May 1; What’s the worst mistake a manager can make?;
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Five: Hiring; 1 May

But the servant says to himself,

‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’

and he then begins to beat the other servants,

both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk.

Luke 12:45

Bad Hire

He was a world-renowned expert in his field and was recruited as a new member on the board of directors. He began to beat the company employees.

No. Not physically (that would have been less painful…).

With out the CEO knowing, he reached around from his board perch and began to give directions to the staff.

That board member was a bad hire.

The new director was a subject-matter genius who began to email his bright ideas to the staff directly without authority and without consulting the management team or other board members. The immediate result was confusion, wasted resources, mis-direction and weeks of painful bloodletting. A simple flogging would have been less messy. The cleanup took weeks.

The new guy had a Ph.D. but he didn’t know how to run any thing.

He was an A team intellect and a C team leader. The B team members on the board ram-rodded him into company strategic leadership. The board had installed a loose cannon. The board member is not necessarily evil, he felt he could roll over or ignore the organization’s management.

The servant noted in Christ’s parable in Luke, chapter 12, is a steward appointed by the owner to oversee a household. Jesus is using the incompetent manager as a counter example to the faithful and wise manager described in an earlier verse.

The CEO looks to his board of directors or his advisors to help the organization in three broad areas,

Contacts

Consulting, and

Access to Capital.

Contacts is the Rolodex™ that every seasoned leader has. He’s “got people.” He may not know all the answers, but he’s got a guy who does. The fat list of contacts is the start.

Consulting is the advice that adds value to the strategic direction of the company. The ‘A team’ board members has friends; contacts, “the who” and also “the how” to get things done. However, this is not directing day-to-day operations.

Getting work done will also involve getting access to funding. A for-profit company is less of a credit risk with experienced leadership. A non-profit board member should back the not-for-profit cause he supports. And not just with ‘in-kind’ time and talent but with his treasure. A non-profit board member should be donating to the organization.

The board members should have little interaction with the individual contributors, even if the CEO or company president is not up to the job. Even if a new president ‘is taking a long time in coming along’ in a management skills absence, board members do not beat the staff.

But the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. Luke 12:45.

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