Teaching ethics and social responsibility in a school of management at a faith-based institution as I do provides opportunities for discerning leadership qualities not always found in secular settings. Providing spiritual growth opportunities for not just students but also faculty and staff, these experiences benefit students in ways that support the kind of instruction I provide at a Catholic university that is neighbor to Silicon Valley. As described a year ago in an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education, Catholic colleges are increasingly attracting not just cradle believers but students who are from unchurched backgrounds (http://chronicle.com/article/Catholic-Colleges-Greet-an/149327/).
Students with little or no religious background are drawn to the religious mission of Catholic colleges as they articulate it into topics of broad interest, like developing a meaningful philosophy of life or pursuing social justice. Substituting “good” for “God,” students can apply the fruits of their spiritual inquiry to many aspects of their life and learning. Furthermore, because schools with religiously articulated missions explicitly encourage conversations about values, they implicitly promote a “conscious capitalism” model for doing business that supports my efforts to teach ethics to aspiring entrepreneurs and managers (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246478).
Conscious capitalism is rooted in four principles: conscious leadership, stakeholder orientation, conscious culture, and higher purpose.
Recently my university provided me with the chance to learn from someone who practices conscious capitalism, a man who built and guides an organizational structure of multiple social enterprises. His businesses apply commercial strategies to improve the well being of individuals while also making a self-sustaining profit. This authentic and inspirational leader also happens to be a priest who is known not by his corporate title but by his gang-conferred moniker: G-Dog. Greg Boyle, a priest in the Society of Jesus, was motivated by his faith to answer the need for employment and educational opportunities among youth in gang-controlled East L.A. and did so by building a complex and wide-ranging business model that also met an equally broad array of social needs; he recognized all the stakeholders. His supply chain of commerce is really a human circle of compassion that runs businesses that serve the communities while also transforming the lives of those who work for Homeboy Industries while also sustaining a values-based culture to continually support the work of the stakeholders. (http://www.homeboyindustries.org) While Homeboy Industries makes a profit, its higher purpose contributes to affirming the true value of the citizens of Boyle Heights.
Although we were gathered at a religious retreat center and arrived primarily to share spiritual experiences with Father Boyle, I also came away with a deeper appreciation for what is required of a conscious leader. Most important and often repeated by Father Boyle was his insistence on the need for humility, a concept not typically associated with leadership in business circles. Father Boyle’s experience, however, illustrates the power of humility as an agent of growth. Or as he puts it, “If you are humble you never stumble.” Father Boyle suggests that those that find themselves in leadership roles “push the deflate button” and not shy away from humility. Humility helps us be disciplined in generosity towards ideas we don’t recognize as our own, resulting in innovations that benefit everyone. In this way, humility prepares a leader to appreciate the importance of relationships and one’s obligations to those she serves and represents.
Hence Father Boyle emphasizes kindness as a reciprocal activity among all who are working towards the same goal. Kindness is possible when one humbly approaches colleagues with recognition of what Father Boyle calls “kinship.” Just as he sees himself as equal to the gang members he seeks to help, so too does a conscious leadership recognize her kinship with all her stakeholders, understanding that any designation of leadership is not assigned by the presumptive leader but conferred by those she leads. Leaders don’t pick themselves; the people do. “Connect,” Father Boyd urges, “don’t compete.”
In building a corporate culture based on relationships conducted with kindness rather than as transactions performed for achievement, Father Boyle is informed by his higher purpose but he is also firmly grounded in his obligation to reality. He will “cherish” rather than “cling” to his employees, understanding that their commitment to the corporate vision depends on them seeing themselves as stakeholders in their own personal development, too. A dream shared by one of his employees provided Father Boyle with the image he needed to explain this distinction between “cherish” and “cling.” When confused in the darkness, we can shine a flashlight on the light switch to help another find his way to the light; but we can’t turn on the light for others. A leader accompanies rather than guides, sustaining both humility and kindness in the process.
Humility, kindness, and accompaniment are all expressions of the higher purpose that serves as a kind of counter-imagination that prevents a corporate culture from only looking inside.
The social reality of life in Boyle Heights instructed Father Boyle that the only way to change it was to stay immersed in that reality, to “witness,” as he describes it, to the immediate context that seeks to be served. A humble leader practicing kindness and accompaniment Like Father Boyle uses his imagination to enrich his reality, not escape it. As a witness, one’s posture should be not to “send a message,” but to “receive one.” “Receivement,” Father Boyle observes, rather than “achievement,” allows one to “belong to the truth,” rather than merely speaking the truth. While conscious leadership principles may apply across professions, they are composed and enacted in context. For those who aspire to conscious practice of their profession, the example of Father Boyle demonstrates that leadership is not a noun but a verb.