Addressing Sexual Harassment Issues in the Church Between Attendees

OR:  Upsetting the Apple Cart: What Happens When a Church Faces Sexual Harassment Issues Between Attendees and the Leadership Isn’t Prepared?

(Note: I wrote this whitepaper post for churches. However, the principles apply to nearly any organization.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We often don’t see a gap in part of an organization until we personally experience that gap ourselves.

For example, if we experience inappropriate behavior from another human being at an institution, at that time we will realize the experience exposed a gap in some part of the organization: a gap in leadership’s knowledge and training in the subject matter; a gap that is spiritual in nature; or a gap which reveals what really controls leaders, such as their fears governing or controlling their actions.

I say “a gap in leadership” because, in my case, I brought an issue to a church leader immediately. I didn’t keep the experience to myself, nor did I figure if I ignored the issue, it would go away. I didn’t keep the story to myself for more than one hour. Besides the issue itself, during this experience I uncovered these gaps in leadership’s knowledge and training regarding how to address a particular type of issue in the church, a gap exposing a leader’s fears, and a gap that is, in its essence, spiritual in nature.

What is a Gap?

In the business world, specifically in accounting and audit, a “gap” is an issue which highlights a problem of deficiency. In business, these gaps are usually a lack of accounting controls which can lead to fraud, loss, or accounting records being so inaccurate as to lead to financial statements that are wrong. Why is that a problem? Because many people rely on a business’s financial statements to be accurate when investing in the firm, loaning the company money, selling products to the business on credit, or when buying the company out.

Gaps that are identified must be mitigated with a solid plan which is followed meticulously. Later, that part of the business is tested again by auditors to verify the gap is no longer present or whether the gap still exists and requires further mitigation.

Sometimes auditors who find and report on the gaps are mistreated by department managers and directors whose business units have the newly-discovered gaps. These managers get upset about the gap’s discovery and take it out on the auditor for upsetting their apple cart. Much of the time, however, managers and directors choose to address the gaps head-on, realizing the auditor’s discovery of the gap occurred before something worse could happen, and now they can focus on mitigation and ensure the gap doesn’t occur again.

 

Gaps Identified in a Church

Not only does gap discovery happen in corporations across the world. It also happens in churches.

In the particular experience of which I’m writing, it has to do with behaviors that fall under the larger umbrella of sexual harassment.

If you take a look at what is available for churches in terms of sexual harassment training, you’ll find most of it is geared toward employee-to-employee behavior, much like training for businesses. In corporate America, you may also see inappropriate behavior coming from a customer or vendor targeted at your employee, outside of your employer’s governance. But in a church, inappropriate behavior can be targeted from an employee to an attendee, or between two attendees, in addition to employee-to-employee.

There doesn’t appear to be much training available for church leadership regarding sexual harassment between attendees, and there is very little training or help for dealing with an employee targeting a non-employee.

That said, many of the regular sexual harassment training principles from the business world apply well to churches and to church leadership when dealing with this type of issue between two church attendees who aren’t employees of the church.

For the purposes of this whitepaper, the recipient of the behavior will be called the Target. The person demonstrating the behavior will be called the Man.

(Also, I’m only addressing issues involving adults. If the Target is a minor, more serious implications and consequences may apply, such as when a crime was committed.)

Principles for Church Leaders (Elders, Pastors, etc.)

There are five basic principles for dealing with issues in the church that fall under the larger umbrella of sexual harassment. These principles apply to any church leader (professional or layperson) who becomes aware of inappropriate behavior toward an attendee. These principles are:

1.      Listen to the Target tell her story.

2.      Create a plan of action.

a.   If the behavior of the Man hasn’t escalated too far, an Elder choosing to speak with the Man is an adequate initial action. (Assuming the issue is forwarded to an Elder to manage. But it could be forwarded to a staff Pastor.)
b.   Give the Target your word regarding your plan of action.
c.      Tell the Target you will call her after you’ve had the initial conversation with the Man.
d.      Don’t delay.
e.       Keep your word.

3.     From here on out, the Target should never be alone with the Man and should not be expected to be alone with the Man. The Man shouldn’t text, email, visit, or call the Target. The Man should not speak to the Target without a witness present.

4.     If the Leader/Elder/Pastor insists on a conversation taking place, and a meeting is scheduled, the Target should have an Advocate present at the meeting at all times. The Advocate may ask questions, make comments, and may object to questions or comments spoken by anyone at the meeting. The Man may also have an Advocate at the meeting if he so chooses.

5.     The Target will be allowed to apply wisdom and safety to the situation in order to make good decisions about who she spends time with at the church, which ministries she will be involved in, and if she will remain at this church at all.

 

The more difficult part of the church scenario involves the keeping of secrets. If the Leader requires the Target to keep the situation and its details a secret, it can lead to the Target being and feeling isolated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unbeknownst to any leader at the church I was attending for a short time, I’m a workplace bullying expert, especially focused on behaviors of subtle bullying. That said, since I’m also interested in the wider field in this topic/space, this means I also have deep knowledge regarding overt bullying and sexual harassment. I’ve learned enough about these other areas in order to identify and address them.

So, What Is My Story?

At the request of an acquaintance at the church, I filled in one Sunday morning at a ministry I knew nothing about. The acquaintance made a connection to someone who would help me out – a woman who was friendly and helpful. I also met the woman’s husband that morning in the hallway and chatted for a few minutes. Later, after the church service, her husband chatted with me again for a few minutes. On my way out, I stopped to chat with the woman again (she was in the church kitchen for the ministry she serves) and we spoke for about 20 minutes. I left that day thinking I had met some very nice people. I had also offered to email the husband two pieces of information (which I email regularly to a list of about 75 people, most of whom are male).

Fast-forward two weeks.

At this point I had had a couple email exchanges with the husband on the topics we discussed (topics that I email other men and women about all the time – issues going on in the U.S.). In his emails, he was a little over-the-top complimentary, but I thought it was just his style.

Now it’s another Sunday. I attended the early service. Afterward, the husband (who I will refer to as the Man) approached me (his wife was in the church kitchen ministry again) and he immediately complimented me on what I was wearing and then said something about “your nice figure”.

What? Huh?

That was the first red flag and I didn’t know what to do with it.

Next, he asked me if I planned to attend the Sunday morning class.

(There is one Sunday morning adult class and it is lead by the Elder who also leads a weeknight home fellowship group I attend. I had considered going to this morning class for a while.)

I said, yes, I thought I’d attend the class that morning.

The Man said, “Oh, good. I saved you a seat.”

Okay. A little weird.

We walked to the classroom where he had indeed saved me a seat. One other person was in the room. The Man suggested we set our things down and then go out into the hall to talk. This wasn’t odd in itself, but in retrospect he was monopolizing my time rather than introducing me to other people.

After the class was over, there was a baptism for several people scheduled in the main auditorium. I told the Man I wasn’t staying for that and that I had to stop in the lady’s room before leaving. As we walked out, there were restrooms located in an alcove area. The Man kept talking to me in the slightly-private alcove area.

At this point, he was talking a little faster and in a manner called “word salad” where it’s hard to decipher what he is saying, but I’ll list below the best I can recollect:

• He offered me his cell phone number “in case you need any help with anything, but I can only talk on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 in the morning.”
•  “Don’t worry. I’m not into going to hotels or anything.”
•  “I’ll have to tell you some time about the times four women clients propositioned me…” 
  To which I replied, “I don’t think I want to hear about that.”

At this point he walked away, and I was grateful to be relieved of his presence.

The next day I saw an email from him in my inbox (written and sent on Sunday night). I waited until Monday afternoon to open it.

The first paragraph of the email was more over-the-top compliments. The second paragraph was about the Sunday morning class. But it was the third paragraph that did me in.

In the third paragraph, the Man encouraged me to call him on his cell phone, but that he can only talk on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 AM because that is when his wife is at her Bible study. He wrote on and on about how he believes men and women can be friends but he doesn’t think his wife will understand, blah, blah, blah.

Well, I was having NONE of it and I was done.

I only knew one Elder – the man who leads and hosts the home fellowship group I attend. I called the Elder’s wife, told her I’d like to meet with both of them, and told her I was receiving inappropriate attention from a married man in the church, and that my story ends with an email I received today. We scheduled for me to meet with them the next day.

This is Where It Gets More Interesting

Now begins the part of the story when I evaluate how a leader in the church responds to an issue that falls under the umbrella of sexual harassment – unwanted and inappropriate attention from another person – and how that response lines up with the Principles for Church Leaders stated earlier.

(As a side note, I pulled the plug on the Man’s behavior early – before it escalated into anything more or worse. His behavior at that point seemed like a form of grooming, which is also under the umbrella of sexual harassment.)

Back to my meeting with the Elder and his wife – on Tuesday.

I’m going to list each of the Principles and comment on them in regard to my experience.

1.      Listen to the Target tell her story.

Instead of starting our meeting by allowing me to tell my story, the Elder started out by saying, “I think I know why you’re here and what the story is about.”

• How is that possible?, I asked him.
• Well, he received a text from the Man asking if there was another book available for me for the Sunday morning class. The Elder read to me the entire text.
• I told him he got the person right, but I wasn’t there to discuss the class nor a book for the class. None of that text had anything to do with why I was there.
• I finally launched into the story, ending with the printed copy of the email.
• The Elder did okay at this Principle #1 – not bad, not great. It would have been great if he had skipped saying, “I think I know why you’re here” and reading the text. He made incorrect assumptions. He should have just allowed me to tell my story. In other words, the Elder put 2 + 2 together and got “3” or “5”. Certainly not “4”.
• During my telling of the story, the Elder’s wife made comments and was helpful and compassionate. I was glad to have a woman present. (She had asked me the day before if I preferred to speak to two elders without her. I said I wanted her to be there.)

2.      Create a Plan of Action

At the end of my telling of the story, the Elder said:

a.       “I will speak with the Man.”

(If the behavior of the Man hasn’t escalated too far, an Elder choosing to speak with the Man is an adequate initial action.)

b.      “I will take care of this.”

(Give the Target your word regarding your plan of action.)

c.       “After I speak with the Man, I will contact you to discuss how it went.”

(Tell the Target you will call her after you’ve had the initial conversation.)

The Elder’s wife then said, “You have Elder’s phone number, right?”  I said, yes, I do.

In this “Create a Plan of Action” Principle, the Elder did a great job with the first three subsets of #2, a, b, & c. He created a plan of action that was reasonable, he told me what his plan of action was, he told me he planned to speak with me after speaking with the Man, and he gave me his word.

The Elder also requested that I not let the Man’s wife know about this situation and that I not tell anyone at the church about it. (This comes up again later and, since I’m a workplace bullying expert, I was able to quickly identify the issues with secrecy.)

The next two elements under the Principle of “Create a Plan of Action” are:

d.      Don’t delay; and

e.       Keep your word.

The meeting with the Elder and his wife took place on a Tuesday. The Elder also requested if I received another email from the Man to forward it to the Elder’s wife.

On Wednesday I received another email which I forwarded as the Elder requested. I texted the Elder’s wife to let her know about the new email. She texted back that she would give it to the Elder.

Wednesday came and went. Thursday came and went. Now it was Friday. I had received no phone call from the Elder so far.

Before I continue with this story there are a couple other things to share. First, this particular church is really into having their people build accountability relationships. They have a men’s program that is geared toward accountability, and, at the time of this writing, they started a women’s accountability program. Second, I have accountability relationships in my life already. At this point in the story, I had already pulled in two of my accountability partners (APs) and I brought in a third on Friday afternoon.

Back to the story. Early Friday afternoon, one of my accountability partners called me to ask what I had heard from the Elder.

Nothing.

She said, “He said he would contact you after he spoke to the Man, and he gave you his word.”

I said, “What if the Elder hasn’t spoken to the Man yet? Or what if he spoke to the Man, didn’t like how the conversation went, and is deciding what to do next?”

She said, “It doesn’t matter. He gave you his word. He should have called you by yesterday to give you an update. Call the Elder now.”

Remember these last two Principles for #2:

• Don’t delay:  The Elder delayed.
• Keep your word:  The Elder didn’t keep his word to me.

So I called the Elder.

The Elder said, “What’s up?”

What’s up? On Tuesday you told me you would contact me after speaking with the Man. Today is Friday. I haven’t heard from you. Have you spoken with the Man?

The Elder said he spoke to the Man at length on Wednesday.

At this point, let’s revisit Principle #3:

3.      From here on out, the Target should never be alone with the Man and should not be expected to be alone with the Man. The Man shouldn’t text, email, visit, or call the Target. The Man should not speak to the Target without a witness present.

*Back to the Friday phone call with the Elder.*

The Elder then told me he requested the Man to speak to me on Sunday at church, to apologize, etc.

I said, “Absolutely not. He isn’t going to have a private conversation with me.”

The Elder said, “I mean he’ll talk with you in the hallway. Not in a private room.”

I said, “No. This is his whole problem. He has no accountability in his life. For all the talk about accountability in this church I’ve heard from the pulpit, the problem of the Man not having accountability should stand out. I won’t talk to him or listen to him without a witness present.”

Principle #3 was broken and exposed a gap in the Elder’s understanding about these types of issues in the church. Likely none of the leaders have received training regarding how to handle issues such as this.

It was then that the Elder offered to meet with the Man and me. It was determined to bring in another person, and I again chose the Elder’s wife in order to have a woman present and because she did well when we met on Tuesday. This meeting would be on Sunday between the two services.

 

The Sunday Morning Meeting

The Elder started the meeting with prayer. He explained that his wife was there not to make decisions but to be supportive, and if she had anything to say she was free to speak.

The Elder then requested we keep our comments brief, and he asked me to go first. I did and kept it brief. Then the Man spoke and didn’t keep it brief (lots of word salad). To keep the story to the Principles kept or Principles broken, I will highlight a few things that happened.

• At one point, the Man asked me about my past relationships with men. He first asked if I had ever been married. Then he asked me (and I am paraphrasing here) whether I thought men were horrible. Of course, I realized this classic maneuver which is called “blame the Target”. But rather than call him out on it, I said something to the effect that I have had, and continue to have, many male friends and relatives and good relationships with all of them. Disappointingly, neither the Elder or the Elder’s wife called the Man out on this tactic. (This is a tactic that Hillary Clinton famously used when she was a criminal defense attorney and would blame the crime victim for the perpetrator’s actions.)
• At another point, I said I’m not going to attend the Sunday morning class. The Elder responded by saying something to the effect that, “The class is a place for you to learn about God.”  As if there is no other place for me to learn about God. I said there are plenty of other places and classes where I can learn about God. I’ve been a Christian for 50 years. I think I know how to find ways to learn about God. I also said I’m applying wisdom to this situation and all three of my APs advised me to not attend the class.
• The Elder commented (and I’m paraphrasing here) something to the effect that I wasn’t moving on or I wasn’t being forgiving or something like that. It was truly a horrible thing to say to me. I told him he was incorrect. I also said we talked about this several weeks ago during a Monday night Bible study, when we said, “It’s not either/or. It’s both/and.”  I said I’m being compassionate and firm. It’s not a case of me being only compassionate nor only firm. It’s not “either/or”.  It’s “both/and”. I’m being compassionate and firm. So this response from the Elder, completely misunderstanding my choices and my stance, was very concerning and it highlighted what I was seeing more and more: That the Elder, as a leader, doesn’t know how to address issues of sexual harassment in the church properly.
• The Elder’s wife didn’t speak at all during the Sunday morning meeting. The third accountability partner I brought in to counsel me I brought in on Friday afternoon. This AP spent the first 25 years of her career in HR and often had to deal with and manage issues of sexual harassment. After this third AP heard my story, she said, “This is a form of sexual harassment – unwanted and inappropriate attention,” and she also helped to form these principles I’m highlighting in this whitepaper regarding what leadership of a church must do in order to address sexual harassment in the church properly from a spiritual standpoint and from a legal standpoint. When I followed up with this AP after the Sunday meeting and she heard the Elder’s wife didn’t speak at all, in addition to no one objecting to what the Man said to me, this AP said, “So you had no Advocate there with you.”  I said, “That is correct.”  An Advocate would also provide a debrief session, which is a short meeting for the Target and the Advocate after the main meeting.

Let’s go back to Principle #4:

4.      If the Leader/Elder/Pastor insists on a conversation taking place, and a meeting is scheduled, the Target should have an Advocate present at the meeting at all times. The Advocate may ask questions, make comments, and may object to questions or comments spoken by anyone at the meeting. The Man may also have an Advocate at the meeting if he so chooses.

Principle #4 was missed completely by leadership.

 

Before we get to Principle #5, I need to address secret-keeping. At the Sunday meeting, I used the word “secret” when speaking about the Elder requesting I not say anything to anyone in the church about the situation. He wanted me to keep it a secret.

During the Sunday meeting, at one point the Man used the word “secret”, and then he said, “I don’t like the word ‘secret’.”  And then the Elder said, “I don’t like the word ‘secret’ either.”  I didn’t say a word in response, yet I thought, “But it is a secret. It fits the definition of a secret.”  Earlier in the week, around Wednesday, I could tell something about this secrecy was really bothering me. Because of my research and background, I quickly figured out why:  In the midst of secrecy, there is isolation.  In many types and ranges of abuse, the Target is in isolation. And the Target gets into isolation because of being forced into secrecy. It’s not a good place to be.

During the Sunday meeting, I also mentioned my accountability relationships as I had done with the Elder on the phone on Friday. At no point did the Elder say anything positive about me having accountability partners in my life. This was surprising and curious since, from the pulpit, the pastor cheers on people having accountability relationships. Of course the Elder wouldn’t say anything negative about me having accountability relationships in my life because to do so would go against the pastor’s teaching. So why wouldn’t the Elder say anything positive or agreeable regarding me having accountability relationships in my life? I think it’s because the entire situation is upsetting his apple cart.

Now we go on to Principle #5:

5.      The Target will be allowed to apply wisdom and safety to the situation in order to make good decisions about who she spends time with at the church, which ministries she will be involved in, and if she will remain at this church at all.

Since by now – late in the Sunday morning meeting – I could see these Principles being broken by leadership, exposing several gaps in leadership’s knowledge, training, and understanding of how to handle issues of various forms of sexual harassment in the church, I knew I was on my own. As the Elder tried to persuade me to keep secrets and to act toward the Man as if nothing had happened, I had to say on my own behalf that I would apply wisdom and safety to the situation.

 

Following that Sunday meeting, neither the Elder nor his wife contacted me.

I have been in contact with my three accountability partners.

The Elder stopped teaching the weeknight home fellowship group about three weeks before this situation happened (taking a break for health reasons). Another couple is hosting it but the Elder and his wife aren’t attending. Therefore, I don’t see them regularly as I would have if we were still meeting weekly at their home.

 

Afterthoughts – for This Particular Church

If I were in leadership, I would request the Man’s wife to choose a different ministry in which to serve, in order that she will be with her husband at church on Sunday mornings in both the service and the class. This can also mean the wife needs to be informed about what happened. This situation exposed a character flaw in the Man and a gap in their marriage. Shouldn’t the wife be informed?

Two and a half weeks after the Sunday morning meeting, I received another email from the Man. This was, of course, after he was told by the Elder to not email me or contact me another way. Either the Man felt emboldened to go against the Elder’s wishes and chose to email me anyway, or the Man spoke to the Elder saying he wanted to email me and the Elder told him to go ahead. Either option is bad.

I told all three of my APs about the email. They all said, “Don’t reply.” I won’t and I haven’t.

Afterthoughts – for All Churches

The leadership team of churches (Elders, Pastors, staff, and others who lead) are in need of training to know how to follow the five Principles when dealing with issues that fall under the umbrella of sexual harassment between attendees, between a leader and an attendee, and between church employees. In addition to training, the church should have written documentation containing the Principles to follow as well as further procedures of communication, accountability, reporting, and escalation.

Churches should also have training for leaders and documentation regarding situations when the Target is a minor. Protecting minors from inappropriate behavior from ever occurring is of utmost importance. Beyond that, having best practice measures in place in case it does occur is also important.

I propose training and documentation, including a communication and escalation plan, for church leaders who want to ensure issues of sexual harassment are managed appropriately.

At any time, the Target of inappropriate behavior may bring an issue with their story to someone at the church. She might bring it to a Pastor, an Elder, a Deacon, a leader in Women’s Ministries, her small group leader, or anyone else she is familiar with and feels comfortable telling her story.

All of these leaders need to be prepared to listen and address the issue appropriately.

• They need to have already been trained in the five Principles.
• They need to know the church’s process and procedure for communication and escalation, if needed.

Ø  Should an Elder be contacted? If so, which Elder? What should you tell the Elder?

Ø  Should a Pastor be contacted? If so, which Pastor? What should you tell the Pastor?

Ø  Should a meeting be scheduled? If so, who should be present? What will be discussed and in what manner?

Ø  If the Target will be present at a meeting, who will be her Advocate?

Ø  Is the Man (the other party) married? If so, how should this situation be communicated with the spouse? Who should manage this communication?

At the in-person training, all leaders should receive documentation; and that documentation should be taught from cover-to-cover in the training. The documentation will serve as a handbook for the leader to refer to when issues that fall under the umbrella of sexual harassment arise for them to address.

Free Teleseminar: "Catapult Your Business to New Heights"

Looking for ideas to increase profit, decrease expenses, and survive & thrive in the current economic climate?
Join us for a free teleseminar based on the book, "Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit" on Tuesday, April 14, 2009.

Teleseminar Time:
Eastern: 8 p.m.
Central: 7 p.m.
Mountain: 6 p.m.
Pacific: 5 p.m.

The teleseminar is hosted by Rita Emmett.Please sign up in order to receive the call-in phone number: http://tinyurl.com/d3by32

What is Your Vision for Your Business?

Did you listen to the newscasters this week? They started out on Monday telling us that the unemployment rate will climb, perhaps to 10%.

If you’re not already a business owner, you could be among the 10% who loses their job.

Over time, I’ve seen that for many people, job loss can lead to opportunities. In particular, it can be a great time to start that business you’ve always wanted to start.

Small businesses comprise, in quantity, the greatest number of businesses that exist all over the world.

Is this the time you’ve been waiting for to be your own boss?

For those of you who already own a business, this is the time to be innovative, to brainstorm many ideas, to “up” your customer service game, to figure out new services and/or products to offer to your customers, and to figure out ways to partner with companies that sell different products to your customers.

Let’s take a look at your vision for your business.

Your vision is a picture of what you want for your business (and for your life, because it is your business and it affects your life!). Your business vision can help to keep you grounded when things get tough or when decisions become difficult to make. A vision also gets you thinking in terms of expansion, growth, and the future.

Ask yourself:

• What do you enjoy doing?


• In what areas would you say you are great?


• What are your business’ strengths?


• What is possible?


• What do you believe you are here to accomplish?


• What is your business here to accomplish?


• What do you want to achieve in the next three years?


• What do you want your business to achieve in the next three years?

Once you have a vision for your business and you write it down, it is as good as the paper it’s written on – until you implement it and put it into action!

What happens if you don’t have a vision for your business?

Just as a body gets flabby when not exercised, your mind can lose its ability to remain sharp and focused when it has not been exercised to develop a vision. In addition, a business that is without a vision can lose its direction and can miss opportunities that come its way.

This topic of developing your vision is covered in detail in my upcoming book, Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit, (due February 2, 2009).

You can get a free chapter now at my website on the home page. Go to CoachGlory.com; then click the link below the video. You will receive the chapter in your e-mail.

If you're ready to look at the book further, it is available in both Paperback and E-book versions on my website on the "Programs & Products" page.

It is also available in Paperback on Amazon.com.

Get a Free Chapter from "Catapult Your Business"

"Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit" will launch on February 2, 2009.

In the meantime, you can get a free chapter! Go to my website at http://www.gloryborgeson.com/ (or at www.BorgesonConsulting.com )

On the home page, below the video, you will see a link to get the free chapter. (The chapter will be sent to you by e-mail within a minute or two.)

The book is already listed on my website on the "Programs & Products" page, and on Amazon.com.

The book, Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit, is coming soon! We’re still working on tweaking the interior text and the back cover. The book should be released in first quarter 2009. In this blog, I give you some highlights.

But first, an endorsement of the book:

"Catapult Your Business to New Heights" is a brilliantly written book by a woman who can and should be given a high five for spreading valuable wisdom in a very engaging manner. Glory Borgeson, you've done a masterful job.

~Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of Guerrilla Marketing; author of the “Guerrilla Marketing" series of books

How cool is that?

For Starters
Why did I write this book? Most businesses in the U.S., and across the world, are small businesses (just by sheer count). Many people want to own a business. Many small businesses fold. Many people believe that in order to own a profitable, successful business, the entrepreneur will become stressed out, which will affect his or her life negatively. Surely that is true for many people who own businesses today. But I don’t believe it has to be that way. I believe you can catapult your business to a higher level of success, and do so without losing yourself in the process. This is why I wrote the book. Create a great business: Create a great life.

Develop Your Vision
During both great times and tough times, your vision for your business and your life will pull you through. That’s why it’s important to have a meaningful vision. (It’s hard to write about this topic without giving you the whole chapter, so I’ll stop there!)

Change Your Way of Doing Business
When you get right down to it, there are only certain types of business activities that give you a high yield of profit for your time. Every entrepreneur has several ways of doing business that result in tasks that do not provide a high return. We take you through various brainstorming activities to pull out of you the best, high-yielding activities for you and your business, and then we get you focused on how you can change your way of doing business so that, over a period of time, you get off your plate those activities that don’t produce much profit for you, either in the short-term or long-term.

Craft Your Business Structure & Systems
Just like a house needs a structure in order to stand through all types of seasons, and systems running through it to make it livable, so does your business need a solid structure and workable systems that can be counted on to (one way or another) create profit. Whether your business is quite small, filled with employees, recently started, or been around for a while, taking the time to work through your business’ structure and systems, and implementing new ideas, will take a lot of pressure off of you as the owner.

Create Superb Customer Service
Thinking of ways to create “Wow!” customer service is a great way to keep customers and to get them to send others to you for new business. How can your business get the “Wow!” response? We think through many aspects of the business where you and your employees have customer contact, do some comparisons with “Ow!” customer service and “Ho-hum” customer service (to make sure you don’t fall into those categories), and figure out ways that you can get more “Wow!” responses from your customers over time.

Delegate to Generate More Success
When should you hire more employees? When (and what) should you outsource to outside vendors? Are there situations when simply delegating tasks to people who are competent isn’t enough? There are so many tasks that can be delegated to vendors these days – things we didn’t even consider 10 or 20 years ago. Certain types of resources are more available to us today because of technology. And other types of services are available because someone saw a need. (For example, if you bring your dog to work and have the dog do his businessin a yard, you can pay someone to clean it up. There are pooper scooper businesses out there. Who knew?) I also include a story of how the Desperate Housewivescreator, Marc Cherry, delegated the writing task in the show’s second season to competent writers, but it didn’t go very well. While I was writing the book, I wrote about what I thought he needed to do in order to change that for the better. Almost telepathically (is he reading my notes?), he changed his direction the following season and delegated in a new way to ensure success.

Lead Great Teams
How many bosses have you had since your first job? Think of who they were. Divide them into three groups: Great boss, bad boss, or so-so boss. Who wants to be the bad boss or the so-so boss? A show of hands please? None? When you’re in the midst of leading your business, right in the thick of things, that is when you can forget those great leadership skills you’ve learned before. Leading great teams is a topic I enjoyed writing about where we explore what you can do (and how you can do it) in order to be a great leader who leads great teams. We break it down into “chewable” pieces so that you can figure out in which areas you need to focus, and then help you figure out how to achieve it.

Build Up Your Marketing Strategies and Sales Skills
We pull together many different marketing strategies that most small business owners have the option of focusing on, depending on the type of business, size, and budget. It’s important to take a graduated approach to marketing, to not go way outside your plan, and to always be marketing in some way, shape, or form. Also, we go through various types of sales strategies that several different types of small businesses can use.

Handle Your Finances With Finesse
Truth be told, I am a former accountant. I dig numbers. The phrase, "Show me the money” rings true for me. If someone wants to tell me that something is a great deal, I want them to show me why by using numbers. In this chapter, I show you how to show yourself the money that is in your business. We go over what certain aspects of your financial statements can tell you, including ratios that you can calculate yourself, and show you how to figure out, using your own financial data, where the business is going right and where it is going wrong. (You will not fall asleep reading this chapter!)

Design a Balanced Life
And then we get back to the entire reason why I wrote this book. Do you believe that if your business is very profitable that you should be stressed out and tired? Or do you believe that if you are living a relaxed life, then it is probably because your business isn’t doing very well? I believe you can have a great business and have a balanced life. It’s just going to take some work (and some time) to get there.

Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit. Ready for release in first quarter 2009.

Business Owners: Make More Money!

"Catapult Your Business to New Heights: Sure-Fire Strategies to Increase Profit" is getting close to press time. I'm really excited about this book!

Are you a business owner who wants a more profitable business, but you don't want a lot more stress in your life? Do you wonder how, as an entrepreneur, you are expected to know how to run all of the aspects of your business, and do it really well?

The Catapult book will guide you through structuring your business in such a way that leads to more profit with less stress. My thought is: What good is it to have a business that doesn't bring you the profit you want or that gives you more stress than one person should have in a lifetime? Even if you make a lot of money, if you get sick or die trying, what is the point?

"Catapult Your Business to New Heights" will walk you through how to create or change your business so that it works for you. Where applicable, most chapters in the book include an Application section where you apply the principles of the chapter to your own business.

Following release of the book, I will offer a coaching program for entrepreneurs to further enhance your learning and so that you can receive specific, individualized consulting for your own business situation.

Contact me, Glory Borgeson, to find out more at Glory.Borgeson@BorgesonConsulting.com

In the meantime, visit my website on the Articles page to read more business articles, or on the Case Studies page to read about my work with other clients. Go to www.borgesonconsulting.com

He Who Dies With the Most Toys

W. Edwards Deming was a quality guru from the 1950's to the 1980's. When his ideas were not initially welcome in the U.S., he turned to Japan.

Business leaders in Japan were hungry for Deming's brilliant ideas that took employee relations into consideration as they built incredible quality into their products.

When I was a child, the "made in Japan" insignia on many goods meant that the item was cheap and junky. By the late 1970's, however, cars and electronics made in Japan were high quality and sought-after. Deming's leadership and his teachings on quality, especially in the manufacturing environments of that time (and later in service businesses), made the difference.
Deming's ideas transformed not only manufacturing processes but also how people were treated in the workplace. From hiring practices to training to evaluation to promotion, employee relations were transformed in Japan.

How have the Japanese people fared in the last 20 years? Many of their products are still considered to be the highest quality in the world. I've also read, however, that their stress levels are quite high, so perhaps the "people side" of Deming's equations did not infiltrate the society as much as he had hoped.

I recall reading in the '80's and '90's about stressed-out Japanese workers who were developing stress-related illnesses and who were suffering from depression in droves, some even taking their own lives.

The Chicago Tribune reported on June 13, 2004 that the Japanese people have a rising incidence of sleep disorders. The article noted that it starts in elementary school, when children stay up late studying, thus beginning a habit of working too hard. This continues into adulthood when they regularly work long hours and commute long distances to their jobs.

In 2000, Japan's Health Ministry reported that 31% of Japanese people said they do not get enough sleep because of their work, school, or commuting. Another 29% said their lack of sleep was due to stress.

To alleviate this, a Japanese company has developed a "sleep machine" that is a combination of a very fancy chair, a large screen TV, and music. The company that created it, Matsushita Electric Works, claims it will give its users a full 8 hours of sleep. The chair transforms into a sort-of bed, the TV screen displays peaceful, pastoral scenes, and the music is soothing. All of this sells for $30,000.

I'm stressed out just from the price tag.

So how did the Japanese get to such a stressful state? Probably through a variety of means: their intense work ethic, the high cost of living, habits formed in either childhood or young adulthood, the culture, etc.

While I acknowledge that producing a great product or service is wonderful, when the stress of doing so interferes with my health, what's the point? When stress leads to a debilitating illness or early death, that is not success.

The person who dies with the most toys does not win! He dies!

For much of my adult life I've focused on ways to reduce stress. While this focus has not been continuous, an increased stress level brings my attention back to the importance of 'managing stress' every time.

My life has been far from stress-free. When I was 22 or 23, I took one of those stress tests that asks questions about various types of events that occurred in the previous 365 days. For those events that occurred, a certain number of points is given. At the end of the questionnaire you add up all the points and compare the total to a grid to determine your current stress level. When I took that test, my stress level was sky high. (I did not keep that test, but it's a good one. If anyone knows where I can find a test like that, please contact me!)

Finding out that your stress level is high is only helpful if you can do something about it. Before you go out and spend $30,000 on a Matsushita sleep machine, consider what you've done over the last 10 years to reduce your stress level. Then enter a Comment to tell us about it.

Check out Glory's entrepreneurial & executive website!