Page 87 - The Bible On Leadership

74 THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP

a less humble man to ‘‘Lord it over’’ Cornelius and pose as a ‘‘great
man’’ or representative of God himself. Peter’s response was one of total
humility: ‘‘But Peter made him get up. ‘Stand up,’ he said. I am only a
man myself.’’(Acts 10:25–26)
A modern-day example of humility is Larry Bossidy, former CEO of
Allied Signal, who is well aware of the negative potential of CEO-
glorification, our modern-day version of idol worship. ‘‘Being the CEO
used to mean you knew everything,’’ he notes. ‘‘But these are humbling
jobs. And the more you search, the more you recognize every reason
you have to be humble, because there’s an awful lot more to do all the
time.’’ 5
I used to work for a consulting firm whose leader possessed a lot of
‘‘charisma.’’ To the more cynical staff, that sometimes meant that we
did all the work, while he got all the glory, such as appearances on
network television, lucrative book contracts, and frequently being in-
terviewed and quoted by the national press. The chairman was not gen-
erally known for his humility or his tendency to give credit to the
troops.
That’s why his presentation at one of our annual meetings had such
impact. This was in the early days of PowerPoint. The chairman gave a
rousing speech in which he outlined tremendous revenue and service
goals for the firm. ‘‘And you know who is going to achieve this, don’t
you?’’ he asked the assembled staff. Immediately, the now-famous
‘‘PowerPoint finger’’ pointed out at us from the giant screen. There
were a few muffled groans. Once again, we were going to do all the
work and the chairman was going to get all the glory.
But then the chairman added, ‘‘Oh, I forgot who else was going to
achieve these goals.’’ The ‘‘finger’’ turned to point directly at him.
Laughter convulsed the audience. Perhaps it was only a symbolic state-
ment, but our fearless leader was saying that he was ready to confront
what some of us considered to be his worst fear: getting down into the
trenches with the humble troops and sweating the small stuff with us,
not just reaping the glory, fame, and big rewards. Although none of us
at the time said this was reminiscent of King David going into the battle