(perhaps not so amazingly considering the amount of disposable income
these directors have), most of them give much more. Notes Greenberg,
‘‘We don’t care what they give it to, but we audit them to make sure
they do.’’12
Gary Heavin of Curves for Women also believes that the more he
gives, the more he gets. ‘‘I’m constantly trying to outgive God,’’ he
says. ‘‘If you give, you’ll be given back in multiples.’’ Heavin believes
in sharing and tithing so much that he’s reversed the equation: 90 per-
60
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
cent for others and only 10 percent for himself. Of the $10 million that
he earned in 2001, he will pay $3 million in taxes, donate $3 million to
charitable organizations, use $3 million to recapitalize the business
(much of which goes to launch new franchisees) and keep ‘‘only’’ about
a million for himself.
Says Heavin, ‘‘When I give, I give a lot; it’s because I’m responding
to the holy spirit. I operate from a position of gratefulness.’’ And Heavin sees his mission not so much as physical as it is spiritual: ‘‘Jesus healed physical infirmities so he could have access to the spiritual. That’s what
I’m trying to do with Curves; I’m not just creating fit bodies, I’m help-
ing people repair their spirits.’’13
KINDNESS TO THE ‘‘STRANGER’’
AND THE WEAK
Leviticus 19:33 instructs: ‘‘When an alien lives with you . . . treat him
as one of your native-born.’’ Unfortunately, American business leaders
have not always followed this credo. Too often, they have seen immi-
grant or foreign labor as an easy way to ‘‘beat the competition’’ by
paying low wages and providing poor working conditions.
Aaron Feuerstein of Malden Mills, a textile producer in Lawrence,
Massachusetts, always exhibited kindness to all his employees, many of
whom were recent immigrants who could have been easily abused by a
less compassionate and ethical employer. Feuerstein, well known for fair
business practices, kept the factory in Lawrence long after many of his
competitors had moved South or had begun to use cheap labor from
third world countries.
But even the employees who knew him well were amazed at how
deep this man’s compassion could go. When a fire ripped through the
Malden Mills factory in 1995, it was estimated that it would take at least
three months to rebuild and get the factory producing again. ‘‘Most
people would’ve been happy at their seventieth birthday to take the
insurance money and go to Florida,’’ said Feuerstein. Obviously, he
wasn’t ‘‘most people.’’
Kindness and Compassion
61
Realizing how many people were depending on him for a livelihood,
Feuerstein made the decision to pay the company’s 2,400 employees
their salaries for 90 days and their health care insurance for 180 days.
This was an expense of over $10 million when it was unclear whether
the factory could regain its production capacity and market position.
Feuerstein’s actions were fueled by a strong spiritual belief. In ex-
plaining them, he quoted Rabbi Hillel: ‘‘Not all who increase their
wealth are wise.’’ He also found that when you treated people with
compassion, the results were truly miraculous: ‘‘Our people became
very creative. They were willing to work twenty-five hours a day.’’
Not only was the factory rebuilt and back to nearly full capacity in
ninety days, productivity shot up and ‘‘off quality’’ products were re-
duced from 7 percent before the fire to 2 percent after it.14
Most of us are familiar with the biblical story of the ‘‘good Samari-
tan,’’ who stopped to help a man who had been beaten and robbed by
thieves. The Samaritan took pity on the victim: ‘‘He . . . bandaged his
wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own
donkey, took him to the inn and took care of him. The next day, he
took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after
him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra
expense you may have.’ ’’ (Luke 10:34–35)
Aaron Feuerstein also looked after the ‘‘strangers’’ in his care. He
risked all he had that he might be able to provide his predominantly
immigrant workers with a purpose and a livelihood at a time when they
did not know where to turn.
Many times, Jesus raised children and adults from the dead, not out
of the need to impress, but out of compassion. In a modern business
parallel, Merck spent over $3 million to build the Children’s Inn on
the campus of the National Institute of Health. These children were
undergoing experimental treatment for rare diseases. Merck hoped to
raise them from their sickbeds and rescue them from death. Certainly
they gained some ‘‘political capital’’ from this largesse, but the prime
motivation was helping the children. Roy Vagelos, former CEO of
Merck, has stated, ‘‘Medicine is for the patients. It is not for the profits.
The profits follow, and if we remembered that, they have never failed
to appear.’’15
62
THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
FORGIVENESS
We all know how hard it is to forgive others who we feel have wronged
us, and how good it feels to finally forgive. Joseph’s brothers sold him
into Egyptian slavery and were unaware that he was to become a pow-
erful adviser to the Pharaoh. Joseph could easily have exacted revenge
when his brothers came to Egypt to buy grain when their land was
afflicted with famine. Instead, Joseph had compassion for his brothers,
forgiving them and inviting them to live with him as honored guests in
Egypt.
David had mercy on Saul, and was rewarded with a kingship. Paul
exhorted the early Christians to ‘‘clothe yourself with compassion and
kindness. Bear with each other and forgive grievances.’’ (Col. 3:12)
What would you do if you were Esau and you and your 400 men came
upon the brother, Jacob, who had stolen your birthright and effectively
cut you out of your father’s will? Would you run him through with
your spear, or forgive him? ‘‘But Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced
him; he threw his arms around his neck and kissed him. And they
wept.’’ (Gen. 33:4)
You might be forgiven yourself if you responded cynically to such
melodrama: ‘‘This stuff might happen in the Bible, but certainly not in
the hard-nosed modern world of business.’’ But think again. Forgive-
ness and compassion are powerful, boundless forces, and they belong in
the world of business as much as they do in familial relationships,
whether biblical or modern. They can even be found in such ‘‘cut-
throat’’ businesses as advertising.
At the Leo Burnett agency, staffer Jerry Reitman recounted an inci-
dent in which he lost an argument with the production chief, Al Lira.
‘‘And I didn’t lose gracefully. Al sensed it. Finally one day as we were
walking toward each other from opposite ends of the hall, he grabbed
me in a bear hug, kissed me on the cheek, and walked away. I learned
a little humanity from him that day.’’16 Jacob and Esau couldn’t have
had a more poignant reconciliation.
‘‘Love your enemies, do good to them . . . your reward will be
great.’’ (Luke 6:35) That command could apply to individuals like Reit-
Kindness and Compassion
63
man and Lira, but equally to companies like Nissan and Smucker’s.
Nissan had a union drive in the late 1980s, which the union lost. As
soon as the vote was over, Jerry Benefield, the company’s president,
went on television to preach a message of forgiveness and compassion.
‘‘I asked the people who were on the company side not to gloat . . .
and I asked the people on the union side to please continue to be good
team members and let’s not have any animosity whatsoever from either
side, and we didn’t.’’17
At Smucker’s, the union finds it easy to have a forgiving attitude
toward management because of the kindness management shows to the
employees, largely based on the Amish/Mennonite principles of the
company’s founders. When an employee lost everything in a fire, the
other employees took up a collection for her. But the head of the com-
pany, Tim Smucker, also gave her an ‘‘extra check on the side.’’ ‘‘Six
or seven months later they’re still saying, ‘Do you need anything?’ ’’
says the amazed employee.
Is it any wonder that compassion and forgiveness extend to the com-
pany’s labor relations as well? Smucker’s union representative describes
them as the company you ‘‘hate to hate’’: ‘‘It really is an honor to
represent the union against them because they are very easy to work
with . . . They really do care about their people.’’18
CARING AND EMPATHY
The leaders of the Bible let their followers know they cared. Jesus was
one of the most caring leaders of all time. He wept when he saw Lazarus
had died ( John 11:25–36), even though he had the power to bring him
back to life! At another point in his travels, he ‘‘landed and saw a large