Writings
Excerpts from Character at Work, page 4
Don’t try to sell your vision or inoculate anyone with it. Just talk about it, letting your natural enthusiasm flow. Ask others to test it, and honestly and nonjudgmental hear them out. It will get better as you go along.
…most people, regardless of their level of education, have within them a built-in horse manure detector (HMD), just as they have a mind, a soul, and a spirit—none of which can be identified on an anatomy chart. The HMD helps individuals sort out whether they are receiving an honest, forthright communication or one that is intended to manipulate their behavior. The HMD helps to sort out whether an action is taken for the sake of everyone or just out of self-interest.
As we know, spin control takes different forms. Sometimes exaggeration is used to slant a subject a certain way; sometimes anxiety or fear is used to push opinion in a certain direction; at other times information is withheld to influence decision making. Most of us can’t articulate how our HMD works, but we intuitively decide not to commit to propositions that trigger the alarm. Thus, the manipulative boss gets pseudo followership in response to pseudo leadership. That is why executive moral formation should be grounded in a passionate commitment to truth, forthrightness, and respect for the capacity in ordinary people to discern between high- and low-quality propositions.
A Practical Understanding of Love
I hesitatingly suggest that the third step on our ladder of increasingly higher moral aspirations be based on a practical understanding of love. Why am I hesitant to suggest this? Because in our Western world, the word “love” has deep connotations we do not normally associate with business—romance, for example, or that special feeling among family members or close friends. But I’m not talking about these kinds of relationships. By “love” I mean a predisposition toward helping another person to become complete. This is our primary responsibility to everyone within our purview.
Generative Leadership
Helping others grow is a fundamental attribute of generative leaders—it is the practice of love. The similarities between generative leadership and good parenting are striking—maybe you can’t do either unless you can do both. But whether or not managers are parents, they all have a responsibility to encourage human growth.
Paths to Maturity
There are three main paths to maturity. The first is the lonely inner journey of shaping core beliefs and making our choices congruent with our beliefs. The second is what we do. And the third is what we undergo. Don’t underestimate the possibilities of the latter. Enormous growth emerges from adversity when we maintain an appropriate disposition. I know of instances where suffering an egocentric boss, a bad marriage, or even prison resulted in extraordinary personal growth.
The barriers to maturity are fear, anger, and selfish desire. These same barriers cloud judgment.