Page 129 - The Bible On Leadership

Performance Management 115

Jerusalem, he warned him, ‘‘don’t be discouraged by the size of the
task.’’ (1 Chron. 28:20) Solomon knew that he was an inexperienced
young man and would probably make some mistakes as he proceeded.
His father’s wise words included the implicit encouragement to be un-
fazed by errors.
In an undertaking the size of Solomon’s temple, errors are inevitable.
After all, he had 70,000 carriers, 80,000 stonecutters and 3,600 foremen.
He ‘‘overlaid the ceiling beams, doorframes, walls and doors of the tem-
ple with gold’’ and the inside of the Most Holy Place with ‘‘talents of
fine gold. The gold nails weighed fifty shekels ...he made a pair of
sculpted cherubim and overlaid them with gold. The total wingspan of
the cherubim was twenty cubits.’’ (2 Chron. 3) What do you think
would have been the effect on this project and the team that completed
it if Solomon had been preoccupied with errors and ‘‘waste’’ instead of
the success of the overall mission?
In the early days of W. L. Gore and Associates, when Gore-Tex was
still on the drawing board (and the company had scarce funds for ‘‘ex-
perimentation’’), a group of engineers wasted $1,000 worth of material.
‘‘We were just standing there with long faces,’’ mourns one of the engi-
neers, ‘‘and Bill Gore walks up and says, ‘What’s wrong, guys?’ and we
said, ‘Well, we just put $1,000 of scrap on the floor.’ And he said, ‘Try
it again tomorrow. I know you can do it . . . And he walked away.’ ’’ 7
Bill Gore had the foresight to know that some day $1,000 would
seem like a small expense in the overall life of his company. He also
knew the power of motivation and demotivation. Confronted with
$1,000 of wasted material, he could just as easily have screamed, ‘‘Don’t
you know we’re working with scarce resources here? We’ll never suc-
ceed at this rate!’’ He could have applied negative consequences. But
instead, like Solomon and the building of the temple, he kept his eye
on the long-term goal, the development of Gore-Tex, and encouraged
continued progress toward its achievement.

ENCOURAGEMENT

The critical second stage of performance management is encourage-
ment. Many a lofty project has been launched with great enthusiasm,