Influencing Good Works

Iron sharpens iron,

and one man sharpens another.

(Proverbs 27:17)

 

Have you ever taken a look at the people in your LinkedIn, civic, or other professional networks to evaluate whether or not you have mutually beneficial business synergies? We were developing a marketing campaign for our workforce training solutions  and this question began our brainstorming exercise.  Why would key decision makers give us an audience to discuss our vision for educating and training through workforce readiness initiatives?


In this development process, one roadblock was evident: wanting to be an advocate for young people about careers in manufacturing and influencing the parents and community leaders of the value of our program required more than wishful thinking. To achieve success, our approach had to include a clearly defined direction, a disciplined doctrine/process, and above all else, a divine determination. Still, we needed someone to lay hands on us, or as I learned in SETX, someone whose endorsement could open doors one could not open alone…an influencer.


In today’s social culture, “friending” is an action verb, not to be confused with the more traditionally understood term of friendship. Friending has reciprocity, the practice of exchanging ideas and information with others for mutual benefit, allowing access, and sometimes, special privilege. Realizing that some efforts require access to people outside of a typical network, it is wise to “friend up” with leaders, or people with great influence.


When we finalized our proposal, we identified an influential community leader with whom we had an established relationship and pitched it to him. His immediate response was simply, iron sharpens iron. After a moment of reflection, he explained the mutual benefits, or synergies, that emerge when two blades rub together. The edges of the blades become sharper and more effective for the good works to be performed. Our children need more real world exposure to jobs and career opportunities available and our approach provided a hands-on, vocational, and valuable solution.

http://www.latrobellc.com/industrial-people.php

I still prefer face-to-face fellowship and meetings. In today’s social climate, I still value relationships and friendships, and feel that regardless of the size of the professional or civic network, people do business with those that they know and trust. I am guilty of “friending” to gain access to ideas and information, but my journey has revealed that no one achieves such alone. Iron sharpens iron, which sharpens our ability to deliver real value and mutual benefits in our purposed work. Who are you influencing by your good works? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.

Greater Works

…whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing,

and they will do even greater works than these…

(John 14:12)

 

I have a confession. Remember Ally McBeal and her theme songs? Well not only do I have theme songs, I have theme words flowing through my spirit. In the past, my theme words simply defined my then phase of maturation: healed, delivered, sowed, harvest, released. However, now, I am in a season where my theme word is an adjective: GREATER!!!

I used to work for a manufacturing company whose mission statement, vision statement, and quality policy were all one and the same: More. Better. Faster. Three small words that drove every organizational decision related to processes and products. The entire organization was aligned to those three words and was inspired to delivering, thus providing the drive to propel the company to become the global market leader.

That experience reminds me of current season. I suddenly have renewed energy for doing the work I have been graced to do. And in true form, as I accept my mission, I am constantly bombarded with subtle and overt reminders of GREATER: Greater Mt. Corinth MBC, Greater Port Arthur COC, greater trials, greater pressures, greater successes. And my current theme song that resonates with my theme word is titled GREATER and contains these lyrics: if it had not been for the pressing, I would have never been able to walk into my destiny. He's preparing me for GREATER!

My definition of greater is having more influence, or reach, than I ever imagined. God never gives me an assignment without showing me His provision for completion. I asked Him to enlarge my territory and to grant me favor to be a blessing to others. Three ways that He's proven Himself in this prayer include:

GREATER Reach...Through the blog, I have opened up to sharing my experiences and journey of walking by faith. I am amazed at the people who are following, watching, and deciding, if He’s doing it for you, He’ll do it for me too. I am humbled by emails from people around the world thanking me for sharing and asking questions about the process.

GREATER Vision...Through the target audience for my work, I have learned that women are not the only population who should consider careers in manufacturing--that we really need to educate young people in general about the possibilities if we are going to be prepared for the future. And when He says do not worry about what to say or how to say it, I cannot explain how we have been able to get audiences with some influential people to discuss our vision for educating and training through workforce readiness initiatives.

GREATER Faith...Through the sharing of my testimony, I have gained greater confidence in knowing that through Him, I can accomplish more than I ever imagined possible. When I look back on everything that has happened in my life and on this journey of faith, I can genuinely appreciate all of the pressing and preparations to be blessed to walk into my destiny. By faith, I believe that GREATER WORKS are coming!

Now that I have shared my theme song and my theme word for this season, I invite you to share yours. What word or song is resonating in your spirit and inspiring you to do the work that you have been commissioned to do? Feel free to comment, or, send me an email at latanyua.robinson@gmail.com. If you like this post and want to catch up on some of my previous discussions on manufacturing and economic diversity, please visit the full Purposed Work blog at http://ltr-latrobe-mfg.blogspot.com/.