known is the compassion on which Howard Schultz, Starbucks’
founder, based the company. This compassion was based on his own
experience as a working-class Brooklyn youth whose father rarely expe-
rienced anything like the Golden Rule. Schultz’s father shuffled be-
tween a number of jobs—truck driver, cab driver, factory worker—at
which he rarely received benefits and even more rarely felt like a valued
member of the organization.
Schultz writes, ‘‘I guess I really began to realize that there were many
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THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
things we did not have access to in terms of privileges. As I got older, I
realized there were things about my childhood that gave me . . . the
unique view towards wanting to do something for others because we
didn’t have it ourselves.’’ In a word, Schultz wanted his workplace to be more compassionate. ‘‘I always wanted to build the kind of company
that my father never got to work for.’’
What kind of company is it? Most of us know Starbucks only from
the receiving end: upscale coffees and confections served in pleasant
physical surroundings by smiling, motivated young employees. What
makes these employees so motivated are the working environment and
benefits package Schultz has put together for them. He has made every
employee an owner by initiating the ‘‘Bean Stock’’ option plan. He
feels his benefits package is ‘‘the greatest single advantage we have be-
cause of the value and relationship that our people have to the company,
to each other, and most important, to our customers and shareholders.’’2
One of Schultz’s ‘‘baristas’’ (fancy name for counter help who own
‘‘Bean Stock’’) adds, ‘‘Because we are treated so well . . . it’s reflected in the way we treat our customers.’’3
All of this grew out of Schultz’s own version of the Golden Rule:
‘‘Do unto your employees what was not done for your father.’’
Gordon Bethune’s leadership of the Continental Airlines turnaround
was based largely on focus and purpose. He made the airline run on
time. But he didn’t do it with cold-hearted efficiency the way that
Mussolini made the trains run on time in Fascist Italy. Bethune, despite
the large scope of his mission, never lost sight of the value of ‘‘being
nice.’’
‘‘Be nice, but how?’’ he writes in From Worst to First. ‘‘Simple! You act nice. And you insist that everybody act nice. I treated my direct
reports the way I would want to be treated. They treated theirs the
same way, and on down the line.’’ What’s more, Bethune tied this
‘‘niceness’’ to a very important business variable, compensation.
‘‘Everybody knew that part of their compensation . . . would be based
on whether the people they worked with said they were pleasant to
deal with and whether they were working as a team.’’4
Bethune’s industry competitor, Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines,
Kindness and Compassion
53
has his own version of the Golden Rule: ‘‘I know it sounds simple, but
I keep saying, follow the golden rule of service. Serve others as you
would like to be served.’’ In an industry where people are often referred
to as ‘‘seats,’’ Kelleher exhorts his troops, ‘‘Don’t treat people like ob-
jects. Do you like to be treated like one? . . . Don’t be a hypocrite.
Provide the service you yourself would like to receive.’’5
Lest we relegate these biblical leadership principles to two mavericks
of the airline industry, how about one of the world’s largest power
companies? CEO Dennis Bakke of AES founded his company overtly
on biblical principles. ‘‘The Bible teaches us that each person is holy,
special and unique . . . Treat each person with respect and dignity . . . I would love to get the workplace as close to the Garden (of Eden) as
possible, knowing we can’t. But I shouldn’t stop trying.’’6 Now there’s
an ambitious mission statement!
Ben & Jerry’s has been called many things: outrageous, irreverent,
wacky, hippie-ish. But biblical? Absolutely, particularly in the com-
pany’s sense of kindness and compassion toward its employees, suppli-
ers, and customers. Notes Jerry Greenfield, whose company is often
accused of having ‘‘hippie values,’’ ‘‘We say, ‘It’s more like biblical values. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. . . .’ Just
because the idea that the good you do comes back to you is written in
the Bible and not in some business textbook doesn’t make it any less
valid . . . There is a spiritual aspect to business [although] most compa-
nies try to conduct their businesses in a spiritual vacuum.’’7
How does Ben & Jerry’s avoid this spiritual vacuum? By taking risks
in the name of compassion and kindness. Ben & Jerry’s needed to pur-
chase large quantities of brownies for a new flavor of ice cream. Many
struggling young ice cream companies would have gone for the most
experienced, cheapest, most efficient supplier. Ben & Jerry’s went for
‘‘none of the above.’’ Instead, they went for the most compassionate
choice—Greyston Bakeries, a nonprofit institution that trains and em-
ploys the economically disadvantaged. The result? Initially—a disaster!
The workers and equipment weren’t up to the demands of making
6,000 to 7,000 pounds of brownies a day. But Ben & Jerry’s stuck with
Greyston through all the technical and personnel difficulties. Today,
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THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
Greyston comfortably makes whatever Ben & Jerry’s requires and has
leftover capacity to sell to other companies.
MATERIAL KINDNESS
Emotional kindness and compassion are felt deeply by the recipient. So
is material kindness, particularly when that is what is most needed.
When a person is in need of food or shelter, whether temporarily or
permanently, it is of little help to tell him of your ‘‘strong emotional
support’’ without addressing that need. Jesus knew that the material
needs of people had to be satisfied before they would be open to the
spiritual message, which is why he was so quick to provide loaves and
fishes to 4,000 even when his resources seemed meager (five loaves and
two fishes). Perhaps as someone who was born in a humble manger
because there was no room at the inn, he could appreciate the material
needs of his followers.
One man who would not have turned Jesus and his family away
from his inn is J. Willard Marriott, CEO and chairman of Marriott
International. Marriott creates an entire culture in which the ‘‘stranger’’
receives a warm bed and, more important, a warm welcome. ‘‘They’re
away from home,’’ he says of his customers. ‘‘They’re tired. Their feet
hurt. And maybe they’ve lost the deal they came to do . . . By the time
they get to our front desk, they’re whipped and we’ve got to take care
of them.’’ (Mary and Joseph should have met such an innkeeper!)
But Willard Marriott knows that the waters of compassion can’t be
drawn from a poisoned well. Kindness begets kindness. Employees who
are treated poorly don’t treat guests with the warm hospitality that sepa-
rates the average from the great in this industry: ‘‘We have to take care
of our employees; otherwise, how can we expect them to take care of
our customers?’’ notes Marriott. ‘‘If you’ve got a grouchy room clerk,
or . . . the waitress doesn’t say hello, you won’t enjoy your stay. And
every time I make a speech, and I mean every time, I talk about these
things. We want to help people—not only our customers, but the peo-
ple who take care of our customers.’’8
Kindness and Compassion
55
Marriott is one man who has created a vast hospitality empire based
on the compassionate words of Paul in Romans 12:10: ‘‘Love each
other . . . never be lazy . . . invite guests who need food and lodging.’’
Noah would have been a poor manager indeed if he had responded
with mere ‘‘feelings of empathy’’ when he learned that a flood threat-
ened to wipe out the entire human and animal population of the planet.
He immediately organized a work team to respond to the physical need
for a floating hotel.
Another manager who responded with practical compassion and
kindness to a natural disaster is M. Anthony Burns, CEO of Ryder
Systems. When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, Burns knew he had to
do more than keep renting trucks. Instead, he made the lobby of Ry-
der’s corporate headquarters available to the United Way. He donated
food and clothing to charitable agencies and loaned out Ryder’s trucks
to people who needed to transport themselves and possessions to safer,
drier places (sort of a fleet of Noah’s arks).
Whereas many CEOs are content to ‘‘head up’’ these types of efforts
from their desks in corporate dry-dock, Burns went out on the front
lines and joined the work crews who were repairing roofs. With Burns’s
blessing, Ryder employees worked half days at the company and half
days in the rescue effort, many of them seven days a week. Burns was
elected ‘‘Humanitarian of the Year’’ by the local chapter of the Ameri-