Dr. Thomas D. Zweifel (Switzerland) is a strategy and performance expert, leadership professor, TED speaker, and coach for leaders of Global 1000 companies. Zweifel is the award-winning author of seven books, including the bestsellers Communicate or Die, Strategy-in-Action, and The Rabbi and the CEO, on which this chapter is based. He has served as CEO of Swiss Consulting Group (1997–2013), and since 2001, he has taught leadership at Columbia University and St. Gallen University.
“The idols of the nations are silver and gold, human handiwork.”
Psalms 135:15–16
“I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve immortality through not dying.”
Woody Allen
The Second Commandment says, “You shall not make yourself a carved image.” Are you worshiping idols? Acting out someone else’s dream or expectation? Money, power, fame—or guruhood—are not goals; they are only a means to an end. A leader’s true vision is larger than life, includes many others, and often outlives the leader. What legacy will you leave behind? This article is excerpted from Zweifel’s award-winning book, The Rabbi and the CEO.
Moses returned to camp and was in for a shock: The people had made a golden calf. They had turned the infinite essence into a thing and prayed to gold. Moses acted decisively: He smashed the tablets and had 3000 of the idolaters killed.1
Why did Moses intervene with such holy fury? Because idols lead people astray from their authentic mission. The Commandment “You shall have no idols” is about focusing on the future without being distracted by short-term gratification or glory. And yet we live at a time when many seem to have their eye on the wrong ball: themselves and their stuff. Back in 1967, a survey of college students found that their highest priority was “a meaningful philosophy of life.”2 By 2006, more than 80% listed “wealth” as their top priority, with “fame” as a close second. Shows like American Idol or Germany’s Next Top Model epitomize this trend.
Nothing wrong with wealth or fame; but they are side-effects at best, and at worst false gods. Famous billionaires like Gates or Buffett, Bloomberg or Oprah did not get there by wanting stardom or billions; they each committed to their own vision of adding value. For that, a leader’s vision must be larger than self-interest.
Judaism is inextricably linked to the vision of a brilliant future; the Promised Land—or the Messiah—is its very essence. So unsurprisingly, the Bible is filled with visionaries like Isaiah who castigated leaders (“O my people, your leaders mislead you, and they have corrupted the direction of your ways”3), but just as easily conjured up stirring visions of peace (“They shall beat their swords into plowshares and … no longer study warfare”4). Training of prophets was even institutionalized in schools. The investment paid off: While only 48 male and seven female prophets (yes, women broke through the glass ceiling then) are named, there were over 1.2 million prophets in Jewish history.5
The Hebrew word for prophet, navi, means “words from lips.” Twelfth-century Maimonides wrote that a prophet who keeps a vision to him- or herself is liable to the death penalty.6 No matter how great your vision—if it’s not shared, it will die. Jürgen Schrempp’s vision for DaimlerChrysler, though hailed as a “merger in heaven,” never materialized. Schrempp failed to align Daimler’s vision (“Only the Best”) with Chrysler’s (whatever the customer wants).
Some have little patience for visionaries. Former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt quipped that if people want vision, they should see an eye doctor. (Understandably: Germans were badly burnt and have been skeptical of grand ideas ever since Hitler’s delusions.) There is nothing wrong with realists concerned with making reliable predictions. Reducing uncertainty is key to management, and it’s only human to wish to lessen the tension between the now and the future you want.
But the only future-oriented statements of realists are soporific forecasts, for example, “After our flat performance last year, we should have 1 percent growth.” Worse, for the realist the future is pretty much an extension of the past.
The Hebrew word for “past,” avar, has the same root as the word for “sin” or “wrongdoing,” averah. Moses knew it was easier to take the people out of Egypt than to take Egypt out of the people. As things got tough, many would idealize the way things used to be.7 But being addicted to the past is the opposite of leadership. Leaders are not merely about changing what is—present circumstances result from yesterday—but about creating what isn’t.
No pipe-dreams, though. Isaiah’s dream of total peace, or Martin Luther King’s that we’ll all be brothers one day, is a worthy aspiration but ultimately beyond reach. A vision, to deserve the name, is unpredictable and yet possible to achieve; a magnet for action, it gets people out of bed each morning; a strategic filter, it weeds out irrelevant actions. It should not be exclusively self-serving (“I want $250,000 a year”) but inclusive, owned by key stakeholders and implementers. Gates’s vision—solving everybody’s computer problems everywhere—is all-encompassing; and Jobs famously asked then-Pepsico’s John Sculley, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”
Proverbs warns that “Where there is no vision, people perish.”8 Yet our concerns tend to be short-term: this quarter’s stock price, e-mail backlogs or office politics. Many managers spend virtually all their time running the present, not crafting the future. Many of us are caught in business-as-usual. Even if we put out the occasional fire, we react to circumstances; we live from the past—unless we are struck by a shocking change of destiny, like a sudden illness or (in my case) 9/11.
One man had a rude awakening from business-as-usual: Alfred Nobel, who had amassed his fortune through war ammunition. When his brother died, Nobel’s life changed. One newspaper confused the two and believed Alfred was the dead brother. So he got the rare chance to read his own obituary while still being alive. It was not pretty. The article described Nobel as the man responsible for killing more people than anyone in history.
He realized he would be remembered for this death-laden legacy. Loath to leave such a legacy, he established the Nobel Prize, which would become the ultimate honor in literature, science—and peace. Over a century later, Nobel’s lasting legacy is not chiefly his contribution to war and death, but to peace and life.
Leaders, in Gandhi’s words, must “Be the change we wish the world to make.”9 The Talmud asks, “Who is wise?” and answers: “He who sees what is to be born.”10 Imprisoned for 27 years, Nelson Mandela stood in the future—until finally, impossibly, he became president.
When my client, a tier-one energy company’s president, crafted his life vision, one commitment was, “Make people laugh.” I was nonplussed. Was this the same intimidating guy who berated subordinates; whose conference calls were deadly corporate torture? Yes, he said. He wanted to tell war stories and corporate jokes on stage. I asked, “Why are you waiting until retirement? How about living that future now?” At the Christmas party, managers came up to my table and whispered, “What did you do with him? He is a new man. He cracks us up. He’s actually fun to work for!”
That is authentic vision—and authentic leadership.
Notes
1. Deuteronomy 34:10–12.
2. Gene I. Maeroff, “Study Finds Fewer Freshmen in College Look into Teaching,” The New York Times, January 29, 1983.
3. Isaiah 3:12.
4. Isaiah 3:4.
5. Talmud, Megillah, 14a. According to the Midrash Rabba, Song of Songs 4:11, for every male prophet there was one female prophetess.
6. Moses Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, approx. 1170–1180, Chapter 9, Law 3.
7. William Bridges, “Getting Them through the Wilderness: A Leader’s Guide to Transition,” New Management, 1987: 50–55.
8. Proverbs 29:18.
9. Arun Gandhi quoting Mohandas Gandhi, in Michel W. Potts, “Arun Gandhi Shares the Mahatma’s Message,” in India-West (San Leandro, CA, February 1, 2002), Vol. XXVII, No. 13: A34.
10. Tamid 32A.
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Mahatma Gandhi