Fruit of High Performance
Fruit of high performance
Does your business have a high performance culture? Whether it’s something one can ever say has been achieved or not, it’s more the effort to adopt it that matters and drives results.
A high performance culture means you adopt certain principles about how your and your staff approach their work. There will be some staff members who get it and become role models for high performance. I'm sure you know who they are in your business.
The same can be said of your brand culture and values – who are the roles models in your business who model the behaviours you most associate with the kind of business culture you want to be known for?
It's begs the question- what does it mean to model Christ-like culture in the workplace?
What is the “fruit” of high performance culture? Well, I’m not a performance coach so I’ll leave that question to the experts. The reflection I’d like to have is the fruit of Christ-like performance. For that, we have Galatians chapter 5 that describes the fruit of the spirit, which perhaps you are familiar with:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Before I reflect on this, I’d like to go back a few verses. Paul has something else to say first:
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
These are behaviours that we most avoid, that we must not model. Some of these are easier to avoid than others – if you’re reading this, I would guess you’re not prone to witchcraft, drunkenness and orgies! But what about some of the others?
Selfish ambition? Envy? Dissensions? Reflect for a moment. I would suggest that these are behaviours that we could easily be tempted into in business. Paul’s warning is clear: those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And perhaps we should also conclude that our business suffers when we embody the acts of the flesh?
The fruit of the Spirit are not gifts that are bestowed on us individually. Gifts of the Spirit are covered elsewhere in Scripture. The fruit of the Spirit are behaviours that people who live by the Spirit will embody. We’ve no excuse – if we live by the Spirit, we will keep in step with the Spirit and we will embody these behaviours.
In so doing, we reflect Christ into our workplace; we become role models for our staff and our customers; we make Christ known in the marketplace.
As we reflect on the performance of our staff, perhaps we could all take a moment on a regular basis to reflect on our own personal performance. Have we embodied acts of the flesh, or have we embodied fruit of the Spirit?
Bless you all.
- Rik McCrossan