Kindness and Compassion 65
ple know you care about them. That does not mean you pander to
them, or that you don’t call attention to things that go wrong, or that
you’re afraid to say no. But they have to know that you care about
them as individuals.’’^21
Too often, our modern corporate leaders have been too quick to
sacrifice a few (or a large number of ) individuals for the sake of the
‘‘greater good’’ or perceived corporate survival. The corporate down-
sizings of recent years have often been justified because ‘‘if we don’t
throw some excess baggage off this boat, we’re all going to sink’’
(sounds a little like the story of Jonah, who was ‘‘outplaced’’ in very
dramatic fashion when the sailors threw him overboard).
The more compassionate leaders have at least given their outplaced
employees life preservers. For example, Randall Tobias of Eli Lilly de-
cided to offer a select group of employees early retirement with one
year’s pay rather than engage in wholesale dismissals with smaller pack-
ages for each employee. The compassionate leader realizes that when
any employee is treated poorly or his needs are ignored, all will notice,
and the leadership is tarnished.
Jesus believed in compassion for all his flock of actual and potential
followers: ‘‘If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders
away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for
the one that wandered off? And if he finds it... he is happier about
that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.’’
(Matthew 18:12–13)
For Gary Heavin of Curves for Women, this concern for all the
‘‘sheep’’ extends to not just employees, but customers too. He notes,
‘‘Any franchisee can call me, and I have over 3,000. I had a franchisee
call me about one member (and I have over a half million members).
She had lost weight but had dropped out of the program. I took the
time to write to her and send her an autographed copy of my book.’’^22
Now there’s a leader who looks out for every sheep.
Morrison and Forster is a law firm with a strange sense of priorities—
they claim to care more about their employees than they do about bill-
able hours or the bottom line. Says a recruiter for the firm, ‘‘We do not
tolerate abuse of our employees by partners, no matter how senior or