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Presented by Lauren Stibgen
What does love require? Part of missional living—especially at work—requires us to approach all things with love. Today we will see how Paige believes we live life on mission with each other to restore all things—even those things at work!
Paige is an executive leader of business transformations, leading the global program management for a large company that provides customers protection plans through different partners across the globe. Her current charge is being deemed a moonshot customer experience initiative. Basically, the organization knows the goals are extraordinary, and she is accountable! Not only does she hold this work as a leader, but she is a wife and mom to three children in their teens and twenties.
Paige used to think her Jesus-centered values would conflict with the way she needed to show up at work and says she couldn’t have been more wrong. A podcast on a God-centered approach to leadership helped her connect the dots. The things that made her a good leader (authenticity, integrity led, caring, clear) were the same values that come from the fruit of the Spirit. It helped her see her life as one big mission field instead of thinking about work in a totally different context.
When Paige goes to work, she views her mission as twofold.
First, she strives to authentically live out the values Jesus taught and asks herself in every situation, what does love require?
She knows this type of love requires her to be grounded and filled with the Holy Spirit and covered in prayer. It also requires that she lives with integrity and back up her words with action.
Paige recently got a tattoo on her wrist of the Hebrew and English word hesed, which is hard to pin down to a singular definition, but it basically means unimaginable loving kindness. It is the loving kindness we receive from our God, and only from him. This tattoo has opened many conversations for Paige. It serves as an opportunity to tell people what she stands for and serves as a reminder of how deeply she is loved and how her job is to deeply love others, no matter the current crisis or hot button issue that comes her way!
Second, Paige strives to create an authentic, come-as-you-are community within the teams she leads and within her leadership circles. That means creating time and space to get to know each person and time to foster trust and an inclusive community. She makes sure she takes advantage of opportunities to be vulnerable to create and build connections. Sharing the role her faith plays in her day-to-day life helps her show her authentic self and the strengths God has gifted her with as a leader.
Most of the sharing Paige does is through one-on-one conversation. She is not afraid to share how she spends her time and the things she is praying for. By sharing her life outside of work, Paige learned she was doing a spiritual fast at the same time as someone on her team. She even had a great discussion with someone else on her team about leading girls’ groups at church because she wasn’t afraid to share why she had Wednesday night commitments.
Paige says, “I think God has given me a path of experiences that have uniquely positioned me to lead in the space I am now, adding value in a completely authentic way. I see him using my trials and successes as opportunities for me to share more about myself and my belief systems and then to demonstrate my values. I see him continuing to leverage me to mentor other women, and to continuously point to him.”
