“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  --Matthew 7:3-5

     Last week we talked about our role as workers, and the negative impact complaining can have on us, and on those around us. Can the same lesson be applied to us in our roles as managers? When does ‘evaluation’ become retaliation?

     Only people who’ve never managed truly believe managing is easy. Being responsible for a product line or a group of people involves responsibility, and almost always requires decisions that will irritate someone. Worse, American work culture has cemented water-cooler beefing as an employee rite of passage, and few of us are immune to the barbs tossed glibly by Monday-morning quarterbacks at our management decisions.

     In our last devotion we pointed out Christians have an obligation to avoid the kind of destructive complaining which breeds resentment in themselves and in the ones they’re complaining about. But as managers, we’re not afforded the luxury of having entire staffs made up of Christians. (Even if you do have only Christians on your staff, you won’t be immune to criticism and complaining!)

     So how are we to respond? As a human resource manager, it didn't take long for me to realize the typical response of many managers to complaining by subordinates is some form of retaliation. It might be as overt as publicly dressing down the worker or workers. Often it was the “best defense is a good offense” theory, where the manager complains even more loudly about some aspect of the complainer’s work. More often, however, it took more subtle forms, such as “poor attitude” ratings in employee evaluations, or comments in promotion/transfer discussions made in private to harm the complainer’s chances.

     How should we respond? Frankly, it doesn’t take faith in God to know that a practical response to complaining would be to give it serious consideration, acknowledge its valuable components, and discard the rest. Good managers, Christians and non-Christians, learn to absorb the wisdom of complaints and criticism without absorbing the personal attacks accompanying much of it. This disarms the critic who often feeds on your reaction, and lets other workers know you’re seriously interested in improvement, even when that improvement is your own. For Christian managers, though, this becomes tangible and crucial evidence of the changes Christ brings to their lives, a sort of litmus test for those witnessing their efforts to integrate faith and work.

     Managers who understand the Proverb that a “soft answer turns away wrath” stand out in today’s marketplace. Those who’ve learned to forgive and who refuse to retaliate, even in the face of harsh or unfair criticism, stand out even more.  It’s putting “turn the other cheek” into practice in a way that serves the organization and honors the Heavenly Father.