PREFACE
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life
by what we give. —Winston Churchill
Two events that took place during the writing of this
book have had a profound impact on our organizational and personal lives.
The first, of course, was the series of terrorist attacks on September
11, 2001. Like most people who witnessed the tragic events of that day
from afar, I was initially overwhelmed with the need to be with the
people who are truly the most important to us—in my case my wife
and daughter. I was also overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness
and insignificance. I felt called upon to make a difference and help
the victims and their families, and I had no idea how to do so. The
good that I was accomplishing in my professional career seemed suddenly
inadequate in the context of September 11.
Although not nearly as catastrophic, the second event
that captured our collective attention during the writing of this book
was the Enron fiasco. We witnessed with disbelief the destruction of
some $70 billion in wealth that decimated the retirement savings of
thousands of Enron employees and punished even more small investors.
We were enraged and dismayed as congressional hearings demonstrated
proof of an intentional strategy by senior management to misrepresent
financial transactions for the purpose of enriching themselves at the
expense of those they were entrusted to serve. We felt abandoned by
two supposedly premier organizations, Enron and Arthur Andersen, and
wondered just whom we could ever trust again. We later discovered that
other supposedly premier organizations—Adelphia, Dynergy, Global
Crossing, Merrill Lynch, Qwest, Tyco, and WorldCom, to name just a few—had
also engaged in greed-driven and unethical activity that enriched those
at the top at the expense of employees, customers, and shareholders.
Our willingness to trust in such organizations, and the markets in which
they operate, was further challenged.
So much destruction and deceit are bound to cause society
and individuals to engage in intensive self- and collective examination
and reflection. In the months that followed these two events, two important
elements of personal and organizational life that had been buried during
the economic boom of the 1990s began to slowly resurface. First, many
of us came to the realization that we have for too long compartmentalized
our lives into work, home, and church, and have applied different standards
to each. We have come to see that values, ethics, spirituality—however
one chooses to describe them—cannot be checked at the office door.
The standards we live by at home, in church, and among family and friends
should be incorporated in the workplace. People at all levels of an
organization, from the boardroom to the factory floor, are searching
to connect their faith and values to their professional lives in a way
that brings both personal fulfillment and organizational success.
Second, for-profit and nonprofit organizations alike
are reawakening to the age-old idea that values and organizational success
are in fact inseparable. In what Alan Greenspan describes as "capitalized
reputation," our society is in the midst of creating a new trust-based
economy where an organization's value and success is inextricably linked
to its reputation.
Numerous post-September 11 and post-Enron conversations
with those in the suites, as well as those in the cubicles, revealed
that people intuitively understand that values and long-term success
are inseparable. What is lacking, however, is a framework or blueprint
that provides guidance for taking our "whole selves" to work.
Christians, too, often lack the framework and language that will help
them put their faith-based principles into practice in the workplace.
Despite their good intentions, a myriad of workplace pressures and daily
obstacles prevent them from achieving this goal.
Executive Values is a first step in educating
Christian organizational leaders on how to incorporate systematically
their values into their professional lives. If the golden rule, "Do
unto others as you would have them do unto you," had been followed
at the highest levels of Enron, Arthur Andersen, and the myriad of other
corporations that recently have come under fire for questionable practices,
we as a society may have avoided the damaging aftereffects of scandals
and congressional inquiries. By following the golden rule at work as
well as at home, we can add value to our organization and those around
us. We can bring our "whole selves" to work and make a life
instead of merely making a living.
Kurt Senske
Austin, Texas
Spring 2003
INTRODUCTION:
Doing Well by Doing Good
There is no reason you can't be one of the most successful
organizations in the world and one of the most altruistic. There is
no inconsistency between those goals. —Jim Collins
This book combines two aspects of organizational leadership
not often mentioned in the same breath: getting results, and integrating
Christian values within an organization. Leaders of organizations recognize
that results matter. Results, in fact, are the sole reason any organization
exists, whether in the public or private sector, whether with nonprofit
or for-profit status. Yet it seems that modern business practice dictates
that organization leaders, in order to achieve profitable results, must
keep their professional lives and their lives as faithful Christians
separate. Executive Values serves as a road map for incorporating
faith and values into everyday organizational life. It demonstrates
how doing well and doing good are inextricably linked, and provides
a comprehensive strategy for utilizing Christian values to achieve organizational
goals.
Results are measured in various ways, depending on the
type of organization involved. In a school environment, educational
outcomes may be primary; while in a publicly traded company, maximizing
shareholder return is foremost. Complicating this is the fact that many
organizations have goals that seem contradictory. For example, a hospital
exists to provide excellent care for the customer, but its leadership
is also responsible for maximizing shareholder return. The pressure
created by having multiple goals can lead to confused priorities and
seem to force a decision between altruism and financial reality. This
in turn makes it difficult for business leaders to consistently apply
Christ-centered values as they navigate the minefields of daily organizational
life. The "mines" are familiar: budgetary pressures, shortsighted
investors, unrealistic sales goals, difficult employee issues, new competitors,
and disloyal customers. This book is for the organization leader who
is a Christian and who seeks to achieve an organization's stated goals
while struggling daily to live out the ideals formed through faith.
It is my belief that God does not ask us to have a successful career
at the expense of our faith. At work, at home, and at play, I believe
that God desires that we strive to pattern our lives after the life
and teachings of Christ. Further, I believe that incorporating Christian
faith-based values into our daily professional life gives us a competitive
advantage. Consistently doing so can have a significant positive impact
on your organization and on your personal life.
Executive Values is a "how-to" book
designed to help you succeed in your chosen profession without compromising
your faith and losing your soul in the process. Jesus warns against
seeking worldly recognition and power at the expense of faith: "What
good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits
his soul?" (Matt. 16:26).
Executive Values goes beyond theory to practical,
everyday advice and insight for implementing faith in effective leadership.
It demonstrates, among other things, how Christian values provide a
basis for attracting and retaining good employees; creating a Christ-based,
effective organizational culture; implementing a successful vision and
strategic plan; and successfully balancing career and family life. It
also proposes a framework for making decisions in specific situations—like
whether to lay off five, fifty, or even five hundred employees in order
to increase shareholder value, or how to deal with an ineffective employee
whose spouse is ailing with cancer. Do I accept the job offer from another
company, and the $50,000 pay increase that comes with it; or do I stay
in my present position, where I have been for less than a year? Where
do I find the courage to make tough decisions now, when the company
is doing well, even though I know that the picture will not be so rosy
in the years ahead? How do I choose between going on vacation with my
family and handling the emergency that came up at work? In the case
of multibillion-dollar companies, decisions made—and their repercussions—can
be extremely far-reaching. Leaders face such situations every day. Nike's
decision to offer region-specific market wages in developing countries
had ethical implications and marketplace consequences. Exxon, in its
offshore drilling operations, had to decide what level of pollution
was "acceptable" when balanced against global environmental
concerns. Firestone and Ford were forced to grapple with the safety
level of their products, and with notifying the public about such concerns
in a timely manner. All of the leadership decisions related to these
issues had global implications.
The framework I propose in the following pages has been
developed over the past eighteen years and is drawn from my experience
as president and CEO of a $70 million-dollar organization with over
1,200 employees; as an attorney with various Chicago law firms; as a
political consultant at the local, state, and national levels; as a
college administrator; and as a member of the boards of a Fortune 300
company, a national, religious nonprofit organization, and a national
foundation. More importantly, I have relied heavily on what other Christians
have taught me about leadership. These are individuals who, for decades,
have put their values into action. They are from all walks of life,
including small-business leaders, organizational consultants, colleagues,
CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, heads of nonprofit organizations, the
football coach at a major university, and a U.S. congressional leader.
In addition, I have interviewed leaders in both the public and private
sectors, taking the "best from the best."
The fundamental purpose of Executive Values is
to provide a blueprint for decision making that reflects Christian values
in the carrying out of day-to-day responsibilities both at work and
at home. The following chapters are divided along the lines of function.
I propose a theoretical framework for Christian leadership and examine
the experiences of successful leaders. I also present real-life examples
of the challenges faced by leaders, along with potential solutions.
The book also provides practical guidelines for applying Christian values
in typical leadership situations such as implementing a strategic planning
process, creating a healthy organizational culture, developing future
leaders, holding people accountable, and balancing work and family life.
The topic of this book is vital and relevant. It is
through our professional lives that we have the greatest opportunity
to make a difference in the world. During our lifetime, each of us will
spend from 80,000 to 100,000 of our most productive hours at work, influencing
the lives of thousands. And while most of us are diligent about living
out our Christian principles at church, at home, and through our volunteer
efforts, we are not always as successful doing so at work. This is a
book that will help leaders apply the Christian values—nurtured
by family, colleagues, and church—to achieve their professional
dreams and to attain goals laid out for oneself and the organization.
In essence, it will demonstrate that you can, in fact, do well by doing
good. My hope is that Executive Values will be of value to you,
and an asset to the business community at large.
CHAPTER
THREE: Do the Right Thing
You can build a throne with bayonets, but
you canŐt sit on it for long. —Boris Yeltsin
Following the Golden Rule of Leadership means simply
to put into practice the axiom that became the title and theme of a
Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing. This is not only biblically mandated,
it is also in the best interest of an organization. This mandate, however,
runs counter to the ever-growing economic pressure to emphasize short-term
success at the expense of ethical behavior and long-term value. Organizations
and their leaders often feel they have no choice but to cut corners,
sell a product to someone who does not really need it, use cheaper materials,
get by with an insufficient number of employees, or use various accounting
tricks as part of a convoluted smoke-and-mirrors strategy.
Still, history has shown that doing the right thing
is the only strategy that will create true long-term value. Doing the
right thing requires, simply, acting with integrity. To act with integrity,
says Stephen Carter, we must first discern what is right and what is
wrong in a given situation. Next, we must act on what we have discerned,
even if there is a personal cost involved. Finally, we must acknowledge
openly that we are acting on the basis of our understanding of what
is right and what is wrong.
Christ-based vision acts, on the other hand, can have
a positive impact on an organization, as the next two examples demonstrate.
John Mackovic, head football coach for the University
of Arizona, earlier in his career had the top coaching position at the
University of Illinois. There he inherited a program whose team had
a reputation for occasionally playing "outside the rules."
Mackovic refused to accept or condone this organizational culture. During
his initial spring practice with the team, he talked again and again
about the importance of the integrity of the game—how players and
staff should conduct themselves both on and off the field—and made
it clear that he would not tolerate disregard for the rules. Early in
its first season, the team had yet to be tested. During the second quarter
in a game against the University of Wisconsin, the Badgers were driving
the ball deep into Illinois territory. Twice, on consecutive plays,
an Illinois player committed a personal foul in an effort to hurt an
opposing player. Mackovic quickly called time out, brought the entire
team together, and told them in no uncertain terms, "We, as a team
and as individuals, are better than this, and this is not who we are.
We are a team of integrity, and we need to respect ourselves before
others will respect us." The defensive unit went back out on the
field and cleanly stopped the Wisconsin offensive drive in its tracks,
and Illinois eventually won the game. Those associated with Illinois
football credit Mackovic's rallying speech as the vision act that led
to the creation of a culture that lifted up integrity as the cornerstone
of its athletic program.
At a recent President's Course offered by the American
Management Association, I met an individual who had been hired a couple
of years earlier as president of a plant that manufactured large machinery.
When he was hired, the plant was financially on the ropes. Two months
later he was asked to come down to the assembly line to make a decision.
The foreman told him that the welding on a twenty-four-foot, $50,000
trailer was not properly lined up. The foreman said they had two options:
The first was to re-weld and paint over the mistake so that the customer
would not notice; the second was to leave it, since it did not make
a real difference in the final outcome, and, again, hope it would go
unnoticed. The new president said there was a third option, and asked
for a blowtorch. He fired it up in front of all of the employees and
proceeded to cut the trailer in two. The astonished foreman exclaimed,
"Now what do we do?" The president replied, "Throw this
one on the trash heap and start over!"
The president told me he went back to his office feeling
very uneasy because he knew his company could not afford the cost of
the wasted materials and labor. Nonetheless, he performed this vision
act because he knew that, in the long run, the company would succeed
only if it made quality the number-one priority. In the process of driving
home his point, the president completely destroyed $50,000 worth of
merchandise. But this "cultural story" has been passed down
ever since to every new employee. The president finished the story by
saying that he has never had another problem with quality at the plant.
The lesson we can draw from this is that it pays—professionally
and personally—to create our own vision acts and cultural stories.
Not every situation is quite that dramatic. The opportunity to create
a vision act might be as mundane as correcting a supplier's invoice
that mistakenly undercharges us. It is the consistency of our actions,
however, that is important. As stated in chapter 2, when it comes to
servant leadership, we cannot fake it. In creating a cultural story,
we must back the story up with our actions, and this requires a consistent
pattern of living and of interaction with fellow employees. It requires
sharing the credit whenever possible, remembering that no task is beneath
us, letting grudges and personality differences go, not gloating when
we are right, not gossiping, and not being afraid to admit when we do
not know the answer. In other words, it means acting with integrity
and following the golden rule.
