BIBLE STUDY: LESSONS FOR LEADERS

BIBLE STUDY: LESSONS FOR LEADERS

“…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

By Kwame S. Salter

1 Corinthians 13 is often read and quoted at weddings and in sermons. For many, this biblical verse is sappy and preachy. Yet, upon closer examination it provides a powerful lesson for anyone who seeks to build a strong relationship with a person or group. The verse extols the power of love; ranks love above both faith and hope. Hard core business leaders wonder, like Tina Turner in her hit song, so plaintively asked, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” What exactly in this thing called love that a business person can get his or her head around? Typically, love is defined as a “deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.”  OK, got it?

 For those of us in leadership positions, the question that still begs an answer is “what’s love got to do with it?” Well, part of the definition speaks to “a sense of underlying oneness.” It is this part of the definition that is operational in the following discussion. Leaders, to be effective, must create a sense of the team acting in concert—with a sense of underlying oneness. Therefore, in reading my explication of Corinthians 13, insert the phrase “underlying oneness” every time the word love shows up. So, let us get on to the explication of this powerful verse section by section.

  

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Think about the leader who is a smooth, articulate and poised speaker. The words are magic. He/she can explain or justify anything. Walking onstage or at the lectern, their words are mesmerizing, enchanting and, almost, musical. They hit all the right notes, say all the right things, and titillate the senses. For sheer entertainment value they are without peer. Unfortunately, after the sound and fury of their motivational speech dies down, what is left is a sense of emptiness—because their day to day actions are not in line with their pulsating rhetoric. The organization is adrift and leaderless when people need them most. Listening to them is like eating the proverbial Chinese dinner—you are hungry again 30 minutes later. You are hungry for follow through and substantive decision making. You are hungry for a sign or signal that they care about the ‘little people’ who keep the organization going day to day. They are good at building speeches, but not high performance teams.

  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if 

I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

How many times have we been blown away by the super smart leader who is able to explain the complexities we daily grapple with while displaying an unshakable confidence in his/her predictions and strategies? How many times have these geniuses failed because they sought our compliance and not our commitment? Sure, they know what to do, but they failed to realize that how it gets done goes beyond statistical modeling and personal IQ. How it gets done is in the hands of the people who they view as variables in their success equation. In reality, the people are the constants in their equation. And, if you look down on the people because you consider them intellectually inferior, you will fail. In spite of your high IQ and confidence, you will fail.  With apologies to William Arthur Ward who talked about teachers, I would say that: The mediocre leader tells; the good leader explains; the superior leader demonstrates; and, the great leader inspires. Without a committed team, you are nothing.

  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud…it is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Building high performance teams requires patience, respect for each team member and modesty once the task is successfully achieved. Great leaders are approachable, even keeled and fair. These leaders make sure that there is enough credit to go around. They know when things go well that they should sit down and let the team take the bows. And, on the other hand, when things sputter and go awry, the leader must stand up and take the blame. These enlightened leaders don’t need to ‘hog’ the spotlight. Most importantly, these leaders do not keep an indelible list of everything you did wrong. Their objective is to “catch you doing something right” and reward you. They can critique your performance without diminishing you as a person. Uncontrollable temper outbursts are not part of their operating style. They want you to be successful because you will make them successful. Their philosophy can be reduced to three words, “Give, Get or Go.” In other words, give something to the collective effort, get something from your mistakes or go—but go with dignity.

  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth…it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

So much of the complexity that bogs down organizational effectiveness and efficiency is not in our technologies, processes or systems—but rather in us. Too often, the leader sets the wrong tone. Some leaders play individuals against one another, gossip about one employee to another employee or just outright lies about an employee’s competencies or strengths. As such, I would submit that close to 80% of the complexity that slows down a company’s march to meet its strategic objectives, comes from inauthentic relationships between people. We are encouraged to lie about forecasts, deliverables, and key performance indicators to please the bosses. Our turnaround time is often dependent on who is requesting help. Leaders who are not authentic create inauthentic organizations and counterproductive competition between and among employees. In fact, in many organizations work is defined more by so-called personality conflicts, mind games, political posturing and power plays. Leaders sometimes forget that the definition of work is “activity that leads to a result.”  Some of the behavior in today’s organizations mimic the popular and voyeuristic ‘reality shows’ that pockmark today’s television programming.

In summary, if leaders could truly grasp the concepts and teachings in 1 Corinthians 13, the workplace would become more civil and supportive—dare I say, more productive.

Flash Drive Diversity

Flash Drive Diversity

“Fish are the last to be aware of the presence of water”

Several years ago, I was attending a Black History month event sponsored by the Jesse Owens Foundation where Ken Burns, the brilliant and prolific producer of such films as Baseball, Jazz, Prohibition and Civil War was the keynote speaker.  Burns is a small, wiry and intense man with a palpable charm. His speaking style is simple and direct. Nothing he says seems outrageous or contrived. On this night, Burns talked about his documentary on Jazz. He spoke admiringly about Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong or ‘Pops’ as he referred to him. Pops, according to Burns, contrary to popular opinion, was a proud and dignified Black man who demanded respect. Burns recalled that his standard reply to the question, “How’s it going?” was “White man still winning." He shared with the audience many of the unheralded and unknown protests and positions that Armstrong took to advance the cause of Black people in America.

 I was riveted by Mr. Burns’s storytelling and straightforward discussion of the many cultural contributions African Americans have made to this country. And, as Burns put it, recognition of these amazing contributions is celebrated every year in February—"the shortest and coldest month of the year."

While Black History month has lost a lot of its historical and educational value, it has gained in commercial appeal. Fortune 500 companies routinely recognize the month in their print, radio and television advertising. ESPN, the giant and ubiquitous sports network , sprinkles its broadcasts with references and vignettes of  Black sports firsts –from grainy old photographs of men in leather helmets to cloudy black and white film of Jackie Robinson  to faded color video of Hank Aaron. Schools have contests for kids delivering Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and quizzes on Black scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs like Madam CJ Walker and her hair straightening concoction.

Most predictable are the many corporate entities that transform their corridors with black art exhibits and alter the menus in the employee cafeteria to include soul food—usually fried chicken, corn bread, down home macaroni & cheese along with some collard greens and, of course, the obligatory ‘red velvet cake’ for dessert. The corporate headquarters recognizes, at least for 28 or 29 days, that African Americans are an integral part of American society. Everybody is culturally sensitive for a month. Yet, this behavior is dissociative from the reality of how Blacks are actually viewed, treated and valued as part of the day to day business enterprise.

The best description I have every heard of how corporate America handles Black History month came from the brilliant and incisive  Dr. Samuel Betances, a lecturer, consultant and thought leader on diversity in the workplace. Dr. Betances is a bi-racial Puerto Rican who calls it like he sees it. During a Black History month lecture at my company, he told the audience how impressed he was with the pictures and posters that lined the corridors and were arranged on easels in our corporate headquarters--during February.

Betances went on to say that at close of business on the last day of February, the custodial staff would be busy taking the pictures off easels and posters off the wall. The building would quickly return to its normal ambiance. He added that he would be surprised if those pictures and posters were still up on March 1st.

He called the process of sprucing the building up for Black History month floppy disk diversity.  As I stated earlier, Betances shared this observation several years ago. Today, I would call it flash drive diversity.  Betances felt that how a building was artistically decorated or initially appointed represented the hard drive of the culture that built it. 

The dominant culture always defines the ambiance. Portraits of stately and mustached old white men abound. Beautiful oil paintings of dewy-eyed, youthful white girls in pastoral settings with handsome horses gently nibbling on verdant carpet of grass are prominent in conference rooms and on executive floors.  These images constitute the hard drive reality that contradicts the "value diversity" theme that Black History month was supposed to underscore and promote.

Betances felt that until you change the hard drive, all other inclusion celebrations, attempting to value diversity, were cosmetic, at best. It is easy to take a preloaded flash drive and put it into the USB port to do a diversity slideshow. What is challenging is to do an audit of the artwork and portraits that remain on the building’s hard drive—and make the hard drive more diverse. 

Understanding the impact of never seeing images of you is difficult for both people of color and others to see. It is difficult because we have become so used to mentally not seeing ourselves. Images of Jesus Christ are Nordic looking—despite the fact that he was from Africa or, if you will, the Middle East. Our minds play a trick on us, and we see-but really don't see-our  omission from reality. What non-people of color see is normal and logical. What they see looks like them. Yet what they see denies the very existence of others who work alongside, with and for them.

Bad Boss Behaviors

"Black Boss: Nuances and Challenges"

By Kwame S. Salter

Bad Boss Behaviors

 An Excerpt

If you are still not convinced about the importance of Emotional Intelligence(EQ) and want to persist in becoming a bad boss, I have prepared a list of 7 bad boss behaviors that will guarantee you fail as an effective manager/leader. Consider the following to be the  Salter list of 7 Bad Boss Behaviors:

Never admit to being wrong: Always figure out a way to come out of a situation being right. As I once said to a boss of mine, “You’re not always right, but you’re never wrong.”

Stick with One Management Style: Be inflexible. Justify your inflexibility as your being ‘consistent’. Remember, always, that “to a hammer everything looks like a nail.”

Reward Butt Kissing: Encourage fawning and fatuous compliments. Listen only to those people who feed your ego. As Billy Crystal said during his SNL stint, “It is better to look good than to be good—and you look marvelous”

Throw ‘em under the Bus: When things go wrong, and they will, always have a scapegoat handy. Someone you will offer up to appease the ‘powers that be’ in the organization. “Feed the alligator in the hope it eats you last.”

Stick to your Guns: Ignore feedback and/or input. You should make every important decision for fear of having to share the credit. Establish, early on, with your staff that their role is to rubber stamp not review your decisions.Take pride in the fact that you made the decision, even if you make a bad decision, “You have the right to decide which mountaintop to die on.”

Make Snap or No decisions: Do not take time to understand the situation or the consequences of your decision. Show ‘em you are the keeper of all insights in the universe. Or, on the other hand, just let the situation fester and linger. Make no decision. This will surely frustrate, confuse and demoralize your staff—but, nonetheless, show you are in control. Expect that your staff might confide in others that, “S/he will not make a decision and will not let me make one either.”

Clone Yourself:  Build “high walls and a narrow gate” to keep out anyone who looks, acts, and—God forbid—thinks differently. Insist on looking for and hiring people like you—who share your world view, style and sensibilities. This way of hiring insures fewer hassles and debates—and, probably less creativity.

Hopefully, you realize I am not asking you to adopt these bad boss behaviors. This list of behaviors should be viewed as flashing yellow lights urging you to tap the brakes and do some serious reflection. And, if you are guilty of any or all of these behaviors just remember that many good bosses learned from bad bosses—what not to do.

Take Away: “No one is completely useless; they can always serve as a bad example.”

--Anon

A DAY OF REFLECTION

“There will always be good men doing good things. And, there will always be evil men doing evil things. But, to get a good man to do an evil thing—for that you need religion”

--John Milton, Author of Paradise Lost

September 11, 2001 arrived with such premeditated violence and seismic force that it forever replaced December 7, 1941 as “the date that will live in infamy” for Americans. For us, to some extent, it must have been what the Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki felt on the day the dreaded atomic bomb fell on their cities. However, for us, 9/11 was a surprise—a vile and pernicious ‘sucker punch’. The difference between 9/11 and the dropping of the atomic bomb, obviously, was that in a ‘world at war’, death, destruction and carnage, unfortunately, become daily and expected events.

Yet, the scale of death, destruction and carnage the Japanese witnessed and experienced was unparallel—even in war. Like Edwin Starr, in his seminal R&B hit of the ‘70s asked, I constantly ask myself—“War! What is it good for?” How do we, as a species--the majority of us avowed God fearing and worshiping people--find ourselves acting like cavemen with lethal rocks?  As Gandhi observed, if we follow the principle of “an eye for an eye …it would make the whole world blind”. Alas, while our brains are pondering quantum physics in the limitless universe, our knuckles are still dragging the ground. And, we keep shuffling menacingly towards each other, while ducking and dodging the weapons of both individual and mass destruction that we claim will insure our safety and security. What’s our problem? As Joan Rivers would say, “Can we talk?” Let’s give it a try.

Immediately, I want to say that the purpose of this little treatise is not to make a blanket case against war—even though, there a very few instances where I think it is justified. My real purpose is to engage in the act of reflection. The best definition of Reflection, being the “process of one observing oneself”, comes from Peter Vail in his book, Managing as a Performing Art. So, let me begin reflecting. My first epiphany is that I think the majority of humans believe in a higher power—God, Allah, Jehovah, Vishnu, if you will. And, if that’s the case, why are we so locked into “heated agreement”? Why do we insist that others wear what we wear, say what we say, act like we do in their worship rituals? Why do we commit acts of inhumanity towards each other in the name of our God? Why do we commit evil acts in the name of The Most High? Has the devil infiltrated our holy ranks? Is this hatred we hurl at each other the way we are suppose to live? And, why does live spelled backwards spell evil? Should we focus more on living to love rather loving to live? I don’t know….I’m just saying—you know?

What I do know is that we should not make 9/11 a national Day of Hysteria. Nor should we turn it into a national Day of Hatred. What we should be doing is reflecting and reconciling with each other so that no future “Date in Infamy” comes about to dwarf and replace 9/11. On this day, let us all, on Earth, atone for the myriad of sins committed under hypnotic nationalistic and religious trances. Let us insure that ‘freedom of religion’ is practiced and revered in whatever manner a group chooses to worship God.

We’ve seen the awful destructive power of hate. We long to see the awesome constructive power of Love. Let’s make 9/11 the head corner stone of a universal covenant to advance humankind from the Stone Age to an enlightened Space Age. Let’s agree to grow up as a species.