Hayden Harper Holdings strives for workplace leadership that honors God

“It’s easy to just focus on making a profit. It’s actually really hard to impact your employees,” says Mike Fox, founder of Hayden Harper Holdings. Part of the Impact Foundation network, Hayden Harper manages a portfolio of operating companies encompassing energy, construction, and financial services. Their mission is to impact and enrich the lives of clients, employees, and community – all for the Glory of Christ.

How do we impact our own teams, in our most immediate sphere of influence as faith-driven and mission-focused leaders? Over the past 20 years at Hayden Harper, Mike has learned to seek God’s direction for fostering a workplace that reflects Him, and ask each person in the office to hold the company accountable to its founding mission.

Seeking God’s Direction

“If I want to run a redemptive business, I have to have my heart redeemed daily,” says Mike. “That doesn’t happen in the go, go, go. It happens in the quiet and the waiting on God in faith.” For him, this means connecting with the Lord each morning before work. In these moments, he often prays specifically, “Lord, what would you have us do for this person or in this situation?”

Inviting God to move in the workplace is key to creating a different kind of environment, and incredibly important to Mike. He launched Hayden Harper during a period of questioning the purpose of his career in private equity. “I don’t want to be in bondage anymore, and I for dang sure don’t want to be the one putting people in bondage,” he says. “I want to experience freedom and joy knowing that this life is not my permanent home. The next one with my Father is. I want that for my employees, too.”

Working Alongside Teams

“The mission does so much better when other people besides me champion it,” Mike adds. “My staff pushes me to uphold the mission, and that’s when the really great work happens. I laid the vision and the groundwork, and now I get out of the way so the Spirit can spill over into the work they do for our clients and our community, all for the Glory of Christ.”

As a team, Hayden Harper is seeking to reflect God’s Kingdom on Earth. “Unless we are somehow radically portraying this beautiful aroma of Christ and people are transformed by that aroma, I don’t really know what the point of business is,” says Mike. “My hope is that lives are transformed because they are attracted to the Christ-given freedom from which we operate, not in word but in deed.”

Freedom in the Hayden Harper Workplace

From his own experience, Mike acknowledges that if he and his colleagues aren’t careful, excellence could easily become an idol for the Hayden Harper team.

In every business, and in life, most of us desire to be excellent with all God has given us to steward. We all want to hear God say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And many of us assume that we are to please Him through our efforts and achievements. In reality, Jesus paid the full price for us. Yes, our work is worship and can honor the Lord, but He doesn’t need our performance. He is, after all, the Creator and Sustainer of all things.

For years, Mike carried the burden of stewardship and desired to be freed from this bondage of excellence. Now, he’s leading his company to do things differently: seeking to honor the Lord.

In practice, this means that Mike views his responsibility as providing “rest and support” to his colleagues and their families. He trusts in the good work that everyone is doing, and consciously strives to remove the pressures that create bondage. That means there is no expectation from leadership to answer emails in the evenings or on the weekends. Hayden Harper has paid for marriage counseling, language and continuing education classes, and doesn’t limit vacation time – they encourage employees to do what they need to recharge and connect.

Embodying Redemptive Methodology

At Impact Foundation, we have the privilege of walking alongside business like Hayden Harper which transform the lives of their employees, vendors, customers, and community in line with Biblical principles and Kingdom values.

This pathway to embody the gospel through business practices looks different for each industry and each setting. Yet one thing is common amongst impact businesses, they reflect the body of Christ at its best, as we love our neighbors through the works of our hands (David Blanchard).

Learn more about Redemptive Methodology and other great impact companies in our portfolio.