Page 170 - The Bible On Leadership

156 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

Paul’s letter to his young ‘‘mentee,’’ Timothy, he exhorts him to have
courage in his mission: ‘‘For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but
a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. (2 Tim. 1:7)
Timothy was young and inexperienced, but no doubt his emerging
sense of courage was buttressed by Paul’s confident message: ‘‘If you’re
on my team, you are by definition a person of courage.’’ The people
on Lou Gerstner’s senior team at IBM are more seasoned than Timothy,
but the very fact that they’re on the team is also an affirmation of their
courageous qualities. ‘‘If you’re on Lou’s team, you’re a forceful person.
The wallflowers don’t do very well here,’’ notes a senior vice president
2
of IBM’s software group. On both Paul’s and Lou’s teams, the courage
to speak out and act is a requirement.
Another leader to whom the ‘‘spirit of timidity’’ is foreign is Herb
Kelleher of Southwest Airlines (no doubt Herb’s successor will be
equally courageous and audacious). Kelleher has stated, ‘‘You have to
be willing to take risks for your people. If you won’t fight for your
people, then you can count on your people not fighting for you.’’ 3
How has Kelleher ‘‘fought for his people’’? First of all, in the ‘‘up-and-
down’’ airline industry, he has never had a layoff.
And then there’s his ‘‘legal courage.’’ Southwest had lost the first
round of a court battle, spending over $500,000 only to have the courts
rule that Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio already had adequate air
service and there was no need for another carrier such as Southwest.
They lost the appeal as well. Kelleher continued to represent the com-
pany in court and paid every cent of the court costs out of his own
pocket. Says Colleen Barrett, Kelleher’s ‘‘second in command,’’ ‘‘The
warrior mentality, the very fight to survive is truly what created our
culture.’’
Paul showed great courage in the Book of Acts. He was striving to
build Christianity as a religion in a hostile and uncertain environment.
He knew he had a task to complete, and he knew his next stop was to
be Jerusalem, but that’s really all he knew for certain: ‘‘And now, com-
pelled by the holy spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what
will happen to me there . . . I only know that in every city . . . hardships
are facing me.’’ (Acts 20:22–23)