God herds cats
Israel Gaither, Salvation Army National Commander 2006-10 on a sense of mission
✓ Begin the day with worship. Make commitments and live them. Don’t exist for yourself, exist to give yourself away.
✓ Ask God to protect you, your mind, your thinking, your behavior.
✓ Nobody's perfect. Remind yourself of that and watch for your flaws, not the weaknesses of others.
“I’m not here to judge. I believe that the way to the best leadership is modeling Jesus.”
✓ God uses the gifts and efforts of business. People like Joan Kroc, Bill Gates and others are part of the capitalistic nature of America and are giving. Fight the slide into materialism and secularism. Return to root, spiritual values. Salute and humbly thank those doing their part.
✓ Are you at the right company? The question to ask is: Do I believe in the value and integrity of the product or service?
“Ask: Is this mission worthy? Test new ideas against the mission purpose.”
✓ There's always a tug on leaders. Everyone needs a piece of you. Everyone wants your company to be something different. Be courageous enough to say “that's really not what we do.”
✓ No job is more insignificant than others. The person who cleans the bathrooms is keeping it attractive so others will feel comfortable.
✓ When a worker’s not performing, go alongside, pick up, teach and engage. But those who don’t keep up with the standards, practices and policies, they shouldn’t be in that job. Fire them compassionately, with a firm understanding of what's expected.
Did you know?
• Gaither is known for his singing voice.
• He was the Salvation Army's first African-American national commander. Married to Eva Gaither, a fifth- generation Salvationist. First racially integrated marriage of U.S. Salvation Army officers
• Peter Drucker called the Salvation Army the most effective organization, coordinating 3,700 officers, 113,000 soldiers, 423,000 members, 61,000 employees and 3.5 million volunteers.
Israel Gaither is among 64 leaders included in Advice from the Top: 1001 Bits of Business Wisdom edited by Del Jones. The book focuses on the leadership advice of major CEO's such as Fred Smith of FedEx, but also gets advice from athletes, coaches, entertainers and artists.
Jones also wrote the historical novel The Cremation of Sam McGee based on the poetry of Robert W. Service. The novel is set in the 1898 heyday of yellow journalism and travels from Plumtree to New York to Cuba to San Francisco to Seattle and the Yukon. The narrator is a fabricating newspaper reporter working for William Randolph Hearst during the Spanish-American War and Klondike Gold Rush.
Comments