The Heart of an Executive: Lessons on Leadership from the Life of King David - Hardcover

Phillips, Richard D.

 
9780385492324: The Heart of an Executive: Lessons on Leadership from the Life of King David
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0385492324 ISBN 13: 9780385492324
Verlag: Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1999

Inhaltsangabe

Examines the life, trials, failures, and successes of Israel's King David and argues that the leadership qualities that enabled him to be the successful executive he was are still valid today

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Richard D. Phillips holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business and a M.Div. from Westminster Theological Seminary, where he studied the Bible and its languages. He served in the United States Army for thirteen years as a combat officer, was assistant professor of leadership and organizational studies at West Point, and is a management consultant and frequent seminar speaker on the topic of leadership and organization. He currently resides in Philadelphia, where he is chief executive officer of The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, a nonprofit radio and publishing organization.

Aus dem Klappentext

art of an Executive</b> chronicles the career of David, one of the best-known figures in the Bible, from his humble origins as a shepherd boy to his slaying of the giant Goliath, to his triumphant crowning success as king of Israel.<br><br>David's story is that of a career executive, and in it Richard D. Phillips sees reflected the trials and triumphs that mark our own lives in today's business world. Like any other executive, David's career came in recognizable stages: preparation, rise, achievement, and finally, the passing of the torch.<br><br>While following his career, the reader witnesses the fashioning of a leader, as David's heart is shaped by his faith in God, his love for his people, and his passion for real and lasting achievement. Through many trials and failures, David emerged as a leader who inspired others to achieve the impossible. Despite his own flaws and the venomous opposition of many, David remained true to God and his people, and through this one man an entire nati

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The Shepherd

David's career started out early and lonely, not on summits of power and achievement, but in lowly fields of service, in a time of preparation for later fulfillment. Like so many others, David practiced on a microscale the skills with which he would later write large. But most importantly, David's early life shaped the principles that would guide him on the extraordinary journey that lay ahead, the like of which no novelist would dare to invent.

As is so often the case among the truly great, David's origins were humble. He was a shepherd, a most demanding calling then and now, one that yields rewards only after the expenditure of much effort and skill. It was in these fields, in the pastures amid the flocks of his father Jesse, that David received his first lessons in the art of leading and in the disciplines of the executive.

Being a shepherd is exhausting. For one thing, the shepherd leads the flocks out into lands filled with danger: predators, hostile weather, starvation, and disease. For another, sheep are just about the most inept followers imaginable. Besides being plain stupid, they are easily panicked and annoyed and debilitated. Unable to defend themselves against wolves, they also need protecting from themselves; sheep are notorious for wandering off good pastures or away from sources of water, for destroying what good grass is available, and for placing themselves in one irretrievable situation after another.

As a result, David's experiences as a shepherd were many and varied. A shepherd has to think. He has to watch and plan and anticipate, making rapid decisions and taking quick and determined action, all valuable skills for the executive-in-training. The shepherd defends the flock from predators, and this requires anticipation and watchfulness. He guides the sheep on their way, directing them to green pastures and fresh waters. He watches closely for strife and conflicts that lead to disorder and confusion within the flock. The shepherd prepares fields in advance of the flock and calculates likely pitfalls and dangers. When they are rooted in one place too long he prods them forward; when they rush off heedlessly, the shepherd gathers them in.

Yet it was not mainly the skills that the boy David honed in those fields that so marked him for later glory. It was not the shaping of his hands, but the shaping of his heart. How true this is for us all. For while skills are essential, what sets apart the true leader is the heart. The aspirations. The dreams. The definition of success and the passion that drives him forward. David gained plenty of experience in those early years, but it was in his reflections upon that experience that his heart was molded and he was set apart from the crowd.

Reflection and meditation are things we seldom do today. In our early years of preparation, we are often too focused on making contacts and winning sterling evaluations, not realizing that the real task of these early challenges is to set first principles into place. How few reflect on the implications and lessons taught in the events of the working day and week and year. How few challenge their own decisions and draw conclusions, establishing parameters to guide future encounters. Diaries and journals are a thing of the past; quiet reflection, it seems, has been pushed aside by recreation and networking. And so experience leads just as easily to mindless patterns as it does to wisdom and understanding.

Perhaps it was because David had nowhere else to go in the few moments of relaxation that his busy to-do list afforded, but it is clear that he did indeed reflect. In fact, David's thoughts soared while his feet trod the Judean hills and his shoulders rested on the shepherd's crook. Furthermore, his reflections are not lost, for David took most careful notes that have come down to us. We know them as the psalms of the Old Testament, which are not only a record of David's emotional and spiritual journey but also finely crafted works of poetic art. They were set to music and sung by generations of his people, though their tunes are long lost to us now. No doubt David's voice filled the silence of evenings with poetic music, songs profound and penetrating and inspiring. And in those psalms we see his heart laid bare.

Undoubtedly, David's best-known psalm is his Twenty-third, one of the most well-loved pieces of literature ever penned. Though the time of its writing is unknown to us, there is little question that its origin comes from the hills where Jesse's flock roamed and David stood beneath vast skies. Psalm 23 opens a wide door into David's heart. It offers a penetrating glimpse into his life of faith, but is also a catalog of what he learned guiding those sheep and a record of his critical thinking on the task of leadership. Here we see David the follower of God, the lamb delighting in the care of his Heavenly Shepherd. Echoed in David's delight in the Lord's care over him is his own reflection on the task of the shepherd-leader.


The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23


There are few more comforting images than "the Lord is my shepherd." It evokes a feeling of security, and reassures us that God is interested and involved and in control of our lives. No human, of course, can fill God's shoes, but captured in these stanzas is David's conception of those blessings true leadership offers. The shepherd lives among the sheep. He identifies with them in his heart and takes note of them on his weekly planner. The shepherd shares the hardships the sheep must face, the risks and the dangers as well. Indeed, the shepherd stands among the sheep both figuratively and literally, leading through personal presence and intimate acquaintance.

Hidden in the words "The Lord is my shepherd" is a concept that has radical implications regarding our understanding of leadership and the heart of the shepherd-executive. In the mind of the shepherd, the goal of his leadership, the result of all his planning and effort, that outcome for which he is responsible, is the followers themselves. Not a cluttered list of stakeholders--though like any other executive, the shepherd has many. Not a sophisticated index of ratios. It is the sheep that are his preoccupation, his burden, and his joy. This is the thought that made David delight in the leadership of his God, and it is evident that this was his understanding of his own role as shepherd.

To put this in slightly different terms, how did David conceive of the organization over which he served? For years, American corporations have been conceived of primarily as financial entities. Profit and loss, cash flow, debt-to-equity ratios, and stock price do not merely describe the organization; these are what the organization is. This view of the company is dominant today (and we wonder why so few are inspired by our leadership!). More recently, much productive thinking in the realm of quality management presented the corporation primarily as a collection of systems.  Different processes, all interconnected, define what the organization is.

But for David, the organization was defined by flesh and blood relationships. What we will find all through his career is that he conceived of every...

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Verlag
Bantam Doubleday Dell
Erscheinungsdatum
1999
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0385492324
ISBN 13 
9780385492324
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
271
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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