Page 148 - The Bible On Leadership

134 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

A modern leader who has likened the building of a team to the build-
ing of a wall is Akio Morita, CEO of Sony. Morita observed that the
people of a company are like varying stones rather than standardized
‘‘bricks,’’ a fact that should be celebrated, not bemoaned: ‘‘The manager
takes a look at these rough stones, and he has to build a wall by combin-
ing them in the best possible way, just as a master mason builds a stone
wall. The stones are sometimes round, sometimes square, long, large or
small, but somehow the management must figure out how to put them
together. . . . As the business changes, it becomes necessary to refit the
stones in different places.’’
When Moses led the Hebrews through the desert, there was a con-
siderable amount of individual sacrifice in the service of the overall team
goal of reaching the Promised Land. Morita’s and Sony’s success have
been largely built on the subordination of individual goals to team goals:
‘‘The problem with the person who is accustomed to working for the
sake of money is that he often forgets that he is expected to work for
the group entity, and this self-centered attitude . . . to the exclusion of
the goals of his coworkers is not healthy.’’ 9
Everyone on a team has a separate and important function. Jesus
picked his apostles based on their differing skills and backgrounds (some
were fishermen, one was a tax collector!). Romans 12 speaks of people
with ‘‘different gifts . . . prophesying . . . serving . . . teaching . . .
encouraging . . . leadership.’’ Ephesians 4:11 says, ‘‘It was he (Christ)
who gave some to be apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists . . . pastors
and teachers . . .’’ Everyone on the team possessed ‘‘different kinds of
gifts and service, but the same spirit.’’ The overriding biblical message?
No matter how seemingly humble, no part of the team is any less valu-
able than any other.
A similar message was delivered by Gordon Bethune in his efforts to
revitalize an ailing Continental Airlines. Rather than use the body or a
stone wall, Bethune used a watch as his model. In a meeting, he was
challenged by an employee who asked why reservations agents should
receive the bonus for on-time performance, since they did not affect
the airline’s punctuality. Bethune collected watches, and realized that,
like the human body, they were ‘‘miracles of cooperation . . . hundreds