July 30; Taking A Firm Stand To Move Hearts
MANAGEMENT BY THE BOOK:
365 Daily Bible Verse &
One-Minute Management Lessons For The Busy Faithful

Chapter Seven: Power; 30 July

He considers it who weighs the hearts…

Proverbs 24:12a

Cardiac Attack

The Emperor gave the gladiator a ‘thumbs up.’ The gladiator looked down at his defeated opponent and stabbed him through the heart.

The thumb direction in Ancient Rome indicated the direction of the point of the sword. Thumbs down directed the combatant to drop his weapon and spare killing his vanquished foe.

Because it is nearly impossible to drive an edged weapon through the ribcage, the swordsmen of old knew that the easiest method to kill was to direct the blade under the ribs and upward into the soft abdomen to the heart.

To do this, the gladiators needed firm footing to thrust and parry. The arena, the floor in the Roman Coliseum was covered in sand. The origin of word ‘sand’ is from the Latin arena meaning an area sanded for combat. The sand also sopped up the blood.

The heart counts. In combat-as-entertainment. In emotion. Even in business.

Leading, we know, is defined as, “the management function that involves the manger’s efforts to stimulate high performance by employees.” So how does a head-driven, numbers-driven manager get to the heart?

The first step is the condition of the manager’s own heart: Do I care? Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (1772-1834), author of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, tells us, “What comes from the heart, goes to the heart.”

Then the manager asks, “Do I care about the team?”

“Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folklore and tradition, and cooperation for force,” noted Peter Drucker.

Implementing Drucker’s ‘cooperation’ is simple. Donald Rumsfeld, who had experience in Navy jets, says, “If you expect people to be in on the landing, include them in the take off.” Rumsfeld, now retired, is the former Secretary of Defense and President and CEO of G. D. Searle & Company. He also writes,

Pat Moynihan said that stubborn opposition to proposals often has no basis other than the complaining question, “Why wasn’t I consulted?”

Even politicians (!) tell us it is heartless and inconsiderate to not care for the feelings of others.

The winner has a heart. The root of the word courage is the Latin word for heart. The manager bravely affects the hearts around her. And can make for a Happy Ending.

Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, further explains the courageous, courteous heart for women in management,

Just being nice is not a winning strategy. Nice sends a message that the woman is willing to sacrifice pay to be liked by others. This is why a woman needs to combine niceness with insistence, a style that Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan, calls “relentlessly pleasant.”

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Fine, granular sand is a little thing that helps secure footing and victory. A small trace; like the small actions that add up to winning hearts in the management arena.

Henry Kissinger explains management as the, “subtle accumulation of nuances, a hundred things done a little better.”

Planting your feet firmly can move hearts.

He considers it who weighs the hearts… Proverbs 24:12a

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