Your Core Mission Transcends Your Organization

by Brian Koehn

Back from lunch two days ago, my second voice message sounded energetic and professional:

Hi Brian, my name is Jennifer Buckles. I’m the recruiting manager here at Caribou Coffee. If you would please give me a call back, I would really appreciate it. My number is ###. Thank you very much.

As General Manager at Portable Church Industries, I get a lot of spam voice messages that never get returned, but this call intrigued me. Who knows? Maybe they’re looking for a new CEO. I’ve been told I’m good (but who told them?). I called Jennifer back.

Thanks for calling back, Mr. Koehn. I’m completing a job reference for
William Shuman.

Not Billy! I didn't want to lose Billy! I told her that he was a great team leader, well-liked, conscientious, and that I was going to go give him a raise. I told her that she ruined my day. I didn’t tell her that he was out sick that day.

Then I called Billy and got his voice mail because Jennifer was already calling him.

...I thought about a recent blog entry at Planters Wives about people coming in and out of your life like underwear… it happens, it sucks, suck it up, stay open to people, and give it to God.

...I thought about a recent article in Inc. Magazine about how hard it is when a good employee leaves… it happens, it sucks, celebrate it anyway, know that the departed are never really gone, be the kind of boss that makes resignations as hard for your employee as they are for you.

...I thought about five years ago when I left my church of fourteen years. The pastor, Steve Andrews, celebrated with me, as he had with every other core team member that had left over the years. I still meet and mentor five leaders in the church on a monthly basis.

..I thought about four years ago when I left my job at OnStar to come work for PCI. My old boss joined my monthly mentoring group.

I have learned that when your Core Mission Transcends Your Organization, it is easier to:

Forgive People Who Hurt Your Organization, (but not your mission,) by Leaving

Maintain Relationships That Serve Your Mission, Even if not Your Organization

Consider Other Organizations as Partners in Mission, not as Competitors

Here at PCI, my organization’s mission is to help churches achieve maximum impact with minimum capital. Billy is not going to be helping us with that any more. My real mission, however, the one that transcends this organization, is to see God enter more and more fully into each minute of my life and all the lives that I can touch. And from that perspective, Billy has graduated from this organization and is ready to extend this bigger mission as a manager at Caribou Coffee.

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