actually got done. So maybe 90 days worth of work never actually got complete, and this is a huge problem for a lot of business owners, a lot of companies, is the difference between talk and action.

And that's why today's episode is so important. That's why this is one of the essentials, executing your plan. And for this session, I'd like to clarify that when I say executing your plan, I'm talking about all of the business initiatives, all the projects, all those business building activities that are on your list that are going to grow your company forward.

Those are things we're talking about today. In a future episode, we'll be talking about all of the day-in, day-out operations. And of course, you need to run those well, you need to execute on those well, but that'll be for a future episode.

Okay, so let's dig into the Bible. Today we'll be looking at the book of Nehemiah, and let's see how he was able to lead a group of people, and how they were able to execute on a mission. And through the study, we'll be looking at several passages, and we'll be developing three main ideas.

And through that, we'll be looking at several strategies and tactics that you can draw to that, and apply them to your business. And if you've not read the book of Nehemiah recently, I suggest you do it. You know, take a morning, read through the book, it's not very long, and through the book, you're gonna see God's faithfulness, you're gonna get to see a man who prays, and accomplishes a lot of work, does it for God's glory, so his work matters.

And I think that for us as entrepreneurs and business owners, it's a great encouragement to see this book play out, and all the difficulty and perseverance that it took for Nehemiah, with God's help, to do this restoration work. And for historical context, this is about the Jews' third return to Jerusalem after exile, and in this book, we're gonna see Nehemiah restore not only the walls of Jerusalem, but he's going to restore the people of Jerusalem as well. Now, I'm gonna start reading from Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 2 through 4. Let me find this section.

So, Nehemiah heard from his brother and some others about the state of Jerusalem, and it wasn't good, right? The walls are broken down, the gates are burned, so even though the first exiles went there about a hundred years ago, and then others went 70 years ago, and they rebuilt the temple, still 70 years later, the city was still in ruins. Okay, so let's pull out some business applications to this first section, all under the category of getting a clear perspective, because it's difficult. As a business owner, you are surrounded by employees, and customers, and vendors, and family, and friends, and they oftentimes will tell you a message you want to hear.

So, you're gonna hear a message from them, but it might not be the right message, and so because of that, you don't have a clear perspective, and because you don't have a clear perspective, you don't actually know where the problems are. You don't really know where, you know, what to address first or next, and it's because you don't have, again, a clear perspective. And so, the first step is you need to gather data.

In this case, Nehemiah was able to gather some data firsthand from his brother and the others who were there, and they told him about the the walls, and the gates, and the needs there, and then as Nehemiah actually gets to Jerusalem, he gathers more data, right? He finds out about the oppression, he finds out about people not following the law, the corruption, and so part of being a good leader, and part of executing well, is first gathering up the data. The next step towards getting the clearest perspective is analyzing the data, and what we see is that Nehemiah, you know, heard some bad news about his people, about his city, and he was pretty distraught about it, and what did he do first? Well, instead of calculating the amount of linear feet of material he would need to rebuild the wall, and how much labor he would need, the first thing he did is he went to God, and he went to God in prayer. You see, in Psalm 50, verse 15 in the Bible, it says, call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.

So we see, and we're going to see in this passage, is that Nehemiah does call upon the name of the Lord, he does have a need, and God delivers, and Nehemiah glorifies him. This is the great opportunity that Christian business owners have, is that as they are gathering data, and they're looking at all of the problems, all the opportunities, all the things you have to sort through, that instead of just analyzing those issues with a calculator, which you should do, and that you need to do, I'm sure Nehemiah did, that you also get to go first to God, and analyze the data with him, have him be a part of it, and seek his wisdom, seek his counsel, and through it, just like Nehemiah, we get to glorify God with our work. The next step towards getting a clear perspective has to do with prioritizing the problems, or prioritizing opportunities, and Nehemiah, just like any other man, had a full schedule, he had a full life, he had problems, he had issues, he had things he's working on, personal and business, and so he received new information about issues going on in Jerusalem, and he had to re-sort, re-prioritize all the things in his life, in order to make this first, and to set the proper sequence, so we get this work done.

And that's a lesson for us, is that we can't do everything at once, and that we're going to make sacrifices and prioritize, in order to get the right things done first. Jesus, of course, did this perfectly. He had really endless problems he could have dealt with, people suffering in need, needing to be taught about the kingdom of God, needing to be ministered to, healed, you name it.

He had a lot of stuff he could have done, but instead, he prioritized what he should do, and did it all, and it says he did all the Pilate's work, and that when he was on the cross, the last thing he said was, it is finished, right? So he had no extra to-do list to get to. So to summarize this first section on getting a clear perspective, the key elements are you need to first gather the data, then you need to analyze it, and then you need to prioritize it. And the bonus for the Christian is that during this process, they get to consult with a God who knows everything, right? From the beginning, from the end, all the steps in between, is that we get to consult with God, and through that, that's going to give us confidence, that's going to give us boldness, it's going to give us conviction, the tenacity, and really the supernatural strength to see the work through, even if it's costly work, knowing that God's in it, and that during the analyzing the data section, maybe the section where you feel like you're not really getting any work done, during that time period, you're actually building up the strength and the power necessary to see the hard work through.

The Bible says in Isaiah 40, verse 31, But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. So now, let's continue with our study through the book of Nehemiah, we're going to go to Nehemiah chapter 2, verses 5 through 8, and this is Nehemiah talking directly with the king. And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it.

And the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, How long will you be gone, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through it, through, until I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.

And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. So Nehemiah was a slave to the king. He was the cupbearer.

And there really is a lot going on in this passage. But what we're going to do is just draw the next series of principles all under the banner, you know, leading your business on the banner of developing a plan. What we see in this next section is that when the time was right, when he was before the king, and this was about four months after he had heard the news all about Jerusalem, is that he was ready with a plan.

So he wasn't doing nothing during that time period. He was praying, and he was planning, and he was being prepared with a plan so that he could take that plan to the king and then execute on that. And so you could say, in a lot of ways, he was an entrepreneur, right? He was willing to make a plan, see the problem, and take a risk to solve it.

So if step one is all about getting a clear perspective, then step two is all about developing a plan. And what we're going to see in this book of Nehemiah is that his plan is very practical. First, we see that Nehemiah's plan was time-bound.

When the king was saying, when will you return? Nehemiah already had a good plan about when he was going to get back. Next, it was resources, right? So Nehemiah knew he was going to need some letters to get through certain sections. He's going to need some timber.

He's going to need some materials, some resources to actually get there and then get the work going. And he was also going to need some people to help him. And we read later on that he had some officers from the army and some horsemen who went along on this journey with him.

So Nehemiah had a well-laid-out plan. He knew how long it was going to take, the resources he would need, the people he was going to need. And Nehemiah was trusted by the king.

And the king also trusted in his plan and was willing to be a type of angel investor in this venture and to help him kick off this new initiative. So how about you? Do you have detailed plans with the time and the resources and the people you're going to need to get your projects done? What I find is that most business owners don't. Instead, they just have their plans in their head and they haven't actually taken the time to get the details down.

And so when the time is right and when the opportunity arises and they need to execute on a plan, they don't have a plan. And if people know that and they don't have confidence in the owner or the plan that doesn't exist, so it's very difficult to get these initiatives moving forward. Let's continue on with the book of Nehemiah when he gets to Jerusalem and he's talking to people there.

This is Nehemiah 2, verses 17 and 18. Then I said to them, You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins, with its gates burned? Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.

And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. So for this last section, we see that Nehemiah has further clarified his perspective.

He's been in Jerusalem three days now. And then in the middle of the night, he goes out and inspects all the walls. So he's actually improved in detail with his plans.

And it's all culminated in this last step, this last phase, which is all about performing the work. And the following few chapters are going to go into a lot of detail about how Nehemiah manages the work. It's a really great read, I suggest you read it, but it talks about how he not only restores the walls, but he actually restores the city physically and spiritually.

Now I'd like to draw a few lessons from this last reading all about Nehemiah's execution skills, how he performed the work. Because with God's help, he was able to do a miraculous thing that all the nations knew God's hand was in because they were able to rebuild all these walls in 52 days. Here are a few things that we can put under the step of performing the work.

The first thing being communication, communication being essential. We see that Nehemiah was a great communicator. He was persuasive.

He was able to explain to them the problem and what the effects were of the problem, the solution, the effects of the solution. He was able to discuss how God was in it, the king was in it. And because of the way he spoke and communicated, he was able to inspire them.

So the first step to great execution of performing the work is communication. The second step to performing the work is that the people must buy in. And you can see they did that because the messenger and the message were both compelling.

And so they agreed, they bought in. And if you want more help with casting a vision like this, we go into a lot more detail in Essential 2 all about developing your vision. Now, before I go on to the next series of steps in performing the work, I think it's important that I pause here because so often I'm working with a business owner, and they will have a plan, they'll have an initiative, and they will communicate that to their people.

And people will say, sounds great, let's do it. But then no work happens, right? They don't actually proceed. And if they do proceed, they go really, really slow.

And it's because to do a new initiative, it's costly. And the new initiative, when you say yes to it, you're also saying no to everything you're currently doing that would impede or slow down or affect this new initiative. And so that's oftentimes the exchange that doesn't happen, is that your people say yes to your initiative, but they never said no to the things that they're currently doing that would take the time and energy away from doing the new initiative.

You see, big initiatives are not going to happen unless your people see a big vision, and therefore they know that the big sacrifice to reach the big vision is worth it. But if you have a small vision, or your people don't see the vision or don't care about the vision, then you're going to have small initiatives because you're going to have small sacrifice, right? Because they're not going to care about the vision, you didn't cast it well enough. And therefore, all those initiatives you have planned to do, if they happen at all, they're going to happen very slowly.

And maybe a lot of yeses from your team, but not much sacrifice to see them through. Therefore, if you're having trouble executing your plans, and you've communicated it well, and your team has agreed, they said, yes, we want to do that, then it's possible that they have not caught on the vision or the vision is too small, or not motivating, and they don't really care about the vision. And therefore, they're not willing to sacrifice to make that happen.

So for the book of Nehemiah, he had God's people and God's glory at stake. And the stakes really high, and failure was not an option. And so when people heard the message, they heard about the king's support, God's support, and his intensity, and enthusiasm and plans to make it happen.

They were excited. And they're willing to buy in because they cared about the vision and seeing it through. Now continuing on with performing the work, we'll see that the next thing that Nehemiah had to do is he had to delegate the work, which he did.

And then after that, he had to hold people accountable. And because that we still have a written record 1000s of years later, all about who did the work, what they did, who chose not to do the work, and who was who was against the work, the records of all those things. And then because there were people against it, Nehemiah had to deal with the opposition.

Right? So delegation, accountability, dealing with opposition. And then lastly, he had to stay there, right? He had to stay the course, he couldn't move on to another initiatives, he had to stay in the work day to day with them, and see it through to completion. Now, if Nehemiah had just come from the king's palace, and he shows up in in Jerusalem and says, look, guys, we need a wall.

And here's a plan. Here's some resources. Why don't you get to work, make this wall happen? I know it hasn't happened for 70 years.

But let's do it right now. We all know it wouldn't have happened, right? And the reason why is because execution is work, it's hard work. And what he did, again, with the delegation, with the accountability, dealing with all the opposition the whole time, and staying there with them working with them side by side, day by day, within 52 days, miraculously, they're able to get all the work done.

Now, as a business consultant, I get the unique opportunity to be a part of a lot of change initiatives, a lot of projects, and I get a chance to see a lot of them go really, really well. And some of them not so well. And I get to join projects that are already halfway done and see what what got screwed up.

And I'll tell you that the getting a clear perspective, that's a really fun phase planning out the work, you know, developing a plan as a great phase two. And it's because the owners love to get out their whiteboards and sketch out the process and what's going to happen and get a to solve complex, difficult problems with a whiteboard in a couple hours. But in real life, those initiatives are gonna take months or years to actually accomplish.

So the fun work is the getting a clear perspective and developing a plan. But then when the rubber meets the road, actually performing the work, that's oftentimes where the ball is dropped. See if you can relate to this story.

I was working with a global chemicals company. And I had been assessing their situation. And we had a clear perspective, and we developed a plan.

And the plan was to help their operations. And after I developed a plan, they said, Hey, Josh, we love the perspective, you know, all the assessment, we love the plan. And my plan called for six to nine months to execute on this plan to see the operational changes through.

And I said, You know what, Josh, I think we could just do this in house, we'll probably be able to do this about 60 days. And I was concerned. I said, You know, that's pretty fast.

There's a lot of changes here. Not really sure if your team's gonna be able to handle that in 60 days. I said, No, no, our team is great.

We'll be able to do it. Don't worry about it. And I said, Okay, well, let me know if you have any issues.

And of course, you realize that 60 days later, I get a phone call. And they say, Josh, we've got problems, big problems. And ultimately, I had to go back there.

So what happened? And what happened is that they had skipped the communication phase in the buy in phase. And they just sent out a memo to everybody and said, Hey, everybody, they delegated the work, here's the work. And when this done, do all this work, you got 60 days, and they'll be done.

Easy as that, right? Delegate the work, send it out, no problem with instructions. But they skipped, obviously, the communication, the the buy in part, so no one really was bought in. And then once the work was delegated, there was no accountability, there was no handling the opposition.

So all those things that come and prevent you from doing the work, no one's doing that. And of course, no one was working side by side with them. So the owners had moved on to other things.

And what do you know, 60 days later, no progress happening. And so then I had the chance to jump back in. And it was more difficult because people did not really believe in the project as much, or in the leadership as much because they had, they had not executed well.

That's why this step is so important. The moral of the story is that execution doesn't just happen. It's hard work.

Execution requires focus and determination and tenacity, and momentum. And it requires that the leadership have a plan. And they've prioritized the plans as they're doing the right work.

And that people believe in the leader and the plan, a lot of things need to come together. And so execution is hard work. And that's why it often doesn't happen on these initiatives.

Finishing a business initiative is oftentimes like building a bridge. They are very useful when complete and traffic's flowing through them. But up until that point, they are very costly, right? It takes a lot of work, a lot of money, a lot of time.

And they don't really provide any benefit at all. Just, just work, right? Just an expense, just a drain on the company. And so what you don't want as a business owner is 20 different bridges that are 10% complete, right? Instead, you want to finish a bridge to completion and reap the rewards of putting in that effort.

So now let me summarize at the end and go over some application steps, all for the essential of how to execute your plan. Three steps being getting a clear perspective. Second one is developing your plan.

And then the third one is performing the work. So it is perspective, plan and performing. Now, as I get on to the application steps for this essential of 100 fold business, execute your plan.

Just remember, as always, prayer precedes progress. So let's start with the first step of getting a clear perspective, which is gathering data. So for you, have you gathered outside data? Have you ever done a business assessment? If not, certainly I can help you with that.

But you really need to get an outside perspective, or at least an honest and clear perspective on your pricing and your positioning and your marketing and your sales and your team and the market. There's a lot of research and data out there. And it's worth gathering to get a clear perspective of your business and the truth about where you are.

Because it's very easy, again, for business owners to lie about reality and to live in that false reality without first gathering data from an outside perspective. Now on to the next step, which is analyzing the data. So for you, you probably have issues and projects, initiatives, and problems that you want to solve.

And so the question or the action step is, have you spent time praying about those things? Nehemiah spent months doing that. He was broken over it. There was repentance.

There's a lot of things that happened to him emotionally with regards to conviction and commitment that allowed him later on to be a great leader and to see initiatives through. And some of those initiatives took decades to happen. And so for you, take that time to analyze the data, not just the numbers, but with God in prayer.

And then we're on to number three, which is prioritize your list. So for you, the action step is have you take the time to prioritize your list, knowing you can't build 20 bridges at once. You got to pick the one you want to really sink your teeth into and focus.

And this is a great example for Nehemiah, right? So for him, he chose the walls first. He was able to get that done in 52 days. But if you read the story, he stays there another 12 years, and he makes a number of reforms to the city and to how it's governed.

And he makes a lot of amazing changes, but he had to start somewhere. He chose the walls. And that's for you to think about too, is that prioritizing so that you can execute well.

Okay, so now we're on to the next phase, which is developing a plan. So action steps for that is if you haven't done so, you want to take that prioritize list from before and detail out a plan over the next year. Now, you can't complete everything the next year.

So those initiatives that are not going to happen, those could be two to three years, four years, five years out, that's fine. But the ones that are close the next year, you really need to take the time to have to prioritize. I understand that the time it's going to take start dates, and end dates and milestones along the way, you don't want to have the resources to make sure that those things actually get completed, right, the time or the money and the expertise to actually solve those initiatives during that time.

And then people make sure you have the right people. And again, you might need outside expertise to make that happen as well. But that would be the next thing in terms of executing well, is you need to have developed a plan.

And if planning is not your forte, if you've always just been more of a reactionary worker, you know, as work comes, you just react to it, your team is used to you working that way as well, then you need to make a change. And you need to get some help doing this. And certainly I can help you.

But your team is not going to believe in you, or in your initiatives, unless there is a clear plan laid out that they can follow and they can believe in. And then lastly, what I want to do is give you a list of questions to ask yourself. And I think that's going to help you get to the bottom of maybe why some of your initiatives and some of your projects, your team have not been performing the work to completion.

Here are the questions. Did you communicate the problem that you're currently facing? And what's happening? Because the problem is not being solved? Or, or the current issue? And what the results are of that current issue since it's not solved? So first, the communications key? Secondly, have you actually got buy in? Did your people agree to get engaged? They are they committed? So the first two things you want to make sure if you've ever had issues with execution, and your team performing the work. Next being delegation, when you delegated the work out? Did you give the appropriate work to the appropriate people? Did you give them the right instructions? And then did you hold them accountable, holding them accountable on a monthly basis on a weekly basis, and sometimes even a daily basis to completing the work they need to complete.

So you can see that works actually happening, then handle the objections, right? So there could be issues that you find out as you're holding them accountable, that maybe they're too busy, maybe they don't have the right resources. Maybe there's a competing initiative or project at the same time. Maybe it's seasonal business.

But you need to know what those oppositions are, those things that are affecting them, so that you can do the last thing, which is see the project through. So the question for you is, are you moving to the next initiative, the next thing on fire in your business? Or are you staying with them and staying consistent, daily working until that initiative is complete? If your team is used to hearing about initiatives, but they're used to those initiatives never actually getting done, then your team is going to get used to having broken down walls, right? Just like in Jerusalem, they were used to things being chaotic, they were used to things not being complete, they were used to, for 70 years, not really having change happen. And maybe that's the same in your company that people are used to things the way they are, they've just gotten, you know, numb to it.

And they've stopped seeing the broken down walls, they've stopped seeing the problems in your company. They say that's just the way it is. We talk about making change, we never actually do it.

And that's going to lower the standards of your people. And the people in your company, that have high standards are good people. Ultimately, they're going to leave, they're going to stop believing in the company vision, they're gonna stop believing in you and your plans.

And they're going to leave somewhere else where there actually is going to be a future. And that's gonna be a problem because people who are left are the ones who are okay with things not being okay. So to conclude this episode, this is why executing your plan is an essential of a hundred full business is those who can actually execute on a plan are going to keep their best employees because their employees are going to say, we're actually getting towards a vision, we can see that these different initiatives are taking us there.

And they're going to want to be a part of it. And you can be that kind of leader. If you learn how to master this essential, which is executing your plan.

So stay tuned for the next episode, which will be the fifth essential out of the 12 essentials of a hundred full business. This episode is going to be all about developing your culture. I'm going to find is that though the work is difficult to engage the hearts of your people, it's worth it, right? It drives the vision forward is probably the biggest accelerator of success.

And so I know you're going to love this episode. Finally, if you liked this episode, make sure to like subscribe, leave a review. And if you believe that Christian business owners need help integrating their faith into how they operate their business, then make sure to pass along with other business owners in your network.

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