GEO Principle Blog

Make a statement

I wrote a while back about the impact meeting planners could have on hotel managers if they expressed their desire for pornography-free rooms. Well, here's one group that is taking this issue seriously.

Surprising to me are the number of comments at the end of the newspaper article arguing in favor of pornography.

I hope the commissioners in the county vote to give "clean" hotels priority; any organization communicates a lot by the way it spends its money.

Personal audit, encouragement are marks of a leader

Andy Hickman is a professional speaker from Texas with a motivating and entertaining message. I had the opportunity to hear him present to a business group in Iowa yesterday. He made three points that I believe are worth passing on:

1) Your checkbook and calendar reveal what you value. He noted that a lot of people say they value family, yet their money and time goes into everything but family. He suggested that everyone conduct a personal audit of their checkbook (particularly with respect to discretionary spending) and their calendar. See if the information revealed is consistent with what you say is important. "If there is misalignment, then make a change," he said.

2) Encourage others. He reminded us that words matter a lot. People listen to what you are saying, even if they pretend they are not paying attention. You can make a huge impact on your environment at home or at work with the words you use. Build people up and you make a great environment; criticize unnecessarily and you dampen everyone's energy. "Since you have complete control over what you say, why not choose to say things that encourage others?" he asked.

3) Superficial qualities do not make a leader. Hickman noted that the world tries to tell us that you have to be extremely intelligent, good-looking, and have money in order to be a leader. But, in fact, the greatest leaders in history -- Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King, for example -- had none of these qualities. More importantly, their actions were consistent with their message and they encouraged others.

Hickman has written a book called "Stuff That Really Matters." Learn more at his web site (don't let the music startle you). Click on "online store" to get to the book.

A teacher made the difference for 150 students

Erin Gruwell is a teacher who founded an organization called Freedom Writers. Her story is so compelling that M-TV made a movie about her. Check it out here.

Fresh out of college in the mid-1990s, Erin taught in a Long Beach, Calif., high school. Her rough and tumble students were described as the toughest cases. These were 150 kids who weren't supposed to make it. After much trial and error, she connected with the students. Many of them began to take school seriously for the first time in their lives. Over the course of four years of study, many of the students found new hope for their lives. Ultimately, Gruwell and the students published a book made up of entries from their journals. Erin presented her story at a business meeting I attended in Nebraska a few days ago. Her presentation was so compelling I stuck around to meet her afterward.

Teaching professionals might argue over Gruwell's methods, and certainly there has been plenty of blog-chatter about the accuracy of the movie, but I am writing about her here because Gruwell did what she had to in order to do her job. The way she told it, she wanted each of her students to read books written by authors a lot like them. Many of the students were living in what felt like a war zone, a place where drive-by shootings were all too common. So Gruwell wanted the students to know about other teens, like Anne Frank, who lived in traditional wars.

Gruwell said when she went to the administration of the school to buy the books, she was told the students would never read them. She was denied the funds to purchase the books. That's where Gruwell took things into her own hands. She went to a local book store and bought 150 copies of six books. She said she had to max out her credit card and dip into her Christmas savings in order to make the purchase. As she looks back, she said the books turned out to be an important starting point for many of the students.

I like the story because Gruwell poured herself into her work. She didn't let the establishment prevent her from being the teacher she knew she could be.

Many people want things in order to do their work, but they would never pay for any of those things with their own money. Would you? Gruwell wasn't going to let the money for books be the barrier that prevented her from reaching those students.

Bringing God to work means loving those around you. It means not giving up on those around you, even if others have. It means giving your best to those around you. It seems to me that Gruwell did that. I am sure many teachers do something similar every day. It is a great example of the GEO Principle in action.

Want to help out the rookie in the company? Do what Barnabas did.

One of the readings at church this past weekend included the story from Acts of the Apostles (Acts 9:26-30) where Paul wants to talk to the disciples after his dramatic conversion experience. The disciples were understandably weary, recalling Paul's zeal against them earlier. One of the disciples, Barnabas, knew Paul and understood that his conversion was for real. He understood that they no longer needed to fear Paul, but could actually learn from him. So, Barnabas talks to he fellow disciples about Paul. He introduces Paul around to the different disciples and gives him a vote of confidence. This goes a long way with the other disciples and they come to accept him as a true disciple of Christ.

I like this story because it provides a useful example of how we might help others, especially people who might be new to our company or industry. If you know someone who is largely unknown to the larger group, take the time to introduce the new personaround to the established members of the group. Network on his or her behalf. If you know someone's work to be excellent, tell others about it so they can eventually benefit from that work themselves. Barnabas is good at networking and he used his skill to help out a colleague.

Furthermore, Barnabas was probably a pretty good evangelist in his own right, but it turns out his most important job in history was to help make the way for perhaps the greatest evangelist ever. Barnabas probably understood Paul's potential; he knew Paul would probably go on to much greater success than Barnabas ever had himself, yet he still helped Paul. He didn't allow his ego or pride or jealousy to hold him back. He showed Paul around, got him the "in" he needed to get started, and let Paul go from there. This is a good model for us at work. When someone new joins the company, we can show them around, help them get started, give them every advantage we can to help them succeed, and then let them do the rest.

Servant leadership and the development of capitalism

Servant leadership is a concept that is often talked about in the context of living your faith at work. Robert Greenleaf wrote about this in the 1970s, and today The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership helps people put Greenleaf's ideas into practice.

I write about servant leadership in the third chapter of The GEO Principle. At Luke 22:32, Jesus tells Peter to strengthen his brothers. Peter's job is to help the others succeed. Although Jesus clearly sets Peter apart as a leader, he doesn't say the other apostles should serve him, but that he should serve them. This serves as a powerful model for us today. Leadership, or you might say management, is more about serving others than it is about others serving you.

Dinesh D'Souza offers a very interesting analysis of servant leadership in his book "What's So Great About Christianity." D'Souza doesn't let us forget the extent to which Christianity has shaped our Western culture. Consider this excerpt from chapter 6:

Christianity enhanced the notion of political and social accountability by providing a new model: that of servant leadership. In ancient Greece and Rome no one would have dreamed of considering political leaders anyone's servants. The job of the leader was to lead. But Christ invented the notion that the way to lead is by serving the needs of others, especially those who are the most needy. Mark 10:43 quotes Christ: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant...for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve." And in Luke 22:27 we hear Jesus say, "Who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves." In the new Christian framework, leaders are judged by how well they respond to the concerns and welfare of the people. Over time, people once known as "followers" or "subjects" become "customers" and "constituents." As a consequence of the new ideal, the job of the political leader, the merchant, and the priest becomes serving the people by attending to their political, material, and spiritual needs.

The system of modern capitalism arose in the West. To some it is surprising that capitalism developed so easily in conjunction with a Christian ethic. But capitalism satisfied the Christian demand for an institution that channels selfish human desire toward the betterment of society. Some critics accuse capitalism of being a selfish system, but the selfishness is not in capitalism -- it is in human nature. As Adam Smith put it in The Wealth of Nations, the desire to better our condition "comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave." Selfishness, like lust, is part of the human condition. It is hopeless to try to root it out, although some zealous utopians have certainly tried. Over the centuries, Christianity came up with a much better solution. The Bible is often quoted to say that money is the root of all evil, but the relevant passage actually says that "love of money is the root of all evil." This is a condemnation of a certain human attitude to wealth, not a condemnation of either wealth or commerce.

The effect of capitalism is to steer human selfishness so that, through the invisible hand of competition, the energies of the capitalist produce the abundance from which the whole society benefits. Moreover, capitalism encourages entrepreneurs to act with consideration for others even when their ultimate motive is to benefit themselves. So while profit remains the final goal, entrepreneurs spend the better part of each day figuring out how better to serve the needs of their actual and potential customers. They are operationally, in not intentionally, altruistic...One may say that capitalism civilizes greed in much the same way that marriage civilizes lust. Both institutions seek to domesticate wayward or fallen human impulses in socially beneficial ways.

And when it came to capitalism, Christian civilization created the basic rules of modern economics. In the Middle Ages, Rodney Stark shows, people first realized that prices should be determined through supply and demand. In the past, prices had been set by law or custom. But Albertus Magnus, a thirteenth-century Dominican friar, explained that prices reflect "what goods are worth according to the estimate of the market at the time of sale." And this of course is what we believe now.

The meaning of 'is'

In 1998, President Clinton attracted a lot of attention when he answered a question about his relationship with Monica Lewinski by saying "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is..." Slate magazine said the answer goes "way beyond slick." The answer was certainly seen as a contortion by many. But I want to suggest that President Clinton had it exactly right.

Grammarians know that "is" is the third person singular form of the verb "to be." (I am, You are, S/He is...) In the Book of Exodus, when God talked to Moses in the burning bush, God identified Himself as "I am" Exodus 3:14 says: God replied, "I am who am." Then he added, "This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM send me to you."

So President Clinton, who was answering a question about his own character, was saying that one's character depends upon who his God is. And that is absolutely correct. If God is calling you to replace your weaknesses with virtue, and you are trying to live by the will of God, that is one thing. But it is quite another thing if you see God as someone who doesn't care how you act, as someone who doesn't expect you to change.

The New Testament explains that Jesus calls on us to repent. That means He calls on us to change. He is calling us to leave behind our weaknesses, to leave behind our old, selfish ways. Once we repent -- that is, resolve to change -- we can begin to replace weakness with virtue, build personal character and grow closer to God. It all depends you your understanding of "is."

Lessons from Enron, part 2

In Virtuous Leadership, author Alex Havard explains that a leader needs strong character. He notes that everyone is born with a temperament. While that temperament typically contains good qualities, it also typically includes weaknesses -- things such as a tendency to become angry too quickly, or a tendency to exaggerate, or to give up too quickly.

People develop character by trying to correct those weaknesses with virtues. A virtue is a habit of doing good. So if you have a temperament pre-disposed to laziness, you might try to overcome that with the virtue of hard work. Temperament is untrained character. A person has to work to develop character.

Before you can lead anyone else, you have to be able to lead yourself, and the process of correcting weaknesses in your temperament with virtues to build character is an example of leading yourself. That's why Havard says a real leader needs character.

Poor Kenneth Lay. He had a big time job as the head of Enron for 17 years, but he apparently lacked the will to correct the weaknesses in his temperament. The inordinant value he placed on being liked apparently prevented him from confronting the hard decisions that leaders have to make. In the "Smartest Guys in the Room," the authors argue that his unwillingness to face conflict contributed to Enron's downfall.

I am not writing this to pick on Mr. Lay, who has since passed away, but to note that no matter what position within a company you hold, you may have to work to develop your own character. A title might give a person authority, but it does not make him a leader. People are more likely to follow someone with strong character than someone with an impressive title.

Lessons from Enron

Enron is a fascinating study for people who are serious about living their faith in the workplace. You remember Enron? It’s the company that was in the news in late 2001 for filing bankruptcy as the result of a spectacular accounting fraud. Thousands of people lost their jobs and their retirement savings, as a result.

I have just finished reading a couple of books about Enron: Loren Fox’s Enron: The Rise and Fall, and the acclaimed The Smartest Guys In The Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. There is a lot to be learned about behavior in a corporate environment from these books. With this post, let me cite just one example.

Here’s how McLean and Elkind describe Kenneth L. Lay, Enron’s leader from its founding in July 1985, right through its Chapter 11 filing in December 2001.

Just as [Lay] wanted outsiders to see him as a good and thoughtful man, he wanted Enron employees to see him the same way. He was the keeper of Enron’s “vision and values,” which Lay later defined as “respect, just treating other people the way we want to be treated ourselves; integrity, making sure that we do have absolute integrity, we’re honest, we’re sincere, we mean what we say, we say what we do…” In one memo sent to staff, he wrote, “As a partner in the communities in which we operate, Enron believes it has a responsibility to conduct itself according to certain basic tenets of human behavior that transcend industries, cultures, economics, and local, regional and national boundaries.” He added that “Ruthless, callousness and arrogance don’t belong here… We work with customers and prospects, openly, honestly and sincerely…”

But at the very top of the company, the handful of insiders who dealt with him regularly had a hard time taking all this seriously – in no small part because Lay’s own actions at times belied his stated creed. He rarely said something difficult to an underling, because he hated unpleasantness. The result was that his key executives found that he could be deceitful, willing to say things that just weren’t true in order to keep people from getting mad at him…” [chapter 7]

Lots of companies have a vision and values statement. How many of the companies live up to those stated values? Probably only a small percentage of them, but I bet the ones that do have a great example in their leader. If you work at a company with such a statement, it is part of your job to uphold the statement. That is a hard-enough job even with a stellar example from the management ranks above you, but if you don’t have that example, it is very difficult to take a company vision and values statement seriously.

It is interesting that in this case, Lay’s failure to live up to his own values statement is the result of his desire to avoid conflict. He didn’t like unpleasantness. Well, no body likes it, but a real leader isn’t worried about doing what’s pleasant; a real leader is concerned about doing what is right.

So the bottom line lessons here are:

• If you are going to publish a statement of values in your company, take it seriously. Be prepared to live by what you say.

• Understand that you have to set the example for that statement to the employees around you. No matter what rank you hold in the company, someone is watching you and they will adjust their own effort for living those values according to the extent they see you living them.

• Sometimes you have to do things that are unpleasant, like deliver bad news, tell someone something they don’t want to hear, accept an unexpected expenditure, etc. If you do what’s right, you have a better chance of being respected. If you focus on being liked, you will be more easily swayed away from doing what’s right, and ultimately far fewer people will respect you.

Washington seemed to understand the GEO Principle

The GEO Principle is all about the integration of personal faith with public life. One person who seemed to have no trouble integrating the two was George Washington, our first president. At this time of Thanksgiving, I invite you to read Washington’s Thanksgiving proclamation.

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLIC THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; -- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; -- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; -- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Warren addresses bankers

Rick Warren, author of the multi-million-selling book, "The Purpose Filled Life," was the closing speaker at the American Bankers Association convention last week in San Francisco. This was a business meeting with 1,700 bankers, that is, people who spend a lot of time around money. Rick Warren is a pastor; he works to save souls. Why would a pastor be a speaker for a group of bankers?

Of course, Warren isn’t just any pastor. Highly successful, he is taking on some of the world’s biggest challenges. Read more here.

Whoever came up with the idea of bringing him in to speak to a group of bankers hit on something. The ballroom was packed as Warren delivered a relaxed, one-hour address. This meeting ended up being a very interesting intersection of faith and commerce.

And that point was not lost on Warren. One of the many interesting points he raised was the notion that business and government and the faith community need to work together to tackle the world’s biggest problems. He said usually people talk in terms of private/public partnerships, meaning business and government. He compared that partnership to a two-legged stool. He said the third leg is the church.

He noted the world-wide reach of the various churches. It is the churches that have buildings in every community and an army of volunteers at their service. These are the ingredients that almost any initiative needs to succeed, and they are not things that businesses or even governments can necessarily deliver on their own.

Warren talked about “integrity.” The root of the word, he explained, is "integer," which means “one,” or a “complete entity.” Integrity is “oneness” or “completeness” within a person. That means a person who does not separate or compartmentalize the various aspects of their life. To have integrity means to live as the same person whether you are in church, at the office, in the market or otherwise in a public space.

Integrity is a good word to use when talking about The GEO Principle or about Warren’s effort to bring business, political and church interests together. We are all spiritual beings. Let’s not be afraid to discuss that opening in any setting, and to utilize the practical realities of faith-filled living in all aspects of our life. I think the ABA took a step in that direction when they invited Pastor Warrant to speak to its members.