Enron. Arthur Anderson. Tyco. WorldCom. Adelphia. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities… Their leaders were highly touted, considered the most talented, the best and the brightest. And yet, these and others cascading business disasters contributed to the largest business failures in modern financial history. And all of them were caused not by disruptive technology, superior competition, unforeseen shifts in the marketplace, but by the lack of character on the part of the leaders. In the final analysis, character can take out a company more completely than incompetence or competition.
Before and after everything, companies are about character.
Before the first idea, the first money, the first employees, the first distributor, retailer and customer, before the creation of the company itself, there is the character of the founders.— Michael S. Malone, Infinite Loop, p.1
The gurus and the books would tell us that great enterprises begin with the great vision of the leader, what the leader sees “out there” or the previously unimagined breakthrough he sees. This vision is what he communicates to rally people and resources to his mission. But ultimately the very soul and survival of the enterprise depends upon a very different kind of vision. It is the vision of what the leader sees when he looks inside his own soul.
We know how to build strategic plans, business plans and project plans to accomplish our vision, our dream. But how do we build our own inner life? How do we start? How is character formed? When we look into our own heart, what do we see? When was the last time we carved out time to really look? And do we realize that it is from inside the heart that the real accomplishments and consequences of life and business are shaped?
I think this is where the cutting edge of business training and education must go. This is more than understanding ethics. It is grasping the fundamental importance of character. When will our business curriculums and corporate training and mentoring embrace the challenge of building character?
Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. — Proverbs 4:23 The Message
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Comments
Well said Dan! If we don’t begin to turn the emphasis back to character, we’ll turn out like a house with mold. It just continues to get worse until the only solution is demolition.
The choice is truly ours…we have enough good data to make the right decision.
Character must be a very important commodity. It seems that every day, we see or hear of people who have power, position, wealth and influence become utter and complete failures, simply because of the lack of it. A man I once worked for, who became more of a brother than a boss, told me that he prayed every day that he would do only those things which would be good for him. He said that he was aware that the prayer sounded selfish, but his reasoning was that if he did "only those things which would be good for him", he’d be doing the Lord’s will. He certainly understood the value of character, and that daily expression of his "inner life" provided a great example for me.
I work at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego and I think our business school motto is relevant here. "More than the bottom line: Business education to change the world." They like to say that they don’t teach a class in ethics because issues of ethics and character are woven into to entire program. Our MBA students graduate wanting to make the world a better place. They care about social issues, they care about the planet, they care about people on the other side of the world. It’s pretty cool to work at a place that takes what you are suggesting to heart.
For all the talk these days about integrity, candor, transparency and courage (and whatever other buzzword I’m forgetting at the moment), if we sustituted and focused on character, we’d be in a far different place. Good post.