Chapter 18
WISDOM AND MASTERY IN BUSINESS
WHAT DO WISDOM, faith, and mastery have to do with small business? If you’ve gleaned anything from the preceding chapters, you know at least one thing: taking the qualitative growth, big-vision small-business path can be very challenging and thus requires inspiration, faith, mastery, and wisdom—sometimes in very large doses.
While life as an employee includes the more trying moments that can broaden perspective, wisdom, and skillfulness, someone else ultimately holds the responsibility for ensuring that the business remains viable (and for seeing that the garbage cans get emptied). A small-business owner, in contrast, has many of the same personal and professional responsibilities as his employees yet also walks the bottom line as the enterprise’s primary investor, decision maker, risk taker, and accountability holder. Add the higher standards and ideals of creating and sustaining a business aligned with big-vision priorities and practices, and the crowd begins to thin.
This is why a big-vision small enterprise can be a powerful vehicle for personal, professional, and spiritual development. Most wisdom and mastery schools include right relationship, right view or vision, compassionate communication, courage, service to others, and other big-vision principles among their primary tenets. To emphasize them as points of excellence and distinction in your business is to make them high priorities for refinement and development. This section begins an exploration of the symbiotic relationship between wisdom, mastery, and big-vision small business and how that relationship offers fertile ground for qualitative growth.
WISDOM, FAITH, MASTERY, AND BUSINESS
Historical accounts suggest that Abraham Lincoln—who was, you may remember, the coproprietor of a small law practice before he became president of the United States—suffered great bouts of melancholy and depression. At times while he was president, he was said to be mentally and spiritually wounded by the ills that breached the nation and by the decisions he, as the embattled republic’s leader, routinely had to make.
Lincoln was not a fair-weather leader; he governed during far from easy times. Despite the fact that his words would become etched in the nation’s memory and moral fabric, many of his decisions were publicly ridiculed and vigorously opposed by many of the journalists and politicians of his day (including those who alleged that he scribbled out the now acclaimed Gettysburg Address while on a train to the next political speech). From where did he draw the strength to endure the difficulties of leadership? With what did he shore up his surely challenged faith?
Leaders from the far reaches of history to the present day have drawn much needed inspiration from a variety of wisdom and mastery practices. What is the role, then, of such practices in the health of a visionary small-business leader and, in turn, the healthy evolution and contribution of her business? Regardless of the words used—-faith, spirituality, religion, philosophy, mindset management, psychology, personal development—some sort of practice, often philosophical or spiritual in nature, forms the basis for a business owner’s ability to skillfully envision and implement her business—and then navigate the challenges of business ownership. In turn, the journey of business ownership has the potential to become a vehicle or form of ministry through which one practices and builds competence, knowledge, and wisdom. As contemporary theologian and author Matthew Fox writes in his book The Reinvention of Work, “Work is that which puts us in touch with others, not so much at the level of personal interaction, but at the level of service in the community.”1
For his part, Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome, relied on the teachings of Stoic philosophers to help him maintain clarity, integrity, purposefulness, and perspective during the two turbulent decades of his leadership.2 Many modern-day leaders find guidance in the teachings of Aurelius and others like him as they strive to live and work with faith and integrity in a world that remains turbulent.
Personal mastery practices, while perhaps drawing from a well that includes philosophical and faith teachings, seem to address more tactical measures for making externally visible changes, where wisdom practices emphasize change from within. On one hand, well-known personal-mastery experts such as Anthony Robbins inspire motivation in their followers through a dynamic presentation style, generous doses of real-world anecdotes, and step-by-step “do it to become it” processes. Faith leaders or spiritual gurus, on the other hand, emphasize a “believe it to see it” approach that incorporates practices such as meditation, prayer, and sacred readings. Tapping psychologically based personal-mastery practices in the workplace doesn’t often raise eyebrows. After all, applying Anthony Robbins’s teachings or the mindset management approaches of your favorite professional athletes doesn’t cross the line we draw between public and private, religious and secular. Start talking about religion or spirituality at work, and more than a few hackles are raised. A big-vision small-business practice draws upon resources from both wells.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF FAITH PRACTICES IN OUR WORK?
Many philosophical and spiritual belief systems include guidance for how one’s ethics or values might become manifest in one’s work. Buddhists refer to right livelihood, Christians may refer to the work or calling, Judaism includes the path of the Baal Shem Tov, Islam influences how its most mindful followers work, as do the Tao, Baha’i, Native American Church, and other guiding faith practices or philosophical approaches.
The European Baha’i Business Forum (EBBF), for example, embraces a very deliberate mission, with aligned core values, to integrate the Baha’i faith practices with the business activities of its members. Similar in spirit to other faith and wisdom traditions, EBBF seeks to promote several core values or concepts:3
1. Ethical business practices
2. The social responsibility of business
3. Stewardship of the earth’s resources
4. Partnership of women and men in all fields of endeavor
5. The need to redefine the meaning of work
6. Nonadversarial decision making through consultation
7. The application of spiritual principles, or human values, to the solution of economic problems
According to George Starcher of EBBF, “The statement of our mission has helped enormously to motivate an increasing number of members to be active in promoting and practicing values such as business ethics and corporate social responsibility in a number of ways. Some members organize and participate in monthly meetings in Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, and other places, with speakers on one or another of the core values.”
Other EBBF members, Starcher relates, have made dramatic, sometimes life-changing decisions as a result of their participation in EBBF and their commitment to living these values:
One member was an asset manager for a bank in Luxembourg and left to become a management consultant because he felt advising clients on investing money held for tax evasion or other unethical reasons was morally wrong. Still other members struggle to practice these values on a day-to-day basis in their own companies: one member turned down a $20 million contract because he sincerely felt the behavior of the client did not permit him to add real value to the project. Finally, one of our Russian members owns an advertising agency and asks candidates he is recruiting to read and accept our core values. One candidate said he agreed to all of the values except he could not agree to equal opportunity for women and men. He was not hired as a result.
Followers of varying faith or philosophical practices who take these belief systems to heart find themselves, sometimes unexpectedly, on the common ground of running their small enterprise in a way that is more conscious of its effect on others; keeps one’s family, community, and world in mind; and is in some way of service to the health and sustenance of the whole system or group through the work of the individual. And there is value in drawing from a practice other than one’s own. Though I’m not a practicing Buddhist, for instance, reading about the Buddha’s Eightfold Path or Four Noble Truths has been both educational and inspiring, with its encouragement of right relationship and right action. While it’s very challenging to consistently meet such high ideals, the wisdom is very relevant to the way I want to run my business and do my work. Other small-business owners feel the same way about martial arts or similar disciplines that align practices for mind, body, and spirit with the intention of being a more enlightened citizen in business as well as private life.
Faith and the Marketplace: Old or New Trend?
Mixing wisdom practices and work is hardly a new trend, though you might think it so, judging from the flurry of “soul of the corporation” books hitting the market in recent years. In fact, the very words professional, vocation, and money have distinctly spiritual historical roots or affiliations. The word professional has referred to one who professes his faith; vocation has historically spoken of divine calling; and the word money is derived from Monéta, also known as Juno, in whose temple ancient Romans housed their mint.4 Even Forbes magazine had more idealistic origins than one would guess. B. C. Forbes started the publication in 1917 with the primary intention of encouraging humaneness in the business community, which he felt was “mercenarily minded, obsessed only with determination to roll up profits regardless of the suicidal consequences of their shortsighted conduct.”5
Many people still create distinct separations between religious or faith practices and the work they do for a living: one set of practices occurs in their church, temple, or mosque; another set of practices is relegated to the workplace; and perhaps still another is reserved for the home. Yet many an individual proudly speaks of her “Puritan work ethic,” in which idle hands breed the devil’s work and industriousness is righteous, without giving a thought to the concept’s spiritual roots. People often seem unaware of how deeply their world-view of work and business is connected to the religious practices of some of their country’s—and culture’s—very pious founding mothers and fathers.
Still, an increasing number of us, whether small-business owners or employees, are more openly discussing and quietly incorporating the connection between our faith or mastery practices and how we work or conduct business. Why are we so fearful about connecting spiritual and business activities, and how can we find a positive, authentic balance between the two?
Where Religion and Work Meet
The appropriate place for faith practices in our highly pragmatic business world is a delicate issue. Such activities can easily go beyond a quiet source of inspiration for ethical practices to become mandated or, perhaps worse, appropriated by a company for questionable—if not decidedly unspiritual or unethical—purposes.
Why the growing interest, or concern, about the intersection of spirituality with work? The corporation is requiring increasing amounts of an employee’s time. American workers put in more hours per year than do their counterparts in other industrialized nations. And with some companies offering assistance with what used to be very personal responsibilities—everything from laundry pickup to day care to dinner takeout, and even corporation-paid chaplains—is it any surprise that prayer circles or readings from the world’s holy scriptures might take place in a corporate conference room instead of the church hall or someone’s living room?
As is the case with many management trends, a key challenge is seeing that valuable, and in this case sacred, concepts or traditions don’t become shallow buzz phrases that mask less than honorable corporate actions. In the best cases, leaders embrace these activities because they serve the highest good of the men and women who work for the organization. But many “spirit at work” practices can seem more like well-meaning but reflection-free efforts that insult deeply held faith traditions and threaten to create unhealthy dependencies.
For example, one company’s much publicized program of sending employees off on Native American-style vision quests so they can have breakthrough thinking on new product development seems a shameful step over a very sacred line.6 However, it’s a step that more and more corporations will take if it promises to extract one more drop of creativity that can be used to boost investor return. Corporate executives walk a fine line between promoting practices that they hope will increase employee productivity and retention and taking care not to favor religious activity in situations that could be seen as prejudicial. What if an employee felt penalized because he did not share the openly practiced faith traditions of his manager or refused to go on a “vision quest” in protest over the perceived disrespectful nature of such a program?
Exploitation of the renewed interest in spirituality can also be found in corporate advertising—such as television commercials depicting spiritual gurus, angels, or meditation groups as a means to sell hamburgers, office equipment, or financial services. By creating a connection to the viewers’ desire for spiritual progress, the advertisers suggest that the product or service in question can help achieve a more spiritual state—a twist that implies you can skip the more demanding meditation practice and simply eat your way to spiritual enlightenment by stuffing yourself with a deluxe burger and french fries while driving your luxury car. Who cares that the actual tenets of such spiritual traditions are aimed at getting you past the very same material obsessions?
“You can’t take our beliefs out of the Badlands and put them into one of your factories or office buildings.”
JOHN (FIRE) LAME DEER, SIOUX MEDICINE MAN
In contrast to the efforts of their public-company counterparts, leaders in private organizations may have greater leeway in encouraging ethics or faith practices that would be heavily scrutinized in a public corporation. In some private companies, chief executives encourage ways of working that are inspired by their Christian practices, referring to God or Jesus Christ as their chief executive officer. Others speak openly of the role their personal faith traditions play in their work life and business priorities and open business meetings with a prayer. In a big-vision enterprise, where everyone is invited to work in accordance to his own and the organization’s shared values, such practices might be welcomed so long as they’re introduced respectfully and no one is required to adopt the spiritual beliefs of a colleague or employer. Indeed, in some big-vision organizations, the emphasis is on a set of virtues or values rather than on the rituals of a particular religion.
Clarks is one enduring organization that has operated in accordance with the founding family’s Quaker roots since its inception in 1825. The British shoe company credits its long-term success to the Quaker propensity for “plain dealing”—having integrity in dealings with others and generally striving to be above reproach. The result is a lean operation that has a respected reputation for social responsibility, progressive employment and manufacturing policies, and high-quality products that have become even more popular in an era of the “geek chic” dress code favored in technology companies.7
In another example that is now almost legendary, Aaron Feuerstein, the president and chief executive of Malden Mills Industries, Inc., in Lawrence, Massachusetts, chose to rebuild his factory after fire closed the operation in December 1995. In addition to making an announcement of that commitment immediately after the fire, he made a second very unusual decision that eased the deep anxiety no doubt felt by the company’s 3,000 employees: all would receive full pay for 90 days and benefits for twice that time. The story is legendary because, judging from contemporary news headlines, most company executives wouldn’t make such a costly decision even if the company’s financial situation made it possible. But Feuerstein did, referencing the Torah as his source of inspiration, citing a teaching that “not everybody who makes money is wise in the eyes of God” and that a good name, earned by decent behavior and caring for others, is the greatest treasure that one can acquire.8
As for employees, while those of a small business don’t share the identical concerns and challenges of their large-corporation counterparts, they are challenged nonetheless to find meaning in their work. A small business can be an optimal learning laboratory for an employee who prefers a more intimate, familylike, merit-based dynamic, and who disdains unnecessary bureaucracy, hierarchy, and tenure-based promotion. Yet the same employee may occasionally feel the pressure of being very visible, on good days and bad, and feel the weight of the responsibility that comes with being crucial to the organization. She must struggle on some days to make that discomfort worthwhile. And the demands of business ownership only multiply and magnify the need to find meaning. This is one issue where big-vision priorities and practices can help: answering the question “Why is this worthwhile?”
Even with more talk of spirituality on the job, ardently espousing religious beliefs in the workplace makes many people uncomfortable. This may be due to a sensitivity to anything that resembles the enforcement of certain religious practices in a country where religious freedom is protected by the Constitution and where a general sense of freedom is both an individual and entrepreneurial priority. There certainly seems cause for concern when faith traditions are mined and stripped of their spiritual intent for use by the corporation toward what some feel are dubious ends that run counter to the underlying tenets of the religious practice harvested. And yet there is middle ground between, on one hand, mandated religious activity or disrespectful misuse of faith practices and, on the other, having no relationship between spiritual practice and one’s work. You can find inspiration in such practices as a source of renewal that fuels and provides guidance about how to implement the big vision.
One hurdle is language and the assumptions that certain words generate. Fervent attachment or aversion to specific definitions of words such as faith (and certainly God) may prevent any possibilities for a symbiosis of faith practices and secular work. In the spirit of the golden rules featured in Section Three, relinquish even for a moment your preconceived notions about faith, wisdom traditions, religion, spirituality, and personal-mastery practices. Hold an open mind and heart as we explore and reflect upon possible options for an appropriate relationship between such activities and our work as big-vision small-enterprise owners.
The Need for Meaning in the Workplace
Regardless of the discomfort it may cause, it’s an important discussion. With the downsizing and intense market fluctuation of the recent decade, we’re in the midst of a crisis of meaning. More and more people talk openly of needing more balance and less work-related stress, renewing or building ties to communities outside of work, cultivating greater meaning and skillfulness in their work, and seeking limits on just how much of their time and energy the corporation owns. According to a 2000 Gallup study, 80 percent of Americans feel the need for spiritual growth. Numerous other studies link intrinsic motivation and performance quality; the more individually meaningful the assignment or job, the more satisfied the participant and the better his performance. Another study discusses the ability of study participants to find meaning in even the most repetitive, seemingly mundane work by taking pride in doing the job well or linking the job to how it benefits others.9
Given the number of hours spent working and the fact that meaning makes work more satisfying, it’s no wonder that more people are seeking a greater purpose. Nor is it surprising that the interest in self-help, personal mastery, and spiritual books, workshops, and practices has been on the rise in the same decade that saw enormous corporate shake-ups, downsizings, mergers, and layoffs (not to mention significant business and political ethics scandals). Their faith in the Almighty Corporation shaken, more people are returning to the teachings and practices that have endured beyond the life of the most recent initial public offering (IPO) or market cycle. Some seekers find more stability and a greater sense of meaning in the arms of the ancient sacred teachings than they found while wrapped in the false security blanket of their employer company.
Wisdom traditions have been associated with and valued for fostering a sense of purpose in the daily tasks that make up a meaningful life. The wisdom embodied in such traditions helps answer the questions What gives you meaning or a sense of purpose? Can something external to you give you that sense, or is harboring such an expectation merely setting yourself up for misery? How does a sense of meaning or purpose help us navigate difficult times?
Since faith and personal mastery practices foster meaning in the hearts and minds of the faithful, these disciplines, personally inspired and individually practiced, can be highly relevant to our own performance in and the sense of purpose we derive from (and share through) our big-vision small business.
Common Wisdom and Mindset Challenges
Business and its inherent challenges seem highly practical concerns, particularly when viewed through a cultural filter that emphasizes quantity as an absolute measure for success. Yet there is, as any business owner can tell you, much about business that is anything but tangible. There is no logical answer, for example, why a business owner might choose to persevere, at a financial cost to himself, when the odds of staying in business seem heavily stacked against him. Similarly, it seems irrational to the hard-core profiteer that a big-vision business owner would reduce her own financial return on investment in favor of a higher ratio of charitable work, a more selective client roster, a less profitable but personally satisfying business niche, a noble cause, more time with family, or other seemingly “mushy” pursuits. Such decisions don’t fit the prevailing business model because they rely on a definition of value that includes qualitative as well as quantitative priorities. Money is one—but not the only or even most important—factor in the big-vision small-business bottom line.
Each of us nurtures a whole stable of expectations and perceptions that lead to anxiety over our societal insistence that business should be an absolutely linear affair that neatly conforms to a spreadsheet analysis. Although some business leaders think otherwise, business is not a completely mechanical, rational, or tangible matter, precisely because it involves human beings and relies to some degree on an unseen dynamic that even philosopher-economist Adam Smith acknowledged as “the invisible hand” or “code of honor.” We arrogantly believe that we can and should control everything and suffer because we cannot. For example, what makes us think that everything should be easy and that, if something is challenging or difficult, there must be something wrong, either with us or the situation? Similarly, faced with common business challenges, such as those that occur in staffing, financing, or business development, why can we be immediately beset by embarrassment, anxiety, or feelings of failure that can likely be traced not to our own interest but to our concern over how we’re perceived by others? How can we pursue the high ideals of a big-vision enterprise if we’re so easily thrown off course by more mundane challenges?
Mindset management plays an enormous role in how we define our business and its role in our lives, just as it does in how we respond to a host of related hurdles and external pressures. And if thought is the realm of spirituality and psychology, then wisdom traditions and personal-mastery practices are the ultimate prescription for such ills.
Remember, one of the things that differentiates the big-vision small-business owner from his peers is how he faces and works through issues about money, risk, competition, balance, time, and success (to name a few) and what he does when confronted by these opportunities for qualitative growth. Let’s take a look at just a few of the issues that challenge our perceptions and, depending on our wisdom and understanding, may sometimes cause considerable anxiety (and potential for mastery) in an average small-business owner’s week.