Christian Business Concepts
Christian Business Concepts
Mentorship: The Biblical Blueprint for Christian Business Leadership Success
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Mentorship isn't merely a business strategy—it's a biblical mandate with transformative power for Christian leaders. Harold Milby dives deep into why mentoring matters from a faith perspective, revealing how the practice creates lasting impact across generations.
Drawing from powerful scriptural examples—Moses guiding Joshua, Paul investing in Timothy, and Jesus mentoring his disciples—Milby establishes mentorship as a divine calling rather than an optional leadership practice. He articulates how intentional mentoring relationships foster ethical leadership continuity, practical faith integration, and effective succession planning in organizations of all sizes.
The podcast provides remarkably practical guidance for developing meaningful mentorship partnerships. From identifying potential mentees and building authentic trust relationships to setting clear goals and navigating common challenges, listeners receive a comprehensive roadmap for starting or enhancing mentoring practices. Particularly valuable are Milby's suggestions for key discussion topics ranging from strategic thinking and financial acumen to servant leadership and work-life balance—all framed within a biblical worldview.
Most compelling is Milby's vision for mentorship's broader impact. He connects individual mentoring relationships to organizational health, industry influence, and even marketplace revival. As he puts it, "Mentoring is more than an obligation—it's an opportunity" that benefits both parties while advancing God's kingdom in the business world.
Ready to begin your mentorship journey? Start by identifying that potential mentee today, and discover how the biblical principle of iron sharpening iron creates ripple effects far beyond what you might imagine. Subscribe, share this episode, and join the growing Christian Business Concepts community dedicated to finding true godly success through biblical principles.
Welcome to the Christian Business Concepts with your host, harold Milby. Christian Business Concepts is dedicated to guiding companies and business owners in becoming effective, efficient and successful through God's Word and godly principles. Now, here's your host, harold Milby.
Speaker 2:Thanks, kelly, and welcome everyone to Christian Business Concepts, where we try to help Christian business leaders and organizational leaders and other department leaders and at every level and in other people as well, we try to help them find true godly success through applying God's word and biblical business principles to their lives and to their careers. And I'm excited to know that you have a desire to grow, not only as a leader, but as a business person, as a business leader, organizational leader, I'm just really excited that you want to grow, that you have a desire to grow, because if not, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. So Christian business is so very, very important today and that's why CBC is here, that's why we're here. We're here to reach out and to try to help Christian businesses to find that true godly success and to be a light, to be a witness out there in the world. And we have that opportunity and we have that ability. So it's so important that Christian business really understand its purpose and, as a leader, you understand your purpose. And also it's important because in these last days, I believe that God wants to use businesses in a great revival and I think that's very possible. It's been done in the past. We've seen it happen in the past and I believe it's coming again. So thank you so much. I am so humbled by the fact that you download and listen to these podcasts each week, and I just thank you. So those of you who listen regularly know that this podcast represents close to 20 countries 20 countries, and that list continues to grow and so not only does it represent the United States, but there's almost 20 other countries that are also represented here, and this week I just want to give a big shout out to the country of Japan for having so many downloads. Thank you so much, and today I hope that everyone that is listening, that you'll be encouraged, enlightened and empowered by what you hear today.
Speaker 2:I wanted today to kind of start a new segment each week, and maybe it'll discuss news or it might be information about some Christian company around the world. So today I've got some news items about three companies. Uh, one is uh Amazon. Uh, ryan Anderson had a book that that kind of criticized uh transgender ideology and Amazon. Amazon had banned his book. Well, after four years, I'm happy to say that Amazon has uh, uh has reversed that decision and Ryan Anderson's book is available on Amazon, whether you agree with his ideology or not. It's free speech and we're so glad that Amazon has reversed that decision.
Speaker 2:In some other news, there was a Mississippi TV weatherman during some real bad deadly tornadoes and things back in 2023. He was on air and giving the weather, talking about the danger, talking about the tornadoes, and you know, he actually prayed while he was on air and unfortunately, the company not sure if it has something to do with that or not but all of a sudden, now that the company has restructured, the TV news station has restructured and he has been laid off and so, according to the TV news company, it's because of corporate restructuring. So we wish him well and glad that he stood up for his faith and he prayed for people that day. It probably saved some lives. Then, in September of last year, mary Kay many of you know the company Mary Kay started by Mary Kay, but she started it to encourage women and empower women. But she just expanded the business into a small country and I got to say it right Kyrgyzstan, and that country is in Central Asia. But anyway, they are expanding into that country because they want to continue to further their mission of beauty and empowerment and it's a very significant move into that new market, and that's according to their own news hub. But this expansion was kind of unexpected given its established US presence. But they really are trying to go worldwide and that business is still in their minds. It's still all about getting the message and the gospel out and also helping women to feel good about themselves. So we applaud them for that. We applaud them for going into that country and wish them well.
Speaker 2:Now let's get into today's topic. You know mentoring is a vital practice that I think is so important. It really fosters not only personal growth but professional growth and it bridges the gap between the experience that a person has that's the mentor and the potential that the mentoree has. So for Christian business leaders, mentoring that next generation, I think is really a unique opportunity to pass on valuable skills and to really kind of instill some ethical principles and just demonstrate how faith can really shape business practices. You know, today I want to discuss the importance of mentoring from a Christian perspective and provide some practical steps for business leaders and other leaders to effectively mentor young professionals. And you do that by investing in them. You invest in them and they're worth it. You know Christian leaders can really ensure that values like integrity and stewardship and faith, that they continue on after they're gone. But that can continue on and it really has an effect and an influence, I think, in the business community.
Speaker 2:So let's look at what the importance of mentoring is. You know, mentoring holds profound significance, I think, particularly for Christian business leaders, who are called to lead with purpose and impact. Because you are, if you're a Christian business leader, you're called to lead with purpose and to lead with impact. You know, winston Churchill said we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. And that's so true. You know, steven Spielberg said the delicate balance of mentoring someone is not creating them in your own image, but giving them the opportunity to create themselves. So let's not have any misunderstanding. I'm not talking about trying to have someone that is like a mini-me, you know is just like another you, or somebody that you want to be like you. No, what you want is you want them to have your knowledge and your wisdom and your experience and help them to become the person they need to be.
Speaker 2:So here are some key reasons why mentoring matters. First of all, there's a legacy of ethical leadership. Mentoring really ensures that the next generation of leaders that they really uphold those ethical standards that are rooted in biblical principles, which is what we're about, you know. And so when you guide these young professionals, these young Christian leaders, you contribute to a future where their business decisions will align with that integrity. And so that's one. But another is faith integration. So through mentoring, leaders can model how to integrate your faith into everyday business practices. See, if you're doing that, you can help them, teach them and show them how that's done. And so it helps those people that you're mentoring to navigate the challenges that are in business while remaining true to their core Christian beliefs, and so it's just a great approach to leadership.
Speaker 2:Another is personal and professional growth. That's why we need mentoring, because mentoring supports the development of that person's leadership skills, to help them have good decision-making skills and to give them spiritual help them to grow and spiritually mature. It equips them. It equips those young professionals to succeed in their careers while growing in their faith. So mentoring is not just about individual advancement. It's really about building a community of leaders who reflect Christ's teachings in the marketplace. So what you want to see is not only people that you can grow up in your business, in your organization but you want to help others to maybe launch out on their own as Christian business leaders and you're going to help them and equip them for that next, that help equip that next generation, and you're going to give them the tools that they need to succeed.
Speaker 2:Another important reason for mentoring is succession planning. So you've got to prepare young professionals for leadership roles, so that you have a pipeline, so to speak, of a lot of capable people that's ready to step into key positions. I've been in businesses before where there's been no succession plan and so that business began to suffer when a lot of the experienced people began to retire and they did not have a plan to replace those people. So it became a real detriment to those businesses because all the knowledge was leaving the business and they didn't have anybody that they were grooming. So you need to groom those potential successors and in doing that you help the organization have a future, and so you know you want to. Also, another reason is to foster a learning culture. So you want to have a culture within the organization to learn, and then there's mutual growth because mentoring you know you got to look at it this way Mentoring isn't one-sided Mentoring, you know you got to look at it this way Mentoring isn't one-sided. So while the person you're mentoring gets a lot of good guidance and they get to learn a lot from you and learn from your experience, remember that it'll also help you to refine your leadership abilities. It'll give you some new perspectives and you'll begin to experience that satisfaction even of shaping and helping someone in their career.
Speaker 2:Another thing that we need to consider is you know, when we're talking about mentoring, what is the biblical basis for mentoring? Is that biblical Well? The Bible offers a really good foundation for mentoring. That biblical Well the Bible offers a really good foundation for mentoring. There's a lot of examples in the Old Testament and the New Testament about it. There's Paul and Timothy. In the New Testament, paul mentored Timothy, providing guidance on leadership and ministry. He instructed Timothy even then to pass on what he had learned. So he was saying look, I'm mentoring you, but you need to mentor others. And when he had learned about that, he created this chain of mentorship and it was really emphasizing the importance of preparing people and leaders for the future.
Speaker 2:Another good example is Moses and Joshua. You know, moses mentored Joshua and he was equipping him to lead the Israelites into the promised land. That's according to Deuteronomy 31, 7 through 8. And this relationship really highlights how mentoring transfers wisdom and responsibility to that next generation. You know, proverbs 27, 17 says as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. And this verse really captures the mutual growth that occurs in mentoring, when both the mentor and the person you're mentoring are refined through this mentoring relationship.
Speaker 2:And there's many others there's Elijah and Elisha, there's Jesus and his disciples and there's Barnabas and Paul. So Barnabas mentored Paul, paul mentored Timothy. You know, I've always told people you need to have two people in your life, you need to have a Paul, told people you need to have two people in your life. You need to have a Paul that's the person that's you know where, or you need to have a Timothy, I'm sorry. You need to have a Timothy and a Barnabas in your life and you need to be a Paul to somebody. So if you're a Paul, then you have a Timothy in your life and you also have a Barnabas in your life. So you have somebody still mentoring you and you're mentoring others and I think it's important to have those people in your life. And these biblical examples, I think, really underscore mentoring as really a divine calling.
Speaker 2:It's an intentional act of being a good steward over what you have and what the knowledge and experience you have and how you can use that to nurture and develop other people. So what are some practical steps for mentoring other people? Well, you need to be able to be an active listener. That's the first thing. It's very important to be an active listener. That's a fundamental skill, and you've got to listen to what they're saying, focus on what they're saying, understand their message. You've got to respond in a very thoughtful manner, but active listening, that's really key. That's really important.
Speaker 2:Another is empathy. You need to validate their feelings and you can do that by sharing relevant stories. But it's really important that you have empathy. You know, galatians 620 says Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. He's talking about empathy here. So we need to empathize with people and not judge them. Then encourage independence, encourage independence. So make sure that you encourage the person you're mentoring to take ownership of their own development and then making their own decisions. So what this does is it really helps create confidence and self-reliance in that person that you're mentoring.
Speaker 2:So how do we begin? Well, first, what you have to do is you've got to identify some potential people that you would mentor. So you've got to seek out some young professionals or students who show promise. They've got a willingness to learn and a commitment to some ethical values. And so look within your organization, look within your church or other professional networks for individuals who align with your vision and faith, and then you have to build this trust relationship. That's the next thing. So you have to establish trust and the way that you can do that number one is be approachable and number two, be authentic. You know, share those personal experiences and don't just share the successes. Share your failures and what that does. Share the successes, share your failures and what that does is when you share your failure with somebody, you're showing them and you're demonstrating your vulnerability. And not only that, but then that transcends into relatability. So actively listen to their goals and challenges and aspirations, because what that does is that helps build trust, because you're fostering this mutual respect.
Speaker 2:The next thing that you do is you need to be honest. You know, george Lucas said mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we would like. It's the only way we grow. So we want to be honest with them. You want to be honest with them and if you see faults in them, you've got to be honest with them and share with them out of empathy again, but you share with them.
Speaker 2:The next thing that you need to do is you need to set some goals. You need to collaborate with that person and work together to define what they want to achieve through this mentoring relationship and then set some really clear goals. Maybe it's to develop specific skills or to navigate career challenges or establish boundaries or expectations, whatever they may be. But you want to set some good goals and you should include in those goals how often you're going to meet, either in person which I think you always have to meet in person, at least some of the time and whatever that preferred communication style is either by email or by virtual meetings, however you want to do it, but that should be in those goals of how you're going to do that. And then you set those regular meetings. You put them in your calendar.
Speaker 2:You know you make that commitment to have these consistent check-ins, whether it's going to be monthly, quarterly, weekly, however you decide that you want to do it, and those meetings can be very, very formal. They can be structured with a lot of discussions or they can be really informal. They can be done over coffee, just getting together and you use these opportunities to really offer advice and give feedback and track their progress towards the goals that you've put together, and so you can kind of look at that and see how they're progressing. And then you want to cover some key topics and I'm going to give you some more in a few minutes but you want to focus on areas that blend a professional development with some faith-based principles. So you want to have a balance and so you want to develop and help them develop leadership principles. Teach them concepts like servant leadership, which is modeled after Jesus' example.
Speaker 2:You want to talk to them about ethical decision-making. You want to talk to them about ethical decision-making. You want to talk to them about faith integration. So how do they live out their Christian life in the workplace? Make sure that you also discuss with them work-life balance. That's so important. So you've got to offer strategies for managing their priorities and at the same time, it honors their personal and spiritual commitments that they've made personally and things like you know. Help them to write a purpose and mission statement for their life and make sure that's aligned with their faith and their career goals, and then you're going to have to overcome some common challenges.
Speaker 2:You've got time constraints because everybody's got busy schedules, their faith and their career goals, and then you're going to have to overcome some common challenges. You've got time constraints because everybody's got busy schedules, but you've got to have opportunities that you create, whether it be through lunch breaks, whether it be, like I said, virtual calls, but you've got to make it manageable. And there's also some general differences. So you know they're going to be different than you are. You're going to be different than they are. So you've got to embrace that. You've got to embrace that they have different perspectives and you've got to be open to learning from them. You've got to be open for that, because if they don't feel like you're there, that you can feel like you can learn from them, then there's again there's a lack of trust there. Feel like you can learn from them, then there's again there's a lack of trust there and you really want to encourage a dialogue to really bridge, I guess, those differences or those gaps maybe we call them and to build a really good and strong mutual understanding, because mentoring is more than an obligation, it's really an opportunity. That's how I see it. I think mentoring is an opportunity and it helps you to build stronger people, stronger teams and to create a better organization.
Speaker 2:So here are some really good topics that we can talk about, especially within the leadership skills. You know strategic thinking that's important. You know you want to help them to understand how to think strategically. You know Proverbs 24, 3 through 4 says by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established. By knowledge, the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. So there's a lot of strategic thinking that takes place and he's kind of sharing that here. He's talking about wisdom and what it takes to build a house and to prepare a house, and that's what you're trying to pass on. Then you want to also maybe put on there as a goal to help them to learn operational efficiency. You want to cover things like how do you streamline processes, how do you manage resources, how do you boost productivity, and you want to help them to learn how to optimize day-to-day operations. I think that's important. Daniel 6.3 says Then this Daniel became distinguished above all other high officials because an excellent spirit was in him and the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. So Daniel was chosen to be basically the number two man at this time, and he had learned operational efficiency, and if you read the book of Daniel, you'll find out that he did exactly that, and so that's important. That's very, very important.
Speaker 2:Another thing that's very important as a topic that you share with someone you're mentoring is financial acumen. They need to understand finances in a business. They need to understand how it's broken down. They need to understand the words that are used in accounting. You need to teach some basic financial management, how to read budgets, how to read financial statements. You know you want to do that, as well as teaching them how to make good investment decisions too. You know, luke 12, 15 says and he said to them take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses, and so we need to understand about finances. We need to understand. You know God does not have a problem with people who have wealth. He has a problem with people who has wealth that has them. So we need to understand that. It's important that we understand what it is to make good, sound financial decisions. Proverbs 21 and 20 says precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it. Again, we're talking about being good stewards and knowing finances, knowing how to do those things.
Speaker 2:Another thing you ought to be talking to them about is innovation. So you want to encourage some creativity with them, give them some assignments that pull that creativity out of them, and you want to help yourself, within your organization, to create this culture of innovation, and you do that even as you start mentoring other people. You know that helps you. And then personal development. You want to talk to them about personal development, what they can do, what they should do, what they should take into consideration, take responsibility to develop a personal growth plan. But they need to do that and you need to mentor them and you can share how that you've rallied a team together during a tough time. That'll help them to develop, maybe, some strategic thinking as you go through that step by step, and so you want to be able to do that. Uh, and you know some of the other things that you want to. You want to be able to do is teach them how to be a good communicator, uh, you want to to uh help them uh, to uh encourage, uh, or to be encouraged to be a really good and creative problem solver. Uh, those are very important too.
Speaker 2:Now there's a lot of things that you can go on. I could go on with a big list of things, but you need to develop that so that you're mentoring the people from a perspective that you have of what you want to accomplish and work with them and make sure that those are the same things that they want to accomplish. But here's some additional resources for you. Here's a couple of books. You can get Tony Dungy's book called the Mentor Leader. In that book he really combines leadership insights with a faith-based perspective. Great football coach in the NFL, tony Dungy, the Mentor Leader. Another great book is by John Maxwell, who is one of my favorite of all times. It's called Mentoring 101. I would encourage you to get that book because it really offers a lot of practical advice to mentoring effectively.
Speaker 2:And then you can participate, I think, in leadership development events. Some of those are hosted by churches or Christian organizations, business conferences, and that again will help you to learn. It's a good tool. And there's some online platforms too. There's LinkedIn. That has a lot of great information on there. That has a lot of great information on there. There's a lot of industry-specific networks that kind of help connect not just the knowledge and the understanding, but it'll actually help you connect with people that could possibly be somebody you would mentor, and then they share resources too.
Speaker 2:So make sure that you do that. Make sure that that's something that you do. You know mentoring is a powerful calling for Christian business leaders. I truly believe that it's something we all need to be doing. It's a chance to really invest in our future, because you're helping these young mentor mentorees basically to shape some ethical and faith-driven leadership skills within them, and I think that if you follow some of the steps that we've talked about today, I believe you can build some meaningful relationships that will really benefit those people that you mentor, and I believe that you'll grow as a person too. You know the ripple effect that your efforts will have will extend way beyond just individual growth, because I believe it'll help to create a legacy of integrity and faith in the business world as a whole. So take some action today. Reach out to somebody, to a young professional, and begin that journey of mentorship, and I believe that together, between you, you can sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron.
Speaker 2:As the Bible says, for the glory of God and for the good of our society.
Speaker 2:Lord, we thank you today for all the people that you've placed in our lives, that have mentored us and poured into our lives, and sometimes, lord, it may not have been on purpose, but nonetheless you used it, lord, for our advantage, and so, lord, we thank you for that, we praise you for it and, lord, we pray that you help us to be serious and purposeful in mentoring others and helping others, and help us to utilize these principles today, lord, that we talked about, to mentor other people and to be successful at it, and, lord, we thank you for that. In Jesus' holy name. Amen and amen. Well, thanks again for downloading and listening to today's podcast, and I hope that you'll reach out to some other people and share this podcast, put it on your Facebook, put the link on your Facebook page, on your LinkedIn page, and help us to grow the CBC community. Well, that's all the time we have for this week, so until next time, remember Jesus is Lord and he wants you blessed.
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