Page 190 - The Bible On Leadership

176 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

LEADING WITH JUSTICE

Will you lead as prescribed in Micah 6:8—‘‘to act justly, to love
mercy’’? Or will your leadership more closely resemble ‘‘you rulers . . .
who despise justice and distort all that is right’’? (Mic. 3:9)
These passages remind me of an incident that took place early in my
career when I was a training manager for a large accounting firm. Our
trainers were drawn from the ranks of the accountants, who were re-
moved from their audits for a week to instruct the firm’s new recruits.
Not all went willingly, but most completed the task loyally and compe-
tently once they arrived at the training facility.
We had a very serious exception on one occasion. The instructor
obviously saw his week-long assignment as a trainer as a ‘‘paid vacation’’
and also as an opportunity to act irresponsibly and unprofessionally—he
was visibly intoxicated when he got up in front of the class on the first
day.
As a training manager, it was my job to ensure that quality instruction
was taking place and that the new recruits were being oriented to the
firm in a positive way. I called the office where the instructor normally
worked and spoke to the administrator there, explaining that the person
they had sent was drunk in front of the class. He immediately asked me
if ‘‘a partner had observed this?’’ I told him that a partner had not been
present. The administrator proceeded to inform me that ‘‘if a partner
didn’t see it, it didn’t happen.’’ He told me that the instructor should
finish out his week of instruction, that they would not speak to him
about his actions, and that they would not send a substitute who could
act more appropriately.
This was definitely not a situation in which justice was served. The
instructor got the message that it’s OK to conduct oneself unprofession-
ally in front of new recruits, and the recruits got the message that there
are different sets of rules for different levels of people.
I refrained from quoting the administrator, which would have totally
confirmed the recruits’ worst stereotypes of large partnerships: the
higher up you go, the more leeway you have in bending and breaking
the rules.