crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep with-
out a shepherd.’’ He preached the renewing word to them, and when
he found out they were hungry and had nothing to eat, he turned five
loaves of bread and two fish into a meal for several thousand. (Mark
6:34–44) Jesus performed feats like this not to impress people with his
magical ability to ‘‘stretch’’ resources, but rather out of compassion and
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kindness. Ben & Jerry’s offers ‘‘free cone day’’ in the same spirit of
giving and has found that good deeds are often good for company image
and profits as well.
In biblical times and in modern corporations, people have enthusias-
tically followed leaders who cared about them. ‘‘They don’t care how
much you know until they know how much you care’’ is not an empty
cliche´. Again and again, it has been shown that true caring creates more
employee loyalty and (ironically) better ‘‘hard’’ results than cold exhor-
tations to do more and produce more.
Morgan McCall and Michael Lombardo have done extensive re-
search on ‘‘success factors’’ and ‘‘derailers’’ for managerial success. The two top derailers are:
1. Insensitivity to others, abrasive, intimidating, bullying style
2. Coldness, aloofness, arrogance
Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines is famous for his caring, em-
pathic ‘‘I’m with you in the trenches’’ attitude. He loads luggage with
the baggage handlers and serves peanuts with the flight attendants. He
observes that a true leader needs ‘‘a patina of spirituality . . . I feel you have to be with your employees through all their difficulties, that you
have to be interested in them personally.’’ It’s not uncommon for Kel-
leher to go out after work with a baggage handler or other staffer and
spend many hours listening to them and solving problems. He adds,
‘‘We value our employees first . . . If you treat them right, they treat
the customers right, and if you treat the customers right, they keep
coming back.’’19
Technical professionals are not easy to keep in today’s low-loyalty
economy. Sandy Weill, Chairman and CEO of Citigroup, has increased
his company’s retention of this group by putting his money (and his
body) where his mouth is. ‘‘I think it’s the commitment of senior man-
agement to this area,’’ he observes. ‘‘They need to know that senior
management cares. There was many a night I slept on the computer
room floor, as they tried to work something out.’’20
Says Dave Komansky, CEO of Merrill Lynch, ‘‘It’s essential that peo-
Kindness and Compassion
65
ple know you care about them. That does not mean you pander to
them, or that you don’t call attention to things that go wrong, or that
you’re afraid to say no. But they have to know that you care about
them as individuals.’’21
Too often, our modern corporate leaders have been too quick to
sacrifice a few (or a large number of ) individuals for the sake of the
‘‘greater good’’ or perceived corporate survival. The corporate down-
sizings of recent years have often been justified because ‘‘if we don’t
throw some excess baggage off this boat, we’re all going to sink’’
(sounds a little like the story of Jonah, who was ‘‘outplaced’’ in very
dramatic fashion when the sailors threw him overboard).
The more compassionate leaders have at least given their outplaced
employees life preservers. For example, Randall Tobias of Eli Lilly de-
cided to offer a select group of employees early retirement with one
year’s pay rather than engage in wholesale dismissals with smaller pack-
ages for each employee. The compassionate leader realizes that when
any employee is treated poorly or his needs are ignored, all will notice,
and the leadership is tarnished.
Jesus believed in compassion for all his flock of actual and potential
followers: ‘‘If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders
away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for
the one that wandered off ? And if he finds it . . . he is happier about
that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.’’
(Matthew 18:12–13)
For Gary Heavin of Curves for Women, this concern for all the
‘‘sheep’’ extends to not just employees, but customers too. He notes,
‘‘Any franchisee can call me, and I have over 3,000. I had a franchisee
call me about one member (and I have over a half million members).
She had lost weight but had dropped out of the program. I took the
time to write to her and send her an autographed copy of my book.’’22
Now there’s a leader who looks out for every sheep.
Morrison and Forster is a law firm with a strange sense of priorities—
they claim to care more about their employees than they do about bill-
able hours or the bottom line. Says a recruiter for the firm, ‘‘We do not
tolerate abuse of our employees by partners, no matter how senior or
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THE BIBLE ON LEADERSHIP
‘important.’ ’’ She makes it plain to incoming law graduates and interns
that ‘‘our staff is like gold to us and are not to be treated any less pre-
ciously . . . Anyone who is found to be speaking down to somebody or
mistreating them verbally . . . is really out on their ear.’’23
At Fel-Pro, a manufacturer in Skokie, Illinois, caring is a way of life.
Every employee receives an extensive benefits package, an extra day’s
pay on his or her birthday (and a free lunch), a free turkey at Christmas,
and a box of chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Perhaps more important is
the sentiment behind these gestures. ‘‘You give more naturally, not be-
cause you feel obligated to . . . You feel that they care for you, so you
have to care for them too,’’ notes an employee.
At many companies, those who put in sixty-hour weeks are ‘‘encour-
aged’’ until they burn out. An employee at Fel-Pro was amazed when
her boss took her aside and told her, ‘‘You are working too many hours.
We value you too much. You are getting burned out. You can take no
work home this weekend.’’ ‘‘And,’’ she adds, ‘‘they were serious!’’24
LOVE
Love certainly has a prominent place in the Bible. Without love to
sustain them, the Hebrews could never have survived their many exiles
and sustained their commitment to their God, their land, and each
other. Without love as the cement, the disciples would have been a
group with poor ‘‘cohesion’’ and a diluted sense of mission. Indeed,
that love could help them transcend the apparent death of their leader
through the treacherous behavior of one of their own inner circle, Judas
Iscariot.
What does the Bible have to say about love?
‘‘Love is patient, love is kind, never glad about injustice. Love never gives up . . . never loses faith.’’ (1 Cor. 13:4)
‘‘We could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you,
like a mother caring for her children. We loved you so much that we were
Kindness and Compassion
67
delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God but our lives as well.’’ (1 Thess. 2:7–9)
‘‘Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness
and patience . . . And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.’’ (Col. 3:12–14)
‘‘If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal . . . If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries . . . and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all my possessions to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.’’ (1 Cor. 13:1–3)
These are noble, transcendent sentiments that certainly belong in a
holy book or place of worship. But does love really belong in the hard-
nosed, self-interested, money-changing world of business? Or have we
all become Pharisees again? Let’s ask some of today’s most successful
managers and executives.
Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines is perhaps the most evangelistic
CEO in the cause of love. He states bluntly, ‘‘We’d rather have a com-
pany run by love, not by fear,’’ paraphrasing, either consciously or un-
consciously, 1 John 4:18: ‘‘Perfect love drives out fear.’’ The airline flies out of Dallas’ Love Field, its stock exchange symbol is ‘‘Luv,’’ the company paper is called Luv Line, and its twentieth anniversary slogan was
‘‘Twenty Years of Loving You.’’
Empty rhetoric? Merely the hollow sounds of a resounding gong and
a clanging cymbal? Ask the employees. Says one, ‘‘Herb loves us. We
love Herb. We love one another. We love the company [sounds like
the airline version of the Woodstock festival, only with a lot more profit