Leadership Without Excuses: How to Create Accountability and High-Performance (Instead of Just Talking About It)

CHAPTER 1EQUIP YOUR PEOPLE FOR MOMENTS OF TRUTH AND TRADEOFF

In a famous study¹ conducted some years ago at Princeton Theological Seminary, researchers recruited a group of young seminarians and prepared them to give a talk on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In this parable, you may recall, a traveler on the road to Jericho is robbed and beaten by thieves who leave him half-dead. A priest comes, sees the beaten traveler, and passes by. And then an assistant priest does the same. Finally, a Samaritan arrives on the scene, bandages the man’s wounds, brings him to an inn, and takes care of him.

After the researchers prepared the seminarians to give a talk on the story and its implications, they sent students off, one by one, to fulfill their ...