Leadership with Love

“We love Him, because He first loved us.”  -- 1 John 4:19

Among our readings this week, my favorite is “Leadership with a Small “L”. This is a graduation speech given by BYU Idaho President Kim B. Clark on December 14, 2007. It outlines 3 principles of true leadership exemplified by the Savior. Principle #3 discusses leading with love. Such leadership is not often found in the business world, but a good example occurred this past week.

The day after the nightclub shooting in Orlando Florida, some of the employees of a Chick Fil A store in Orlando went to work. The company is well known for its policy of remaining closed on Sunday in order to honor the Sabbath day. These employees were not seeking to change corporate policy, nor were they seeking public acclaim. They prepared chicken sandwiches and sweet tea then delivered them to a local blood bank where people were waiting in line to donate blood for the victims of the shooting. Food was also prepared for the law enforcement officers tasked with ensuring the safety of those donating blood. 

A bishop of mine while I was growing up taught “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.  By serving their fellow community members, these employees were following the Savior's example of leading with love. They personified love in action. They quietly comforted those in need of comfort and shared a powerful testimony of God’s love (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18:9).

I want to always remember this event. I want to lead with love in my business.

Excellence Along the Way

"It is simply a truism that nothing very valuable can come without significant sacrifice and effort and patience on our part." -- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

This week I have learned to understand Excellence. Yes, that capital “E” is intentional. Excellence is one of those qualities that can be difficult to define, because what is excellent for me may not be excellent for somebody else. To re-work an old adage, “one man’s mediocrity is another man’s excellence”.

The themes of mastery and excellence come together to form a more complete picture of our entrepreneurial journey. These concepts intertwine with each other and combine to make a wonderful life. I now understand more fully that my journey requires two things (at least): commitment and a vision.

Commitment is best expressed as a combination of the quote from Elder Holland and this quote from Tom Peters, who is quoting the founder of IBM: "A while back, I came across a line attributed to IBM founder Thomas Watson. If you want to achieve excellence, he said, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work." At first this idea seems to conflict with the insight from Elder Holland. Only when we understand excellence as a journey, and not a destination, do we begin to understand how daily commitment to excellence (or any other virtue) gives us a life of meaning.

A vision provides the daily fuel necessary to sustain our journey through darkness, difficulty and despair. But not just any vision will do. It must be clear in our minds and grand enough to keep us rising each time we fall.

This journey will be long. Rome was not built in a day, as the saying goes. But with a vision to inspire us, and commitment to the journey, success is only one more step away.

Building Upon a Sure Foundation

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation. . ."  Helamen 5:12 - The Book of Mormon

It was March of 1990. The company where I worked was sponsoring a conference for our customers which included a seminar by Stephen R. Covey. After listening to Dr. Covey’s presentation I purchased two copies of his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I stood in line for him to sign my purchase, and he added the scripture quote above from the Book of Mormon. Thus began my journey with “The Seven Habits”.

All of the Habits are important because they share principles which, when developed into habits, will maximize the possibility of success. Just now, the principle that I am developing is Habit #3 – put first things first. By choosing to focus my time and energy on things that are most important, I can minimize interruptions caused when important things go wrong. Habit #3 allows me to exercise the most freedom in my work, as well as the ability to choose when I will work on specific projects. Habit #3 embodies the spirit of this quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today”.

Mastery of this habit of successful people will allow me to align my work with the values that are most important to me. Learning to proactively and effectively manage my time will give me more time to serve the people around me. I am not a perfect practitioner of the Seven Habits, but as I focus on them day after day I know I will be successful.