Page 80 - The Bible On Leadership

Kindness and Compassion 67

delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as
well.’’ (1 Thess. 2:7–9)
‘‘Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience . . . And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them
all together in perfect unity.’’ (Col. 3:12–14)
‘‘If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal . . . If I have the gift of
prophesy and can fathom all mysteries . . . and if I have a faith that can
move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my posses-
sions to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love,
I gain nothing.’’ (1 Cor. 13:1–3)

These are noble, transcendent sentiments that certainly belong in a
holy book or place of worship. But does love really belong in the hard-
nosed, self-interested, money-changing world of business? Or have we
all become Pharisees again? Let’s ask some of today’s most successful
managers and executives.
Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines is perhaps the most evangelistic
CEO in the cause of love. He states bluntly, ‘‘We’d rather have a com-
pany run by love, not by fear,’’ paraphrasing, either consciously or un-
consciously, 1 John 4:18: ‘‘Perfect love drives out fear.’’ The airline flies
out of Dallas’ Love Field, its stock exchange symbol is ‘‘Luv,’’ the com-
pany paper is called Luv Line, and its twentieth anniversary slogan was
‘‘Twenty Years of Loving You.’’
Empty rhetoric? Merely the hollow sounds of a resounding gong and
a clanging cymbal? Ask the employees. Says one, ‘‘Herb loves us. We
love Herb. We love one another. We love the company [sounds like
the airline version of the Woodstock festival, only with a lot more profit
added]. One of the primary beneficiaries of our collective caring is the
passengers.’’ 25
Another example is Gore-Tex, the ‘‘miracle fabric’’ company, which
was founded on love as surely as it was on scientific innovation. Says
the CFO, Shanti Mehta, ‘‘Bill Gore never called me into his office. He
always came to my desk, sat on my desk . . . He was a real wellspring
from which love [there’s that nontechnical word again] flowed