Writings
Excerpts from Character at Work
The Soul of an Organization
The crisis inside the American corporation runs deep. It shows up when office politics dilute an organization’s sense of mission, or when euphemistic language masks honestly held viewpoints, or when managers adopt a game-playing veneer that stunts their authenticity. Operating matters consume daily agendas. We have meetings to attend, reports to prepare, people to see, e-mail to read, calls to return, and deadlines to meet. Often we push aside the very values that normally steer our lives and instead simply give in to the pressure to perform.
In the race for the rational, the scientific, and the measurable, we have lost sight of something more important—an ecology in which work serves people, not only as a means for earning a living, but also as a platform on which we can develop our talents and express our best selves. The soul of an organization concerns more than matters of the bottom line.
The Principle-Centered Organization
In a workplace shaped by a values-based, vision-driven leadership, the goals and values of the organization are in alignment with those of the people who work there. Most important, the atmosphere stimulates people to express their highest attributes—their desire to help others, their eagerness to contribute to something larger than themselves, and their courage to stand up for what’s right.
Where to Begin—A Shift of Mind
The antidote to the dispiriting impact of the command-and-control, authoritarian institution is to cultivate deep respect for each individual worker, recognizing that all work has dignity and understanding that managerial humility is an important virtue for long-term success. To do this requires a shift of mind.
Transformational cultural achievements require the replacement of a higher value for an inferior one, such as substituting merit-based decision making in place of political decisions, or individual responsibility in place of bureaucracy, or openness in place of unjustified secrecy. This shift of mind results in a superior mental model replacing a less effective one.
The Character of Management
The idea that a manager can serve his employees as well as lead was proposed long ago by the ancient Chinese sage Lao Tzu. And Robert K. Greenleaf, in his excellent book Servant Leadership, develops the subject in a modern context, saying: “We are not wanting for knowledge of how to do things better, or for material resources to work with. But we are sorely in need of strong ethical leaders to go out ahead to show the way so that moral standards and the perceptions of many will be raised, and so that they will serve better with what they have and what they know.” It is an idea whose time has returned.
Building an ecology of soul presupposes a different approach to corporate management. It respects the need for good, orderly direction but combines that with a respect for individual capacities. It understands that organizations need to serve and satisfy all members of their work family. By carefully selecting and nurturing people who espouse and practice these ideas, the leader of an organization can help shift its ecology.