Servant leaders know their primary focus should be on employees and building the desired culture of the organization. This focus will generally lead to fabulous financial results. I wholeheartedly believe this, as I have seen it play out numerous times in my career and with current clients. But this fact does not relieve us from building a budget or ignoring the financial part of the business.
As Triune Leadership Services has continued to evolve, I realized that spreading the message of servant leadership was being limited by my physical time that I have to be in front of clients. Our Purpose and Vision dictated new strategy and offerings to continue to accelerate the movement of servant leadership.
My CFO recently built our first budget to provide a tool to enable us to effectively steward the organization’s Purpose and Vision.
We utilized the following process to build this budget:
- Start with the Foundation of the Purpose and Vision
- Document actions and strategies that would help advance the Purpose and Vision
- Determine the cost to implement each action item
- Determine the impact that each action item would deliver towards the achievement of the Purpose and Vision
- Decide which action items to implement in the upcoming year based on what will fit in the budget and offer the greatest return towards achieving the Purpose & Vision.
This budgeting process clarified for our entire team that we would focus on the following areas in 2016:
- Write and publish: “A Model of Servant Leadership” through ThinkAha Publishing.
- Finish writing and publish: “Leading Jesus’ Way, Become the Leader God Created You to Be”, this Fall.
- Develop and roll out an Online Servant Leadership Training Program late this year.
- Continue to deliver Executive Coaching, Servant Leadership Training, and the Leadership Roundtable for clients
While building a budget seems like monotonous work, and something that you can do without, it will provide real value:
- It is a guideline to help you achieve your Purpose & Vision; not something to limit your ability to get there
- It provides clarity on resources needed to accomplish the strategy
- It is a resource to align the entire team around the priorities of the business
- It is a tool to help measure progress throughout the year
- It is a tool to enable you to be a good steward of what God has gifted you with
I encourage you to look at budgeting as a key tool to Build Performance and accomplish your Purpose & Vision while stewarding the gifts you have been provided.
Mark
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6