Your vision, mission and values are the blueprint for the business you want to build. Are they gathering dust on a shelf or are they honored and lived by everyone in your organization? God gave you a blueprint for living your life. Is it used or gathering dust?
Mass Readings Audio
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_09_02.mp3
023 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time – September 2, 2018
Welcome to the twenty-third episode of By Your Life. Thank you for joining me. If you haven’t already, please subscribe on the right side of the page so I can send you notifications when each new episode is posted. And please forward to a friend you think would benefit from By Your Life.
My goal is to inspire, empower, support, challenge, and encourage you to connect Sunday, with Monday-Friday, in a secular, business world. It is my desire to help you live our Catholic faith in the marketplace, and to trust that it is good for business. I hope to offer you practical ways to go forth and glorify the Lord by your life.
In this edition, we will reflect on the readings for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time. When I read, listened to, and pondered the readings, they re-affirmed the lessons of values-centered leadership I learned from dozens of CEOs and I shared in my book, The Value of Core Values.
Many years ago, I led a leadership team through a strategic planning process. We started with their personal core values and then identified the shared values that were core for the firm. As is often the case, “family” was a common personal value, and it took on a new meaning when they defined it as a shared value for their firm.
At the end of the leadership retreat, the plan was for me to facilitate a session with the rest of their employees to get their input and buy-in to the core values the leaders had identified. One of the partners made a comment at the time and it stuck with me. It was a red flag for things to come. He said, “I hope they are happy we included “family” as a value.” His tone revealed what he truly thought. He didn’t “own” this value. It wasn’t a core value for him. It wasn’t in his heart. You can be sure that he gave this value lip service and when decisions were made, this value didn’t influence his choices.
He’s not the only one. Another client invested time, human and capital resources in an effort to “dust off the four-year-old posters” that listed their company core values and hung in the halls. The CEO had good intentions, but when he faced a big decision, their core values were not his guiding principles. When the going got tough, the core values were left in the dust. (So much for dusting off the posters!)
Unfortunately, too many companies are led by people who give lip-service to their core values. They don’t own the values and therefore they don’t live them. This lack of congruency between what is said and what is done undermines trust. It would be better to not have stated the values at all.
A lack of congruency between what is said and what is done undermines trust.So why does this happen? Why do leaders invest time and energy in creating a list of company core values only to abandon them when facing financial or other pressures? I don’t think they start out with the intent to be hypocrites. I think it is because they totally miss the point. Somewhere, they read that they need to have a vision, mission and values (and they do), but they don’t really understand the purpose. They fail to grasp how the vision, mission and values are the blueprint for the businesses they want to build. What happens is that the blueprint goes into a drawer or on the shelf and it gathers dust.
I’ve worked with other clients who do grasp the implication of stating their core values and then not honoring them with their decisions and behaviors. They know they will be hypocrites the minute they announce them to their employees because they currently don’t live according to the values they have defined. They created a list of aspirational values and they know they have to change their ways if they are to truly become the guiding principles for the organization.
I give these people a lot of credit because at least they honestly admit their fears, and they humbly move forward making progress on the personal growth needed to make the values their own. But why change? Because they recognize that what they are currently doing isn’t working for them. Morale is low, and they are not hitting their financial targets. They can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. They can’t keep being who they are and expect to behave differently. And, it just isn’t fun anymore.
God has given us a blueprint for building a life with Him. Is your copy of the blueprint gathering dust on a bookshelf or is it your go-to guide for living your life?
In the second reading, St. James encourages us to, “be doers of the word and not hearers only.” He goes on to say (in the verses from his letter that were omitted from the reading on Sunday), the one who “is not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does.” In other words, you shouldn’t put these commandments on the shelf or in a drawer. They are for your benefit and were given by the Lord, “that you may live.”
The same is true of your company’s core values. The reason you bother to define them is because you believe that your company will be a better place to work if people embrace them. But this can only happen if every person in the organization is a “doer who acts” according to the values. A player may know all the rules of the game, but if he remains on the sidelines, he doesn’t help the team win.
In all the years I’ve been facilitating core values conversations, I’ve never had a leadership team identify dishonesty, hubris, greed, malice, deceit, envy, or arrogance as their core values. Obviously, that would be ridiculous. However, I have worked for many organizations that suffered from the effects of these core problems. The reality is that every leader and organization operate according to a set of values. The question is, are those values the ones for which you want to be known and which lead to success? When you fail to create a culture based on positive values, these negative qualities can grow and fill the void.
God knows this. That is why he handed down commandments by which we should live. These commandments aren’t a list of rules to keep us from living, rather the truth that gives us life.
In the first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy, we heard how Moses taught the people the statutes and decrees “which the LORD, the God of your fathers” gave them and instructed the people to “observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment.” Moses was talking to us too. We must also observe them carefully. When faced with choices, especially difficult choices, we must consult them in a process of discernment.
We are all presented with situations where we have to decide between what is right and wrong and how we are going to respond. It is not just about what we might do wrong, it is about what we might fail to do right that is cause for concern. As I often tell my clients, “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!”
If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.I can’t help but think that Wells Fargo wouldn’t be paying billions in fines to settle misconduct charges if some employees had reported the scheme when first knew about it. The #metoo movement would be unnecessary if more people, men and women, refused to look the other way and tolerate this injustice in their workplaces. Sexual abuse by some priests would never have been dealt with as it was if good priests, bishops, and lay people rose up and lived the Gospel. Were some of these people hypocrites, yes! They said one thing and did another. They had a public face and in private behaved quite differently. But what about those who did nothing wrong, they just quietly failed to do what was right? Are they hypocrites too?
These headline-making, sensational stories are just the tip of the iceberg of what goes on in organizations across the country every day. I faced one of these difficult decisions several years ago. Actually, it was an easy decision with difficult consequences.
I had been working with a nonprofit organization that does wonderful work supporting the individuals who suffer from a terrible disease. I had been working with them for about 4-5 months when the CEO asked if I could facilitate a strategic planning retreat with their board. Because there was not budget, I agreed to do it pro bono.
A few weeks later, and about two weeks before the board meeting was to take place, I found out that this organization promoted the use of human embryonic stem cells to research cures for the disease. I felt like someone had just kicked me in the gut. There was no way I could facilitate the retreat. At the same time, I had given my word and I would be putting the CEO in a predicament by backing out on such short notice. When I called the CEO, I had to leave a message and it was several days before I got a returned call, which only made the situation worse.
The reaction I got was as expected, and worse. I recognized that by living by moral standards and choosing my respect for life over my commitment to the CEO, I negatively impacted the retreat. I totally understood why the CEO was upset with me.
The CEO understood how my core values guided my decision and respected me for that but suggested that I should also return all the monies the organization had paid me for my services over the prior five months. After all, why would I want to accept any payment from an organization that violated my values? If that would have solved the problem, I would have gladly refunded the money. However, that would only have made matters worse in that I would have been giving them a donation, not only of my time, but cash.
I always strive to live my life as a person of integrity. Admittedly, I often fail. When I do, I want to make it right. In this situation, the answer was not black and white.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, integrity has three definitions:
- Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code. (In lay terms, doing the right thing even when no one is looking.)
- The state of being unimpaired; soundness. (In other words, quality.)
- The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness. (Otherwise known as walking the talk or giving and keeping your word.)
The CEO acknowledged that I had provided them a quality service so apparently, I had satisfied the second definition of integrity. The issue in this case was that there was a conflict between fulfilling the first definition and the third. There was no way that I could honor both. If I kept my word and facilitated the retreat, I would have honored the third definition of integrity (giving and keeping my word,) but violated the first. On the other hand, if I adhered to moral and ethical code and refused to contribute to the destruction of human life in the name of research, I would have had to violate the third.
I knew what I had to do and that meant walking away from a client relationship and doing so on less than favorable terms. I wrote a letter to the CEO and reiterated that I admired the work they did for people living with the disease. I also acknowledged that I supported funding research for a cure but believed this work could continue without the destruction of human life. I hoped that my letter would not only explain my decision, but perhaps cause them to consider the implications of the research they funded and possibly influence a positive change in the future. I never heard from the CEO again, but I have never regretted that decision.
Living our faith has real implications for our decisions in the marketplace. We can’t leave our faith in the pews on Sundays when we walk out of church. Otherwise, we are the ones of whom Jesus speaks when he quotes Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.” Which human precepts are keeping your heart from honoring God?
If we listen to the Gospel message but not practice it, we are failing to improve ourselves spiritually. If we have a list of guiding principles but do not honor them, we are failing to grow and develop ourselves personally and professionally. How does our Catholic faith shape who you are at work? Do you “humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you”?
St. James wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Yes, care for the widows and orphans and sick and poor and take care that you also speak up when there is an injustice in the workplace. Do not allow yourself to be stained by what the world teaches. Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ~ Edmund BurkeLet us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the grace to courageously live the Gospel in all areas of our lives.
May God bless you abundantly and may you glorify the Lord by your life. Amen
Remember to subscribe on the right side of this page and help us spread the word by forwarding to a friend, sharing on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Just click the icons at the top of this post. And let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
