By Rachel Loe, August 5, 2024

“If you don’t speak up for yourself, no one will.” I have heard this repeatedly from those around me in the corporate world. The context is career advancement and making your successes and triumphs public knowledge so that you get “the credit you deserve.” But where is the line drawn between not being run over and being the office braggart everyone loathes? What biblical principles can we follow to help us navigate these lines? 

As believers, the quality of our work is important to the Lord. We are to work as if we are working for God and no one else (Colossians 3:23-24).  The quality of our work and our work ethic should reflect that. How we conduct business should follow the biblical principles of honesty and humility. When we interact with coworkers, we should be the ones people can turn to and know we will do the right thing. So how do we advance when we know we are doing good work but must also be humble? What is humility? 

Humility is acknowledging the gifts we have and the talents we show come from the Lord. We work like we are working for the Lord, primarily because He is the one who has blessed us with the ability to work, do well, and He has His hand in our success.  This does not mean we take on a self-deprecating view of our work or say, “Oh, it was nothing”; we give credit where it is due. Getting excited about an accomplishment and being able to point to God can be an avenue for us to witness. “In all things acknowledge Him” (Proverbs 3:6 ESV). There are people in the workplace who will brag about their success and ignore anyone who helped them in their achievement. These are typically the most insecure people in the office who need their self-worth elevated at the expense of others. They typically will not give credit to God for their abilities, and they also fail to recognize teammates, circumstances, or hard work as the driving factors behind their success.   

Zig Ziglar, a Baptist American author and motivational speaker, has said, “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help other people get what they want.” I do not totally agree with the driving force behind his statement that what we want solely relies on what others can do for us; however, one of the pillars of Ziglar’s belief is that when you follow the great commandment “love God and love others” (Matthew 22:38-39 Paraphrased) things will generally flow more smoothly. We serve a God of order, and He laid out the world for us to depend on others. Things work better when we follow His order.