Stewardship and institutional sustainability

Show me a good steward and I will show you a successful institution, organisation or business

Stewardship is a role of being accountable. It involves taking care of things, people, and property put under one’s control. A steward should do every piece of work as if it were his/her own, should manage an organisation, or even a nation as if it belonged to him or her. With such a mentality, the world would be a better place for everybody to live, not for only one generation but also for generations to come.

Stewardship goes way back in the Bible, in the book of Genesis 2:15, we read that God placed man in the garden of Eden to cultivate and guard it. After creating all the creatures, he asked man to name and take good care of them. In the same way, employers and employees should be good stewards so as to ensure sustainable development of institutions and the economy at large.

Every employer would wish to have a reliable employee who can lead their business or institution to sustainable development, alas! , today many employees are untrustworthy, they tend to steal from their organisations not knowing they are affecting the growth of the business which they depend on for their livelihood. Lack of stewardship is like a man who cuts a branch of a tree he is standing on, not knowing that, he will fall down, get a fracture or even die.

Employees should exhibit stewardship by working hard, going an extra-mile in whatever they do, aligning their goals to the true North and living within their means. Acquiring a plethora of property may not necessarily make one happy but doing what is right at the right time ,at the right place  with the right resources acquired in the right way will bring about good results.

They should perform their roles as true stewards and when they start up their own companies they will reap the same from would be employees. Remember, one will always reap from what he or she sows. One cannot sow beans and harvest groundnuts, sow hatred and reap love or kindness, sow untrustworthiness and reap trust, sow dishonest and reap honest from would be employees. Every good thing one does will always come back to him or her and the converse is true.

In recapitulation, valuing   stewardship will go a long way in leading to the growth and sustainability of many institutions in our country and curbing corruption which has become institutionalised in our economy.

Gladys S.N Kabanda, Kampala

The writer is an Ass.Director- Busega Prep School

 #Management and Leadership Consultant

#gsnk.consult@gmail.com