Page 33 - The Bible On Leadership

20 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

pregnable religious boundaries. Gary Heavin is the founder of Curves
for Women, an international franchisor of health clubs for women.
Heavin, a conservative Christian, has based his company largely on New
Testament principles. But ironically, he has attracted Chasidic Jews as
franchisees. Why? ‘‘They tell me, ‘We appreciate your value system and
your integrity. We wouldn’t trust someone without a value system.’ ’’ 19
Dennis Bakke and Roger Sant, leaders of AES, a giant electric utility,
also feel that the special ‘‘buy-in’’ they get from their employees is based
on their value system: ‘‘Our main goal . . . was to build a company
that embodied the four principles that we felt mattered in any kind of
community, be it a business, church, village or whatever: fairness, integ-
20
rity, social responsibility, and fun.’’ (Who said an ethical company has
to be boring?)

WHO’S WATCHING,ANYWAY?

In an old folk tale, a farmer tells his hired man to take a chicken and kill
it ‘‘where no one can see.’’ The hired man returns in a few hours with
a live chicken. ‘‘Why didn’t you kill it?’’ asks the farmer. ‘‘Everywhere
I go, the chicken sees,’’ answers the hired man.
Behind this humorous story is a subtle message: Someone is always
watching, even if it is only the victim, the perpetrator, or the perpetra-
tor’s conscience. King David’s forces were aligned against the forces of
his own son, Absalom, who was trying to take over his father’s throne
a few years before the father was ready to hand it over. (Sounds like a
typical family business.) David commanded his troops, ‘‘Be gentle with
the young man Absalom for my sake.’’ (2 Sam. 5:5) Absalom, riding his
mule, got his hair caught in a tree and was hanging by it when a com-
mon foot soldier from David’s side came upon him, but did not harm
him. He reported this to his commander, Joab:

Joab said to the man, ‘‘What? You saw him? Why didn’t you strike
him to the ground right there? Then I would have had to give you ten
shekels of silver and a warrior’s belt.’’ But the man replied, ‘‘Even if a