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Leadership Principles in the Bible: Purpose, Kindness and Compassion

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Purpose
Therefore we do not lose heart.2 Corinthians 4:16
I may finish the race and complete the task. – Acts 20:22

All of us need a purpose
• Work without purpose can become mindless, heartless drudgery.
• The great purpose of Moses was to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery and into the Promised Land.
• Had to work to keep them “on purpose.”

David was able to consolidate the power of Israel and strengthen it.
• He was a great builder of culture for the new nation.
• Solomon built on that sense of purpose and built the Temple in seven years (which took process and purpose).

Steve Jobs threw down the gauntlet of purpose to John Sculley when he convinced him to leave Pepsi to join a small company with few resources.
Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?

My goal is that when people look at us . . . not as a corporation but as a group of people working intimately within a covenantal relationship, they’ll say ‘These folks are a gift to the spirit.”Max De Pree, Herman Miller Furniture

We need a radical transformation in how business firms are led and also how future business leaders are taught . . . Executives who ignore their responsibility to lead and develop the business firm as a moral community do so at their peril. – William Pollard, ServiceMaster

Kindness and Compassion
Did I not cry for those in trouble?Job 29:16
O King, be kind to the oppressed.Daniel 4:27

Jesus taught the Golden Rule.
• Paul said we should “clothe yourselves with compassion and kindness.”Colossians 3:12
• He also said: “Be kind to one another.”Ephesians 4:32

USAA – auto and home insurer:
1. Treat each and every person the way  you would like to be treated.
2. Treat each and every employee the  way USAA expects you to treat the  customer.

It’s more like biblical values. Do unto others as you would have them do to you . . . Just because the idea that the good you do comes back to you is written in the Bible and not in some business textbook doesn’t make it any less valid.Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream

I know it sounds simple, but I keep saying, follow the golden rule of service. Serve others as you would like to be
served. Good advice for an industry where people are referred to as “seats.”Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

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