Faith Works at Work. So Why Can't We Talk About It? Faith and belief drive a lot of what we do. Yet, we are asked to leave our beliefs at the doorstep of our offices.
By Sandi Krakowski Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I was talking to someone who is a prominent leader at his company. In a senior position, he is responsible not only to his team members but also for them. We began to discuss how the whole topic of faith at work creates such a negative reaction in some people.
Then he made this statement that blew me away: "Where I work, in media, you can have an opinion about my faith, get offended and voice your offense without any ramifications. As a matter of fact others will probably join into the offense. But if I say anything about someone's lifestyle choices, I could be fired and accused of violating the law."
How backwards is this?
If I believe in miracles and you don't, it's OK for you to verbally assault me and tell me to not talk about miracles in the workplace? But if I have a lifestyle choice or clothing choice that to some might be viewed as immodest or immoral, if you were to say anything about that you could end up running afoul of workplace laws? This is not how we were designed to operate. Diversity in harmony is great power and that includes in how we believe and in our faith.
Our beliefs fuel everything we do. From a purely neurological standpoint, human beings never even act on anything, nor do we even get a desire to act on anything, without first having a thought and a belief to do something. As tripartite beings, one with a body, soul and spirit, these three components of our humanness are inseparable. But sadly, in the workforce most of my readers live in day in and day out, they are being asked to behave as if this wasn't the case.
Related: Why a Corporation Without a Soul Is Just a Machine
I'm an entrepreneur who has created several multimillion-dollar corporations. Currently several large and small corporations seek me out for my knowledge in the field of social media. As one of Forbes' top social media influencers, people want to know about my views and practices for increased ROI, engagement and deliverability on the various social platforms. But if you make me "check out' my soul and remove my spirit, you would probably have nothing to discuss with me.
Everything I have done to build a very successful brand and strategy that has helped and is helping tens of thousands of small business owners and even several name brand corporations, is being driven by my Christian worldview that people are worth paying attention to, everyone deserves a chance and customers deserve good old fashioned service. My belief that haters aren't worth responding to and every customer is worth our time is 100 percemt fueled by my personal beliefs and faith.
Related: How Faith in the Workplace Can Increase Our ROI
In a recent article I wrote on Hobby Lobby vs Sibelius, I explained how dangerous it is to remove the soul of a corporation. An entrepreneur's passion and drive is fueled by his beliefs and faith that he can create and do what he has been dreaming of. Every app created, every new social platform, every manufacturer, big and small, every single corporation is driven by the dream of one person who had the courage and outright tenacity to follow through, every single day. It's the belief of such a person that made them not quit when things were tough, not give in when naysayers were whining "it can't be done' and not roll over when things got really really hard as they always do in the phases of corporate growth. It's the belief of this same entrepreneur to share in their success that causes them to create jobs, open up occupations for others to grow in and ultimately to add to our economy.
If you are offended when I tell you that I am going to pray to God for help with my advertising campaigns it only proves one thing: your own faith is either very weak or very insecure. Someone who gets threatened by the beliefs of another person is telling the world they are not confident in their own beliefs. You don't have to believe in God for me to do so. My beliefs aren't threatened by your unbelief and you shouldn't be threatened by mine.
We have the "rights of this agenda' and the "tolerance of that group' going on while all the while. It's still acceptable to verbally assault someone in the workplace if they believe differently than another person does when it comes to faith. Or worse yet, they are forced to be silent with fear of being fired or demoted.
Faith works at work. It fuels everything we do. Our beliefs are directing our thoughts and our thoughts are fueling our actions. It's time we got back to basics and realized that to remove the soul from a person or a corporation could be why we're in the mess we're currently in economically and as a society.
