vid’s sons were too young and inexperienced to assume a dedicated
cabinet post, but he wanted to groom them for further responsibility;
one of them was Solomon, who was to become the wisest ruler of
Israel.
An important aspect of building teams is complementarity. King
David selected his teams of warriors largely based on their complemen-
tary strengths: One man, Benaiah, was skilled with a club, which he
used to strike down a seven-foot Egyptian brandishing a spear. Those
from the tribe of Benjamin were archers and ‘‘able to shoot arrows or
to sling stones right-handed or left-handed.’’ The sons of Gad ‘‘were
brave warriors ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear.’’
(1 Chron. 11–12) Together, this group made up a mighty team with
complementary strengths that could be leveraged in any situation.
Gordon Bethune’s revitalization team at Continental Airlines was
also one with complementary strengths. And, like Jack Welch, who
knew he could not produce a TV show, Bethune knew that he could
not argue a legal case or fly a plane. He needed the best possible ‘‘cabi-
net team’’ he could assemble. To help with financing, he hired Larry
Kellner, who had worked for a large bank. As EVP of operations, he
chose C. D. McLean, who had been responsible for pilot training at
Piedmont Airlines. For technical operations, he chose the former direc-
tor of technical operations at Piedmont.
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For chief operating officer, he chose Greg Brenneman, an outside
consultant from Bain and Company who knew Continental’s problems
intimately, perhaps too intimately. Bethune told him, ‘‘Greg, it’s an op-
portunity to be chief operating officer of a $6 billion company.’’ And
Brenneman replied, ‘‘Yeah, the world’s worst $6 billion company.’’
The new ‘‘Continental Team’’ had differing skills, but, like David’s
‘‘mighty men,’’ they had a similar attitude that united them: an
embracing of challenge and risk. ‘‘I wanted risk takers; I wanted
achievers,’’ says Bethune. ‘‘I wanted people who could see past the
airline we were to the airline we could become.’’15
A weaker leader would have selected weaker men, who undoubtedly
would have lacked the courage to make the bold moves necessary for
Continental to revive itself. David Ogilvy, head of Ogilvy & Mather,
used to encourage his managers to hire people better than they were.
Ogilvy would give each new manager a set of Russian nesting dolls, the
type where unscrewing the largest doll reveals a slightly smaller doll,
until the final doll is a tiny wooden lump. ‘‘If each of us hires people
who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs,’’
he would explain. ‘‘But if each of us hires people who are bigger than
we are, Ogilvy & Mather will become a company of giants.’’16
In similar fashion, Paul too advised his young prote´geś how to select
their teams. For example, he advised Titus, his disciple on the island of
Crete, to indeed select someone whose qualities surpassed his own:
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might . . . appoint elders
in every town, as I directed you. An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the
charge of being disobedient . . . not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. (Titus
1:5–7)
Paul had even more stringent criteria for Timothy’s team in Ephesus.
In addition to all the traits he had mentioned to Titus, he added that
‘‘the overseer must be respectable, hospitable, able to teach . . . not
quarrelsome.’’ Deacons had to be ‘‘men worthy of respect, sincere, not
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indulging in much wine.’’ (1 Tim. 3) This no doubt made the selection
process a difficult one for these young ‘‘coaches.’’ On the other hand,
once they found people who met these criteria, their job of actually
running the church became much easier.
At first glance, the head of a major airline, a cigar-chomping basket-
ball coach, and an apostle and his two young prote´geś would seem to
have little in common. But all realized the importance of selecting the
right people for the team.
THE POWER OF TEAMS
People acting in teams can accomplish amazing goals that an individual,
or even a group of individuals, could never have achieved. And there is
a large difference between a team and a group of individuals. From a
group, Noah assembled a team that had little experience in shipbuilding
but a strong dedication to each other and their purpose. Moses forged a
ragtag group of ex-slaves into a strong team (of course, it helped that
these slaves had previously been divided into tribes or ‘‘work groups’’).
Nehemiah built a wall with teams. Joshua knocked down walls with
them. And Jesus turned a small, diverse group of fishermen, tax collec-
tors, and laborers into a team that would convert half the world to their
mission.
The people of Israel also experienced periods of dissolution, purpose-
lessness, and selfishness. It was at these times that they degenerated from a team and became a mere ‘‘group.’’ They became idol worshipers and
ceased to treat each other honorably and ethically. Like ‘‘sheep who
have gone astray,’’ rather than being unified in a common purpose, they
turned ‘‘every one to his own way.’’ (Isa. 56:3)
This was the state of the Chicago Bulls when Phil Jackson took over
as coach. The Bulls later won six NBA championships, but only after
they were able, under Jackson, to function as a team. True, they had
the greatest player in the history of the game in Michael Jordan, but it
is easy to forget that Jordan was with the Bulls several years before they
began to approach greatness by becoming a true team. In fact, during
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Jordan’s early years with the Bulls, they had difficulty just having a
winning season.
The reason? The Bulls were a group, but not a team. The group was
dominated by one player with tremendous talents but a lack of team
orientation. There was little synergy among the players; the presence of
Jordan actually minimized the others’ potential and development. In a
‘‘crunch’’ (which was frequently) the other players knew that their main
job was to pass the ball to Jordan. If he scored, great. If he didn’t, it was no skin off their backs.
When Phil Jackson took over as coach, he turned a mediocre group
with one great player into a championship team. He did this by ‘‘letting
the me become the servant of the we. ’’ He encouraged Jordan to develop his team-oriented skills (defensive play and passing) and to inspire the
other players to better performance. He made Jordan into more than
just a ‘‘star’’; he made him a leader. And with Jordan’s example, he
transformed the Bulls from a purposeless group into a team where
everyone (even a substitute who played only a few minutes a game)
had a role to play and knew the importance that role played in the
championship effort. Like Nehemiah building the wall, Jackson got the
Bulls to ‘‘work with all their hearts’’ and to perform ‘‘as one man.’’
Herb Kelleher also enlisted the power of his team when he wanted
to improve accident prevention at Southwest Airlines. Other airlines
would have formed a small task force and focused on the areas most
directly responsible for accident prevention, such as flight crew and pi-
lots. The rest of the ‘‘team’’ would have received some vague memo
about the ‘‘need for safety.’’
But Kelleher enlisted everyone in the accident prevention effort,
even if their function appeared to have little to do with safety. His
message to the entire organization was that ‘‘we’re a cross-functional
team, and the entire team will work together to empower each other
to prevent accidents.’’ He had the baggage handlers observe the pilots
in flight simulation training, and he had the pilots observe the baggage
handlers. When he was done, everyone on the team understood his or
her role and the role of everyone else on the team in improving safety
and reducing accidents. In the words of Romans 12, Kelleher had cre-
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ated ‘‘one body’’ with ‘‘many members’’ and ‘‘differing gifts,’’ all de-
voted to an overriding goal.
Another organization where a strong leader focuses on ‘‘letting the
me become servant of the we’’ is Disney. Michael Eisner realized that his top executives will work better if they are developed as a team. He also
realized the importance of their understanding the roles of the entire
Disney ‘‘cast.’’
So Eisner has instituted a program called Disney Dimensions for his
top team, which he has dubbed his ‘‘synergy boot camp.’’ For eight
days, these executives experience every aspect of the company, not from
a training room, but firsthand. They play the Disney characters on the
grounds of Disney World. They see the beds made in the hotels (and