Passing It On: Growing Your Future Leaders (23 page)

•  Protects what you have.

•  Loves you more than your power.

•  Would die for you.

•  Would take a risk for your benefit.

W
HOEVER LOVES YOU
will make sure your work does not die. At the Last Supper, Jesus broke bread and said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He
gave this act to protect and preserve His legacy.

Out of love, Christians through time have continued this ritual act as He asked. “If you all love me, you will do what I say.”
We often do what people say because they command it or because we are afraid. We may fear that someone will fire us. Jesus
said, “If you love me, you will do what I say.” We are to show obedience, submission, and cooperation because of love, not
because of fear.

John 14:15
“If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

You might be thinking, “All that love talk sounds fine for churches or families, Pastor Myles, but I work in a Fortune 500
company. Who can expect to find ‘love’ in this cutthroat corporate world?”

That is exactly why I wrote this book, because all of our organizations today—businesses, churches, governments, and other
types—do not understand and practice sound mentoring programs and succession planning. They have a void that could be filled
by love.

Just because you work in a major corporation does not mean colleagues
should not act out of love for one another. If the CEOs in our corporations loved the workers and they respected one another,
we probably would not see the corruption and destruction we do today in business. We would not read daily about the abuse
of privileges, the destruction of people’s livelihoods, and the corruption of the system. Love is the missing element. In
its place, competition and spite often reign.

We see corporate terrorism with people conspiring to destroy their colleagues. They are willing to sacrifice their morals
and their values on the altar of opportunity to achieve their private ambitions. We need a new corporate and political culture
in our society. The culture that existed in the twentieth century cannot serve the twenty-first century.

Look at where we are today in business, civic life, and other spheres. A few greedy CEOs are to blame for igniting global
economic crisis. It is impossible for greed to exist if love is present. We must restore love to the equation.

“When respect, care, and love are missing from the work environment, it is difficult to plan for effective succession.”

I hope this book can provide motivation and incentive for leaders to revisit the atmosphere that exists in our companies,
in our departments, in our organizations, and even in our churches. Yes, churches have a shortage of love too. In other words,
this love deficiency is not a corporate problem or a political problem. It is a human problem that we need to examine. If
you are a CEO of a company or head of a political party, maybe you need to be the first one to reinject love into the system.
The components that encourage high productivity are love and respect for one another.

Surveys have indicated that the number one complaint employees have about their companies does not concern money. The primary
complaint is lack of respect and caring. In other words, the very thing we do not give our employees is what they want the
most. People want love and respect more than they want monetary compensation.

Productivity is a by-product of love. In our organization in the Bahamas, we have workers who have been with us a very long
time, and we have extremely low turnover. Why? Because our corporate culture is one of love and
respect. We encourage people to work because we love the company, we love the leadership, we love the employees, and we care
for one another. Our focus on love has produced faithful employees.

When respect, care, and love are missing from the work environment, it is difficult to plan for effective succession. Remember
the first mandate of this book: The first act of a leader is to identify his successor and mentor that person. I want to challenge
every senior executive reading this book to stop letting the company’s present needs be your first priority. Let your company’s
future be your first priority. Preserve it by identifying a successor. Review your staff. Look at your executive team. Talk
to the board about this issue because you want to leave the company in good hands.

Today’s CEO might have to review his executive team to determine who has the highest respect for him. We may call it respect
instead of love in that context because the one who respects you the most and who believes in you the most is a good prospect
to mentor for succession. No CEO should abandon his post and recommend that the board endorse a successor who has no respect
for him.

It should not be so difficult to find love in our organizations because chances are that an organization began out of love—love
for a mission, an idea, a product, or a constituency. Every great political party, for instance, began out of love. The problem
is that politics takes over. What really motivated the founding of the ancient nation of Israel? It was not politics. It was
Moses’ love for a people. Think about Nelson Mandela. What really started him on his journey? It was not politics. It was
love for a people. What really ignited the civil rights movement in the United States? It was not politics. It was love for
freedom and love for people.

How does any entrepreneurial project begin? With love. An entrepreneur is someone who loves an idea so much that he or she
is willing to sacrifice financial security for it. Love always gives birth to a new enterprise, but along the way the love
becomes raped by politics and greed.

We have to go back in time. Where is the love in our community? Where is the love that started our organization? Where is
the love that gave birth
to our political party? Where is the love that germinated the power and the ministry of this church? Go back to the love.

Do you remember the greatest complaint Jesus had in the last book of the Bible about the church? “Yet I hold this against
you: You have forsaken your first love” (Rev. 2:4). He did not say return to your power or your building or your equipment.
He said return to your first love. He says in effect, “I know your works. I know your power. I know your faith, but you are
missing the thing that started you.” He called it your “first love.” In context, the Scripture reads:

Revelation 2:2–5
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested
those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for
my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you:
You have forsaken your first love
. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will
come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

He says, “I know your deeds.” In other words, “You are doing a great job as a company. I know your work. I know your perseverance.”
Corporations use these words all the time. He says that I know “you cannot tolerate wicked men.” That means you have integrity.
I know “you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not.” In other words, “You ruled out all of those who are not
committed to the company. You have persevered and have endured hardship.” I hear Jesus saying, “You have made it twenty or
thirty years in the company, but you forgot your
first love
. You forgot what started this company.”

The next verse says, “Remember the height from which you have fallen.” Applying that today, I would say, “Change the way you
think and do the things you did at first. Go back and fall in love with your company.”

Without love, you cannot mentor. You cannot mentor in an environment of cutthroat competition. You cannot mentor in an environment
of antagonism. You cannot mentor in an environment of distrust, hatred, and deception, and yet we need to mentor. Without
mentoring, we are perpetuating
self-destruction, organizational destruction, and national paralysis. We need to go back to our first love so we can restore
the environment of care and respect in our institutions.

We need love to mentor. We need love to be motivated to plan for succession—love for those we leave behind and love for the
generations to come
.

Chances are that our organizations began out of love.

We must restore love to the equation.

R
UNNING HIS HAND
over what was left of his receding, thin silver hair, Jack stood by the window looking outside at the vast cityscape, with
towering business centers shaping the skyline of the metropolis. His mind drifted back and forth between where and when he
had started his company and what it has become today, a multimillion dollar empire employing thousands of workers both at
home and abroad. This is the most important night of his professional and business life. This was the night he would determine
who among his five sons would succeed him. To whom would he hand over the helm of this ship that consumed his life? Which
son would he trust with his entire life’s work, investment, and pride? To whom would he give his entire past and the promise
of the future?

His face knotted up as he walked back to his desk, pondering at the hour of decision that would affect the lives of his spouse,
his family, and thousands of people who depend on this company for their livelihood. It also would affect the children who
look to them for their future and the millions of customers who had placed their trust in his company’s products. The decision
weighed heavy.

Staring down at the yellow pad on which he had scribbled for the tenth time the names of each of his sons, he knew it was
time to choose. The eldest son was an intellectual and had graduated from the top Ivy League university
in the nation. He was smart and had a great personality. The second son was an excellent manager who had helped to build
the five production plants the company had in foreign countries. The third son stayed close to Jack and wanted to make sure
he always had what he needed. He was not the intellectual his eldest brother was, not a manager as his older brother was,
but he understood the passion of his father.

Jack remembered offering the third son a top position with great influence and power in the head office, but he declined,
saying he would prefer to serve his father as an assistant so that he could better understand his heart. Jack recalled how
this son always was the only one available to come to his house and take his car to be cleaned, pick up his laundry anytime
he needed, and always make sure his mom was secure. Jack also recalled that when his company was attacked by the media, this
son called a press conference to defend his father while the others opted to go on vacation to avoid the negative exposure.

“He was willing to protect and defend the L
ORD
at his own expense.”

The final two sons were young and still in college. They were working summer jobs at one of the company’s factories but were
not ready to assume great responsibility. Jack knew that his desire was for all of his sons to be involved in the future of
his company and had already included them in his projections for the company’s development, expansion and future progress.
He knew that they would have to choose eventually whether they would carry on the family’s business legacy, but he also knew
that it was his responsibility as their father, mentor and leader, to make the provisions.

Jack leaned back in his large, leather-covered chair, closed his eyes, and meditated a moment. He thought, “Do I need someone
with the intelligence to run the company or the management expertise to grow my resources, or do I need someone who loves
me enough to protect and preserve all I have loved all these years?” This question was the most important one on his mind.
Suddenly, leaning forward, Jack took his pen and underlined the name of his third son. The decision was made. He chose the
son whom he felt loved him. The criterion for succession in Jack’s mind came down to love. Afterward, Jack wrote a memo calling
a meeting with his
family, knowing that his decision was not in keeping with the traditional or industry standard for succession planning, but
he felt a deep sense of peace, joy, and confidence. He then turned his yellow pad over and began to design an intensive mentoring
program for his son David.

The fact that you are reading this book is proof that you are a visionary leader in some capacity, and therefore you will
have to face the same challenge Jack faced: How do I choose a successor and what criterion should I use?

I had to make that decision some years ago and traveled the same path Jack did. Our conglomerate of companies under the umbrella
of Bahamas Faith Ministries International is more than thirty years old now, and I founded the organization with a vision
that I knew would exceed my initial leadership position, territory, constituency, and lifetime. I worked diligently to build
the vision, and today it is a global brand. Then a day came when I began to feel that urge to expand the vision to the next
phase. To do so, I needed to release the position that held me fast. I knew I could not go where I needed to go if I held
on to where I was. I had appointed a team to work closely with me, and they were all talented, gifted, passionate, dedicated,
and submitted to the vision. I began to mentor them in leadership as we grew the organization together. They all seemed perfect
as potential candidates to succeed me. I began looking around me for the person to whom I could transfer the trust of the
thousands of people who looked to me for leadership, along with the physical and monetary assets the company had accumulated.
I knew that choice would be critical. I had heard horror stories of hostile or manipulative takeovers, and I wanted no part
of that experience. I had read accounts of leaders who spend their entire life building an organization only to have it destroyed
by others who devalued the original vision and the visionary.