Page 137 - The Bible On Leadership

Performance Management 123

with milk and honey to kill us in the desert? And now you want to lord
it over us? Moreover, you haven’t brought us into a land flowing with
milk and honey or given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.’’
(Num. 16:12–14)
The consequence to these three men was swift, sure, and perhaps a
little too harsh for our modern tastes: ‘‘The ground under them split apart
and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them . . . They went
down alive into the grave with everything they owned; the earth closed
over them and they perished and were gone from the community.’’
(Num. 16:31–33)
This was definitely an example of Theory X management, Old Testa-
ment version. Lou Noto, vice chairman of Exxon Corporation, felt that
his company was also the victim of a culture that punished the slightest
attempt at innovation or risk. Goals were set artificially low because any-
one who didn’t meet a major objective was severely punished: ‘‘If you
couldn’t meet it, it was the end of the world,’’ observed Noto. ‘‘We want
to encourage the right kind of risk. To do that, we have to break this
ironclad rule that says if you don’t succeed, we’re going to put you in
front of a firing squad.’’ 21
Whatever you may feel about the punishment given to Korah, Da-
than, and Abiram, it is good to remember that even the most powerful
human leader is not God. Who are we to duplicate such severe punish-
ment? Today’s modern business leaders have to gauge very carefully
how they react to those who dissent or propose innovations to the
established order. The person who was ‘‘swallowed up’’ or exiled may
be the very person whose ideas could have gotten the organization out
of the morass.
In the Bible, some of the strongest negative consequences are actually
reserved for leaders who abuse their power and who fail to realize the
disastrous effect they have on their followers: ‘‘Weep and wail, you
shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be
slaughtered has come; you will fall and be shattered like fine pottery.’’
(Jer. 25:34)
One leader who probably should have read this passage and taken it
to heart was Horst Schroeder. Schroeder was a German national who