Honor Quality vs. Quantity
Preface: This is part of my 10 part series, where I deal with one principle per story. The entire series is based on my book titled, “10 Pragmatic Leadership Principles from the Bible”.
One of the greatest dilemmas of a leader is to choose whom to recognize and reward excellence. It is a dangerous path to tread because not everyone can be honored at the same time, which usually leaves the others disappointed and disgruntled. Leaders ought to be careful not to reward the unworthy and, most importantly, ignore the worthy. There is no golden formula to spot the most deserving, but there are a few principles on which such people can be identified.
“Leaders ought to be careful not to reward the unworthy and most importantly, ignore the worthy”
The rule of “Making presence felt vs. absence felt”
In my professional life, I have come across so many distinct varieties of people. We tend to remember only those who made their presence felt. These are the ones that made substantial contributions, significant reforms and were able to quantify their success to the team or company. They are usually very enterprising, communicate effectively, make tough decisions, take the lead in meetings, etc. They cannot be easily ignored since they make sure their presence is felt. These are the ones who normally get to receive a grand farewell when they bid goodbye because they had influenced so many during their presence.
But there is another type of people with a stark opposite personality that most of us generally tend to ignore. I call them the ones who make their ‘absence felt’.
One of the companies where I worked, one of the so-called ‘presence felt’ person decided to call it quits. It came as a massive blow to the team since that person was the face of the team. The news was so devastating for many that speculation arose that the entire project might get shut down post their departure. We arranged for a grand farewell, and it had no drought for tears, hugs and emotional speeches. Everyone opined it was not going to be the same ever after again. But to everyone’s surprise, things went back to normal just the day after, and nothing plummeted as it was anticipated.
There was another member in the same group, whom I would call the introvert of the team. They would not talk much since their communication wasn’t the best. No one generally noticed that person at all. A few months later, that person decided to part ways, and it quite did not make the headlines even. The farewell party itself wasn’t very big or grand. A small group of friends went out to bid bye and wished them the best of luck. What we did not anticipate was the utter chaos awaiting us when we went to work the next day. Apparently, that person was pivotal to so many operations, and they had managed it so gracefully. No one even knew everything was progressing smoothly because of that person. In fact, we had to hire two people as replacements, and the whole ordeal took a considerably long time to get the team back on track.
There are many that look glamorous superficially but may not be worthy of recognition. In contrast, there could be other great contributors who are calmly carrying big responsibilities on their shoulders unbeknownst to others. As leaders, we should see through people and reward them for who they are and not for what they claim to be.
“As leaders, we should see through people and reward people for who they are and not for what they claim to be”
There is an interesting incident in Mark 12 that took place when Jesus was sitting at the temple with his disciples. As we know, the temple is a place for all walks of life to enter and worship God. I admire the setting of this incident — Jesus was at the temple and ‘observing’ people. I would like to emphasize the word “observe” here. As leaders, we do not merely look at people. We are supposed to observe. “Observation” is far more comprehensive than mere looking. It is only through observation that a leader can understand others, specifically his own flock.
“As leaders, we do not merely look at people. We are supposed to observe”
Interestingly what Jesus observed was quite significant. He saw the rich come in with vast sums of money and openly throw them into the offering box. The more they offered, the more entitled they felt. Yet among them was a poor widow who had brought just two cents as an offering. Being too ashamed to reveal her petty offering, she thought to secretly cast it into the box and leave before someone noticed her. Jesus acknowledged her offering and established that she had given more than anybody else that day.
If you do the math, it simply does not make any sense. How can an offering of 2 cents be greater than say $1000 or $2000? Jesus’ perspective was on the percentage of contributions than the actual number. A person having $100,000 making an offering of $1000.00 is just 1%, whereas a person having only 2 cents offering all of it, makes it 100%.
Jesus excelled in his art of observation to comprehend that the poor widow gave all of what she had and offered with a sense of guilt that her contribution wasn’t enough. On the contrary, the rich were contributing only part of what they had. They intended to show off than offer genuinely since their reputation rode on how much they gave.
In our lives, we meet such crafty people all the time. They do everything with an intention to please or reap a greater benefit without genuineness. These are the people who catch everybody’s attention and are touted to be the greatest. They intentionally publicize their works to garner more attention and applause. They are very calculative on what, how, and when to do things and usually very good at it. Leaders sometimes fall for these kinds of guiles and end up rewarding them with promotions, recognitions, etc.
In the story of the widow’s offerings, Jesus made an intriguing statement. He said, “she gave everything — all she had to live on”. That’s not an entirely true assumption to make, you think? The widow did not sell all her belongings and offer that to God; instead, she just gave what she had. How could that amount to “all she had to live on”? If our thoughts are genuine and our commitment is true, God recognizes it as a great deal. There is nothing more that inspires God than a genuine heart.
“There is nothing more that inspires God than a genuine heart”
Hebrews 4:12 — For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
I specifically like the words “thoughts and attitudes” mentioned here. The emphasis is on the thoughts and attitudes and not on the actions. This verse is probably the most difficult one to digest as a child of God, in my opinion. Imagine if the verse stated, “the word of God judges the time of prayer”, we could sit in prayer the entire day and capture God’s attention. Or suppose if it said, “expertise in the word of God”, then we could have explored the Bible cover to cover many times to please God. Unfortunately, prayer, reading the Bible, etc., are actions that can be accomplished through hard work or even sometimes malice and fraud. Strangely, charity too is an action that can be done with dark intentions, which means just because someone is generous doesn’t mean their intentions are good.
“Thoughts and attitudes” are the most difficult, or I should say impossible to fake. You cannot feign to have the right thoughts, can you? The underlying message is that as long as we are genuinely committed and good, it will show up in our lifestyle. This is what leaders ought to observe and, as a result, reward genuineness and not popularity.
So the next time, as a leader, if you are asked to rate your team members, try and measure them based on their thoughts and attitudes. Who is committed and why are they displaying such undying trust and responsibility. You might end up with a few that shine and deserve.
Excerpt from: 10 Pragmatic Leadership Principles from the Bible available on Amazon
