Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Challenge 1: How Do I Hold People Accountable?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Challenge 2: Is It Right to Hold Leaders More Accountable than Followers?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
A Leader’s Failure Affects More People than a Follower’s
Corrupt Leaders Are Agents of Sin
When the Leader Sleeps, the Team Follows
The Buck Stopped with Adam
Leadership Is Not about Rights, It Is about Responsibilities
Leaders Are Expected to Control Their Attitude and Emotions, Especially in Public
Challenge 3: What Is the Most Effective Leadership Style?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
A Servant-Leader’s Job Description
Serving Means Meeting the Needs of Others
Are You a Shepherd or a Hired Gun?
Characteristics of a Hireling—the Hired Gun
The Recipe for Greatness
John Maxwell, the Leader, the Celebrity, the Servant
Challenge 4: How Do I Recruit Great People?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Recruit Those Who Are Already Employed and Productive!
Learn from the Past
You Need a Proactive Strategy!
Shun the Laments of the Lazy
Challenge 5: What Is the Best Interview Strategy?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Use Knockout Interviews to Screen Out Undesirables and Save Time
Use Interviews as an Elimination Process
Look Harder at Their Journey than Their Location
Let Your Light Dispel the Darkness
Challenge 6: What Are the Best Interview Questions to Ask?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Why Hiring Right Is the Key
Seven Traits and Fifteen Questions
Seven Character Traits and Related Interview Questions
Raise the Bar and Expand Your List
Jesus Interviews the Rich, Young Ruler
Two Reminders from How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK
Challenge 7: What Is the Most Productive Way to Give Feedback?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Affirm Publicly
Jesus Finds and Rewards the Good in an Oppressor
Five Rules of Feedback
Peter Gets a Pat, Then a Punch!
The Approbation
Paul the Positive
David: Great Monarch, Marginal Papa
David’s Strong Finish
Eli’s Folly
Challenge 8: How Do I Confront Poor Performers?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Confront with Class
Peter as Satan?
Bridle the Ball-Peen, Sling the Sledge
A False Kindness
Choose Your Battles
Follow Up Feedback with Follow-Through
Do Not Rehash the Past
Challenge 9: What Are Core Values, and How Do They Benefit My Organization?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Sample Values from the Master
Our Five Corporate Core Values
Less Is More
A Blueprint for Decision Making
A Blueprint for Hiring
A Blueprint to Fire
One Bad Achan Can Spoil the Whole Bunch
How Do Core Values Differ from Vision and Mission?
Challenge 10: How Do I Balance My Work and Home Life?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Learn from the Greedy Ruler
The Key to Loving God
To Know Him Is to Obey Him
The Cycle of Virtue
Mary Had the “One Thing”
Start in Your Own Jerusalem
The Demon Had It Right but Was Wrong
Parting Shot
Challenge 11: What Are Two of the Most Dangerous Mistakes I Must Avoid to Become a More Effective Leader?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
Dangerous Mistake #2: Becoming Too Dependent on Yourself
Not So Fast!
Close the Gap between Knowing and Doing
Challenge 12: How Can I Create More Productive Behaviors in My Organization?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
The New Testament Culture
Culture’s Five Primary Components
Chief Architect and Primary Influencer
Drastic Action Is Sometimes Required
Be a Student of Behaviors
Change Culture with Addition or Subtraction
You Do Not Have to Be the Leader to Change the Culture
Change through Adrenaline Surge
Challenge 13: How Do I Know God’s Will as I Make Decisions in My Business and Life?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
It Is about Relationship
Five BOOK-Based Decisions
Knowledge Brings Responsibility
Give Up to Go Up
“All Your Ways” Means All Your Ways
The $60,000 Question
The Key to Time Management
Increase Your Focus by Finding Your Passion
Challenge 14: What Are the Two Biggest Threats to My Success?
Man’s Wisdom and Way
THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Way
The Age of “It’s No Big Deal”
THE BOOK’s Reliability
Sexual Immorality Topples the Strongest, Dearest, Richest, and Wisest
Avoid and Remove Yourself from Potentially Vulnerable Situations
Jesus Is Your Ticket out of Darkness
False Teachers and Their Ungodly Counsel
Modern False Teachers and Their Ungodly Doctrines
Look in the Mirror
Closing Thoughts
References
About the Author
Index
Copyright © 2011 by Dave Anderson Corporation. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Anderson, Dave, 1961-
How to lead by the book : proverbs, parables, and principles to tackle your toughest business challenges / Dave Anderson.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-470-93628-3 (hardback); ISBN 978-1-118-07517-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-07551-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-07518-0 (ebk)
1. Leadership—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Personnel management—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BV4597.53.L43A456 2011
658.4'092—dc22
2010054033
Preface
Every so often, someone comes along and claims that for contemporary times, we need a fresh way to express the Bible’s message. Usually that “new” way de-emphasizes Jesus, denies His deity, doubts His resurrection, dangles multiple paths to heaven, disregards biblical inerrancy, disputes the Bible’s relevance, and defines grace as license to sin. If you bought this book in hopes of reading any of this nonsense, then you have made a mistake! And, to exact an adequate penalty for pursuing such foolishness, we are keeping your money!
There is no “new” way that I can present the Bible or improve upon its message. The power in its words and truth are unquestionable and unchanging. What I hope to accomplish in How to Lead by THE BOOK is to make you more aware of timeless principles that have long existed and to suggest how you can apply them, in practical ways, to improve your life, the lives of others, your business, and our bruised, battered, and beleaguered world. You cannot accomplish this by sitting on the sidelines, reacting to the world around you; rather, you must lead. In this irreverent and irreligious age, leading by biblical principles has never been more necessary or needed.
It is likely that if you are reading this book, you are both a Christian and a leader. Without question, these are complex times for you. Your sense of decency has been besieged by an array of antagonists: indifferent and entitled workers, a generation that dismisses behavioral absolutes, courts and governments that treat religion hostilely and business as an enemy. In the event that some preoccupation has shielded you from observing society’s free fall into moral bankruptcy, please take note—as society goes, so go institutions, both for-profit and nonprofit. For starters, consider these eight grim evidences of accelerated cultural decline. Then contemplate the six consequences these corrupt trends will create within your organization.
1. Our national character and reputation are being reduced to the ridiculous. With mendacious media representatives as their wingmen, radical factions in education and government are revising history. They aspire to convince you that our Founding Fathers were godless bumpkins and narcissists, whose original intent was to protect the right to terminate pregnancies, make porn more accessible and prayer less visible, and to reshape marriage to legitimize a behavior God has called abominable. To fully appreciate this particular affront, it helps to understand that the definition of an abomination is “abhorrent, disgusting, loathsome, vicious, and vile.” Weighing this assault on decency, the words of sixteenth-century theologian John Calvin describe today’s age in terms that are hauntingly precise:
For it is the summit of all evils, when the sinner is so void of shame, that he is pleased with his own vices, and will not bear them to be reproved, and also cherishes them in others by his consent and approbation. . . . For he who is ashamed is yet healable; but when such impudence is contracted through a sinful habit, that vices, and not virtues, please us, and are approved, there is no more hope of reformation. In Romans, Paul sought to condemn something more grievous and more wicked than the very doing of vices: and that is the casting away of all shame and undertaking the patronage of vices in opposition to the righteousness of God. [Calvin 2005, 19:83]
2. “One nation under God” has become farcical, as activist judges give atheists and agnostics veto power over those who believe in God and support their quest to scrub all evidence of religion from the public square.
3. The escalation of secularism has subordinated God’s law to human whims. As a result, moral boundaries have shrunk to the point where the unthinkable has become “normal.” Behaviors once publicly decried are now portrayed as acceptable, and those who speak out against them are labeled as bigots.
4. Moral failures among celebrities in sports, business, politics, religion, and even within ordinary families have lost their power to shock us. In fact, it can be argued that one of the greatest tragedies of our time is that we have lost our sense of shame.
5. Hollywood has accelerated its onslaught against God, country, and family values. Television and motion pictures deride Christians, parodying and pillorying them as stiff, fanatical, joyless, peculiar, and unthinking. Conversely, criminals, deviants, atheists, and addicts are represented as cool, witty, intelligent, victimized, free-spirited, and enlightened.
6. To exacerbate the moral confusion, high-profile God mockers and false teachers run rampant among the ranks of best-selling authors, acclaimed comics, entertainment celebrities, church leaders, and business tycoons. For instance:
- A high-profile media mogul claims that Christianity is a “religion for losers” and labeled his employees as “Jesus freaks” for observing Ash Wednesday.
- A pastor disgraces Christianity by leading purveyors of hate in nationwide protests brandishing signs declaring: “God hates homosexuals” and “Thank God for dead soldiers.”
- A mega-best-selling book succeeds at duping millions—including Christians—into thinking that the Law of Attraction can deliver to them what God cannot or will not.
- A well-respected talk show host and professed Christian declares there are many more paths to God than Christianity. This generous patron of pie-in-the-sky spirituality sponsors a yearlong “course in miracles” that promotes the opposite of what the Bible calls truth, leading millions astray and into potential destruction with blasphemies like, “There is no sin,” “My salvation comes from me,” and that “a slain Christ has no meaning.”
This pervasiveness of nefarious New Age nonsense has swayed throngs to embrace hellish notions in order to attain success and personal fulfillment. The apostle Paul’s 2,000-year-old warning seems designed acutely for our age: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons . . .” (1 Tim. 4:1).
7. Political correctness has erased all middle ground. You are either pro-choice or a chauvinist, pro-gay rights or homophobic, in favor of affirmative action or a racist, a left coast kook or a right-wing nut. In fact, guard your tongue, because your opinion can as easily be considered hate speech as free speech. Speaking of speech, it is getting uglier. Politicians, pundits, and even ordinary people who disagree about an issue would rather demonize those on the other side than debate them; they’d rather make the conversation personal than talk about principles.
8. The world’s acceptance of sinful behaviors has infected religious institutions, some of which celebrate and sanction sinful lifestyles from their leaders under the guise of being loving. Through a shameful distortion of Scripture, fringe factions exploit the love Jesus has for sinners as grounds to assert that He accepts their sins. These divisive strays spin God’s Word to appease their carnal appetites, even though church discipline calls for putting out, for the purpose of restoration, those who openly and persistently engage in behavioral turpitude rather than accepting them. Talk about creating confusion, division, and unraveling the moral bounds that have girded civilized culture! When the church itself sanitizes, champions, and validates sin, it surrenders its moral authority as a light unto the world and becomes an enabler to the powers of darkness it was commissioned to oppose.
Like a perfect storm, temporal coalitions in media, education, religion, courts, and government have converged to mock, malign, and mold Scripture to fit and submit to society, rather than using the Bible as a blueprint to shape the culture. By emasculating the Bible to accommodate transgressions, these forces declare that culture has more authority than God’s Word, and since culture is determined by human ideas, humans become superior to God.
Not long ago, this contemporary tide to obscure our national memory of its Christian roots would have been unthinkable. However, the forces conspiring to enfeeble our culture seem unwilling to rest until they have exiled God from sight, expunged Him from speech, and supplanted Him with the “gods of this age.” This unholy alliance includes, but is not limited to, your school board, legislatures, courts, and federal officials who pine to impose the impious values by which you are to live.
How do the preceding eight cultural trends brutalize your ability to lead effectively? Far more than you might imagine, because trends in organizations have historically followed society’s trends. Thus, the ensuing moral collapse of culture impairs your enterprise as follows:
1. Employees are more inclined to emulate the selfish, hedonistic, unethical, and narcissistic behaviors that are ubiquitous and accepted as “normal” in society—and to do so while they are on the job.
2. These behaviors diminish morale, damage your brand, debilitate productivity, and denigrate concern for teammates and customers alike.
3. This in turn increases the likelihood that consumers will develop a greater aversion to dealing with people and buy more online, shopping your prices until your products are commoditized and your margins trivialized.
4. The downward spiral of society’s collective character will entice anyone with marginal morals to accelerate the nobbling of their organizations through new and shameless degrees of self-interest, fueled by avarice that would make Bernie Madoff blush.
5. Employees with vulnerable value systems are tougher to manage. They do not believe in absolutes, fail to take responsibility, believe that anything goes, are primarily concerned with themselves, and contend that accountability is unfair. From this, you can expect increased turnover, an escalation of hiring and training costs, diminished team morale, and lower customer retention.
6. The new rules and policies you will need to install to prevent, police, and punish iniquitous behaviors will consume untold time, energy, and financial resources.
These six consequences reflect but a pittance of the hurt you will endure as collateral damage from today’s regressive value system cascades and infects all aspects of business and society. As governments, courts, educators, and churches bum-rush Scripture and dumb down decency in surrender to tolerance, a population conditioned to thumb its nose at God will sink further into the emptiness of secularism. With pitiable values steeped in hedonism, a surging sector will worship at the altar of selfishness, self-indulgence, and ease, engaging in anything, and falling for everything, because they stand for nothing.
As you endure the deterioration of individual character and degradation of corporate ethics, there are important questions to consider:
- How can you succeed in building and sustaining a character-driven culture in your organization?
- How do you buck the trend toward hypertolerance and “anything goes” that has the potential to create a culture of chaos in every entity in which you play a role (home, work, community, or church)?
- Is it any wonder that leaders who endeavor to make a positive difference in their business, church, community, government, and family become frustrated, frightened, and fraught with stress when facing such formidable foes?
- Where do you turn for straight answers, without the spin and stench of political correctness?
- Which success principles are still absolute and unimpeachable despite the times, circumstances, and the tug of cultural currents, and where can you find them?
I believe you know the answer to the last question, and that is why you have invested in this book. You want it to reaffirm what you intuitively, if not wholeheartedly, assert to be true: God’s Word remains authoritative and relevant, it still brings life, and it is futile to waste time chasing leadership fads, gurus, “secrets,” or flavors of the month that offer shortcuts, substitutes, or alternatives to proven practices rooted in biblical truth.
Perhaps you have even experimented with New Age approaches to spirituality, leadership, or personal development in your own organization and are ready to return to real truth. If so, be heartened by the words of C. S. Lewis: “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man” (Lewis 2001, 28).
The best book ever created on leadership principles, the Bible, was inspired by God, is inerrant in nature, and offers us nothing less than an incomparable slice of God’s own mind! The Bible packs a punch with sufficient power to overcome any prejudiced media, hostile government, cowardly court, atheist’s rant, secular assault, or false teacher’s philosophy. In an age where we are encouraged to judge and discriminate against nothing and to tolerate everything except intolerance, principled men and women should be steadied by the fact that the Bible promotes the intolerance of numerous behaviors, and it is brutally judgmental and discriminatory wherever unholy ethos are concerned. Try John 3:18 and Acts 4:12, for example. Frankly, your character as a leader is largely defined by what you do judge as wrong and discriminate against and by what you will not tolerate.
Despite the Bible’s potential to reshape your business, life, and society, it cannot help you if you do not know, accept, and apply its truths. However, before you can employ the Bible, you must first understand what it says about how to live and lead according to God’s plan. That is where I endeavor to serve as your guide through the chapters of this book. For starters, regardless of your past personal or business behaviors, THE BOOK is rife with promises of grace and redemption: “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32); “For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13); and “. . . neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:11).
My purpose in writing How to Lead by THE BOOK is to equip you to live and lead a more robust life, all while you exponentially elevate organizational results. The principles I present transcend factors like age, education, religion, gender, or political affiliation. While Christians will more readily recognize the New Testament strategies, readers of all faiths will benefit by applying the timeless truths and tenets within these pages.
What is truly exciting is that by using the Bible as your leadership playbook, you have an incredible wealth of wisdom at your disposal. The Protestant Bible is made up of 66 books, 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, and 773,692 words! The strategies I present in How to Lead by THE BOOK will touch on only a token of what the Bible imparts, but they will more than suffice to transform your life and business as you apply them. You may be familiar with many of the proverbs, parables, and principles that I have included. Whether you have applied and are benefiting from their power may be something else altogether. To this end, I will nudge, cajole, and persuade you to act to close the gulf of unfulfilled potential that lies between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
I encourage you to read, How to Lead by THE BOOK cover to cover and then to refer to it often as a desk reference. I address 14 of your toughest business challenges in this book, and I conclude with a short chapter called “Closing Thoughts.” I suggest that you search the Bible for additional insights into each of the topics I present. Because of space constraints, I could not possibly list all that the Bible says about each issue. Thus, keep in mind that what I present is the alpha and not the omega.
I introduce each of the 14 challenges in a stand-alone chapter using the following format:
1. A description of the challenge
2. A presentation of “Man’s Wisdom and Ways” for handling the issue
3. An outline of “THE BOOK’s Wisdom and Ways” for meeting the challenge, including precise biblical references, personal experiences, and real-life examples of the strategy in action
4. Close each challenge with an “Omega” section containing steps and relevant scriptures relating to obedience and follow-through
A common question I encountered during press interviews in the wake of publishing my last book, How to Run Your Business by THE BOOK was, “Is the entire Bible relevant and practical, or are some parts not worth worrying about?” Be assured that the entire Bible is useful, practical, and powerful! As proof, I have included strategies, scriptures, and precepts from a vast array of biblical books. Through years of studying and applying biblical wisdom, I have discovered this simple fact: The verse you do not read cannot help you, and the principle you fail to apply cannot change your life.
The downward spiral of society’s morality and its accompanying consequences that I enumerated at the outset of this preface are frighteningly real and cannot be combated by lip service. Thus, my prayer is that as you read this book, the biblical principles will cause you to experience the same sensation enjoyed by the disciples on the road to Emmaus as Jesus spoke with them about God’s word following His resurrection—and that your mind will be transformed, your leadership reenergized, and your impact multiplied: “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:32).
A final word: Do not make the error of underestimating the potential power of biblical principles to help you immediately! As in John 11:23–24, when Martha affirmed to Jesus that she believed He would raise her dead brother Lazarus “in the resurrection on the last day,” and Jesus called Lazarus forth from the grave at that moment, so, too, will you discover, as she did, that God’s power operates in the present and is not reserved for some future time or age.
