Getting Well

I read with great interest a story in the Minneapolis StarTribune the other day.  The story described a health insurance “risk rating” program adopted by Minnesota-based Graco (and others), a plan to reduce health costs through wellness promotion.  The idea is that individuals who exhibit controllable or treatable health risks will pay more for their insurance premiums than their less risky co-workers, unless they address their risks through medical consultation or lifestyle modification.  Whatever else one might think about the idea, it’s presented in the article as an innovation, a creative approach to a difficult problem.  Actually, I saw a CBS news story about similar programs  within the past year, with the concept again being presented as a somewhat new and radical approach to motivate individuals toward healthier lifestyles and, in the process, control costs of corporate health insurance.

I find these stories interesting in part because my former company, Foldcraft, adopted what was likely the first such risk-rating program in the country almost twenty years ago.  Featured in wellness conferences, business periodicals and even a mention in Time Magazine, the program was obviously way ahead of its time, a risk rating plan that carried its own risk because of the newness of the idea, a personal responsibility for health risks that insurance companies and government agencies viewed with suspicion.  Despite the dramatic decrease in our health care costs tracked over the first five years of the program’s existence, the plan was eventually discontinued from fear of legal challenge which the Company simply wasn’t in a position to fight had a legal challenge been made.  To this day, the decision to discontinue the plan is one of the few regrets that I have from  my years there.

The point to be made isn’t about how Foldcraft Co. led the way on corporate wellness, but rather, the importance of seeing new ways of looking at the problems that confront us.  Wellness programming at Foldcraft stemmed from a few employees who had an interest in driving the Company to an holistic health in all of its dimensions, including the personal health of its members.  That interest created the foment for thinking about health insurance premium costs in a very different way, which in turn created a new source of cost savings for the Company and health for the participants in the program.  Skepticism from others didn’t diminish the importance of a new way of thinking about improved self-responsibility and cost reduction.

Our current economic and business dilemmas are nearly unprecedented and demand no less than the same kind of radical change in our perspectives.  And nowhere is the potential for such innovative thought broader or stronger than within employee-owned companies across the country.  Solutions to the distresses of the times are to be found within our collective, collaborative experiences, if we are willing- and allowed- to look there. 

Academics and some politicians don’t see the solutions residing there, instead relying upon their own inexperience and often untested ideas to throw rocks.  The latest attack on ESOPs comes from Andrew Stumpff, an employee benefits law professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the University of Alabama Law School, along with Norman Stein, a Douglas Arant Professor of Law at the University of Alabama Law School.  Their article published in the October 19, 2009 issue of Tax Notes posits four arguments against current ESOP law, arguments which likely would never have even been made had either of these pundits actually been part of an ESOP or even seriously studied ESOP performance.  Nonetheless, they have taken their best shot out of some egalitarian and/or short-sighted perspectives, views that have always been killers of creativity, innovation and change.  While the ESOP community implores business and government entities to look at the realities of ESOPs, the academics argue from theory and supposition. 

This latest episode is quite reminiscent of those years ago, when an ESOP company launched a new wellness idea that offered one reasoned solution to the growing health cost problem in our companies and society.  The pundits took aim and, despite metrics of success, managed to kill off a strategy that today is apparently coming back stronger and more necessary than before.  Similarly, the ESOP community has relied upon the wisdom and voices of its members over the years to forge a new way of thinking about corporations, ownership, wealth and fairness. It’s a lesson that academia and Washington would be well-advised to hear.  Innovations are found throughout the length and breadth of this country and its workplaces,  even moreso than in ivory towers or Washington….

Optimistic Pessimism from an Optimist

The American public seems to have receded in its anger and indignation over the recent, egregious examples of corporate financial malfeasance, but I haven’t.  The stories just keep on surfacing, but as in many cases of overexposure, the constant drumbeat of greed and irresponsibility eventually makes us numb and, worse, non-responsive.  As I witness  job losses by honest and hard-working people continue to grow, the return to business-as-usual on the part of the Wall Street wizards, and a government which has become capable only of narrow, self-interest action, I am shaken when I read this quotation from author and philosopher Ayn Rand:

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing- when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors- when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-scarifice- you may know that your society is doomed.

I’m compelled to see our current circumstances in light of Rand’s observation.  But I also know that our world is filled with individuals who still see the wisdom in the greater good, the nobility of servanthood, the wealth and rewards of a “compassionate capitalism.”  I know ESOP companies and their priorities and their commitments. 

We need the voices and experiences of employee ownership now more than ever, not just as a means of legal ownership succession, but as a tool of cultural transformation at a time when our system desperately needs the model.  As the famous 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke is attributed to have said:

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

I cannot help but feel the call to action….

Seeking the Magic of ESOP

Over the years, I’ve frequently used magic  as a metaphor for the incredible achievements that companies can realize through employee-ownership.  I’ve sawed ESOP Association President Michael Keeling in half three different times, as well as various unsuspecting others.   I have vanished coins and scarves, I’ve read minds (some of the content of which I couldn’t repeat) and even levitated a real human being!  It’s all been good fun and a pretty good representation of the excitement and wonder that can be captured in an ESOP.  And of course, everyone loves an illusion, the momentary suspension of logic which makes us believe in the impossible.

When I was asked to address the Southwest Chapter of TEA last week on the topic of “Leading In Tough Times,” I had the suspicion that what the audience might be hoping for was something akin to “magic.”  No one suggested that miracles were in order, of course, but even the notion that there might be special tactics to employ during these tough times seems to suggest that maybe there’s something unique, some unusual strategy that companies have somehow overlooked as they have sought to contend with the economic mess.  It’s seeking what National Center for Employee Ownership Executive Director Corey Rosen calls the “a-ha moment,” when inspiration suddenly hits us with wonderfully creative, productive ideas. 

Knowing that I did not possess such “a-ha wisdom” myself, I spoke with a wide variety of ESOP CEOs, ESOP community leaders, practitioners and providers, and then distilled the experiences and perspectives into a handful of insights.  The collection made for some interesting consideration, but perhaps the greatest “a-ha” came from what was NOT present in their comments.

For there were no real a-ha’s at all.  What we heard from these sages was the consistent, repetitive drumbeat of basic good practices that we have come to know over the years from ESOP conferences and from ESOP experts: practices like participative involvement, strong and frequent communications, open-book management, organizational transparency, continuous improvement methodologies, constant teaching and learning.  The “a-ha moment,” I suppose, was the realization that the most effective way to deal with an economic environment such as we have today is to prepare for it with the consistent development and application of these basic tenets of well-run ESOPs.  It may not sound flashy or sexy, but it’s the truth.  Wailing over a missed opportunity in the past is no reason for missing an opportunity now.

And for those who may say, “Well, that doesn’t help me much at the moment,” I’d suggest that there is no better time to begin preparing for the next economic crunch than right now. 

Got any better ideas…?

Going A New Way

For me, one of the great things about living in Decorah, Iowa is the number and variety of places to run.  If the weather is dry I can head up into the woods and run the trails there.  If the weather is wet, I can follow the Oneota Trail which is paved all the way.  If it’s sunny, I  follow the forest floor at Twin Springs and if it’s cloudy I can use the trails of the Decorah Prairie.  Every route is breathtaking in its own way, a series of scenic, secret places where I rarely encounter others.  The variety is a welcome feature of my running schedule and I feel as though I’ve come to know the various trails intimately, like old friends.  Given the outdoor conditions, I can tell you with little hesitation where I’ll be headed on my next run.

I became curious last week when a local publication referenced some trails in a different section of town, a wooded area that I had not previously explored.  During our two years here thus far, nobody has really ever suggested this other area as a  running destination.  And given the beauty and variety of my known courses, I wasn’t really looking for new venues.  In fact, I look forward to enjoying my usual paths whenever I run, precisely because they are so inviting.  But the descriptions of these trails- how they challenged the hiker/runner, the way they followed a forest canopy for miles, and how they provided a solitary place of beauty for those willing to go there- captured both my attention and curiosity.  In addition, the entry to this wonderland lay but a short distance from my own house.  (Remembering, of course, that almost everything in a town the size of Decorah is but a short distance from home!)

The end of this story could be simply that I have now run in this new, unknown woodland every day since my discovery of it.  I love its height, expanse, solitude and the way it cools me during warm, summer runs.  But during my most recent foray into these trails, as I marveled at new landmarks and bluff-high vistas, I was mindful again of a lesson that I know as certainly as my name, but of which I seem to need continual reminder: discovery- and the energy that it creates-is most often generated by going a new way. 

The lesson doesn’t apply to everything, to be sure.  But my own experiences have taught me time and again that staying inside the boundaries of what I know is a comfortable, safe and static place to be, but that’s not what I was made for.  When I have allowed myself the opportunity to explore beyond those borders, the discoveries made there have been consistently among the most important and lasting experiences of my life.  Virtually every wonderful event of my life has been the result of a willingness to go somewhere about which I was unfamiliar.

We’re faced with a lot of circumstances today that are completely unfamiliar to us and not of our choosing.  Housing, jobs, investments, a new government, growing complexities, a shrinking globe- today they all pose great uncertainty and uncharted waters for solution.  But it’s within some of those unknown places that we stand to embrace a new way, a better way, to whatever it is we aspire.  The way ahead may appear unsure or even frightening, but it’s where we discover those next pieces of ourselves and each other, and it’s the very best place for such discovery.

I’ll still visit my old trail sites regularly; they’re part of the landscape and still full of inspiration and motivation, but now enhanced by my willingness to have explored and looked for a new way….

Big Yellow Taxi

If you know me at all, you are well aware of the fact that I spend a significant amount of time in Central America working with the poor and disenfranchised.  Winds of Peace Foundation focuses its efforts in Nicaragua, but that doesn’t preclude opportunities that we may identify in other countries.  Like Honduras.

I traveled into Honduras in March of this year for several meetings prior to driving south back into Nicaragua to visit some of our partners.  During the course of the meetings in Honduras, we were joined by a representative of President Manuel Zelaya.  He had visited us once before in Nicaragua for the purpose of learning about employee ownership in America, of all things.  He suggested that the Zelaya administration was interested in the concept of employee ownership as a means of creating broad-based employment and that he would greatly value any and all employee ownership materials and references that I might supply to him.  I did so upon my return home and wondered whether the idea would ever really gain momentum. 

Imagine my surprise when this same member of the Zelaya cabinet briefly joined our January meeting in Tegucigalpa (capitol of Honduras) to reiterate the Zelaya interest in employee ownership!   He specifically invited us to return on May 19 to meet with two cabinet ministers and to describe the ESOP experience in America as a context for their own legislative proposal for an ESOP-style law.  I got busy putting together my own materials, consulting with members of the ESOP community, preparing presentations for translation and generally trying to anticipate the kinds of questions that might be asked.

Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see this mission through to its conclusion, as our meeting was canceled just two days before I was to leave.  We were told that the cabinet ministers simply had some very pressing issues to attend to and that they hoped to re-schedule the meeting with us.  I was happy to receive the message before making the trip in vain, and eager to re-schedule since we had put time and energy into our preparations.  In fact, August now seemed to be the target date for our meeting.

Of course, the rest is history.  The Zelaya government was ousted in a coup d’etat in June. The “pressing matters” to which the ministers referred when canceling our May visit undoubtedly included attending to growing restiveness within the country and the prospects of opposition activity.  The cabinet has now been replaced, legislative initiatives have been thrown out and replaced with new priorities and uncertainty about the future of Honduran leadership remains in the headlines.  And employee ownership is no more than a “what-might-have-been” for the workers in that poor country.

I feel disappointment at not having had the opportunity to share positive ESOP experiences with decision-makers in Honduras; I think the notion has a place in such a country.  On the other hand, one thing I have come to understand and accept about life is that strange political happenings do occur and one has to be able to flex in response.  So we will wait to see what the next act of this drama may bring and whether it creates another opening for ownership dialogue or not.

All of this has rather made me wonder what lies ahead for U.S. employee ownership.  While it may be unlikely that we need to worry about an overthrow of our government, the future shape of employee ownership may well be subject to “overthrow” in ways that we do not see coming.  Strange political happenings do occur in this country, too, and the rightness of the employee ownership concept does not protect it from assault.  And the possibilities inherent in that notion remind me of the song from the 60’s by Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi.”  You know the words: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone….” 

I’ve now experienced the rise and fall of an employee ownership action in one place; I’d not like to experience it again.  The ESOP community is absolutely required to stand fast and vigilant against any similar effort in the U.S., by speaking loudly and clearly on behalf of this remarkable opportunity and never taking its existence for granted.  Overly dramatic?  Maybe.  But I did have that ticket for May 19 in my hand before reality took its very unexpected turn…..

Mirror

In the summer of 1998, Katie, my kids and I paddled canoes within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of northern Minnesota and Canada.  As is true for many visitors there, I once again found the experience to be a cathartic one.  During my life I have spent numerous summer days there in search of… whatever I may have needed at the time.  On that particular occasion we spent time on Kelso Lake, prompting a reflection about ESOP godfather Louis Kelso, employee ownership and the rewards of going where few people have gone before.  ( The ESOP Report, January 1999.) 

The kids are now grown, so last week only Katie and I made a return visit to the BWCA.  After a Spring and early Summer of below normal temperatures and hesitant warming in the BWCA, last week featured mid-70’s and mirror-like waters over the course of three days.  The conditions fairly demanded time on the lakes, a requirement with which Katie and I readily complied.  The paddling was exquisite; our return to this unspoiled part of North America unfolded over three days as a fantasy-come-true, usually experienced only visually in travel brochures. 

Magnetic Lake is just one of hundreds of small, boundary water jewels, but it’s where we found ourselves on Sunday.  The stillness of the water allowed even the wispy vapor trails in the sky to be perfectly reflected on the surface.   Placid conditions like this make gliding in a canoe an effortless experience, regardless of paddler proficiency; strokes are as fluid as the water beneath.  Katie and I propelled the canoe as a single engine: synchronized strokes, unhindered lurches forward, and the only sound to accompany us was the gurgle of our wake and the profound silence of the northwoods.

The silence.  The lack of sound struck us with such clarity that we ceased paddling just to marvel at it.  No wind, no voices, no forest sounds.  Nothing.  Rarely do any of us experience the immensity of total silence, and here we found ourselves surrounded by it, not even a distant loon call to interrupt the quiet.  Katie and I did not speak to one another, not daring to breach the peace.  We both sensed that to do so would be a violation of this natural phenomenon.  So we each retreated to a solitary place within ourselves and meditated on our own thoughts as we drifted without movement. 

For this brief time there was no influence from any societal source:  no phones, e-mails, or crowds, none of the anxieties that often share my energies, no artifact nor artifice from daily life to distract either of us from essentially being alone within ourselves.  Here I beheld my own self as clearly, perhaps, as one can.  What I do in my life, what I have left undone, what I own, who I know, where I live- these things ceased to exist.  What was left to examine, to think on, was only that which is truly me: what I believe, what’s most important to me, what kind of a person I am, how I have impacted others, whether I have led “a good life.”  These hushed moments of reflection suddenly stripped me of every affected manner and habit I ever adopted, whether consciously or unconsciously, and allowed me to see an unrippled, untouched image in the still waters.  The experience both thrilled and unnerved me in its uniqueness:  such opportunities at unfettered introspection are not only rare, they are sometimes frightening for the clarity of the answers that one finds within oneself. 

The interlude visited for only five minutes or so.  As if on cue and still very much in synch with one another, Katie and I resumed paddling, still with full respect for the quiet which enveloped us.  Each stroke seemed to bring me back, ever closer to that consciousness of daily life and activity that somehow inhibits frequent self-reflections.  But before the idyll departed fully, I thought about how every human being needs such moments, to take stock of where one stands, to really see and recognize oneself.  I thought about business executives and retreat leaders collaborating in exotic places to bring individuals and teams to the brink of self-discovery, to help define values and create a new contract with life and work.  Such efforts are laudable and I suppose often deliver some benefit to the participants.  In the final analysis, though, all that is needed is true silence and an inescapable reflection of one’s self in order to know the truth.

Why do my visits to the BWCA seem to generate thinking about employee ownership?  The answer is that the lakes and trees and the outdoors and what they do for us are universal in their truth and importance.  No less universal is the reality of human beings needing to be involved and engaged in- to own-  their work, the manifestation of their labors.  And any leader confronted with the silence of his/her own introspection cannot escape the truth that every working person deserves no less….

You Could Write A Book…

And finally, someone did! 

I have worked with Harold and Louise Nielsen since 1974.

 

I served as Foldcraft Co.’s first human resources manager, succeeded Harold as the Company’s second-ever CEO and was provided the opportunity to lead Winds of Peace Foundation, the private foundation begun by Harold and Louise.  In between all of that, I served on the Board of Miracle Ranch Children’s Home, a private orphanage established by the Nielsens.  I served on the Board of the Nielsen’s  Third World Friends Thrift Store in Kenyon, MN, where tons of donated clothing is either sold or sent to Third World locations to benefit the poor.  Harold and Louise have always been entrepreneurs, innovators, people who are willing to try new ideas and most often on behalf of others.  When you are around individuals like that, things happen.  Exciting things.  Unexpected things. Naturally, I love to talk about these things.

Anyone who has ever met either of the Nielsens is ready to tell a story, including me.  It might be about how they grew their company, or how they came to start the foundation, or about some act of generosity that seems to be their trademark.  Every occasion I’ve had to speak publicly about any of the organizations created by the Nielsens has generated queries about these two innovators.  Few people have ever met this selfless couple and NOT been moved by their down-to-earth nature and their quiet spirit of caring.    The questions are generated by curiosity about what moves these everyday people to act in ways that so consistently impact the lives of others, even around the world.  And now, I have a means to provide at least some of the answers.

Steve Swanson is a retired Lutheran clergyman and professor of English at St. Olaf College.   He has written many books for both adults and children, and he continues to write and preach as opportunities arise.  But his most recent book, One Couple’s Gift (Nine Ten Press, Northfield, MN), is the result of a long-developing relationship with Harold and Louise, and his growing admiration and amazement at the lives of these two visionaries and the initiatives which they created.  I had the chance to contribute in some very small ways to the book since I’ve had the privilege of an “inside look” at so many of the Nielsen’s endeavors.  But the book and the observations are really Steve Swanson’s and it’s a wonderful story that he tells.

The timing of the tale could not be better, in my opinion.  These rather dark economic days have given rise to deeper introspection by many of us, an occasion to examine our lives, our priorities, what’s truly important and necessary versus that which is peripheral and transitory.  One Couple’s Gift provides a powerful message through a simple but remarkable story.  It gives me at long last a resource to partially explain the fertile environment in which I have found myself working since 1974, leading me to explorations into such worlds as business ethics, employee ownership, servant leadership, microlending, the plight of the poor, and, ultimately, human love and compassion.  

What I have been surrounded with for all of those years is now  reflected in Harold and Louise’s moving story, and in a book that I can share with others.  I just wanted you to know….

A Time to Every Purpose

As an old rocker (both age and vintage-wise), I still listen and play along with lots of the songs of my youth.  There’s nothing like “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” to energize me in the late afternoon.  But lately I’ve been hearing the old Byrds’ classic “Turn, Turn, Turn” in my head.  And it has everything to do with the idea that it’s time, as in “…and a time to every purpose….”

This is truly the right time for the employee ownership community to assert itself and its models of organization to the rest of the country and, yes, the world.  We continue to be bombarded with the outrageous stories of executive mismanagement, lack of integrity, carelessness for the stakeholders of their companies, and a general attitude of entitlement that not only allows but encourages outrageous compensations even as their companies are destructing. Employees of these companies often express sudden surprise over the condition of the firms in which they work and trusted.   “Bailout” has quickly become a business buzzword. 

Presently, the U.S. and rest of the world possesses but one view of the corporation, and it is the model of Lehman Brothers, General Motors, AIG and the other headliners of the past several months.  If there was ever a time when the country needed some positive news about the condition of business, it’s right now.  And ESOPs have the most positive stories to tell.  If one of the purposes of the employee ownership community is to spread the word about a different way for companies to be structured and operated, then it has reached the time to do so.

The business community-at-large is desperately looking for something, anything, to hang onto with hope.  That hope is to be found within employee ownership, where involvement, transparency, collaborative work and values are often at the foundation of the firms.  Congress is desperately seeking answers as to how it can possibly affect change within our capitalist system without destroying the “free” markets, changes that can better protect against the collapses we are witnessing with such rising frequency.  That change lies in greater employee ownership, where participation, broader ownership, and greater singularity of interests fundamentally restructure and strengthen business without destroying the capitalist system.  The American worker is desperately searching for an economic opportunity where the playing field is even and what’s good for the top executive is the same as what’s good for that worker.  Employee ownership levels the playing field of whatever game we may be in so that we more closely win and lose together.

The employee ownership community has a great deal to teach the business world, the government and its non-ESOP peers.  Many within the employee ownership community serve on ESOP company boards where the ESOP stock continues to appreciate even as the employees’  401(k), IRA and other retirement accounts are evaporating.  The New York Times and the IRS may revel in taking one-sided shots at employee ownership in cases where it has stumbled, but now is the time for the ESOP community to be educating the world about its realities.  This is not to suggest that every ESOP company is insulated from the difficulties we face economically at present; in fact, every entity has been directly impacted by the short-sightedness, greed and malfeasance of a relative few.  But experience tells us that ESOP companies weather storms better.  And any organization stands a far better chance of survival when all hands are engaged and pulling in the same direction.

So what’s the point?  Members of the employee ownership community must speak: before  local Rotary, Chamber of Commerce or other business audience.  They must write and invite their elected officials to visit their companies, now more than ever.  They are obligated to create letters to the editors of local newspapers to contrast the workings of employee ownership with companies about whom we have   It is time to tout employee ownership and the methodologies that so frequently characterize the very best ESOP firms.  The country needs a direction, a hope, and the time is right to turn, turn, turn attitudes to at least one thing in business that makes sense….

The Augsburg Antidote

I have the great privilege to serve Minneapolis-based Augsburg College as a member of its Board of Regents.  I’m not an Augsburg graduate, which perhaps makes me something of an outsider, at least until I earn my Auggie stripes.  As a result, my opinions here are just that: my own reflections of the Board’s winter meeting last weekend, with an agenda full of the excitement and promise that is Augsburg.  It’s hard to come away from such meetings without feeling a renewed sense of optimism and energy; the mission and commitment of this college is something quite special and I have come to expect such feelings of renewal from each meeting.

Inevitably, the discussion of current events led us to the state of the U.S. economy and the overall impact that the current recession-cum-depression is having on colleges, supporters, students, and the future of higher education.  Naturally, we covered most of the topics that seem to frame all such discussions these days: corporate mismanagement, Wall Street “players” who seemingly live on different planets, a government insufficiently governing, the omnipresence of greed and entitlement, the lack of ethics and values among our leaders.  And always, there is the overarching question for each and every organization and individual: how is this going to affect us?  How will we navigate this?  Truly, there is a great deal of our reality these days to foster a sense of despair.  

I thought about such questions as they relate to a place like Augsburg, and stumbled upon a great irony.  It is this: Augsburg College and its mission, its vision (“We believe we are called to serve our neighbor”), its global focus and its educational promise are providing the very kind of antidote needed at this time of necessary change in our country.    The elements that have contributed to our malaise are as varied and as different from past historical circumstances as their solutions are bound to be.  Almost as if in response, the commitment at Augsburg is to provide the kind of holistic, creative, values-based development in people that is so lacking in so many of our institutions today.  The irony is that organizations like this, focused on developing future leaders of abundant vision and character, are threatened by a sick economy spawned by tunnel vision and limited character. 

Augsburg is and will continue to remain healthy through this tough time in our country’s existence because of its history, heritage and grounding in faith and values.  When all of the fast-track, quick-fix, shortcut routes to health, wealth and happiness have been exposed for the illusions that they are, the liberal arts foundation from Augsburg will serve its graduates in ways they cannot even imagine today.  But only when our decision-makers are fully-informed by a moral compass that reads true to a sustainable direction for all of us will our stability as a nation and a people be reclaimed.  Augsburg’s business is all about the compass and how best to read it.  What a powerful place to be in the throes of a storm.  In these times, it’s an antidote that is worthy of our acknowledgement and support….

Letters of Shame?

I was on an airplane last week, returning from presentations in Houston, Texas at the Southwest Chapter of The ESOP Association and at a local Kiwanis Club.  I tried repeatedly to immerse myself in a book which I hoped to finish during the flight, but the woman in the seat next to mine seemed equally determined to chat with me about anything and everything that came into her mind.  Despite my persistent returns to nose-in-the-book, my neighbor just kept firing away with her questions about Houston, Minneapolis, speaking to audiences (she hated that), ESOP (she had never heard of it but didn’t seem to want to, either), my family (she was impressed), my car (she was not impressed; apparently VWs are too mundane), and my work (she was very curious).  Winds of Peace Foundation normally generates curiosity when it comes up in conversation, so I reluctantly let my book close while I launched into a description of the work that I’m privileged to do in Nicaragua.  When I touched on the genesis of the Foundation, how it had been funded largely from the sale of Foldcraft Co. to its ESOP, my history lesson included my term as CEO of the company from 1990 to 2005.  It was that piece of information which accomplished what my intentional reading could not: the woman immediately ceased any conversation with me.    She did not utter one more word to me during the entire trip.  Apparently these days, all CEOs are malicious criminals to be avoided at all costs, in the wake of the egregious revelations from Wall Street and beyond over recent weeks.

Of course, that’s not true.  Especially within the ESOP community, we find CEOs who are deeply committed to their people, their values and their integrity, no matter what circumstances they may face.  Indicting all CEOs as the result of the actions of some CEOs is unfair and misleading, at best.  But I have to confess it: I will now be more circumspect in sharing my own history as a chief executive.  I am embarrassed by what those three letters have come to mean.

The messages sent by the leaders of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Lehman Brothers and others to our society are basically these: “Greed is good, greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of evolutionary spirit.”  (“Wall Street,” 1987.)  These CEOs and their like have engineered the greatest theft of money, security and trust in this country’s history, and done so without the slightest twinges of conscience or stewardship.  They have lived in a world of entitlement and privilege that is far beyond the comprehension of most of us, and the sequestered nature of their existence there allowed them to feel nothing about the disaster they were perpetrating on our country at large.  The game that they have been playing has nothing to do with the greater good, but everything to do with every man for himself.  No wonder then that we have a growing population that believes that there is no value in collaborative work, only self-centered gain; and until now, it has seemed to work for the fat cats.  It occurs to me that the acts of these soulless scavengers have been nothing short of treason against the future and well-being of the United States of America. 

The litany of examples of their greed and self-serving, against an already long-simmering stereotype of American CEOs as aloof and heartless, has branded CEOs everywhere with the symbol of malignant corruption.  CEOs have become anathema to even a total stranger on an airplane.  Warranted or not, CEOs bear a new burden these days, a burden to demonstrate, to prove, their worthiness for their leadership role.  It’s nothing new, really, since CEOs should be all about affirming their fitness to serve every day.  But now there’s an assumption of unworthiness through which employees of American firms view their CEO leaders. 

As I puzzled over the sudden silence from my neighbor, I reflected on the talk that I had just delivered to attendees at the Southwest Chapter Conference.  Entitled, “Follow the Leader,” the talk highlighted the characteristics of effective leadership in ESOP companies, traits that have led to improved performances in such firms.  Reflecting seven characteristics identified in 2003 during preparation for the ESOP CEO Leadership curriculum at The University of Pennsylvania, the talk revealed these attributes: Openness; Caring/Compassion; Integrity; Optimism/Energy/Enthusiasm; Courage; Business Acumen; Passion.  Seemingly all of the traits that are missing in so many of the so-called “big players” of the American business scene are the very issues we’re talking about in our ESOP firms, to build in strength, constancy, honesty and transparency in an environment of servant leadership. 

So I will hide the CEO after my name for the time being, or at least until I know with certainty that I have nothing to fear from new acquaintances who may be incensed as I am over the boorish and despicable behaviors of infamous CEOs.  But at the same time I will tout even louder other letters that are important to me and the health of our nation’s businesses:  ESOP.  Our employee-owned firms are far from perfect business models; greed can and does grow in any environment. But as collaborative enterprises ESOPs stand a far better chance of being operated soundly and for the well-being of all members than the public disgraces with which we have become far too familiar of late.  How ironic that something that is so needed within the fiber of our business society is the same idea that we so continuously find ourselves defending.

I finished my book eventually, but I’ve got a long way to go in sharing the power of servant leadership and the holistic magic of ESOPs….