Chapter 8 called “Personal Mastery” of the well-known business book Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge is packed with powerful quotes that align perfectly with Choose People.
Here are several quotes in Senge’s book from Bill O’Brien, former president of Hanover Insurance:
“We believe there is no fundamental tradeoff between higher virtues in life and economic success. We believe we can have both. In fact, we believe that, over the long term, the more we practice the higher virtues of life, the more economic success we will have.”
“Another and equally important reason why we encourage our people in this quest is the impact which full personal development can have on individual happiness. To seek personal fulfillment only outside of work and to ignore the significant portion of our lives which we spend working, would be to limit our opportunities to be happy and complete human beings.”
“In the type of organization we seek to build, the fullest development of people is on an equal plane with financial success.”
Managers’ fundamental task, according to O’Brien, is “providing the enabling conditions for people to lead the most enriching lives they can.”
Kuzuo Inamori, founder and president of Kyocera until 1995, stated “Our employees agreed to live in a community in which they would not exploit each other, but rather help each other so that we may each live our life fully.”
However the most insightful quote of all comes from Senge himself – “To see people’s development as a means toward the organization’s ends subtly devalues the relationship that can exist between individuals and organization.”
I would suggest it’s not subtle.
So I ask you – when you consider the personal development of your employees – what is your intention? Is it from a place of genuine caring – a desire to see that individual reach their higher potential? or simply to benefit the company? Or both?
Either way it’s written all over your face. Intention is silently loud, and critically important to employee relationships.
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