Holy Week is near – a call to unleash your own business revolution.

By Nick Van Langendonck (LinkedIn), author of Doing Good Works – the Bible for ordinary people building extra-ordinary companies.

Our corporate institutionalized fall from grace.

Our corporations today have become our institutionalised fall from grace. To me, their goals, structures, cultures and processes symbolise the temptation of mistrust, self-interest, vanity and lust for power. We have become massively captivated by the fruits of the tree of good and evil, while the true tree of life is further down the road. By their fruits you will recognise them. One does not pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles. So says Jesus at the end of his Sermon on the Mount. How juicy are the fruits of your organisation?

Everyone contributes to this, and we all suffer the consequences. Companies compete for ever more, everyone—from company managers to workers—defends with their lives the titles and privileges they have amassed, and we become ever stricter with each other. If the predetermined budget is a month behind, we panic. If a company does not grow annually, we see it as a disaster. If wages are not indexed for a year, work grinds to a halt. The fear of losing what we consider acquired—market share, profits, status, responsibilities, pay, holidays, etc.—has trapped us in a cycle of competition and conflict in the workplace. We have come to confuse our self-worth and vocation as human beings on this planet with the status of a job title, a position on the organisation chart and the numbers in a financial statement and in a bank account.

History repeats again and again what happens when we do not strive for the good and succumb to the temptations of the snake. It leads to businesses built on sand. Sooner or later they collapse due to exhaustion in the workplace, lack of clarity, lack of meaning, broken rela- tionships, abuse of power and ultimately decay of the whole system.

This social, environmental and spiritual flood is in full swing in the West. Our businesses are being battered from all sides, and many will collapse. Only ruin will remain. But there is also hope. For in this threat there is an age-old call: repent—read: unboss yourself from the only true toxic boss in the workplace: the snake.

Stop letting greed, lust for power and covetousness rule your career and embrace radical generosity in every workplace interaction. Inject it into every email, every meeting and every decision. Strive for moral perfection and walk loosely beyond the tree of good and evil. Become your company’s tree of life yourself and unleash a business revolution simply by doing the right thing for others.

 

It is the only way to restore the mindset in the corporate world. Two thousand years ago, it was the only way, and it still is today. If we ignore this call, our companies will swallow us up mentally and even physically, and we will go down with them. In fact, this process is already in full swing.

From fall to redemption.

I realise more than ever that the chances of actually seeing our existing corporate world change are astronomically small. Nevertheless, I still urge every reader to keep striving for harmony knowing full well that even when you present convincing evidence backed by concrete examples of other companies pursuing radical generosity, it is highly likely that even your own colleagues will not believe you. Be at peace with that too.

People like you will leave the company. Or they will be forced out. Leadership will push them aside as soon as they feel their status quo is threatened. This will eventually lead to their own demise, and out of the rubble, something new will emerge. Pain is the shortcut to inner growth and transformation. This is how it has always been. There is nothing new under the sun.

With Jesus, it happened on a mountaintop, on a wooden cross where he was mocked by his own people. A symbolically important detail: the Romans crucified people on real trees because wood was very precious. That way, they only had to provide the horizontal beam of the cross. In other words, Jesus was probably literally crucified on a tree. The Romans and the Jewish elite wanted to punish him and wipe out his influence, but by crucifying him, they actually planted a new tree of life and a new Garden of Eden.

This tree bears the extraordinarily good fruit that will change humanity forever. For Jesus’ cross and agony serve as the ultimate role model of doing good in the midst of oppressive powers for whom it is never enough. Even as he faced his own death at the hands of the evil of his closest friends, and while every logic and everyone in his place would cave in and defend what he has, he reinforced the message of his own vision for the world.

Jesus transcended every evil instinct in his biological nature, revealing the way back through the narrow gate to the blessed life that was ended at the beginning of this story by the Fall of Adam and Eve. Whether he was actually resurrected or not does not really matter to me. The resurrection symbolises the psychological rebirth for all who follow his pursuit of the ultimate good, which I have experienced on several occasions. The crucial question for our generation seems to be if we will reflect as the story of Jesus and this book invites us, or if are we condemned, like ancient Egypt, Babylon and Rome, to perish at the hands of our own inner, demonic bosses.

Isn’t it ironic that we are massively searching for meaning in work when the answer is right in front of our noses? Five words: Doing Good For Others Works!

 

In our global and technology-driven economy, our calling in 21st century business is to reconnect with each other through radical generosity and put humanity at the centre. When we treat our customers, colleagues, suppliers, shareholders and other stakeholders in the image of a holy God, we may cherish the hope that our businesses will thrive as trees of life that produce good fruit and bring blessings to the world.

If we are able to restore our broken business world thanks to the realisation that doing good is actually the most effective business strategy, then this will result in ripple effects that can restore the whole world. The authors of the Bible believed that we are capable of doing that, and I fully share that belief.

Unboss yourself and create a new kind of leadership in business.

In this crucial time, when artificial intelligence is reinforcing the human god-complex like never before, we must realise that this choice for an inner reversal is not a luxury but an absolute necessity. While few will fully embrace this truth, I do believe that every manager and employee who does will transcend themselves and become a new kind of leader. Note that by this leadership I do not mean a job title or possession, but a way of acting, of creating harmony, in every workplace interaction.

This was also the central and particularly hopeful message Jesus proclaimed: the kingdom of God is at hand. By that he meant no physical place or possession. After all, the word ‘kingdom’ in Hebrew is much more about caring for creation than bossing it around. Jesus emphasised a behaviour in our earthly reality that transcends our purely biological instincts and embodies our highest potential. He encouraged everyone to adopt this suffering servanthood. He did this with a style and language that defied the norms of our earthly realm, and every business leader, manager and employee can follow this example, and that has nothing to do with religion!

Walking this path also does not necessarily mean your main objective is then becoming the new boss of your company. Whereas your growth as a human being is assured via this path, the practical outcome is unknown and uncontrollable.

Because doing good means consciously sacrificing yourself for the other, without knowing what the outcome will be. It is by deliberately choosing a sometimes even humiliating, yet generous path in the workplace that one defies the conventional norms of the corporate world and discovers an alternative paradigm of power and authority.

It is this figurative crucifixion of our professional identity that creates a paradoxical reversal of traditional beliefs about power, leadership and success. And it is in these pivotal moments that we become in action a new kind of professional who injects his leadership of grace and redemption into the corporate world with love and righteousness. Every business leader, manager and employee who embraces this calling thus becomes a new stone of a new kind of professional community.

So be prepared for self-chosen sacrifice and suffering for good, without knowing the outcome. This is the timeless path of the saviour we so desperately need in today’s business world so we can become a new generation of professionals: pioneers of a new concept that can truly replace our current business structures.

All over the world, I admire people who are already putting this into practice. They were described in detail in my book “Doing Good Works: the Bible for ordinary people building extraordinary companies“. They dare to take up this challenge and, as a result, experience a professional rebirth each in their own way.

They embody the teachings of Jezus in the workplace in their actions and decisions. Perhaps without realising it themselves, their actions act as a moral compass for others and inspire them to follow their example. In doing so, they create a new kind of workplace where fear of shame and loss no longer exist. Consider a workplace without fear of shame and loss and the potential this unlocks.

I find it extraordinarily fascinating to see that regardless of their business sector and cultural background, from carpets in Jaipur, India to software in Antwerp, Belgium to home nursing in Almelo, the Netherlands, they arrive at similar organisations that closely resemble the kingdom of God that Jesus envisioned.

Even then, he saw that potential in humanity, and look now, 2,000 years later, more and more business leaders, managers and employees are making it happen. What gives me so much hope is that I see people emerging in almost every company today who are challenging and changing established norms in a similar way. I am beginning to believe more and more that the great biblical storyline of world restoration in the likeness of the harmonious Garden of Eden and blessings for all nations is still evolving. And that a new stone is being added to this new Eden with every business leader, manager and employee who chooses good in their professional life.

Serving his ultimate purpose of radical generosity to the cross, Jesus transformed this cruel and dark torture into a shining beacon of enlightenment and creative power. Instead of providing the creator God with a new stone temple in Jerusalem, as most Israelites expected of the Messiah, he literally planted a new tree of life. Jesus’ followers eating of its fruit will themselves become a living temple in which the creative power of the Source of all life is present, and they will in turn bless each other.

Similarly, our uncompromising, professional choice to do good will transform the corporate world into workplaces where everyone can work together harmoniously. I founded the Unbossers Network to connect professionals trying to make this personal choice, because without the support of a community, it is practically impossible to stay on the right path. I invite every reader to help build this modern ark that can lift us over the deluges of the 21st century. So have faith and repent. Unboss yourself from the snake and unleash your own business revolution.

Discover that doing good works!