The Way of the Shepherd: Seven Secrets to Managing Productive People by Kevin Leman & William Pentak

Author:Kevin Leman & William Pentak [Leman, Kevin & Pentak, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Economics, Human Resources, Leadership, Personal Growth, Personnel Management, Professional Growth, Requested
ISBN: 9780310543121
Google: C4nvCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2009-05-25T22:00:00+00:00

THE WAY OF THE SHEPHERD

4. Make Your Pasture a Safe Place

Keep your people well informed.

Infuse every position with importance.

Cull chronic instigators from the flock.

Regularly rotate the sheep to fresh pastures.

Reassure the sheep by staying visible.

Don’t give problems time to fester.

CHAPTER 5: The Staff of Direction

My next lesson took place in Dr. Neumann’s office. His secretary had called to notify me of the professor’s busy schedule and to ask if I would mind meeting him there. I told her, “No problem at all.” I didn’t mind being indoors. In Texas the summer starts early, and I was glad our lesson would be indoors for once, where we could enjoy the air conditioning.

I arrived a little early. While waiting for Dr. Neumann to show, I took a moment to poke around his office. It impressed me how clean and tidy everything seemed. It wasn’t piled high with old journals, like many other university offices I had seen. His bookshelves seemed to be stuffed with every imaginable tome ever written on the subject of business and strategy. He must not watch a lot of TV, I caught myself thinking.

Next I scanned the walls, which were richly adorned with parchments, numerous awards, and several certificates of appreciation. Overwhelmed by Dr. Neumann’s achievements, I started talking to myself out loud. “Undergrad at Stanford; MBA from Wharton; and a Ph.D. from Harvard! This guy doesn’t watch any TV.”

Pictures and memorabilia from around the world also dotted the room. “This guy’s been around,” I said. “I don’t even know what half of these knickknacks are.”

“These knickknacks, as you call them,” Neumann said, “are my treasures from around the world.” He shut the door behind him and continued.“Two of them represent one of the reasons I asked you to meet me here. The other reason was because I’m swamped grading end-of-term papers—including yours.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, clearing my throat. “Maybe I should have used a term other than knickknack.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. Then he carefully lifted two sticks off of the wall and placed them on his desk. Walking around to the other side of his desk, Neumann handed me the longer of the two and sat down in his office chair. The stick was a little over five feet long and had a large curve on one end that resembled a question mark.

“Do you know what that is, Ted?”

“Looks like a walking stick,” I replied.

“That is a very old shepherd’s staff,” he said.

“Cool,” I said. “Where did you get it?”

“From England,” he replied. “I spent a summer teaching at Oxford and picked it up over there. The staff you’re holding is more than two hundred years old.”

“Wow,” I exclaimed, “that’s older than our country.”

“That’s nothing,” Neumann replied. “Sheep were actually domesticated as far back as eight thousand years ago. In fact, wool garments were worn in Babylon—the name means ‘land of the wool’—as early as 4000 B.C.”1

“Now, that’s old,” I said.

“The staff and rod,” Neumann said, pointing to the short stick on the table, “were

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