Before I came to work in corporate America, I spent 15 years in a
monastic community as a Catholic priest.  Actually the work's proven to
be quite similar, only the pay's now a lot better.  With all the recent
scandals plaguing the business world, the question of integrity often
arises: How can I tell if an executive is trustworthy? What are the
signs to look for in promoting leaders in this new era of doubt and
suspicion?  With over 20 years in the workplace, here's my litmus test
for gauging executive credibility and trust.

 

1 - How do they treat waiters?

Character is revealed by how we treat those with no power.  Watch how
executives act around folks who have a vulnerable stature in the
community: waiters, secretaries and bathroom attendants.  People who are
powerless draw out our internal dispositions.  No one watches how you
treat those on the margins.  If what we do when nobody's watching
reveals character, start paying closer attention.  Executive assessment
has now become as plain as day.

If you can't join your corporate bosses for lunch, do the second best
thing.  Observe how they act around children.  Johnny Carson never liked
having kids on The Tonight Show because they stole the limelight and
often got more laughs.  People who are focused on themselves and require
absolute control and personal adoration don't mix well with children.
So at the next company picnic, be vigilant about how your leaders
respond to the kids in the crowd.  It's more statistically significant
than 360-degree feedback.

2 - Can they pass the "Carl Sandburg test"?

This Chicago poet was the champion of ordinary folks, the common men and
women of the workplace.  Pay attention to how executives relate to the
folks who make up the rank and file of organizations.  These are not
your high potentials that get chauffeured away for Executive
Development. They're the ones who do the chauffeuring or stay behind and
get the work done.  Corporate success resides in engaging their passion
and commitment.  Sam Walton's spirit must have plummeted when news
reached Heaven about rogue Wal-Mart managers locking store doors and
forcing their laborers to work unpaid overtime.   I wonder if there's an
Enron in the making somewhere in that corporate culture?

Look closely at how executives treat their daily laborers.  Do they talk
with them and invite them to any of their employee meetings?  Do they
have a personal relationship with a few and know something about their
families?  It gives me hope when I see my leaders authentically relate
to our entry-level workers.  If it were up to me, Sandburg's "The
People, Yes" would be required reading for climbing the corporate
ladder.  I believe most of the world would respond favorably to a C.E.O.
who could quote poetry.

3 - What's their "interior" business conversation?

Part and parcel of business life is making decisions.  Whenever I can, I
listen for the hidden dialogue that's used in pondering and resolving
ethical business issues.  What goes into the executive's moral
judgement-call?  Is it only about profit, sales and career advancement?
Is there any semblance of an "interior life" that exists within this
business leader?  Some  consideration of purpose, meaning or legacy?
Are there other facets being viewed: impact on the customer, the
environment and the local community?  Was some thought given to
corporate values, ethical principles or (God forbid!) employees'
feelings?

I still remember the day when I was hosting an executive meeting and we
were informed that one of our managers had just died of cancer.  As the
President shared the news with the group, he then asked for a minute of
silence for him and his family.  Moments later, we composed ourselves
and continued the meeting.  This small gesture said volumes about how
the executive viewed his workers and their contributions.  I think that
was the juncture where I fell in love with my company.  Something inside
me realized that corporations are truly human systems - they live,
breathe and grow.  And I decided that they're worthy of my affection.
It's sort of like being with family.  Not that I always like what they
do, but I work at loving them just the same.

{mospagebreak} 

4 - Do they occasionally see themselves as part of the problem?

I've grown weary of hearing every C.E.O. who gets before the media,
glibly announce: "We have no ethical problems in my company."  Huh?  If
we've learned anything in these recent months - it's that all man-made
systems are flawed and full of mistakes.  As long as organizations are
comprised of people, they're not going to be infallible institutions.
This is something even the Catholic Church, experts on infallibility,
have recently come to appreciate.  The revealing executive question is:
"What is your contribution to the problem that you've come here to
explain away?"  If they see none, then we're in for trouble.

Not that I'm asking all executives to bare their corporate souls in
public, but business leaders need to create the environment for
surfacing flawed practices and taking decisive action.  This line of
thinking has a confessional aspect to it, and the priest in me likes
it.  I find that those who have the humility to acknowledge corporate
shortcomings offer us some hope that business justice will eventually be
served.

5 - Can they make the workplace friendly for artists?

My favorite definition of integrity is ". a firm adherence to moral and
artistic values." The moral part of this discussion is obvious.  The
artistic side often gets lost in business.  Executives can't rely solely
on accountants and engineers to safeguard the integrity of our corporate
institutions.  We need artists to complement their efforts.  They are
the ones who have the language, mythology and requisite skills for
building the spiritual side of business.  In large part, it is the voice
of the artist that has remained silent during these corporate failures.
It is they, however, who are the shamans of the 21st century.  Business
and religious leaders have left us feeling violated and without hope.
We need spokespeople for the Sacred and the True, which co-exists within
the world of commerce.  Our organizational charts long for those who can
use word, color and brush to reveal that the world has became
surprisingly small.  That my individual action reverberates across the
globe.  Artists  remind us that misdeeds done by a few can injure the
many.  Just as we look to our internal "adult" for moral direction, we
should look externally to the poets, painters and mystics in our places
of work to shore-up the frailty of the human condition in the
marketplace.  Like Walt Whitman of old, I believe that present day
artists will usher in a new era of celebration in business . revealing
the sacredness of the human spirit, its vast potential for world good
and its rectitude in the face of deceit and transgression.

It's a message of hope.   The Corporate world could use more of it these
days.  I believe it's a legitimate demand to place upon our leaders.

P.S.  If you're thinking about writing me, give in to the temptation.
I love getting mail ... and being influenced by what you have to say.
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