Manager or Owner?

We’re trying out new restaurants in town. HELLO DATE NIGHT FOR THE WIN!

COVID shut that game down for a while. We really want to support the local businesses. There are some places that have reopened and re-imagined some incredible outdoor seating areas in a beautiful season of the year! Maybe you’ve had the same experience we had last week? The manager came over to the table and asked how things were. Did we have everything we needed? Then he said, “I’m Tony. I’m the manager. Let me know if I can do anything for you.” Why, Tony? Why did you do this? Well, if he’s a good manager, it’s because he’s trying to support - not micromanage - his wait staff. He is trying to get and maintain a pulse on the customer experience. Why does this matter? Because the owner has employed Tony to make sure the owner’s mission, vision, values are lived out in that restaurant business. Tony’s literal job is to make sure he acts as the owner would.

Exhibit B

Aside from food, my husband and I share another love in life - sports. For him, it is rugby and for me, it is soccer. In both sports, the coach is often called the “manager”. The team, its personnel, their win/loss record, their health, training, technical, and tactical decisions are mostly left to the manager. We may “armchair quarterback” that manager and say how we would run things differently. But ultimately it is the manager that answers to the owner for the decisions made.

The Manager is NOT the Owner. The Manager IS a Steward.

Managing - at its best - is NOT about ordering tasks and people about. It is about stewarding what has been entrusted to you by the owner. The owner foots the bill and stands to gain or lose the most in both the restaurant and athletic team arrangement. An owner has the right to appoint a manager to this position or relieve the manager of their service.

So what has been ENTRUSTED to you?

Our Selves - body, heart, mind, spirit…

Relationships -marriages, children, friendships, colleagues, groups of affinity, ethnicity, proximity…

Work - systems, industry, technology, creativity, education, finances, knowledge, wisdom…

It’s most obvious in our work that we are not the owner. And even if you are the owner of your work, a bank or financier is likely entrusting your work to you in a way. Our relationships are a little more tricky. But I don’t really own any other people - we have called that slavery in our world’s history. If you act like you own somebody - brace for impact and resistance from them. At least I know THAT is true! So what about my SELF? Am I the boss of me? I suppose so. But what I DO with my body, heart, mind, and spirit really does have ripple effects in those relationships and in my work - so I’m not completely my own.

As a Christian, I believe that indeed I am not my own (1 Cor 6:19-20) and what I have is actually ON LOAN to me from the Giver and Creator, the Author and Finisher of my Faith (Heb 12:2). If that is true, then what I have actually belongs to someone else. It has been entrusted to me by God.

Whether faith informs this for you or not - let us ask ourselves - are we owners or managers? And if managers, how can we grow in stewardship? May the answers lead to a certain felt weight - and hopefully the honor, curiosity, drive, hope, commitment, and courage needed to be not just decent managers, but good stewards!