Leaders vs. Managers
March 27, 2010
Thoughts taken from a talk by Hugh Nibley:
Leaders to Managers: The Fatal Shift
Classic education, which Christianity embraced at the urging of St. Augustine, believed that you can’t trust revelation because revelation cannot be controlled by man. The Spirit bloweth where it listeth (John 3:8).
St. Augustine believed the Church needed something more reliable than man empowered to act according to the dictates of his heart and mind as directed by God. And so Universities took on a form counterfeiting the Temple, or as I feel it should be called-The University of God.
Within the sacred walls of the Temples, students learn to become leaders. Every item of learning is to educate them in the knowledge and skill of leadership.
As the Lord built temples for leadership, the apostate Christian religion embarked upon a fatal shift from leadership to management, which marks the decline and fall of civilizations. No one ever manages men into battle with any degree of success.
The German army attempted to train men to become leaders, but failed, because the men who pleased their superiors, {i.e. managers} got the promotions, while the men who gained favor with the lower ranks, {i.e. leaders} got reprimands.
Leaders are movers and shakers. They are original, inventive, unpredictable, imaginative full of surprises that discomfit the enemy in war and the main office in peace.
Managers are safe, conservative, predictable, conforming organization men who are dedicated to the establishment.
The greatest of all leaders said: “If ye love me keep my commandments.”
Says the manager: “If you know what’s good for you, keep my commandments and don’t make waves.”
This is why the rise of management always marks the decline of culture and civilization and harms any organization that promotes such thinking.
Brigham Young said: “There is too much of a sameness in this community…I am not a stereotype Latter-day Saint and do not believe in the doctrine…away with stereotyped Mormons.”
We are here to become leaders of men and most of our learning comes from managers, both in and out of the church. To break out of management-style thinking, we must shun the robes of the world, even when they bedeck our own chapels, and rise above the opinions and traditions of our fathers.
Leaders believe in equality. Everyone has an equal chance to become just as unequal as he or she wants. Nowhere in the world except in the University of God can all men worship their God in full equality of position. No rank, no higher or lower positions, no preferred seating, no economic preferences. All men equal in the sight of their creator.
Managers are repulsed by the thought that all men are equal. Rank is everything to managers and mediocrity is coveted, dependency is sought for, and complacency is heralded.
Promotion and perks, privileges and power is the name of the game. Managers do not promote individuals who are more competent and might threaten their position, so the power and footprint of managers grows ever wider.
A manager knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. A life in the shadows of management will never exalt. It only holds one back.
