April 2, 2026

Business by the Book

Ruth 2:15  And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

Strive to give clear instructions; Boaz did. Throughout the story of Ruth there are several references to Boaz giving clear and specific instructions to his workers. In today’s verse he instructed them in the form of a command to let Ruth glean in his field and to leave her alone. They evidently obeyed in that there is no reference to his having to exercise correction in the book.

Detailed instructions, training, directives, directions and/or edicts take time, energy, planning and patience. Yet, they pay continuous dividends if managed properly. Sadly, in today’s “bottom line” oriented short term outlook, training sometimes is regarded as expendable. However, lack of training will ultimately lead to undue frustrations, uncertain employees, ineffective customer service and loss of revenue.

When I was twenty three I was a newly hired sales representative. On my first day the District Manager came into my town to introduce me to our dealers and customers. That first morning we made about four calls before lunch; at the end of the last call, as we were walking to our car he asked me a question. “You are meeting a lot of people, aren’t you going to write down their names so that you can remember them?”  I kind of looked at him with a confused sense of wonder and thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think about that?”  So, to try to impress him and cover up my embarrassment for not taking notes about the people we were meeting, I recalled each person we had met, gave their titles, a little about their appearance and even quoted back to him his silly jokes to each.

He was impressed with my memory, but he added a comment that stuck with me. He said, “A good memory helps you, but good records will help anyone who follows you.”  Then he taught me how to keep a “call log” and said he wanted me to send copies of my daily call logs to him each week. Over lunch I asked him, “Where are the daily call logs for the person I am replacing?” He replied, “Why do you think he’s being replaced?”   That manager was very successful, he clearly instructed me as to the skills I needed to not only be a successful sales person, but also to be a successful member of a team.

Years ago I used a phrase for a parenting seminar I was conducting: “Train, don’t complain.”  Meaning, take the time and effort to properly train children, and through that training, parents will have less to complain about concerning the behavior of their kids. While managers are not parents and employees are not children the same little phrase still applies. Train, don’t complain.

Dr. William Howe