SERVING OTHERS – AND BEING TREATED LIKE A SERVANT

By Robert J. Tamasy

In the marketplace, we hear terms such as “business leaders,” “corporate executives” and entre preneurs in referring to people holding positions of influence and authority. But how often do we hear people describe themselves as “servants” – unless they are complaining?

The term servant can be regarded as demeaning, a term for someone of little value. Some might even view it at the same level as a slave. But in a real sense, “servant leadership” is not only a legitimate term but also an empowering approach that can maximize productivity individually and organizationally.

We can find numerous examples of top executives who have embraced servant leadership in utilizing the gifts and talents of employees and team members, empowering them to put those to the best possible use. But it requires is a willingness to prioritize the needs and interests of othe rs first and give them a stake in matters of importance to them.

The Bible speaks to this in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” It is normal for people in authority to expect special privileges and deference because of their positions, but as the passage states, it requires humility to put the interests of others ahead of one’s own.

HOW WE DO ANYTHING IS HOW WE DO EVERYTHING
By Jim Mathis  

Recently I was honored to be asked to speak to a group of businessmen on the subject, “How we do anything is how we do everything.” This idea is closely connected with integrity. Integrity comes from the same root word as integer, which means “one” and “integrate” – meaning all together. 

The thought is that we can observe one area of our life, or someone else’s for that matter, and translate that to other areas as well. For example, someone who dresses impeccably probably has a clean car and a clean house. Someone who offers to pay an invoice in cash because they think it would be a way for the business to avoid reporting the income would never be someone I would consider to be a partner in my business. An artistic person is quite likely to have well-coordinated furniture and walls painted in interesting colors. Basically, this is because how we do anything is how we do everything.

Employers find it revealing when they take potential employees out to lunch. They have the applicant drive to see what condition their car is in, then note how the prospective hire treats the server. They understand that individuals will treat clients no better than they treat a server at a restaurant – and will maintain company equipment no better than they do their own car. These are good tests because how we do anything is how we do everything.

We can also look at businesses through the same lens.

STRENGTH THROUGH ACCOUNTABILITY

By Robert J. Tamasy

More often than we would like, we hear sad, sometimes scandalous stories of prominent leaders found guilty of moral or ethical wrongdoing. Someone who built a strong reputation and earned the respect and admiration within their profession seeing it all suddenly destroyed when misdeeds came to light.

How could this happen? We wonder and shake our heads, perhaps thinking about the mournful words of Israel’s future king David, “How the mighty have fallen” (2 Samuel 1:19), upon learning of King Saul and his son, Jonathan, dying on the field of battle. Other questions might arise in our minds when we hear about a leader’s epic fail: Could it have been avoided? Were there any early signs that this individual’s career was taking a devastating turn?

The Scriptures give many warnings that such things can happen. For instance, 1 Corinthians 10:12 cautions, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Proverbs 4:23 warns, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Pages of the Bible cite many people who started well walking with God but somewhere along the way got caught up in areas of sin, with terrible consequences. Ironically, one of them was King David, whom 2 Samuel 11 tells us not only committed adultery but also directed that a loyal officer, Uriah, be killed to cover up his wrongdoing. Since all of us are imperfect, does that mean such failures are inevitable?

BLIND SPOTS – ETHICAL DILEMMAS – PART TWO

By Zsolt Szalai - April 3., 2023.

In the previous article, we discussed two of the factors that interfere with ethical functioning, as set out in Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunell's book Blind Spots, and now we are discussing the remaining three: indirect blindness, slippery slope, and valuing outcomes over processes.

In the case of profit-oriented companies, it is often the case that they use the activities of third parties in the production of a particular product or service. This may be due to cost savings, efficiency, the availability of a specific expertise, or even bridging a geographical distance. From an ethical point of view, most of them seem to be completely innocent factors. However, such cooperation may also result in unethical behaviour towards third parties (e.g. price increases, environmental problems, the use of excessively low-cost labour, etc.) and the actual root cause of outsourcing is that this consequence cannot be directly linked to the original company. This often happens because the outsourcing company, if it had taken these steps on its own, would have suffered serious damage to its entire operation from a PR point of view, for example. Indirect blindness shows this phenomenon when we try to eliminate ethical violations from ourselves with the help of the involvement of third parties.

Postmodern thinking of our time prefers to approach phenomena not in an absolute, but in a relative way.