Grace is endemic to the human condition. While it is often associated with faith — and rightly so — grace itself is unaffiliated. It emerges from how we feel about one another. For some, it is the gift received. For others, it is a matter of giving to give. It is for all, available to be had, to be held and to be used for self and others.
Like many, I became annoyed and disgusted with the erosion of our social discourse. It became acceptable – at least on the surface — to utter vile, even racist chants in public, all in the name of reclaiming what the chanters have believed was taken from them by folks — you guessed it — different from themselves.
So, if there was ever a time for grace, it is now. Grace is the catalyst for acting upon the better angels of our nature. And it has multiple dimensions.
Connection — what we seek from each other
Be available. That is the secret to leading. The other day, I learned of a new head of an organization who sent out an initial email to his organization saying they would be seeing a lot of him. He made himself visible at various levels of the organization. He spent time listening and learning. In fact, one of the core messages contained in Michael Watkins’s The First 90 Days is to spend time learning before you start executing.
Yes, it takes time, but it does work. People notice when the CEO of an organization makes an effort to visit their workplace. The best executives do not spend their visiting hours giving presentations; they ask questions, not as “prosecuting attorneys” but as fellow employees who want to know more. They are making strong connections.
Candor — honesty without sugarcoating
So many successful executives attribute part of their success to the proverbial “two-by-four” they received as rising managers. These individuals had plenty going for them as contributors; they were well-educated and possessed significant business acumen to help them succeed. What they lacked was an understanding of people. Often, this was due to being thrust into an early management role without proper training. As a result, they sought to do everything, including telling everyone else what they needed to do.
Fortunately for them and their eventual career, a savvy boss pulled them aside and delivered feedback that landed right between the eyes. The boss complimented them on their technical abilities, but then lowered the boom, “Unless you stop treating people the way you are treating them now, your future here will be limited. The smart ones got the message and mended their ways – with the help of others, maybe even a coach or two. Had they not received such candid feedback, their careers would have been akin to life in the Middle Ages — “nasty, brutish and short.”
Courage — speaking truth to power and standing by what you said
Warren Bennis, one-time university president and noted leadership author, wrote in the Harvard Business Review that most successful executives he knew had experienced a “crucible moment.” For Bennis, it came early. He was a 19-year-old second lieutenant who was thrown into the Battle of the Bulge as a replacement troop. Bennis credits his sergeant with showing him the ropes and saving his life.
Courage often requires sacrifice. It can take real guts to know when to step down. One such executive was John Riccardo, CEO of Chrysler (now Stellantis). In 1978, he recruited Lee Iacocca to replace him. “John was sacrificing himself to save the company,” Iacocca wrote in his autobiography. “[Riccardo] was over his head and he knew it. He blew himself out of the water to bring Chrysler back to life.” It was an act that, to Iacocca, made Riccardo “a real hero.” Riccardo had what it took to put the future of the company ahead of himself.
Commitment — making the promise and working to fulfill it
When Alan Mulally was selected as CEO of the Ford Motor Company in 2006, the once-vaunted automaker was facing severe financial difficulties. Mulally faced reality by getting his team to focus on the issues and commit to work to fix them. One way he did this was by convening weekly meetings of his direct reports (Business Plan Reviews), where heads of various functions would report on the status of their projects. Attendees used color codes: green (all good), yellow (having difficulties) or red (in trouble). At first, the executives — afraid of getting themselves sideways with their new boss — reported all green. In short order, understanding that Mulally was not out for scalps, they came to realize that accurate reporting was necessary for the company’s survival.
Mulally also insisted that the executives collaborate across functions and work together to solve problems. The process worked, and Ford was restored to fiscal health. In time, Fortune magazine named Mulally the third-best executive in the world — right behind Pope Francis.
Compassion — putting empathy into action
When Harry Kraemer, Jr. stepped down as CEO of Baxter, the dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern solicited him to return to his alma mater and teach. While teaching as a practice professor, Kraemer encountered a former student who planned to use his MBA to bring management expertise to impoverished farmers in Kenya. The young man called his effort the One Acre Fund. Kraemer pitched in to help, dedicating his energy and philanthropy to the fund.
Cheerleader — buck up others as you would like to be bucked up yourself
When I was an executive coach, I made sure to compliment those I coached for the good work they were doing. It takes a degree of courage to lay yourself out to a stranger. I was careful always to be candid, sharing feedback from my colleagues and adding my perspective. Since that was sometimes tough, I made sure to compliment them when things went well. We need affirmation, especially when we are undergoing self-development efforts. It was heartening to see how much clients would perk up when receiving these verbal pats on the back.
Community — connecting one-to-one to learn, share, grow and build together
What connection — nurtured by candor, courage, commitment and cheerleading — creates is a sense of community. All of us want to belong to something greater than ourselves; we want to contribute to big goals, and we want to feel that what we do matters. Amy Edmondson, an author and professor at the Harvard Business School, pioneered the concept of “psychological safety.” Safety comes from the sense of belonging, the feeling that I can speak up and be heard. It’s easy to say, but not always practiced.
The key to community is to make sure that people are heard, even when they disagree with you. Vibrant communities brook dissent over specific ideas. What keeps them from splintering is a commitment to shared values — individuals working collectively for the common good.
That’s where the community comes in; people want to belong. They embody the spirit of volunteers, as they are not working solely for money but to make a positive difference for their colleagues, customers and communities.
Community outside of work
Community can occur at work, yes, but these attributes of grace also work in our personal lives. To gain a sense of how I will return to the example of Alan Mulally. Since he retired from Ford in 2014, he has been teaching organizations how to bring people together for a common cause to achieve agreed-upon goals.
One of Alan’s core beliefs is the concept of love, a value he learned from his mother, who preached it and embodied it for her son and her family. It was further nurtured by Frances Hesselbein, a former CEO of the Girl Scouts, with whom Alan got to know well. Frances believed that “to serve is to live.”
Alan’s philosophy of “Working Together” is grounded in a sense of alignment with the concept that “life’s work of service is our love made visible.” As such, the sense of service extends not only to what we do at work but also to how we live our lives in the community with our family and ourselves. Such a connection opens the door to learning more or leaning on the spiritual side of life.
In short, grace is the catalyst for the greater good, greater connection and greater kinship. And so, let me close with a poem on the power of grace.
Think with grace./Put thoughts of others first.
Patience in being and doing.
See with grace./Look for ways to help.
Do not wait to be asked.
Listen with grace./Let other voices be heard.
Wait your turn to speak.
Hear with grace./Pay attention to what is said.
And what it is not.
Speak with grace./Welcome others.
Use that to affirm others.
Charm with grace./Put people at ease.
Smile. Speak. Laugh.
Lead with grace./Turn I into we.
Them into us.
Honor grace.
See. Listen. Hear./Speak. Charm. Lead.
Think. Always.
Grace. Forever.
And always.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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