Robert Not Bob

“What’s love got to do, got to do with it?
What’s love but a second hand emotion?”

I don’t think that Tina “The Afterburner” Turner was posing a business question when she was belting out this hit in 1984, but I am asking that question now in 2012.

Over the past two weeks I have had the pleasure of listening to two interesting business leaders. The first being Kip Tindell, co-founder and CEO of the Container Store and a disciple of the Conscious Capitalism movement. The second speaker was Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit seminarian and former Managing Director at J.P. Morgan & Co. I had the opportunity to listen to Kip Tindell at a Austin Business Journal breakfast event in downtown Austin. Chris Lowney was the keynote speaker at a recent fund raising gala for St. Dominic Savio Catholic High School, which is by far my favorite Catholic high school in the entire world.

You are probably wondering already what these two speaking events have to do with each other. The answer is “Love.” More specifically “love in business”, not love in the sense that would send Human Resource directors screaming down the halls or have plaintiff attorneys salivating at a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Not even the type of love I found 19+ years ago when I met my wife at the office. But love in very different kind of way. As I sat at breakfast listening to Kip Tindell, my mind did a double take when he said “you can build a much better organization on love than on fear.” I was thinking “what in the hell is he talking about, there’s no place for love in business”, but the more I listened to his philosophy the more it sunk in that he was not talking about love in a romantic sense. It was somewhat interesting that two weeks later as I was sitting at a fundraiser dinner, I heard a former Wall Street banker say that in order to be successful businesses needed to “create an environment filled with greater love than fear.”

Those two “love” statements stuck in my head, and I started wondering if there was a deeper connection between these two seemingly unconnected individuals. So I did a little digging, and it did not take long to find the common thread. I already knew from his keynote address, that Chris Lowney was a former Jesuit seminarian and thus presumably well versed in their teachings. However, I knew very little of Kip’s background other than he attended my alma mater, THE University of Texas, and had been at the top of the Container Store since its founding 1978. So I wanted to know more, because I was pretty sure that he didn’t learn about “business love” at the UT, as I have two degrees from the UT Business School and never once recall the word “love” being uttered by a professor. A quick Google on Kip Tindell and I had my answer. It turns out that Kip attended Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas and that the Jesuit philosophy he learned there has served as a basis for how he runs the Container Store. So the common thread: Jesuits.

I do not have much exposure to the Jesuits. I attended public schools from kindergarten through graduate school and did not grow up in the Catholic Church. While I am now Catholic, I still have not spent much time learning much about the Jesuit teachings. I am not going to dive into the history of the Jesuits, but very briefly “the company” was created in 1540 by St. Ignatius Loyola. The Jesuits are probably best known in the US for the establishment of schools, including 28 colleges and universities. They also established leadership principles that have guided Jesuit leaders since the 1500s and are still taught to those attending Jesuit schools.

Based on the keynote from Chris Lowney and some brief research on my own, I have gained a basic understanding of the four principles of the Jesuit approach to leadership. These four core principles are:

Self-awareness: understanding one’s own strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview.

Ingenuity: confidently innovating and adapting to a changing world

Love: engaging others with a positive attitude that unlocks their potential

Heroism: energizing yourself and others with heroic ambitions and a passion for excellence

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Like I said, I have a basic understanding of these four principles but each seems very complex and multi-faceted. As I was in a social setting when he spoke, I was not fully engaged in his every word and certainly was not taking notes or even making detailed mental notes on his insights. Fortunately Mr. Lowney wrote a book Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company that Changed the World so that I can read it and gain a deeper understanding of each of these principles. Once I get that done, I am sure there will be another entry or two about it.

So I then thought back to Kip Tindell’s session. As I was in my professional mode for that one, I jotted down copious notes during his talk. Here are a few of the nuggets of wisdom from Kip during that breakfast presentation:

“You can build a much better organization on love than on fear.”

“Communication and leadership are the same thing.”

“Communication is act of compassion.”

“Mind your wake. Our wakes are bigger than we think, everything you do – and what you don’t do – impacts the people around you more than you think.”

“Find a place where you can be you.”

“We should all act like we are the CEO, Chairman and own 100% of the stock.”

“Always believe everything matters.”

“Kids are raised to think only logic applies to business. But some really wise person once said that intuition is merely the sum total of one’s life experience. If that’s the case, why would you leave that at home when you come to the office?”

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As I drove away from downtown Austin that morning, I thought “wow, this Kip guy is a revolutionary thinker that sees business in much different light than the traditional CEO. He is a cutting edge business leader.” And you cannot argue that his leadership philosophy doesn’t work, as the last I checked the Container Store has seen 15-20% year-over-year growth for twenty-five plus years and did not lay off a single employee during the recent bad years we have all experienced. I doubt many companies can match that track record. But as I piece things together and replay his talk in my mind against the keynote from Chris Lowney and the brief research I have done on the Jesuit leadership principles, I am thinking that Kip is not a revolutionary after all. Instead I am beginning to think he is an “old school company guy” – a 450 year old company known as the Jesuits.

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So does love have a place in business? If love is indeed “engaging others with a positive attitude that unlocks their potential”, then yes, love is a key to success in the world of business.

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