As the sordid tale of corporate corruption, deceit and greed at Enron Corporation came to light these past months, one of the more surprising details was the revelation that some of the most egregiously unethical executives were, in fact, regular church-goers. Clearly, there was a major disconnect between how they spent their Sundays and how they acted Monday through Friday. Perhaps these business barons should have spent less time studying spreadsheets and more time poring over any of a growing number of books that argue the need to do just the opposite—to integrate, rather than segregate, faith and work.
Current business leaders and those hoping to climb to the top can avoid the mistakes of those Enron top executives by checking out the new crop of titles in the seemingly unstoppable subcategory of Christian leadership and the sure-to-expand topics of ethics and integrity. And those nervous about the slowing economy, plummeting stock prices and the declining value of their 401(k)s can find meaning in the 9-to-5 grind from authors advocating a new spirituality of work. All these fall (and later) releases were written before these scandals hit the front page but have gained fresh relevance in the current economic business climate.
Leaders Worth Following
Enron and WorldCom may have made the topic especially timely, but trouble at the top has been a perennial problem in corporate America, according to leadership guru John C. Maxwell. "Everything rises and falls on leadership," says the author of three national bestsellers on the subject. "A leader's responsibility is to put the organization and the people of the organization above himself or herself. True leaders aren't successful until they've sown seeds that benefit others," Maxwell tells PW.
As he travels around the country speaking to corporate groups, the issue of business ethics invariably comes up these days. Maxwell's response: "There's no such thing. There's just ethics, and ethic is ethics," he says. "Ethics is doing the right thing for the right reason. And if I've got ethics, I've got them in my family, my community and my business."
Maxwell elaborates on those themes in two new books, both releasing in September. In Running with the Giants (Warner), he draws on Old Testament heroes for their advice on life and leadership, while the basic primer Leadership 101 (Thomas Nelson) is the first in a four-part series in which Maxwell will also write about attitude, equipping and relationships. "I think business leaders are looking for ethical standards in response to the crisis, and the scriptures have much to offer about such values," says Warner Faith publisher Rolf Zettersten. "The biblical model of leadership is a servant leader model. The leader is supposed to serve his followers and meet their needs. That's a message that's sorely needed in today's corporate environment."
Although Maxwell began his career in the evangelical Christian community, mainly offering advice to church leaders, he has since expanded his reach into the secular business market. "He sells more books in the ABA than in the CBA, by far," says Zettersten, who reports a 150,000 first printing for Running with the Giants.
Maxwell's books with Thomas Nelson first penetrated the general market, selling more units there than in the CBA, according to v-p and associate publisher Jonathan Merkh. The 1998 bestseller, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, topped the Wall Street Journal business list and has been on the Business Week list for 20 consecutive months. With to-date sales of more than 735,000, Thomas Nelson has launched a campaign to push the number past one million. Tie-ins include a workbook to be released in September and The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time (Sept.), in which author James Garlow pairs each of the laws with a person in history whose life exemplifies its validity. "Although he's been around for a long time, John Maxwell's message is really resonating now," notes Merkh, who predicts a slew of new titles in response to the apparent vacuum in leadership in corporate America.
Yet Maxwell isn't the only one offering religiously inspired advice to current and wannabe business leaders. Judging from the number of new books with "leadership" in the title or subtitle, the subcategory shows no sign of slowing. Acclaimed speakers Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges look to the example of Jesus Christ in Servant Leader (J. Countryman, Feb.), while Pat Williams turns to the scriptures in The Paradox of Power: A Transforming View of Leadership (Warner, Nov.)
Lutheran publisher Augsburg Fortress makes a foray into the genre with Executive Values: A Christian Approachto Organizational Leadership by Kurt Senske, president and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of the South. "He speaks very directly to the need to integrate personal and professional values," says acquiring editor Michael Wilt.
Stories of Success
Nothing inspires readers more than a success story. So rather than preach ethics in theory, many publishers take the personal approach. Several new books profile real-world people in business who have managed to achieve professional success while keeping their values intact.
"These days people are asking the question, 'Can I be successful in corporate business and still be true to my faith?'" says Jennifer Leep, editor at Fleming H. Revell, the Baker Book House division that published Corporate Giants this month (Aug.). "We hope these guys offer the answer: Yes, you can."
The "guys" are 36 successful Christian businessmen—most of them CEOs, presidents or chairmen of the board—who spoke candidly about their faith and their careers to Corporate Giants coauthors Robert Darden and P.J. Richardson. The men (and they are all men) head major sports franchises, evangelical Christian music companies, hospitals and computer corporations. But their experiences can enlighten even entry-level workers, says Leep. "Just because you're not the most powerful person in the company doesn't mean your faith can't have an impact in the workplace," she notes.
More success stories from Christian businessmen (and women, this time) are told in Executive Influence: Impacting Your Workplace for Christ (NavPress, Dec.) by Christopher Crane and Mike Hamel. None of the 15 professionals profiled are household names, but one is about to become a published author. NavPress signed publishing entrepreneur Merrill Oster to write Giving Back: Using Your Influence to Create Social Change for an April 2003 release. This redefinition of "success" is a trend, senior editor Greg Clouse says. "That idea of not just what's in it for me is gaining popularity, especially as people get to the midpoint and beyond in their careers and see that accumulating things is not all it's cracked up to be."
Ethical Examples
The names are more recognizable in two new books that portray professionals who believe "business ethics" is not an oxymoron. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris discusses the ethical principles that guided her through the controversial presidential election of 2000 in Center of the Storm (Thomas Nelson, Sept.). And journalists Cokie Roberts, Fred Barnes and Cal Thomas join scholars John Dilulio, Mark Noll, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and others in sharing how they maintain their religious beliefs in two supposedly anti-religious work arenas in People of Faith: Religious Conviction in American Journalism and Higher Education (Cornell University Press, Jan.) by John Schmalzbauer.
Another scholarly but accessible examination of business ethics from a university press is Rethinking the Purpose of Business (Oct.), an essay collection that is the second in University of Notre Dame Press's new Catholic Social Tradition series. The first volume, Managing As if Faith Mattered (2001) also touched on corporate culture. A leader in business ethics publishing, the press has a second series on the topic, the John W. Houck Notre Dame Series in Business Ethics, named after the late ND professor. Business, Religion and Spirituality: A New Synthesis (spring 2003) by Holy Cross Father Oliver Williams is the next title.
Notes ND's associate director Jeff Gainey, who has an MBA, "Corporations have to take a broader vision of what it means to be ethical. It's about managing the whole company from a standpoint of ethics. It has to be systemic."
Spreadsheet Spirituality
Some of the earliest books in the relatively new spirituality-of-work genre were published by Jossey-Bass—but not by its religion division. It was the publisher's business/management program that did such early bestsellers as Leading with Soul, which has sold more than 100,000 copies since 1995 (a new edition came out last year). Now both departments at Jossey-Bass contribute to the ever-growing number of books that help workers find meaning in punching the time clock.
The business division continues its legacy on "business soul" with Saving the Corporate Soul and Who Knows Maybe Your Own (April 2003) by Sojourners editor David Batstone. Subtitled Eight Principles for Creating and Preserving Wealth and Well Being for You and Your Company Without Selling Out, it covers the timely and relevant issues of morals and ethics.
But ethics books per se can be a hard sell, admits Sheryl Fullerton, executive editor for religion books at Jossey-Bass. "It's the kind of book people think they should read but don't really buy," she says. Two new books on the religion side at Jossey-Bass take a more "holistic" (Fullerton's term) approach that she believes will be more attractive to readers. Behind the Bottom Line (Jan.) and Life@Work on Leadership (Sept.) come from the team of Stephen R. Graves and Thomas G. Addington, cofounders of Life@Work magazine and pioneers in the spirituality-of-work movement. In Life@Work on Leadership, the authors have compiled an anthology of the best and most basic of Christian leadership literature. Behind the Bottom Line, subtitled Powering Business Life with Spiritual Wisdom, takes a thematic approach to cutting-edge issues such as change, innovation, failure, influence and, of course, ethics.
In the Catholic market, books about bridging work and faith have grown in popularity as the Catholic concept of "vocation" has expanded to apply not only to priests and nuns, but also to lay people living their faith in the world. Paving the way were Al Gini's My Job, My Life (Routledge, 2000) and Gregory Pierce's Spirituality@Work (Loyola, 2001). As the concept of "everyday spirituality" continues to inspire Catholics to connect faith and life, Catholic publishers are responding with books such as On-the-Job Spirituality by Marianne E. Roche (St. Anthony Messenger, Sept.).
Catholic publisher Sheed & Ward has even started a new series on The Spirit at Work to help Catholics find their vocation and bring faith, integrity and balance to work and life. First in the series will be Work with Meaning, Work with Joy (Apr. 2003) by Pat McHenry Sullivan, followed by Discovering Work You Love by John Adair (Sept. 2003), a U.K. rights deal. "This area of meaningful work is a growing trend," says associate publisher Jeremy Langford. "People are trying to merge their lived faith and lived spirituality with life, and work is a big part of life."
