Are you a "Barnabas" kind of manager?

Back in 2001 I took a job at UPS. I had already been a health professional for 10 years, but was working my way through seminary. The best way to take the classes I needed, as well as supply my family with good insurance, was to work the 4-8 AM shift at UPS, Monday-Friday. The job also came with other benefits, like supplying tuition assistance for school. It was grueling work, moving boxes from a slide onto various belts that would eventually work their way to the trucks that would deliver them. When I and my co-workers were done for the day, we were able to wring sweat out of our shirts, and knew that we had worked hard.

I got a chance to meet the plant manager. He drove a Mercedes S-class, wore nice suits, and looked like a consummate professional. He spoke to me and other employees about the essential jobs we were doing, and the mission and vision of the company. He also told us that 22 years before, he had held the same jobs we were now doing- sorting packages and loading trucks. It never occurred to me that he would have started with such a basic job. The company encouraged, nurtured and developed him. Coupled with his own hard work, he became a successful manager who would go on to a very nice 6-figure salary.

This demonstrated the old school of doing business. Largely gone are the days when companies invest in the development of their employees. A recent article I read talked about a lack of willingness that companies have in investing in the talent that they have acquired, because we no longer have Toms, Dicks, and Harrys that want to retire at the same job they started 40 years earlier. Companies have in turn given up on developing “company people.”

What if you could make “company people” by the actions that you do as a manager? What if you could gain commitment from people, to help stabilize your workforce and not lose all that money it takes to train new hires constantly? What if your management style leads others to believe that they are not just some Tom, Dick or Harry to you, and that they matter? Would such a management style help with establishing loyal employees that your company can count upon to “stick around,” even through challenging times or other jobs that appear to be in greener pastures?   The answer, I believe, is yes. You can develop and maintain employees if you take a page out of the management playbook of a guy named Barnabas.

Who was Barnabas? Well, you meet him in the New Testament book of Acts. Actually, his name was not Barnabas really- it was Joseph. Joseph’s life, however, was so marked by one characteristic, that the word for it became his name. That characteristic, embodied in the name Barnabas, can be boiled down to one word: “encourager.”

How much of an encourager was Barnabas? Let me share a couple significant ways he fulfilled this nickname:

• Barnabas was the first one to trust the new Apostle Paul, who formally had been named Saul, and was known for his zeal for persecuting and having Christians executed. Saul had a dramatic conversion to Christianity, and at first the leaders of the church did not trust him (they had a right to be concerned). However, Barnabas took Paul under his wing, and encouraged the new Apostle, to the point of working hand in hand with him on the mission field.
• Barnabas encouraged a young Christian convert, whose name was John Mark, who at first abandoned Paul and Barnabas during a time of trial. John Mark came back later, but Paul did not want to take John Mark back. Barnabas disagreed, took John Mark under his wing, and nurtured the newly penitent John Mark. In fact, Barnabas was willing to disagree with Paul concerning this, and set out with John Mark without Paul. Later in life, Paul would count John Mark as an asset to the faith. You know why John Mark probably became an asset? The tender nurturing of Barnabas.

What lessons can we learn from Barnabas? How will he make you a better manager? Simply these lessons applied in our approach to employees:

• Come alongside your employees, especially when new. They will have a time where they are likely coming into an established work environment, and be the outsider. Look for opportunities to include them from the beginning, so they quickly are able to integrate with the team. A positive experience of being thus integrated will leave a lasting impression upon a new employee, and help them better “settle in” for a long haul with the company.
• Give people a second chance. Employees are people, and we need to give them the freedom to screw up once in awhile, but then offer them a road to redemption when those screw ups occur. When employees work in toxic environments where they have no room for error, otherwise they will be “disciplined,” they will cease to work with enthusiasm and creativity, and see themselves as an integral and assimilated part of the organization. Rather, they will seek to protect themselves by sticking to the routine of their job description, and will not flourish in your organization.
• Finally, don’t just offer this mentoring at the beginning of their career with you. Always encourage, develop, and provide opportunities for employees so they know that you really mean to make them a long-lasting part of the organization, someone that is valuable and worth your time and talents.

Barnabas was effective in these things. That is why he was known as the “encourager.” That’s why he would have made a great manager in today’s work. He was so effective in one guy’s life, in fact, that he turned a deserter into a hugely effective contributor to the mission of the early church. You see, John Mark is more consistently referred to as just Mark- as in the author of the second gospel account. Imagine where Mark would have ended up had not a man named Encourager brought that very attribute to bear upon this guy’s life.

Encouragement- pass it along. Be a Barnabas kind of leader!