dispatches from the new world of work

Some Pile of Books!

A few days ago I mentioned a new-to-me book, One: The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership, by Manpower Inc. founder Lance Secretan. Recall: Consider: "What would happen if we looked at a customer and saw the face of God in them? To most people it sounds like a lofty idea. But if you see the face of God in a flower, why wouldn't you see it in the face of a customer?" (My interpretation, by the way, was that "God" per se need not be/is not the point—but, more generally, the idea that each person we come in contact with is an extraordinary & precious human being in his or her own right.) (More Secretan: "What is important is not whether I'm remembered, but that I do my best every day. I want to be the person my dog thinks I am.")

Then I came across "just another manuscript" ... but wait. I was hooked (hook, line, and sinker) by the title alone. Adecco exec Steve Harrison offers The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies.

Yes!
Yes!
Yes!

As I said in the fawning blurb I provided, the book is worth twice the cover price for the title alone! The innards live up to the outwards. Stories galore, suggestions galore. Among many other things, Mr Harrison insists, correctly in my view, that you can "smell" a "culture of decency" (or the absence thereof) in but a moment.* He adds that it's one helluva competitive advantage—and if you don't pull it off, at the very least you'll feel better about yourself.

[*This holds for a job interview—both ways. And for a 3-person team or solo contributor as much as for an enormous corporation. And for ... And for ...]

Decency as the heart of managing.
Yes!
Yes!
Yes!

Add to the pile my very recent rediscovery of Robert Greenleaf's Servant Leadership ... and you have a trend!

The face of God in a customer.
Decency.
Chief as Servant-in-Chief.

Tom Peters posted this on 02/20/07.

Comments

As Tom says, Steve Harrison's book, The Manager's Book of Decencies: How Small Gestures Build Great Companies, is in manuscript only. When it becomes available for ordering or pre-ordering at online booksellers, I'll add a link to this post.

Posted by cathy mosca at February 20, 2007 10:28 AM

This is right on the mark. The days of a businessperson being a general are dead! It's time to think WIN/WIN. Time to work in teams! Time to treat people with respect.

We don't need to divide and conquer, we need to work together to reach the summit. I don't want to send my money to Atilla the Hun when I can spend it with Mother Teresa.

Good leaders are good people and bad people make bad leaders!

Posted by Dave Holland at February 20, 2007 11:16 AM

Wonderful words Dave.

A very good friend of mine is a Christian Minister currently working in Namibia. David has produced a 21st Century adaptation of the Beatitudes that we might want to apply in business and work. I endorse David's wonderful words completely and suggest they are appropriate whether we are Christian, Non Christian, of other faith or indeed those with no religion whatsoever in their life.

The original Beatitudes are shown at the foot of this comment; below what I now call;

'The David Greeff Beatitudes 2007

Fulfilled are those who are not ambitious,
For they will have ultimate success.
Fulfilled are those who admit their wrongs and make amends,
For they shall be forgiven.
Fulfilled are those on the lowest rung,
For they shall have recompense from God.
Fulfilled are those who strive to do the right thing,
Right will indeed come to them.
Fulfilled are those who are fair,
For they shall be treated justly.
Fulfilled are those with clean consciences,
For they shall receive what they deserve.
Fulfilled are the catalysts of harmony,
For they shall be called Godâ€™s people.
Fulfilled are those who suffer because they have done the right thing,
For theirs is an unspeakable reward.
Fulfilled are you when you are insulted and mocked, because of association with me (Jesus) and this teaching.
Be deeply and inwardly at peace, for life is infinitely more than the world and work, and everyone who has lived like this for God has experienced the very same.

Here are the Original Beatitudes from 2000 plus years ago

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousnessâ€™ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.
Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 20, 2007 6:04 PM

Reminds me of Robin Wolaner's comments in "Naked in the Boardroom" -- the interview with her (under Cool Friends) bears rereading.

Posted by Paula at February 20, 2007 6:39 PM

Lance Secretan, founder of Manpower Inc. is a horrible example of leadership. Companies like Manpower take a huge percentage of their already low-paid "clients'' wages. Companies who contract with temp services like Manpower pay an hourly rate per employee and the temp service takes 35%+ off the top, keeping the temp workers in the lowest pay rate possible, without benefits, etc. Keep that in mind while reading Mr. Secretan's words of wisdom about leadership. Why doesn't anyone dig under the surface any more, especially with self-proclaimed experts, "leaders," "gurus," and pundits/politicos?

Posted by Red Island Rhodes at February 20, 2007 7:58 PM

Face of God in a customer! Oh Dear. Methinks the founder of Manpower believes his own PR.

Posted by Bob Hail at February 21, 2007 5:56 AM

Red Island Rhodes and Bob - Great comments - why not send the founder of Manpower a copy of 'David Greeffs Beatitudes 2007' - I particularly like this one:

'Fulfilled are those who are fair,For they shall be treated justly.'

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 21, 2007 8:09 AM

If I saw the face of god in one of my customers I would charge thre times as much...

Posted by Steve Gray at February 23, 2007 3:58 PM

Aha! Servant Leadership, Tom...Can't believe you are new to Robert Greenleaf and hope you enjoy him. Don't be put off if you think his description of a servant-leader is too close to Jim Collins' ego-light Level 5 leader (because we all know what you think of whispering Jim's quiet leaders...). There's a guy called John Timpson in the UK who has a chain of retailers he runs on what he calls 'upside down leadership' (or 'upside down management', he calls it) principles in which it's an upside down pyramid, with the front line managers and workers at the top and him and his head office at the bottom supporting, or serving, the others by providing the resources they need to run the business. That's the best example of servant-leadership I've seen in action even though John himself would probably not like or refer to himself as a 'servant-leader'. On the God-thing, interestingly, I was drawn to Greenleaf's ideas of leadership behavior being allowed to emerge in everyone by a servant-leader who supports them, without realizing at the time that he was a Quaker. As the Quakers believe there is 'that of God in each of us', it links with what Secretan says about seeing the face of god in your customers and how powerful that is as an attitude-changer. To take away the religion, I heard a CEO once say that she urges all her frontline people to treat a customer who walks into their stores as if Julia Roberts had just walked into the store - So you could substitute 'celebrity' for 'God' if that works better for you. The core point is, of course, that customers want to be treated as special, not just another customer, and that sort of mind-trick helps us to do that. Phil

Posted by Phil Dourado at February 25, 2007 8:58 AM

OK, RE-discovery. Like RE-Imagine. That makes more sense. I knew you already knew Greenleaf's stuff, Tom :-) . I just had to RE-read your post to RE-alize I hadn't read it properly the first time...
To make up for my overlong comment, above, here is a shorter and hopefully more useful one. It's from Lao-Tse (or Tsu - if he even existed) and is what happens when we get servant-leadership right -

"The great leader
is he* of whom
the people say
'we did it ourselves.' "

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...*or she, of course...Phil

Posted by Phil Dourado at February 25, 2007 9:35 AM

Once again, "values-based" leadership proves its relevance. The Golden Rule has been in our vocabulary for millenia -- blessed are those who embrace its application in ALL arenas of life INCLUDING leadership, management, and business! Why is this concept so difficult for so many business leaders to understand? I encourage all the rest who DO realize the relevance of values-based living to continue to demonstrate their good thinking and good living in their good management and business BEHAVIORS -- their modelling of values is their most powerful form of influence on others! May their tribe increase!

Posted by Dr. Jim Dyke at February 26, 2007 8:54 PM