I just gave a talk to the Food and Drug Administration, or the FDA, in their general assembly.
They invited me, through FranklinCovey Philippines, to talk about stewardship.
Terence, it still should’ve been you bro. Thanks for helping me craft my talk.
I wanted to help them, and leave a memorable tidbit of what I was going to say. So I went with what was most memorable – FDA.
How is Stewardship, FDA? And what does that mean?
Faithfulness
I started out my talk by asking people, who was present here in the assembly out of their own will and want? A few hands were raised.
How many were here out of compliance? I didn’t see a lot of hands, but I heard a lot of nervous laughter.
But!, and I said, that all of you are still there. That’s an example of faithfulness.
Stewardship is faithfulness.
To be faithful, is take care of your duties and responsibilities, no matter the weather or the situation. It is to keep in mind the welfare of that which you are faithful to.
Who says that family is important to them? Everyone raised their hands.
To do things that care for your family, whether they see you or not, is to be faithful to your family.
Like the parable of the talents; to whom much is given, much is expected from. Take care, manage, and grow the talents given to you.
That’s stewardship – to be faithful to the task, to responsibilities, to what is important to you, and to the mission.
Do the right thing
With stewardship, comes the faith in people that you will not betray that faith.
Comes the faith in people, in you, to do the right thing.
I recalled the story of when I was still working for the Bangon Mini-Farms Program, that part of the responsibilities that I had was to set up and conduct training seminars for large groups of people.
And with those seminars came the task of feeding them all. I had developed a network of caterers and suppliers all over Leyte.
A lot of those suppliers came at me, with the same approach: bribery and corruption.
“I know the contract is a hundred thousand. You can write that on the receipt, and I’ll give you a cut.” Said almost all of them.
I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to do that.
My beliefs and principles didn’t want to cross that line, and so I declined every single time.
Whether there are people looking over you, or not, to be a steward means to do the right thing, even when you’re all alone.
It’s about the care, and an extension of the faith that has been entrusted to you.
To do the right thing, even when nobody’s watching.
Accountability for your choices
Because stewardship is not only accountability for responsibilities. It is also about your accountability for the choices that you make.
Having no choice is an illusion, borne by our accidental conditioning, by our environment, and by our perception of the situation, and what we believe we can do in it.
If stewardship is then being tasked to care for what you are responsible for, to safeguard it, then it is your choices and resulting actions which would do so, and fulfill the task.
Being a steward means that your responsibility, pushes you to make better and better decisions, and that this requires you to have more and more control over the choices you make, which in turn, gives you more and more control over the actions that you take.
We truly are accountable for our choices, bearing the consequences of our actions, and at the same time, creating an impact with what we say, or do.
I also shared as stewards, we never really own what we’ve been given.
Our talents, gifts, are precisely that – gifts.
It’s up to us to be able to grow them and use them for good and impact.
I watched in a video by Jeff Bezos, that he was saying that you can’t really be proud in your gifts, because they were given to you.
What you can be proud of, is your choices, and what you choose to do with your gifts.
And people that succeed, and do great things, make full use of both – their gifts, and their choices.
You always have a choice.
Stewardship is a lifestyle
Being a steward is not a title, not a job, and not a responsibility.
It’s a way of living life.
Are the choices you make, on a moment-to-moment, day-to-day basis, reflective of the stewardship and the faith in your choices?
Stewardship is not something that’s meant to be only be done.
Stewardship is meant to be lived out.
What does stewardship mean for you? Please share in the comments below!
Leave a Reply