In the golf industry, there are few more recognized names of excellence than PING. Today’s show takes us to Phoenix to interview the CEO of PING, John Solheim. He’s the second generation of family leadership since the company’s inception in 1959. 

As recently as a few years ago, John had the unique opportunity to pass the baton to the third generation of leadership with his oldest son stepping in as company president. Today we take a look at their family’s journey to become a preeminent brand and what faith looks like in such a publicly recognized company. 

John said it best when he said that business is like the game of golf. It doesn’t matter what happened on the last shot that got you to where you are. You just have to hit the shot that’s in front of you and keep going to make your best score. For those of you used to hitting a lot of uncomfortable golf shots (fore left!), this episode will be a fun one.

Useful Links:

Golfing for God’s Glory

PING’s New President Talks About Family Business

Excellence in Innovation

In the golf industry, there are few more recognized names of excellence than PING. Today’s show takes us to Phoenix to interview the CEO of PING, John Solheim. He’s the second generation of family leadership since the company’s inception in 1959. 

As recently as a few years ago, John had the unique opportunity to pass the baton to the third generation of leadership with his oldest son stepping in as company president. Today we take a look at their family’s journey to become a preeminent brand and what faith looks like in such a publicly recognized company. 

John said it best when he said that business is like the game of golf. It doesn’t matter what happened on the last shot that got you to where you are. You just have to hit the shot that’s in front of you and keep going to make your best score. For those of you used to hitting a lot of uncomfortable golf shots (fore left!), this episode will be a fun one.

Useful Links:

Golfing for God’s Glory

PING’s New President Talks About Family Business

Excellence in Innovation

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

*Some listeners have found it helpful to have a transcription of the podcast. Transcription is done by an AI software. While technology is an incredible tool to automate this process, there will be misspellings and typos that might accompany it. Please keep that in mind as you work through it. The FDI movement is a volunteer-led movement, and if you’d like to contribute by editing future transcripts, please email us.

Henry [00:01:42] So, John, thank you very much for being on the show today. We’re so excited to dove in your story and really want to get right into it. Tell us as we get started here about your family’s entrepreneurial journey, starting with your dad. He’s often been referred to as one of the great innovators in the game of golf. A game of golf is a game that probably influences impacts more games than any other one in America and around the world. And so for those of you and might not be familiar with it. What was the early breakthrough of Ping in the story of the year?

John [00:03:34] The early breakthrough was some engineers at General Electric invited him to play not the way that he had never played before. And then he got very frustrated with how he was paid as much, because he said to him, being an engineer and knowing how things work, he should be able to hit the ball straight. And he wasn’t able to fix my problem.

[00:03:56] So he started working and making a play with a heel until waiting, which stabilized the putter. It impacted captive, fully twisting. Most supporters had all the weight in the back. But, you know, my dad was an engineer’s engineer. You know, originally he was a shoe maker and like, his father repaired shoes but got hurt one time and then decided, well, he should try something else so he doesn’t have to work with his hands. But in doing so, he started selling cookware in, you know what, New World War came along and he got a letter from the cookware company that said, this is our inventory. We can’t get aluminum anymore. We’ll see after the war. And so he took a refresher course that he got kicked out of and put to work working for Ryan aircraft in San Diego and left there for a little bit, worked in the shipyard, standardize the steel and the concrete liberty ships and took it from three ships down to one, then went back to Ryan aircraft. And then Ryan, he was working with the engineers that did Lindbergh’s plane. But he was made an engineer. There is only 20 years of university and was given the responsibility of the first tricycle landing gear for landing on aircraft carriers. Back then, finite element was him building a 45 degree ramp and lifted the airplane up and dropping it on it. So then what broke later on he he worked for convert that the ground mount for his tracking into the Atlas missiles and then went to work for General Electric. General Electric. He designed a cabinet for the first portable television that they built. They thought they big 40000 up and they built 2 million.

Henry [00:05:43] And are you suggesting that he didn’t get injured as a cobbler? He might. He just stuck it out as a cobbler.

John [00:05:48] Yeah.

Henry [00:05:50] Amazing.

John [00:05:50] I mean, that’s the amazing part of this, is that each of these things working with his hand as a cobbler. Okay. Learning sales as a salesman, then working with engineers on how to build things and how to do things all as good as you could. Each of those lessons for him to help him build golf clubs and revolutionized the golf industry. But it just you know what I mean from G.E. along with that was a rabbit ears, antennas that didn’t stay parallel. They were not hit on balls. The first ones to do that, which meant you could set the TV against the wall and adjust the antenna where before you had to move the antenna away from Denny. This is back in New York. You want to get back to California and. Team had a job going there and he got onto that job, and that was for Bank of America’s first computers. He was in charge of the check Sauder. So as a first check, shorter reading the magnetic print on the bottom of any checks.

[00:06:57] So, you know, during this, how do we end up in Phenix? They built a plant in Phenix Casten. My dad did not want to come to Phenix, but we moved here in 61 and we’ve been here ever since. And we we love the place. We still like to get back to California once in a while. It just it’s amazing the way the Lord works and set you up and, you know, so often have me gearhead to like my dad. You see something you don’t think anything about it being done in a certain way and some other industry. And then all of a sudden. But how can I use my golf club? Will this work on that? You know, and kind of the bigger stories. I was up in Yellowstone right after the Solheim Cup, too little over 10 years ago and had a good camera with me. And a dragonfly landed on the wooden boardwalk near where he was. And he just sat there for me as I took a close up pictures of it. Can I mean, the wings on him just fascinated me. Know it just the structure that’s in and how in the sections were. And then later on, I found out the dragonflies only insect that can controls each wing individually. But I took the pictures back to our engineers group and said, can we build the top of a driver with this type of structure, the reinforcing webs to help the metal flow, titanium and then the rest in metal because it flows like water. Steel doesn’t do that. So in other words, there’s little structures and to titanium get out and then, you know, to thin. So we’re because of this, we’re thinner than anybody else’s titanium tops on the drivers, the crown. And, you know, it just gives us an advantage in the weighting of getting, you know, we get it down and getting the weight back. So, you know, you never know when the large going to throw something out here that, you know, it took us about three or four years before we converted it into production product.

Henry [00:09:03] I think there’s a there’s a greater lesson there for all faith driven entrepreneurs. When you see the world is being created by loving God, that’s perfect. And create all the animals and the insects and humans in six days as you look down and said it was good. It allows you to look at the dragonfly and take inspiration from it. Know, I think probably a different way. So to see how your theology of the world and God’s creation lent itself to commercial success and a better golf club, that’s a story that a lot of people don’t have perspective on. And yet I think that there’s a lot that we can take from it.

John [00:09:37] You know, I mean, it’s happened many times were things out of the blue. I I’m fortunate to have a mind similar to my dad, but I collect things together very well. And you know what? I may be forgetting names all the time today. My deep memory is phenomenal. Amazes me when I pull claims out of there that will work with some of the things we’re working on. And then I’ll just The Lord’s bless me in a great way.

Henry [00:10:06] Tell us what it was like for you growing up in the business and how you’ve seen it change and maybe as part of that. Just give us a sense of the size and scope and how many employees you have, what the culture is like. But you’ve grown up around the business since, well, at least since 1961. Walk us through that.

John [00:10:23] I started in 59 when the business started. I was 13 years old. I actually drove the whole and headed for the shaft to go into. It was my first job. Later on, like the Scottsdale Potters that were so much, I got paid two dollars and fifty cents for each one I built. If I needed help to build and I had to pay the help out of my money.

Henry [00:10:50] That’s for every putter you sell.

John [00:10:53] Well, not today.

[00:10:57] It would have been nice. But that ended after, you know, once we started growing, you know, that started when I applied for a job at a grocery store. Like all my friends were doing because they built one in our neighborhood. And then my dad decided, well, I better start planning for what I’m doing now. But my dad asked a lot. OK. But he got a lot to it. We got into it a few times. The first time we really got into it, I was told to clean the shop. The garage, basically. And I worked all day and cleaned that thing like it better than a been probably ever. But I forgot to clean the main bench that we worked on. So basically. Dad got home. I got fired. Tell you the hardest part of me, that’s a tough one.

[00:11:47] Well, he told me was my brother drop me off at wherever I wanted to be dropped off. The next morning to look for a job. And basically I had to take me down to the draft recruit place and they dropped me off and my brother went home, told my dad, Guerrieri, drop me a job. My dad probably worried, too. It’s time my dad got home from work. That match was all clean. We’re working back together again.

[00:12:16] So there were days. There were a few other times, you know, I got fired, too, because I would stand up protection. And I quit. One time I would squat about two days. Just hold the one person that stood up to him. And, you know, he really appreciated it, you know. But I also there was one thing that I had and that was my mom. My mom was really special. You know, if I had a problem, my dad wouldn’t accept something. I’d talk to my mom the next day. They fight. And it was amazing that way. But, you know, she was put this way. There was a movie made not too long ago that was hidden numbers. My mother worked for CONVER, which is General Dynamics today, and she worked in the wind tunnel and she did the calculations for the engineers and her title was Computer. So she was the business side of the company. And, you know, when we couldn’t figure out how to export things, she dug in and took classes and got it done. You know, when we needed help with sutin, she was always there, totally devoted to my dad and basically stayed behind the scenes. A strong part of the company.

[00:13:32] And, you know, in the change of the business, you know, for the generation, she was a key part of that because of the fact that when my dad, Parkinson’s took so much away from him. But when he was going through that time, she got a lot done this because my dad wouldn’t talk about anything about when he wouldn’t be there. And that made it difficult. At that time, my mom got things done so that the company would change hands. Well, and really the business dropped off in those years, too. And because of that, you know, the tax hit wasn’t as bad as what it could have been. You know, it’s just a large time. It is an animal. And it’s great that we’ve grown the business back and it’s really fun to watch my son take it to the next level. So it’s him and our team here doing a great job. And there’s a lot more than just my son in the third generation. So it’s a wonderful carried family.

Rusty [00:14:30] That’s great. It’s a great story. William and I are both the fan boys and you know, Henry, we don’t know how much he golfs, but William and I, we golf a lot. And I think the pink putter is the only putter I’ve ever owned. Different versions of it. But I have to ask a question before we go to the serious stuff, the little paying man, the little logo. What is that guy?

John [00:14:52] What is he? Well, my dad always kept modeling Clay on his desk. The fact is, I’ve got modeling Clay sitting here in my desk.

[00:15:01] And basically he used it to take another butter and then lay the clay in there and then cut it out to a little bit different shape. And so he could look at it and see it. Well, that’s kind of the old way of doing things, but it works still. The I don’t use it nearly as often as we used to, but I to offset chunk of clay at a secretary in our little office in our twenty five hundred square foot facility, and she tossed it back and I trusted her again and she said don’t pass it back. And I sat down and made the man and yeah it’s kind of that simple. And then my dad who is gone on a three month trip around the world basically calling on accounts and does a missionary’s at the same time saw it and said, I want to see that when I get back. And I said, well, there’s 30 adjustments that you want me to make. And you said, well, it’s a little too tall. I shrunk it on the spot. It became a paying man. And my brother Alan, while they were gone, built a three foot tall one out front of our building. And it just kind of an interesting story that just happened by accident.

Rusty [00:16:19] That’s great. That’s great. Well, they’re all paying. Man is known by everybody who uses your clubs, him in the golf industry, so. That’s a great story. Actually, it probably leads itself to the question around, you know, as I think about paying and we’ve had lots of guests that talk about the importance of excellence, of preeminence in companies. And I would call your company preeminent in the industry. And I think it would be hard to argue against that. The culture to get to preeminence, to get to this level of quality in your brand and in your products, in your service. How important is the culture and what made the paying culture able to create a product that is excellent as it is?

John [00:17:03] Look, my dad always taught us to do everything as well as you could. And so that how we build the clubs to how we designed the clothes, you know, how can we push it to the next level? And my goal is not to just be part of it. I want to lead the industry and I want to lead to innovation in design, in quality and in service. And if you’re going to do that, you’ve got to push it everywhere. You can’t leave anything untouched. And, you know, one of my dad’s and my problem, which was when we were designing the club, we kept see the improvements we could do. So we did the improvement and it took forever to get about my son when he came along. He was much better at drawing lines and meeting dates to get it out so that it’s a market at the right time. And, you know, it just is bringing this to an even higher level. But to push to be the best, you know, but it takes a lot of wonderful people to help you do that. I enjoy leading the group. It’s a group they get inspired from what I want to do. I push, but I don’t push on, you know, mistakes. What I do is push to make it better. In fact, is when something bad happens. My feeling, it’s like the game of golf. You know, you hit a ball where you are. Doesn’t matter how you got to that spot. How you how you get the last shot. What counts is how you hit the shot. Now the shot, you have to get your best score. And when something goes wrong here, I don’t I’m not looking at who caused the problem or what I’m looking for, the best way to move forward from where we are. And, you know, it’s that simple. You know, you can look back and find the cause of the problem and and take care of that later on. But to go to you’ve got to play the game right now for what you can do. Golf is a wonderful example.

Rusty [00:19:08] It’s a great golf lesson and a life lesson at the same time there, which we all need to pay more attention to in both places, I think. So how about your faith and the influence on the culture of the company?

John [00:19:19] Well, yeah, I mean, my faith is just I believe in the Lord Jesus. And, you know, it’s that simple. I believe that he is going to guide my path and I don’t need to question him. And, you know, whenever something’s bothering me, I talk to it. It’s that simple. You know, it just he helps you through so much and it takes you just. People are amazed at me because things don’t bother me because I just look for what to do, where we’re going next. And, you know, it’s just the Lord holding me up and it handles it all.

Rusty [00:19:53] And would you say that your faith as the leader has shaped the trajectory of the company?

John [00:20:02] Well, my dad’s faith and my mom’s faith. You know, my brothers as well. The sister, too. You know, we’re all very strong in the Lord. And we just we trust in him. It definitely shapes the company on how we do things. We have a lot of employees that have worked for a long time. And that’s because they know they can trust us.

William [00:20:26] That’s amazing. And as you speak of that, this is William here. It makes me think about, you know, we’re so lucky to have multi-generational people come on the podcast. Sometimes we haven’t had a Tondo. We’ve had a few. And so I’d love to hear a little bit of a story of how your dad passed. Coming to you, you’ve now passed into your son standing. Walk us through what that looked like. What’s that travel’s could have looked like? I imagine there’s a story or two in there from your life.

John [00:20:51] Oh, yeah. There there’s a story. My dad, as I said before, wouldn’t talk about, you know, when he’s not going to be here. And I talked to him, you know, about that. I’ll be moving into the office with him to work with a more. And he said no. And no. I got no place. I’m finally at a board meeting. It came up to time to nominate officers and told him, Dad, I’d like to nominate U.S. Chairman of the board. We didn’t have a chairman of the board at the time. And I’d like you to nominate me as president.

[00:21:25] The other discussion with my mom for a few minutes and it was done and it was unanimous with my brothers on the board. So that’s when the change happened to happen all at once. You know, there was a lot of people worried about who would become the leader next. Because I’m the youngest, but I was with the business longest. Everybody else had moved out when the business started. Now, my son and I, John, we had heads all the time since I made him president. We hear kids less than ever because my goal is to let him run and my want where I didn’t really have my dad with me to ask. Can get comments on after I took over because of the Alzheimer’s. You know, it was difficult. And I don’t want my son to have that problem. I wanted him to be able to come and talk to me. It’s working out tremendously.

William [00:22:20] So on the family business topic, you know, it’s so hard to build a company, right? It’s so hard to build a sustaining enterprise and enduring business. You all have built that at some level, all of you. It sounds like you’re your parents and your brothers and sisters. And now the next generation, as you look forward, as you think about what I think about a biblical basis for a company. Right. I wonder how you think about what the future of paying could be, what the next generation here, what the future of golf and he all wrapped up. Just what are your hopes and dreams? I’d love for entrepreneurs to think about leaving a legacy that’s beyond themselves. Right. There’s very few of us yet to do that in business. But it is achievable and it happens. And I would love to hear your thoughts on what it could look like. You know, now that you’re not there and then, of course, a future in which.

John [00:23:06] But I’m still CEO here, you know. But let’s put this where I let the young president run. But where I try to stay in is on the mechanical side, the design side of things. But at the same time, you know, I’m trying to give them more reign to do things.

[00:23:24] I mean, we’ve got a tremendous staff of engineers that are really doing a great job. But at the same time, right now, I’m trying to build a couple other products that, you know. I don’t believe in getting something else. You can make a difference. Can you lead? So I can’t do that. I don’t want to be in the business. I don’t want to be me to do percent smart.

William [00:23:46] Now, thanks for sharing that. And as we come to a close here on our time, I’d love to know, you know, we always like to bring our listeners back to the word of God and to scripture and we always find it. Fasting is the how God weaves his words through our guests and through our listeners and how that can occur. And about ask if you wouldn’t mind, just let us end up maybe where God has you and his word. It could be today. It can be the season he could have you thinking about or meditating on a passage. Just how is he speaking to you potentially and in new ways?

John [00:24:18] Yeah. You know, the Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 have been always what I’ve depended on from the Lord. Just eat it. Hold it. Don’t question him. Just follow his guidance and he’ll lead you on a straight path. And you know, that’s really what I’ve held on to or not. And it’s the same verse my dad did. You know, it’s kind of funny because I’m a kidney transplant. And, you know, I tracked my kidney for 23 years with Mayo Clinic, knowing that they told me in 10 to 12 years of David transplants always figured I was an in-between. I wasn’t the person that would lead it to the next look after the kidney transplant. All of a sudden, there’s nothing holding me back. So I started to run. It’s worked out really well. But at the same time, like all along, I’ve thought about the transition, how to move it to the next generation. You know, none of this small talk turns 74. So I’m doing really well for my age. But I want the next generation to be able to run with it. I still want to keep getting myself into it. The Lord is letting me do that and I’m just thankful for it.

Henry [00:25:35] That’s an a great encouragement. I’m grateful, very, very grateful for the time that you’ve spent with us in our audience. And I’ve been blessed by this time. And I never pick up a Ping golf club the same way again. And yes, William and Rusty, I do play some golf. And no, I would not bet on my abilities against either of you. But I love getting out there. And my first putter I ever got was a ping putter. And I remember my grandfather giving it to me when I 16 years old. And he said, this is the best golf club that I’m giving you. And this is a $50 putter and you’ve got a five dollar game. And I. And that was a great gift. But it showed how much he viewed the brand. Even back then. So we’re talking early 80s. So thank you very much for your time. The blessed us in our audience.

We continue to count down the Top 100 Books for Faith Driven Entrepreneurs with…

God at Work

by David Miller

In God at Work, David W. Miller looks at how this Faith at Work movement developed and considers its potential value for business and society. Done well, the integration of faith and work has positive implications at the personal level, as well as for corporate ethics and the broader economic sphere. At the same time, increasing expressions of religion and spiritual practices at work also present the threat of divisiveness and discrimination.

Offering compelling new evidence of the depth and breadth of spirituality at work, Miller concludes that faith at work is a bona fide social movement and here to stay. He establishes the importance of this movement, identifies the possibilities and problems, and points toward future research questions. God at Work is essential reading for business scholars and leaders, theologians and clergy, and anyone interested in the integration of faith and work.

Click on the book cover to check out the Reviews and Purchase at Amazon

This content was originally published here by The Steward’s Journey.

— by Dr. Scott Rodin

I am challenged by Scripture’s consistent teaching that Jesus saw people in the context of their entire life’s journey and responded accordingly. The woman at the well was not a despised Samaritan of dubious reputation, but a woman who was spiritually lost looking for living water. The man at the side of the road in Jericho was not an annoyance, a speed bump on Jesus’ way to Jerusalem, but a man whose entire life of dependence, subsistence, hopelessness and despair came down to this one divine encounter. The children who were disturbing others were called to Jesus’ arms, and as he embraced them he saw their futures impacted and changed forever by this engagement with the savior of the world.

What challenges me is that I so often see people only in the instance of my encountering them, what I call the ‘static moment’. I seldom stop to consider them in the context of their journey. Yet I am convinced that God wants us to lead with an openness toward the Holy Spirit working in us that we might be sensitive to the bigger picture that is always going on around us.

The question for us as steward leaders is ‘whose agenda dominates our relationships?’ When I charge into my day pursuing the goals and to-do items that will determine my ‘success’ for the day, I will always see the people I encounter in this static way. I just don’t have time for anything else. They will then become either a means to accomplishing my agenda (with huge implications for the way I manage others) , or an obstacle to be overcome or avoided. Either way, there will be precious little opportunity to see them as God sees them.

I was flying back from a business trip when I encountered a frustrating flight delay that would likely cause me to miss a connection, resulting in an extra night in an airport hotel tacked on to an already long trip. Two gate agents were working furiously to accommodate growing lines of angry passengers who faced a similar fate. After the last person had been served, the two sat behind their computer terminals in a daze.  Fifteen minutes went by and still no plane or update on its status came. My frustration reached a tipping point. I rose to my feet, gripping my boarding pass, and began walking toward one of the gate agents. I would be polite, but my tone would be sharp and my words expressive of just how incompetently I felt the whole situation had been handled. As I moved up in front of the beleaguered woman behind the computer screen, another man stepped forward and spoke before I could.

“Hey, I just want you both to know how much we all appreciate what you’re trying to do for us. I know this is a lousy situation, but you have done a great job. I’m going down to Starbucks to pick up some coffee—can I get you anything while I’m there?”

I will never forget the looks of surprise and gratitude on their faces. Nor will I forget the pain in my spirit. I was about to respond in the heat of the static moment, and this man had considered these two women in the context of their larger journey and blessed them. It’s a lesson I’ll never forget.

We work with people every day who, like the woman at the well, the blind man in Jericho and those two agents at the airline counter, desperately need a word of encouragement, of compassion, and of hope. When Jesus encountered the woman at the well, His response was completely unexpected. When that man approached the airline ticket counter, his comments were the last thing anyone expected to hear.

Will you cultivate the heart of a steward leader and be ready to respond like Jesus?

Ask God to prepare your heart to do something unexpected today. Look for an opportunity to respond to a situation in the least expected way—which means responding as Jesus would. It will mean setting aside your own agenda. It means stopping. Praying. Not worrying about getting your own way or justifying your actions, or even accomplishing your goals. It will mean looking at life from the perspective of the other person and responding in a way that meets their needs, not yours. It might be the highlight of your day. Will you pray for it?

——

[Special thanks to NeONBRAND for the cover photo]

— by Dr. Rob McKenna

While many would expect that a Faith-based organization would have the concept and practice of developing leaders and seeing people dialed in, it just isn’t so. I once told a mentee of mine who had sacrificed the high paying pathway of her peers to go and serve as a leader in a national church denomination, “Be aware that once you get under the hood of a church, it’s still run by broken people trying hard to do the right thing.” It’s not that I wanted her to come into the job with a bad attitude, but that I wanted her to have realistic expectations. When we associate something with Jesus, we so often expect it to run better, but that isn’t always the case. Organizations, faith-based or not, are filled with leaders trying to figure it out along the way. As Christ following leaders, the eyes of the world are on us, so the bar might just need to be even higher. 

Like many entrepreneurs, I’m a mutt. I’ve spent twenty-five years of my adult career as part university professor, part consultant, part pastor, and all entrepreneur. My focus has been on one thing – developing a highly trained generation of courageous and sacrificial leaders who would bring hope and conviction to a world where darkness is the default. I’ve had little desire to simply be another leaf of inspiration blowing in the winds of airports or Christian bookstores that come and go with the latest developmental fads. Instead, I wanted to provide an intentional pathway toward building up what I would consider Christ-centered leaders based on both a whole theological grounding and cutting edge leadership development research. It’s no longer good enough to let the greatest corporations in the world capture the best tools and practices. It’s time for faith-based organizations to reap the rewards as well. So, after twenty years of research and consulting with corporations, ministries, universities and all kinds of cool influencers in the world, I launched the WiLD Toolkit to take what we know from four decades on the developmental journey of leaders and put it into a scalable package for seeing our employees and leaders through a more accurate lens. More importantly, it’s about looking with them instead of looking at them. 

Based on that, here are a few lessons I’ve learned about leader and employee development:

Intentional, long play investments in people are hard – but so worth it.

Think of your last leader development offsite or experience. Most of what we think of are short term weekends away or keynote speakers whose messages don’t stick. As my colleague Dr. Daniel Hallak would say, this way of looking at leader development is like sending all our employees to summer camp for one week and expecting them to be transformed forever. Putting a structure in place for seeing each other is a good business decision, and the pay off for people seeing one another better is exponentially better than not. Can you even begin to imagine how different your organization would be if you and the people around you knew each other and knew each others’ motivations, purposes, strengths, and blind spots? 

The research on leader development looks like a Gospel story.

Unfortunately in many parts of the Church, a general distrust of anything scientific has been developed, and that is so unfortunate. Just because faith is our foundation, it doesn’t mean we can’t be informed by the best thinking when it comes to developing leaders. We do this in every other part of our life, but when it comes to developing people, we so often miss out. The amazing thing is that the research on the developmental journey of leaders looks like a story straight out of the Old Testament or book of John. Leaders, faith-based or not, are struggling to lead effectively, question themselves, and are just as broken as the rest of us. The greatest Gospel reality that all leaders face is that we are responsible for so much and so many, and vastly underqualified, while called to lead anyway. We’re broken but redeemable. 

Leader development is not a test they need to pass, it’s an investment we need to make.

When leadership development is treated like a training or a class to sit in on, we miss the reality that actual learning and growth isn’t like that. Classes finish with tests, while development finishes with progress and more questions. When we get over the idea that development is a test or a hurdle we leap over, we open up a world of ever-expanding developmental horizons. From that standpoint, you can’t fail to lead well and stop there. You can only fail to learn and move forward. 

We can’t develop an emerging generation of leaders unless we are willing to develop ourselves.

If you are a person who is attempting to model your leadership after the heart and attitude of Jesus, it starts with your heart first. When leaders apply to be a part of our programs, our first filter is whether or not they are willing to edit. If you want to know what an emerging generation of leaders is looking for, there are one of two ways to know – ask them or simply give voice to the questions you are asking now or asked in the past when you were in their shoes. When we dismiss away our own development or the questions that cause us to hesitate because we’re not willing to face them, we push the pause button on the value of our own investment in the leaders around us who need us to take an honest look inside. I know this is hard, but it’s not harder than the questions Jesus asked – and isn’t that the point? We can’t expect other leaders to learn the lesson we didn’t if we aren’t willing to face those moments for ourselves. Once we start with us, all the possibilities will open up for them. 

While we will likely develop unintentionally, that’s not enough for most of us. Here’s where my inner entrepreneur kicked in. I developed the WiLD Toolkit as a simple set of tools that leaders across the boundaries of business, ministry, and higher education are using to take a nice inspirational idea, and turn it into an intentional reality. Imagine what the future would look like if you knew where you are going next and more importantly, why. Imagine how things would be different if you were showing up better under pressure. Imagine what your next role would look like if you knew the experiences you feel called to have next and those you don’t want to repeat right now. Imagine the courageous and calculated risks you would take if you had a documented strategic network of people surrounding you. And now, imagine that for them – for all the people around who would benefit from that kind of intentionality. When we get purposeful about building organizational cultures where intentionally “seeing each other” is on the strategic agenda, everything changes. 

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[Special thanks to Perry Grone for the cover photo]

Article originally hosted and shared with permission by The Christian Economic Forum, a global network of leaders who join together to collaborate and introduce strategic ideas for the spread of God’s economic principles and the goodness of Jesus Christ. This article was one of CEF’s 2019 White Papers.

— by Doug Hundt

“Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”

(James 1:2-4)

Founded in 1948 and built on the rolling cornfields of founder Gary Vermeer’s land, Vermeer Corporation is a global manufacturer of large, industrial and agricultural equipment employing more than 3,200 team members. The story began when Gary, a farmer at heart and tinkerer by trade, had one desire: to find a better way to do things around the farm. It started with a simple invention—the mechanical wagon hoist to help neighboring farmers unload their crops. But it didn’t stop there; the company grew through many of Gary’s early inventions, including the stump grinder, tree spade, and round hay baler. Gary and his wife Matilda were devout Christians, living out their faith in all aspects of their lives, including their business. Matilda would tell you, “All the praise is truly for the glory of God.”

The company grew and so did Gary and Matilda’s family. Their three children all took on leadership roles at Vermeer and today, Gary’s grandson, Jason Andringa, serves as CEO. As the family led the company, they were focused on growing a successful business. But more importantly, they were focused on refining, growing, and living a biblically-based culture. This culture is articulated by the Vermeer team as our 4P Philosophy—principles, people, product, and profit. We believe people are our greatest asset and our guiding principle, the Golden Rule, helps guide our business interactions. The 4P culture manifests in many ways, including four full-time chaplains, the decision to not lay off team members during the 2009 financial crisis and following downturns, the relentless pursuit of excellence in product and operations, and ultimately the stewardship and respect for all Vermeer team members, dealers, and customers.

The true test comes when your company is in crisis. For us, that day was July 19, 2018. It was a hot, beautiful summer day in Iowa and Vermeer was celebrating 70 years in business with team members, shareholders, and more than 400 dealers and customers from around the world. The day was filled with energy as everyone celebrated new product introductions, equipment demonstrations, and factory tours. Mid-afternoon our team was notified of potentially severe weather in the surrounding area. The team took these warnings seriously and the decision was made to move all visitors and team members to shelter. When the severe weather alarms sounded onsite, people were where they needed to be. God guided our decision-making and protected us as we were able to proactively relocate all team members and visitors to storm shelters before the tornado struck.

Then it hit. At 4:12 pm, an EF3 tornado struck the Vermeer campus. Across our mile-long campus, 40% of our production facilities took a direct hit from the storm while more than 3,000 people were hunkered down in shelters. By the grace of God, no one was seriously injured. It is true that we benefited from many years of planning and practicing for disasters, but no amount of training or preparation can truly prepare you for how to respond in a crisis. 

What do you do when you come out of the shelter? What do you do when you see cars piled on top of each other, feel glass crunching under your feet, and hear shouting and sirens all around? What do you do next? How do you lead others through this? How do you communicate? What do you communicate? Do your decisions and actions honor God and His principles? What are those in your care feeling, hearing, and experiencing right now? 

In the moments of a crisis, there isn’t time to answer these questions. What happens is the core of who you are is fully exposed and the deeply embedded values of your culture take over. 

In our case, 70 years of a biblically-based culture turned into action. Immediately after the tornado struck, our priority was accounting for the health and well-being of every team member and visitor on campus. Key leaders quickly established a war room and worked late into the night to account for and ensure the safety of everyone. Our chaplains jumped into action to tend to those who were injured and traumatized. The Vermeer communications team went to work to formulate a multi-dimensional communications strategy—leveraging text, email, social media, local, and regional media to communicate with our people, the families of our team, our visitors, our dealers, our customers, and our community. Across the Vermeer Mile, team members were taking care of one another. And that was it, two of our guiding 4Ps—principles and people—were fueling all decisions and actions around our organization as we accounted for every single person on our campus during the tornado.

Just a few short hours later, bright and early on the morning of July 20, Jason pulled key leaders together and shared his vision to have all displaced team members back to work in 45 days. Cross-functional teams immediately went to work to make this happen. With two production plants completely destroyed, plans were quickly put into place to reposition 40% of all production in just 45 days. 

On the morning of Monday, July 23, 66% of our team members returned to work. Knowing the trauma the team went through just days before, they were welcomed back with 14 small gatherings held by Jason, a VP of their team and an on-site chaplain. After expectations were given and prayers said, team members were encouraged to share their stories over refreshments.

For the 34% who could not yet return to work, five town-hall-style meetings were held at four high school auditoriums or gyms in the communities where our team members lived. Again, a chaplain prayed for the team and Jason spoke to each group. HR representatives and unemployment resources were available at all meetings to help team members maintain financial consistency in this period of uncertainty.

During this time, communicating well with those onsite and offsite continued to be a top priority. Daily updates were sent to all team members sharing the latest information on progress and expectations. We learned that visibility and communication is crucial so all stakeholders feel informed, aligned, and, most importantly, cared for.

Due to super human efforts by hundreds of team members, we were able to exceed our goal and had everyone back to work within 30 days.

The story and recovery process continue to play out today. We are rebuilding. Production rates are higher than pre-tornado levels (with 40% less space) and we celebrated a year of record sales and growth across our business. 

The stories of how God protected, guided, and inspired people are too numerous to mention. God was working ahead of us through years of enterprise risk management planning, disaster recovery drills, lean efforts, succession planning, organizational development, and financial stewardship. 

The means to the end is the strength of your biblically based culture. When we lead and act through His principles, business becomes an agent for His goodness. People are cared for. Dealers and customers are viewed as partners. Communities thrive. Stewardship and humility are paramount. Founded in a biblically based culture, business can shape the culture around you.

“Let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

(Matthew 5:16)

In a crisis, biblical culture will be your rock. It is our rock. It gave us hope. We were guided and strengthened through a crisis. In the hours, days, weeks, and months that followed our halls were filled with hugs and high fives, tears and pride. Together in Christ, our team cared for each other and those around them in ways like never before.

As Christians, credibility in our faith is not what we say, but what we do. Intentionally shaping, nurturing, and enhancing a biblically based culture in your business will multiply in ways only God can orchestrate.

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[Special thanks to Lucy Chian for the cover photo]