HerbEly

The Devil Wears Prada: Toxic Leaders, Organizational Hypocrisy & Discernment

(Revised from 7/10/06 posting to clean up a few copy editing errors and replace a broken link.)

    The Devil Wears Prada, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway is a case study of the effects in toxic leadership. In the film, Andy Sachs, played by Anne Hathaway, takes a job as assistant to the dictatorial fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. She quickly realizes that this job is not for her – she is innocent and contemptuous of the high fashion world. Telling herself that she has to pay the rent and that the job will lead to one that she truly desires, she soldiers on. Gradually co-opted, buys into Priestly’s value system and almost loses her soul.

    The film is worth watching, especially for young people starting in their careers. They can expect to encounter a few toxic leaders (and many good ones). By reflecting on it, they can learn how their souls might be lost – or saved – by discerning wise career choices.

“Go, You are Sent Forth …”

This is the more literal translation of Latin “Ite, missa est” – the final words of mass. It is more urgent than the current dismissal “Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord” Were we to sense the urgency we might ask:

Q. “Sent forth to do what?”
A. “To build the kingdom of God.”
Q. “How should I do that? What if I fail? I’m not strong enough.”
A. “To learn that, read Gregory Pierce’s The Mass is Never Ended: Rediscovering Our Mission to Transform the World. In only 120 pages, we can see how the Mass should help us in building the kingdom both at home and at work. (The word “Mass” is, after all , derived from the “missa est”.)

Pierce writes first about our mission – what it is that we are “sent forth” to accomplish. It is not enough to say that we are “sent forth” to build the kingdom. Nor should we abandon the idea of having a vocation to those who are specifically in the religious life. Every one of us has a vocation – a specific calling to be of some kind of service to others. We should be able to see this as part of our own daily work. As one example: accountants make it possible for bills to be paid, funds collected and paychecks written. Without them it would be hard for me to care for my family – a responsibility deriving from my sacramental promise. The work of accountants, banks clerks and computer systems all help me in my vocation.

Next, Pierce reflects on the structure of the Mass and how it relates to the concerns we bring with us. Having been sent forth the previous Sunday, we come back to celebrate successes; ask God’s mercy for shortcomings and failures; experience God’s presence and instruction in the words of scripture; receive nourishment and strength for the journey in the Bread and Wine; and to be sent forth back into our world of work.

Lastly, we need to fashion a broader and deeper idea of spirituality as it relates to the working world. Pierce finds a perspective in Chevy Chase’s comedic signature line on Saturday Night Live – “I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.” Too many of us (the laity) tend to hear the dismissal is a similar sense: “Go in peace out into the world while I remain in the spiritual realm and you don’t.” If we allow ourselves to imagine that we can be spiritual only when we are in a monastery, on a mountaintop or on retreat we will miss out on our own unique mission in the world. Scriptural writings, papal documents, the examples of saints, and current literature all point towards a spirituality of work. It is, he contends and I agree, vastly underemphasized in today’s church.

If you are looking for some more specific spiritual disciplines of spirituality in the workplace, please read Pierce’s Spirituality at Work: 10 Ways to Balance Your Life on the Job. (Go here for my review.)If you are not looking to the liturgy – and maybe this book or this blog – are you hearing the dismissal or just glad to leave Mass?

New Blog on Workplace Spirituality

Bill Peel posted a comment on my entry for Sept 11th. This, of course, led me to look at his blog, 24 Seven Faith. His perspectives on leadership, witnessing and the Faith in the Workplace Movement resonate strongly with me. I’m putting his blog on my list of friends. Hope that this is ok, with you, Bill.

Salesian Spirituality

As part of my exploration of workplace spirituality I ran across this long (~26 page)article on THE SPIRITUALITY OF SAINT FRANCIS OF SALES by Mgr Francis Vincent. Here is an extract:

"We ought not to try to increase the number of our desires, or our exercises but the perfection with which we perform these exercises, seeking thus to win more by a single act (as we undoubtedly will) than by a hundred acts performed under our own initiative and affection."[22]
…
If perfection consists in doing what God wants us to do, wherever we may be, then no change of life is needed and holiness no longer is the exclusive privilege of cloister or desert. When Saint Francis first appeared, it was generally held that devotion, in the strict meaning of the work, belonged to specialists and that it was to be sought only in the cloister because communal life in the desert is no longer possible.
…
"It is an error, therefore a heresy, to want to banish a life of holiness from the company of military men, from the workman's shop... from the home of married people."[23]
…
.. What does this mean, if not that each of us must excel in his profession: the worker must be a good worker, the soldier must be a good soldier, the professor a good professor. In the eyes of our saint no one can be a good Christian if he "does not work hard at the duty of his charge."[25] So much a part must one be of one's profession that, when needful, one sacrifices for it spiritual exercises which are of themselves higher and holier. Not only must "the lawyer know how to pass from prayer to pleading, the merchant to bargain, the married woman to the duties of her marriage and the duties of her home";[26] but they must, when necessary, subordinate pious practices to the obligations of their state; without, however, allowing themselves to be deceived.
…
22. "Entretiens," VII.
23. "Introduction," part 1, chapter 3.
24. "Introduction," part 3, chapter 1.
25. Letter of April 20, 1610.
26. "Introduction," part 2, chapter 8.

Workplace Spirituality: 400 years Later and Still Searching

Most spiritual writers and Church leaders have, it seems to me, overlooked ignored a vital aspect of the spiritual lives of the people: workplace spirituality.

One Bishop, St. Francis de Sales, got it right in 1608 when he wrote:

Almost all of us have hitherto treated of devotion had in view the instruction of persons wholly withdrawn form the world, or they have taught a kind of devotion that leads to this absolute retirement. My intention is to instruct those who live in towns, in families, or at court. By their condition they are obliged to lead, as to outward appearances, an ordinary life. Frequently, under an imaginary pretence of impossibility, they will not so much as think of an undertaking a devout life.

From Introduction to the Devout Life (See also Fr. William Meninger’s companion volume The Committed Life)

Four hundred years later, Catholic and Protestant leaders are still looking for a theology of work.

Finding God in a Technical Memo

    In his talk, Bidden or Unbidden, God is Present (audio CD) Gregory Pierce tells a story about finding God. He took his family to an Easter sunrise service in the Grand Canyon. As he says, while it was easy to find God in the Grand Canyon, he doesn’t live there. He lives in Chicago, managing a publishing company, caring for three daughters and a little league team. While he values the teachings of monastic spirituality, he calls for a spirituality that helps us to find God in the midst of noise and at work.

    Physics professor Aileen A. O’Donoghue gives us an excellent example of workplace spirituality in her March 5 America article God in Machines.

Desert Temptations, Beowulf, Cardinal Virtues, and Ethical Crises

    A professional association – for which I am a pro bono contributor – is developing an ethical code. The code in draft form is an excellent aid to practicing the cardinal virtue of prudence, defined as taking the right action at the right time. However, sometimes having a code and identifying the right action, however, are not enough. The virtue of fortitude is also required.

    Temptations to avoid the next right action can be overwhelming. As those of us who work in large corporations or government agencies know, the temptations come in form of the "three P's - power, pleasure and possessions. These are the three basic temptations presented to Jesus in Luke 4:1-13.

    Poet and corporate consultant David Whyte gives a vivid account of how these temptations undermine right decision in his book The Heart Aroused : Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. On pages 42-46 Whyte quotes from Burton Raffel’s translation of Beowulf. 

Real Leaders Set Ethical Standards

Pat Lang clearly disapproves of the Senate vote to confirm George Casey as Chief of Staff of the United States Army. He contrasts Casey’s performance with that of George C. Marshall:

George Casey is probably a fine man, a man of honor, a man deserving of many things, but in his consistent failure to accurately inform the Congress of the United States and the citizens of the United States of the real situation in Iraq he fails the "Marshall Test" for me.

George Marshall sets the standard. He built the US Army and Air Forces that won World War Two.  He was unafraid, modest, humble and without interest in currying favor with politicians.  He told Franklin Roosevelt, who appointed him Chief of Staff, that he should not call him George, even in private, because it might be necessary in the course of the war for Roosevelt to fire him and he did not want their personal relationship to be a problem if that were necessary.  When he was Secretary of State he rebuked Dean Rusk, his assistant, for not correcting him in public when he misspoke.  Rusk said that he had not wanted to "hurt Marshall's feelings."  Marshall replied that he "had no feelings other than those reserved for Mrs. Marshall."  He was absurdly libeled by the egregious Joe McCarthy, and never said or wrote a word in reply.  Never...  I could go on.

While I’ve touched on standard setting before, no one should just sit back and blame leaders for failure to set standards. The only standard we can set is our own – and that one imperfectly.

    There is a twist on the old saying that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” The twist is this: “when the going gets tough, the tough get going – right out of the room and let someone else do the work.” This twist is a variation on my own twist of Isaiah 6:8 - “Here I am, Lord – send somebody else!”

    Many times we can take refuge in the old admonition to “sweep our own side of the street.” Someone else’s failure to set an ethical standard is no excuse for our own failures. On other occasions there may be no escape. We may find that we have to practice the ninth discipline of workplace spirituality and oppose our leaders in order to make the system work as it is intended. At that point we will need all the courage and discernment we can find. Of course, if we are afraid of the consequencees, we can always pray for the cup to pass away.

Spirituality in the Intelligence Workplace

    On Jan. 25th, I was privileged to give a talk to the Second International Conference on The Ethics of National Security Intelligence. As so often happens, the live talk did not quite match the written paper. Here it is:

    This talk should start with a disclaimer. My dad used to quote a Pennsylvania Dutch proverb: “We grow too soon old and too late smart”. I come to you as a former intelligence insider, having spent 32 years at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville. I worked as an analyst and Supervisor specializing in Soviet Weapons research and Development Programs. At this point I don’t consider myself “too soon old.” Looking back on my career there were definitely times when I was “too late smart.” Maybe my experience and errors of omission and commission can be a source of strength for others. Having retired in March of 1996, I’ve had almost ten years to put some perspective on that experience.

    Chicago publisher Gregory F. A. Pierce’s book, Spirituality at Work: 10 Ways to Balance Your Life on the Job offers a unique and useful way to discuss spirituality in the intelligence workplace. I will reflect on Pierce’s approach in terms of my own 32 years in intelligence.

    Pierce’s book is the result of an on-line discussion amongst business executives. It is down-to earth, practical and worth the time to read and re-read.

    All any of us can do is “the next right thing.” The challenge is developing our own faculties of so that we will be able to identify the next right thing and get it done. In this regard, I can claim spiritual progress not perfection.

S. Berger Steals Top Secret Documents and Gets a Wrist Slap

Now we read that this about Sandy Berger:

President Clinton's national security adviser removed classified documents from the National Archives, hid them under a construction trailer and later tried to find the trash collector to retrieve them, the agency's internal watchdog said Wednesday.

These were codeword, i.e. Top Secret documents. Berger’s penalty was a $50K fine and loss of security clearance for three years. To those of us who, for the same offence, could have lost our jobs and gone to jail, this is a wrist slap.

Here is a question for the 2007 Intelligence and Ethics Conference:  We know that RHIP (Rank has its Privileges). But when the laws are unevenly enforced, why should any midlevel person even bother to try to be ethical?

The short answer is that each of us is responsible for our own actions. When we start taking inventory of the failings of those above us we can get demoralized and not act when we should.

Here is a story that I would love to believe is true. ABC Radio National from Australia gave us an account of the war scare  - the series of events in which a Soviet alert code named RYAN and US nuclear readiness exercise Able Archer 83 led us towards the brink of nuclear war. (I don’t think anyone knows for sure.) Here is ABC Radio National’s Tom Morton on the reason we did not go over the brink:

Now you may be wondering by now – if the Soviets really got that close to pressing the button during the Able Archer exercise in 1983, what was it that stopped them? Well, the ultimate answer to that question lies in the former Soviet military archives in Moscow – archives which are still closed both to Russian and to foreign researchers. But (historian) Vojtech Mastny thinks we can draw a tentative conclusion from what we do know from the archives of the former Warsaw Pact allies such as East Germany. The fact that Able Archer didn't end in nuclear holocaust is probably down to some anonymous KGB analysts in Moscow who decided that the evidence that NATO was about to launch a first strike just wasn't strong enough. In other words, it may be that the world was saved by middle management.

Could it be that a few faceless bureaucrats in Moscow saved the world by simply doing their jobs and added a link to the chain of events that led to the end of the cold war?

None of us knows how important our job is in the greater scheme of things. We should not let the unethical actions of those above us demoralize us. We need to simply do our jobs as well as we can.

Another thought: Does anyone know what was in those documents that led Sandy Berger to take the risk of removing them and hiding them under a trailer?

NOTE: This post linked to Beltway Traffic Jam for 12/21/2006.