WELCOME to our special monthly series called Bible School Business School (BSBS). BSBS takes insights from the culture and history of the ancient near East as depicted in the Bible and applies these insights to business, leadership and personal development. BSBS aims to broaden our mindsets beyond the Western paradigms on business, leadership and personal development.

Report by By Brett Chulu This article seeks to show how the active involvement of the chief executive is critical to driving a successful performance management initiative that yields above-market returns. The following excerpts from what is famously known as the parable of talents will be used to draw insights on how business leaders can strategically manage performance.

Matthew 25:14 (KJV) reads: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightaway took his journey.

Matthew 25:19-22 (KJV) continues: After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoned with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord you delivered unto me five talents: Behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee a ruler over many things: Enter into the joy of thy lord.

Likewise the servant with two talents gained two more and was commended like his five-talent colleague. In sharp contrast, the one-talent servant buried the resource he had been given by the master, accusing his master of being a tyrant.

Matthew 25:26-28(KJV) continues the narrative: His lord answered and said unto him: You wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strowed (scattered seed): Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury (interest). Take therefore the talent from him, and give, it unto him which hath ten talents.

Talent-culture-leadership integration The primary takeaway from this parable is that the chief executive (master in the parable) should intertwine talent, culture and leadership to drive organisation-wide performance. In other words, the chief executive fully embraces the strategic HR agenda. Strategic HR is concerned with how talent, culture and leadership can be harnessed to meet or exceed the expectations of external customers, investors, regulators and the community.

The parable of talents demonstrates how talent, culture and leadership must be fused together to deliver on superior business performance.

First, for performance management to permeate the entire organisation, the chief executive must set the tone. The chief executive in the parable did not leave it to the formal HR function to champion performance management. Performance management initiatives in which the top leaders of an organisation do not take a primary role are doomed to fail. The master in the parable embodied what is referred to as the leadership brand. Leadership brand is a concept birthed by the RBL Group, a US-based strategic HR think-tank. A leadership brand occurs when the expectations of customers, investors and other key external stakeholders at all levels of an organisation are converted into thinking patterns and behaviours of executives and managers.

Second, the leaders at all levels in the organisation must turn the expectations of customers and investors into consistent employee behaviours. Put differently, the leaders must translate the leadership brand into a company culture by influencing employees to think and behave in ways that deliver on the expectations of customers and investors.

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CEO’s critical role in performance management