Everyone Wears Masks - Your Pastor and Priest, Your Mom, Dad, Family, and YOU!
By Dennis Diehl
Every human being on the planet wears a mask. Most wear many masks. Some call it the dark side, but in fact it is just another side. Humans are more complicated and needful in their spirit than some would allow them to be and Churches go to great lengths to control this other side. As a result, people wear masks, including all members of all churches, their proIt's 2006-Do You Have a Human Resource Strategy
By Rick Johnson
This new century demands that management have adaptive skills working across the generation diversity that exists in today's workplace. No doubt people are an organization's most precious asset. Today, unlike any other time in history, that asset is filled with generational diversity. This diversity sits side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, cubicle-to-cubicle and warehouseman to warehouseman. This generational diversity can create tension, mistrust and conflict and negate loyalty to the company in general.
How is This Generational Diversity Defined?
The most publicized and visible generation grouping of today are the Baby Boomers, born between 1943 and 1965, then we have the Generation Xers, born between 1965 and 1980 and finally we have the Generation Veterans, nearing retirement, born between 1935 and 1942. Generalities tell us that the Boomers think the Xers are greedy, lazy and have a poor work ethics. The Xers think the Boomers are obsessive, dictatorial and lack understanding and empathy. They "live to work" and the Xers "work to live." The generation veterans are considered a pain in the backside by the action oriented Boomers and the technology crazed Xers.
To add even more challenge to your objectives in Human Resources, consider the workforce born between 1981 and 2000. These are the youngsters just now entering the work force. Let's call them The Nexters. Many in this group, early on , primarily hangs out in the service industries like fast food. You may run into a few out on your warehouse floor. As they age and gain more education you find them entrenched in technology, E-Business and many become web-head evangelists. They are eager to learn, willing to work, but lack the loyalty the Boomers expect from their employees. The Generation Xers consider the Nexters self-absorbed, spoiled brats.
You might find it helpful to create a portrait of each generation. Study it, understand it, try to learn what they value most. Listen to them. Try to understand the historical events that shaped their lives (Viet Nam, Woodstock, Gulf War, civil rights, birth control, Kent State University, safe water, safe environments). Try to profit from their perspectives and insight. Take advantage of the youthful energetic innocence and the wisdom of the experienced.
Things to Be Aware Of
Since we are experiencing the most value-diverse workforce this country has every known, traditional thoughts in the area of Human Resources must be challenged. The Xters and Nexters have a completely different mind set and value system than most of the executives in the distribution industry who happen to be Boomers. We can no longer think that this generation should be grateful for the opportunity to work for us. In fact, we may have to consider a hiring bonus. We must temper our expectations of long term loyalty. As one Generation Xer put it, "If you want loyalty, buy a dog." The Xers and Nexters are much more technically savvy. They carry laptops, are much more mobile and have a different value system.
A Human Resource Strategy is Key to Becoming Employer of Choice
A human resources strategy must be included in your corporate strategic plan. Make sure you have a Human Resources professional on your staff to deal with the sweeping changes in the workplace. This person must be a skilled, knowledgeable business partner. They must play a vital role in helping your organization become or remain competitive in the labor marketplace. Becoming the Employer of Choice begins and ends with your Human Resource staff. However, it is not their task alone. Every manager in the company, from the President to the warehouse supervisor, shares in that responsibility.
Where are you now?
Determine where you are today in relationship to becoming an Employer of Choice. What strengths do you have to build on? What are the competencies that you need to develop?
As an example, consider your company's current performance in the following areas. You may want to assign a score of 1-10 to each item and include a list of its strengths and weaknesses:
o Human relations leadership skills
o Commitment to treating employees as your most valuable asset
o Training
o Credibility of your management team and company vision
o Communication skills
o Decision-making skills
o Benefits
o Other employee related support systems
Create a Human Resource Vision
Once you've determined the current state of your human resource function you should create a vision of what your human resource competency should be. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your vision must evolve around that commitment. It must be developed with intelligence, sound judgment, a willingness to step outside the box and, most importantly, a focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
The Human Resource professional must move from the "back room" to the "boardroom" if you expect to become Employer of Choice. Emphasis and focus must be placed on the importance of continuous progress and managing change through goal setting. Goals must be realistic, reasonable, challenging and attainable:
o Long term
o Intermediate
o Short term
Developing Your Human Resource Strategy
Once you have established your vision, the next step is to develop your human resource strategy. This strategy is the process by which you will achieve your vision of becoming an Employer of Choice. You must be committed to becoming Employer of Choice. Your strategy must evolve around that commitment, intelligence, judgment and one more time, it must focus on your most precious asset - your employees.
Do not let ego get in the way of judgment. Managers need to challenge old ways. You must be determined to create a culture where worth is determined by a willingness to learn new skills and adapt to change. You must create an environment that makes it fun to go to work. Do not measure how well you are doing, measure how much you have changed.
"In the years ahead, workforce stability will be a company's competitive sales edge. In these turbulent times, exacerbated by a tight labor market, employers will be continually challenged to locate, attract, optimize and retain the talent they need to serve their customers. The most successful employers will be those who legitimately inspire highly talented workers to join them and stay with them."
Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia
How to Become An Employer of Choice
Adam Fein of Pembroke Consulting reports in Facing the Forces of Change that nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce will be 55 years old or over by 2010, up 13%. He states that baby boomers are aging and the situation will get worse. The 25-44 year old segment will decrease by another 6% to 26% by 2010. All these facts mixed together only heighten the importance of your Human Resource strategy.
The Human Resource Planning Process
o Clearly define Human Resources role in the strategic business plan. Set specific objectives, assign accountability and develop time lines for becoming employer of choice.
o Follow the planning process map:
o Develop performance drivers
o Develop recruitment and retention strategies
o Create a scorecard
o Define policies and practices
o Career counseling
o Coaching and mentoring
o Internship program
o Education and training
o Creative employee support (day care- job sharing etc.)
Make It Fun to Come To Work
The key to employee retention is not necessarily compensation based. It has been proven time and time again that money is not high on the motivational factor list. However, money can rise to the top of the list of complaints if an employee does not enjoy coming to work every day. When an employee really likes their job, environment and peers and feels they are well treated and respected, money becomes a non-issue in most cases.
There is a book called 1001 Ways to Reward Employees (Author, Bob Nelson, Workman publishing). I encourage you to order this book.
Human Resource is an Investment in Your Employees
Unleash yourself from the self imposed trap many of us have placed ourselves in by considering Human Resources a cost center. If you develop a definitive Human Resource strategy geared to make your company the Employer of Choice in your markets, Human Resource will become a profit center. Recruitment & Retention alone will create a tremendous return on investment to your company
Research shows that it costs between 50 - 150% of an employee's annual salary to replace them. This does not include their actual salary. For example, the cost to replace an inside sales person that just resigned could exceed $75,000. The cost to replace an employee includes costs for both recruiting and training the new employee plus the loss of productivity while the position is empty and even during the "learning curve". The exact cost depends on the level of the position and the current market demand for that position. However, consider having to replace 15 employees over the course of a year. Suppose the average salary is $40,000. The replacement cost of those employees would be as follows:
10 employees@ $40,000 = $400,000 X 150% = $600,000 and that doesn't include their pay. This is a phenomenal hidden expense.
Even if you use the more conservative statistic of 100% of salary, the cost savings would be four thousand dollars.
"This does not include the lost opportunity costs in the market place."
Don't underestimate the power of your employees. Treat them with respect, gain their trust, invest in becoming Employer of Choice and you will release more discretionary energy, creativity and innovation than you can imagine.
http://www.ceostrategist.com � Sign up to receive �The Howl� a fre*e monthly newsletter and get your choice of "CEO Strategist's Hiring and Interview Guide" or "The Guide to Effective Training Sessions", valuable resources for all levels of management. The Howl addresses real world industry issues. � Straight talk about today�s issues. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution�s �Leadership Strategist�, founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that helps clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Dr. Eric �Rick� Johnson (rick@ceostrategist.com) is the founder of CEO Strategist LLC. an experienced based firm specializing in Distribution. CEO Strategist LLC. works in an advisory capacity with distributor executives in board representation, executive coaching, team coaching and education and training to make the changes necessary to create or maintain competitive advantage. You can contact them by calling 352-750-0868, or visit http://www.ceostrategist.com for more information.Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com.
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http://EzineArticles.com/?Its-2006-Do-You-Have-a-Human-Resource-Strategy&id=226927phets, priests and pastors.
Recently, in Tennessee, we have seen the sad story of a charismatic pastor type, shot dead by "the pastors wife" as she would be known by the membership. I don't know what went wrong, but I would bet it has to do with wearing masks and living with or not living well with the other side. It will have to do with what was expected as opposed to what was real. I do know that churches and the scripture place a totally unrealistic burden on men and women who feel called to serve as a pastor and example of what a "Bible family," or marriage, or behaviors should be like.
"Should" and "Must" are words that drive a lot of people over the edge as the impractical expectations of religion takes its toll. This pastor, like all humans probably was wearing a mask and since it was some form of unacceptable, in this case, it cost him his life. I also suspect his wife, wearing her own masks and endeavoring to live up to the unrealistic expectations of others in that particular religious mindset simply had come to the tipping point.
Most churches don't have a way for the minister and family to address real human issues and stay as pastor and wife. To speak up or ask for help is to demote yourself and forever be viewed as flawed and "weak." Its the higher up flawed and weak leaders that place these labels on you. Ministers don't seek help often because they become blemished lambs just for asking, so they don't ask . When masks come off, people are so surprised. They knew them as "so nice," or "so quiet and kind." That was the mask. They never got to know them as a genuine human being. I wish her well in this most difficult journey now that has affected so many people. I hope that someone will look to see what fundamentalist religion can do the the spirit that has to wear masks to cope with the differences between how we wish to think and do and what is expected.
All ministers wear masks. It goes with the turf. As a pastor, I certainly did and I did because there was no room for being one's self and a pastor. The pastor, male or female, is that religious leader that people want to live whatever they feel the Biblical life is, while going about their own business and doing what they themselves darn well please.
Ministers and priests are the sacrificial human who is to be what others simple don't wish to be, but are glad to see it's possible, at least if the mask stays on properly. I would think that the admonition in the Gospels to "become ye therefore perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is Perfect," might be a bit unrealistic for real humans, but the minister or priest is paid to go for it and show us how it's done. Of course, it's not done, but the appropriate mask is in place in the appropriate circumstance, always.
They are always "such a nice and quiet young man," or "happy family," before they blow. Masks tend to come off at the most inappropriate time and manner. I was riding to work one Saturday morning when I heard the news of a man who went ballistic in a church in Milwaukee, killing eight, including the Pastor and his son and then himself. I knew. It was a Saturday meeting. It was a hotel meeting room. I knew it was one of the splinter groups of my past affiliations. An hour later, it was confirmed and what I felt was going to happen someday in that group, because it so forces people to wear masks, did happen. I thought it would happen somewhere else, but this was no surprise to me. I had "prophecied" it to myself years ago. Very sad, and of course the young man who did the killing was labeled as "demon possessed," and the whole thing sank into history. Simply put, the Church, this one and all churches, had forced a mask to be worn and rather than be able to talk about it, it stays firmly affixed...until it doesn't.
In my years of pastoring, I saw how "me thinks thou dost protest too much," works in the world of masks. Ministers who were known for raging against sexual sins, gays and "lustful practices," were wrestling with it themselves and projecting their own confusion and guilt onto the audience. I am confident that they themselves had no clue that was what they were doing.
Few get trained in how to spot a mask. It is therapeutic, and yet when the pastors mask comes off in some misadventure, he is roasted, eaten and the bones thrown in the trash. He certainly was not pefect as his Heavenly Father is perfect. Of course, the membership wore all the same masks but that does't count. He was to be in fact what they would only be in masked compliance when convenient.
At least they leave a pastor, who did a lot of genuine human counseling with people, alone when he is thrown out, because he knows so darn much about the masks worn by others. They are afraid he'll spill their beans. You'll find the most supportive of the defrocked pastor are those that wore maks too but at least know it and may have shared this fact with the pastor. Maybe the pastor was kind and compassionate to them and now it's payback time when he was found out. It's an interesting dynamic. It's human stuff.
I have seen ministers rail on drinking who needed help with their own overdrinking born out of despair, living the perfect life and wondering why it feels so sucky. I can't tell you how many members I have worked with who drank too much too often and held all sorts of positions in the Church, but he better not be the minister. We have to have our sacrificial lamb to be what we refuse to be. He is genuine so we don't have to be, it seems the average person reasoned. His job is to keep telling us not to be and do what we still intend to be and do no matter what he says. He just better not be and do like we be and do! We pay him to be and do perfect as his Heavenly Father is PERFECT.
Seems if you want to make a problem rampant, just make it illegal. I pastored in "dry counties" where the alcoholism rate was out the roof. Churches are good at demanding, upon pain of some eternal fate, that one never do lots of things. This causes people to wear masks as much of what the church demands one never do, is some kind of sin, rather than a mere choice that sometimes we overdo. Life is not all or nothing in reality, but it is so often in fundamentalist religious perspectives. Thus we all wear masks to stay safely tucked in at least two worlds.
Anytime you join a group, you are going to have to get used to wearing masks on various topics and at various times to stay in the good graces of the group. That is just how it works. Individualism is frowned upon. Churches want dogs that can at least be trained, both as ministers and members. They certainly don't want cats that are impossible to herd, as they say. Even a pit bull can be trained to do, momentarily what one wishes it to do, with training, but inside, it might still want to rip your leg off. A cat is a cat. No masks on any cat I ever met. "Here Kitty Kitty," I call out as it walks away and doesn't even look back. "Sit," as it stands there and scorns me, and don't even think the crazy thing will roll over or beg! It's a cat. It knows nothing of masks. Long live Cats!
You're church might more or less demand a tithe of your income as being reasonable for your support of the church. Of course, this is not really as biblically binding as you might be told and you really aren't robbing God. God doesn't really need money... but the Building Fund does or the payroll people do. Maybe the narcississitic pastor who is going to change the world for Jesus does, but God does not. You might do it in a form of fearful compliance, but it's not what you really want to do or can afford to do even if you wanted to. But still you do it. You are wearing a mask. You will smile on the outside and be angry on the inside for which your body and spirit will pay.
You're church might make demands about what you must be a part of to show proof of your "loyalty and service to the Church" attitude. You conform and show up or do what you are asked, but you don't really want to or don't have the time. You are wearing another mask. Someone might wish to make you a "leader" because you have worn your other masks so well and want you take on this even bigger one. You comply and bingo, your face is really starting to feel heavy!
The church might show you what the Bible says about many topics. They may inform you on how "God" wants you to date, or find a partner, or even if you should at this time. They might think you can't pick 'em so they will do it for you. They will have the truth about prophecy and how near you're particular denomination thinks Jesus return is. They will say things in sermons that you won't really see or agree with but feel bad for not. They inform you of the Bible and God's view of sex and you comply even though it just doesn't work for you or seem anyone's business but yours. And so you mask up when needed and do what you want anyway. This is not wrong. What is wrong is having to feel one is duplistic when in fact one is just making personal choices and expressing personal preferences on this topic that really is no one elses business. To the degree you don't disagree publicly, you will wear a mask when theses topics or others come up. Ministers are forced just as much as members to do this to keep their jobs which is why so many are sitting down on the outside when certain topics come up, but in fact standing on the inside and angry.
Wearing masks can kill you. If one is not careful, one's biography can become one's biology. Repressed anger and the duplicity of wearing masks can cause dis-ease, and in particular, cancer. What is eating you, eats you. Peeling off a mask can be very very painful They tend to grow on you and stick to your flesh. Sometimes flesh comes off with the mask and you have to heal for a time. Your face might not look so good, but it will heal but I can't say it won't leave scars.
So what's a minister or member to do?
First of all, know that it's just fine to disagree with your church or minister and he with you or even his own denomination. It is good mental health. Find something to disagree with and voice it! Ok, be careful if you want to stay part of the true tribe. It should not cost everyone their friendships, jobs and basic human respect. It does, but it shouldn't. To the degree one thinks it is not OK to disagree with the group or Church, is the degree that masks will be firmly affixed when needed, and your dis-ease can begin. If you minister in, or a member of a church where you know your inclusion depends on compliance, leave now. If not, then someday you might not be able to get the mask off, and will be forced to have it removed surgically and probably without anesthetic.
Secondly, human trumps being perfect as "your Heavenly Father is Perfect," EVERY time. To the degree you send the message that perfect is what we look for here, is the degree that those you expect it in will wear masks. Count on it. There are no perfect ministers, pastor families, children, ways to raise one, ideas, elders, deacons, youth guys, music ministers or organ grinders. The man who shot his pastor dead and then himself gave up on being single "God's way," and being perfect as others expected him to be. He gave up on only finding a partner that thought like his church or his pastor thought he should think. He gave up on not being "unequally yoked with unbelievers." Man, you can be pretty darn yoked with believers from what I have seen in lots of church relationships. He gave up on feeling marginalized and lonely. He gave up and took others with him, just as perhaps this pastors wife in Tennessee has done. We shall see. But you can bet it has to do with masks and trying to be good, and nice and all things to all men, which is another form of wearing masks to say the least. A man who says "I become all things to all people that by any means I might save some," is duplistic and wearing masks beyond measure. You will never discover the genuine man under that perverse view. They tend to have thorns in the flesh they won't share with you and won't seek any other help, save from God himself, to work it out for him. It won't get worked out and they will explode or implode or maybe just become more weird and project their own shortcomings and fears upon the unsuspecting church. Usually the "rules" the minister places on the congregation reflect this duplicity.
Finally, realize that many ministers don't believe their own sermons and many members don't either, no matter how many times they note what a "good sermon" that was. Ministers and Priests get in the habit, due to masks that stick very well, of saying what even they no longer or perhaps ever did believe. It's tough to buck your organizational perspectives even when they are outdated, wrong or even dangerous to the human spirit. There were any number of topics I never spoke on that the denominational church thought it believed and would have wished me to pass on. Some were harmless ideas and some were plain stupid and harmful. It was nice when a position had to be rethought and I had not bothered to teach that anyway and did not have go back and look like the eternal, never changing God and truth had just changed. Other things I did teach but now have outgrown as that mask has come off too...ouch.
All humans wear masks. Who people's do because systems are in place to even kill them if they wander from the true path of others making. Women wear masks as well as men and so do your kids and all their friends. We do it because it is not safe or profitable not to. That is unless being authentically you in this one lifetime is important to you. I won't say it won't cost you to take off the mask. You will lose friends and perhaps even family support. You might be asked to leave your church or be labeled as "of the devil" or at least, backslidden and "never converted anyway." You might end up "the black sheep." If you are a minister, you might lose your career or have to move on to a more open minded group of believers. They do exist as groups tend to sort out by personality anyway. But tearing off your particular mask may open new doors of opportunity to you as well.
We'll never get rid of them all, but maybe part of our time on the planet is to work on that and get down to the baby pink flesh on our chubby sweet genuine faces that has been so covered up for so long with the masks we think we have to wear to get along with others and meet their expectations. Long live Cats!
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