Episode 17
Dr Maxwell Masakona
Speeding up your promotion
20 TIPS TO SPEED UP YOUR PROMOTION
Dr Maxwell wrote this book because he has discovered that God himself is a worker. In the first verse of the first book in the Bible, Genesis, God introduces himself as a worker – “In the beginning God created…” So how can God be a worker and His children be loafers?
WORK IS A GIFT
According to Genesis 2:15, God took Adam and put him in the garden called Eden. He put him there before Eve was formed. God gave Adam work – He instructed him to cultivate and supervise the garden. This means that work is older than the sin of man, and therefore older than the curse. Work is a gift. And if it is a gift, we need to realize that behind a gift is a giver. And in this case, God is the giver, and He himself worked for 6 days and rested for only one day. But unfortunately, other people rest six days and work only one day, even though they have got jobs. So work is a gift not a punishment, and everyone must change their perspective and look at work as a gift. The giver of work is watching over the work He gave us.
2 PRINCIPLES ABOUT THE GIFT
- The gift is forever connected to the giver. If I were to take off my jacket and give it to you in order for you to warm yourself up in winter, and three days down the line I find you scrubbing the floor with the same jacket. There is no way I will just pass, instead I will stop and say “if you didn’t like it, you should have told me”, or “bring it back, I will take it to the dry cleaners and keep it”.
- The way you treat the gift will always affect the giver. So if work is a gift from God, the way I treat work will affect God, not the employer. Therefore you cannot say “I hate my job”. Hating the gift means you hate the giver. Surprisingly, when God put Adam in the Garden of Eden, He did not give him the cultivating tools. One of the work philosophy is to be creative. Whenever you are given a gift, you must be creative. One man gave one servant five talents, he gave another three, and another one. He did not tell them what to do with the talents, they had to be creative. Creativity shows that you love your work. You need to make sure you honour the gift gifted to you. The fact that one doesn’t have the tools is not good enough reason for one to say “I hate my job”. There are a lot of things that your job does for you, innumerably good things.
How to deal with chronic procrastination
Work ethics or work philosophy would teach us to do the work that is given to us at that moment. If you use yesterday’s manna for today’s breakfast, it will not be good enough. If you use today’s manna for tomorrow’s breakfast, it will be full of worms. You need to do the work immediately. To be instant and accurate pleases the one who gave you the work.
Work is not about feelings, but about the one who gave me the work. We are not the product of feelings, we are the product of faith. We came to the world as a result of faith, not feelings. You do not wake up in the morning because you feel like being alive.
“Eye-service” versus “Heart-service” approach to work
The eye-service approach is when you do the work in order to win attention, you become an attention seeker. You always need a supervisor or a foreman to do the work. Adam had no foreman at the Garden of Eden. So do not work to impress, work to impact.
The heart-service, on the other hand, does not care whether there is an eye that sees or not, work is done faithfully and honestly regardless of who is looking. Dr Maxwell was a school teacher, and the times when his principal was absent would be the times when he works even harder and be even more effective. He does more in the absence of his leader. The Apostle Paul says, in Philippians 2:12, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence…” Doing this proves that you are a man or woman of integrity, a faithful worker. Do more when you are not being watched because the watcher is the giver of the work, and not the employer. And God is the giver of the work.
Valuing the work assigned to you
Whatever you do not put value on devaluates. One of the leaders in the Bible called Nehemiah was building the walls of Jerusalem. His enemies – Tobiah, Sanballat, and Geshem – came to trick him. They said he must come down to discuss something with them in the valley of Ono. They wanted to harm him, but he answered them by saying “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down”. He didn’t wait for somebody to see greatness in his work, he saw greatness in his own work. Sometimes you will know how great that work is after you are fired. The work that you are doing is great, you had better put value on it. The work that you are doing gives meaning to your life.
Working for a boss that does not appreciate you
Some bosses have their own attitudes, but the work that you are doing has no attitude. You need not allow the attitude of your boss to affect your productivity. You cannot wait until everybody agrees with you before you become productive. The apostle Peter says “be submissive and loyal to your masters, even to those who are harsh.” So you must be loyal and productive. We cannot wait until everybody claps hands for us.
“Refuse to poison the future with the pain of the past”
If somebody or your boss has hurts you, do not harbour hurt. Do not conceive the hurt, or you will give birth to hurt. If you have been hurt, remember that the future is brighter than the past, so do not poison your future. Do not allow what is coming on you to distract you. You need to put your mind in order and see through and beyond a problem.
Competence – the key to speed up your promotion
Characteristics of someone with an excellent spirit:
It is amazing that Daniel was in a foreign land, and there were 123 officers in the parliament of Darius. There were only three who were at the top, and Daniel distinguished himself above the three. He had such an excellent spirit within him, which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit that does not compromise beauty or accuracy. Daniel was found faultless at work. They tried to search him, 122 men searched one man and found him faultless. Some of us are searched by one person and he comes up with a lot of faults. It is even said that they tried to dig for old skeletons about Daniel, they found him faithful. They even agreed to cook something religious in order to catch on him, but they couldn’t. He was faithful, that is why he became the second in charge – he became the number two to the number one in King Darius’ government because of accuracy and faithfulness.
Another thing that is very important is selflessness. Daniel was selfless. To be selfless is to be less of self. Are you aware that no two eyes of any human being sees that human being except if he stands in-front of a mirror? You were made to see another, be selfless.
Be faithful with what is another man’s. Some people are only faithful about that which belongs to them. If you push somebody on the top, you are next on the summit. Jesus said “I must do the work of the One who sent me while it is still day, for the night is coming where no one will be able to work”. He was doing the work he was sent to do.
Be scandal free. Many people are not scandal free. We need to be scandal-free. We need not to be found corrupt. Do not take what is not given to you.
Ownership Mentality
You must work like you are a shareholder. This means you have ownership at the work you are doing. The moment you have ownership, you will be time conscious. You will arrive at work on time. The moment you have ownership, you become a hard worker. The moment you have ownership, you begin to take care of those who are helping you to achieve the goals. You do not treat them like computers. Human beings are not fax machines, they have got feelings too. Treat them well. The moment you own the work, you will never be full of excuses. You overcome excuses. You will never finish the excuses of an unwilling person. An unwilling person has got 1000 excuses, but a willing heart has got 1000 opportunities. When the work is yours, you kill the spirit of absenteeism.
Dr Luke says “If you are not faithful with that which is another man’s, no one will give you what is yours”. It is easy to see who will be the next principal of a school, the man who is faithful to support the current principal. It is easy to see who will be the next premier, the one who is faithful in supporting the current premier. Remember, some of the builders never went to school, they were faithful digger boys; some of the powerful mechanics never went to school, they were faithful spanner boys. Without the mind-set of being faithful with another man’s you will never go to your next level.
Going an extra mile – Doing more than the call of duty
Promotion will come upon a person who is found doing more than the call of duty. When you do more than the call of duty you are a teacher who even follows the student at home when they do not come to school, to find out what are the problems that could be causing that student to be so often absent. Some teachers would say “but we are not employed to do house-to-house”, they do not understand what it means to go an extra mile. When a taxi driver goes an extra mile, he doesn’t only drive the taxi, he cleans it as well. When you do more than the call of duty, there is no way that you cannot be promoted.
Pushing others to the top in order to get to the summit
If you are working as a teacher, and you are not making your principal succeed, the post will never be vacant. You need to push somebody to their next level first before your next level becomes vacant. Some people refuse to set another person up for promotion, and that means they themselves will never be promoted. This is a principle, principles do not get old, principals do. You need to observe the principles. Those who work to make others promoted, get promoted too. Imagine putting water and soap in a basin to wash a white towel that has become dirty. As you wash the towel, your own nails get so clean. There was no way you could clean them to that level if it wasn’t for helping to get the towel cleaned.
Work as though you are serving the Lord
When Adam was put in the Garden of Eden, there was no pulpit. And there was nobody to preach to. So working for the Lord does not mean standing behind the pulpit. When a teacher is teaching in a school, he is serving the Lord because those students belong to the Lord and they are going to improve the country. When a nurse is working at the hospital, she is serving the Lord; a taxi driver transporting people from point A to point B is serving the Lord. We need to change our perspective.
Serving the Lord does not mean you must carry a Bible, it means you must help people. Every person who is working somewhere is helping people, and that is serving the Lord. There is no way that you will find the Lord stuck somewhere without transport, so to serve the Lord is to serve the people. In our churches we say “let’s give to the Lord”. Have you ever seen the Lord collecting money? He doesn’t even use the money, but that is serving the Lord. We serve the Lord by serving people.
Approach every morning with a smile
There are DOs and DON’Ts at work.
DOs:
- Greet your colleague with a smile
- Call your colleague by name
- Always help the overburdened colleague
- Appreciate your colleague’s area of success
DON’Ts:
- Do not raise your voice at work in order to make your point or to give it a bigger weight.
- Do not arrive late without informing in advance
- Do not pick up topics that embarrass other people, making yourself look good
Promotion Hazards
- Sour relations with your employer
- Stealing from the company
- The bad tendency of rebuking the leader in public. You must praise in public and rebuke privately.
- Becoming power hungry in such a way that you ignore the procedures involved.
Conclusion
Work is a gift, not a punishment. Take cake care of the gift, and the giver will take care of you. God bless you.
Where to get the book
- Calvary Christian Church (Pretoria East)
- Book Shop in Thohoyandou Limpopo
- Calvary Christian Centre (Lwamondo, Limpopo)
- Wherever Dr Maxwell is preaching (see his Facebook Page – Dr Maxwell Masakona. You can also inbox him to order)
- You can place an order via post: Calvary Christian Church, P. O. Box 332, Lwamondo, 0985
- You can also email vteejay@gmail.com
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