Yesterday I wrote about how a CEO of a small to medium sized business created a culture wherein they treated each other (and all those with whom they did business) as family.  I talked about loyalty and how the things this company did generated loyalty.  I don’t think I can leave this topic without sharing a few more thoughts.

I read Exxon / Mobil’s 10Q and see all the money they’re making (seemingly at everyone else’s expense,) and it makes me sick.  Our country is in crisis and they’re gouging the heck out of everyone in their quest for the almighty dollar.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for making a buck.  After all, that’s why we’re in business.  I guess what gets my motor running is when companies get absolutely, ridiculously wealthy at the expense of everyone and everything in their path.  Where’s the joy in making money when you’re employees are losing their homes and everything dear to them?  By the same token, where’s the joy in making vice-president when you had to stomp on everyone in the company to get there?  At least for me, there would be no satisfaction, no joy and no sense of accomplishment if that’s what I had to do to get there.  Maybe others see it differently.

I guess that’s why yesterday’s post was so near and dear to my heart.  It’s a true success story (in every sense of the word.)  The company treated every employee with dignity and respect.  They treated them like they would like to be treated.  They “shared the wealth” as the saying goes.  Along the way, the employees were happier and more content thus they worked harder, thus the company was even more successful which provided the means to do even more things to make the employees feel appreciated, etc., etc., etc.  It creates an upward spiral that is almost impossible to stop.

I think Covey would call it an abundance mentality.  When we leave no one behind in our company, when we share with the employees when the company does well, when we create a culture of caring about and caring for each other, we all do well together.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  I know I certainly don’t want to “arrive” only to find out I’m there alone.  Where’s the joy — the satisfaction — in that?  I want to get there with everyone else around me and rejoice together with them.  I want to know that I lifted someone besides myself.  I want to know the world is a better place for everyone (not just for me) because I was here.  I want to make a difference for myself and for others in the time God gives me on the earth.

It’s all about having and exercising a fundamental paradigm of caring for and about others and wanting to help them rather than a paradigm of selfishness.  In Covey’s words, there is enough to go around.  The paradox is that by sharing with others, I actually end up with more — not less — than I would have otherwise had.  Oh, that we could grasp that principle!  The world would be a better place if everyone was more concerned about their neighbor than about themselves.  Maybe that’s Pollyanna thinking, but what can I say.  That’s my dream.  And like most things, it starts with me.

Tomorrow I’ll give examples of businesses I’ve worked with on both sides of this issue so you can see how the culture affects the outcome, good or bad.