Lessons from the Life of Gandhi

I came from the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001 with nothing more than a dream having just been laid off from my job. I had my wife, Sherrol, and our four children. The price of homes had accelerated at such a rapid pace that my professional income was not able to keep up. In 2001, a small 1200 sq ft home built in the 1960’s cost over $500,000. I wanted to buy a home and have a place to build traditions and memories for my family. My wife and I had family in Utah so we came here knowing very little about the state, its people, or life style. We were fortunate to buy a home in Alpine but it took every penny I had and not having a job at that time was a very scary risk. Though it was a mansion to us, this 3600 sq ft home was the smallest house in the neighborhood and was selling at a bargain having been empty for over 6 months. I took a voluntary lay off from an excellent software company thinking that I could certainly find work in Utah in less than three months which was the amount of my severance – three months of pay. My last day of work was September 15th, four days after 9-11. I came to Utah with a mountain of confidence having no idea what that terrorist attack would do to our economy;. I was out of work for over seven months before I found a great opportunity with Novell. I was there for three and a half years before a mass layoff of 600 Novell workers wiped out the entire Operations department. I was again, out of work for another seven months before coming to work for Agel. Along this journey came several lessons of life that required me to be hit over the head a few times before I would listen. I’m listening now and since coming to Agel, I have tried to apply these lessons of life to better my position financially and professionally. As an Agel employee of over two years I still don’t earn what I was making at Novell. But I have the faith that if I stop focusing on earning and more on making my company the best it can be, the monetary rewards will come. What lessons have I learned? There are so many I could fill volumes, but in this context I will focus on just one. There is a book that I read that has had a profound influence on my way of thinking and leading. “A Higher Standard of Leadership – Lessons from the Life of Gandhi” by Keshavan Nair, is poetic in its attempt to relate the Life of Gandhi to Corporate Leadership. To me this should be a must-read for any corporate executive. A while back when I was manager of Agel’s customer service team, I was convinced that this Customer Service department had the greatest opportunity to affect the advancement and forward motion and success of the company than any other department. I preached that daily to each of the employees. But now, I realize that I was extremely short sighted. Gandhi taught us that it is at the individual level that we must commit to principled actions and service. It is not just Customer Service that must commit to provided excellent service to others, but this extends to every employee at Agel. We must first learn who our customer is, understand that customer, and commit ourselves to serving that customer to the absolute best of our ability. In Hindu there are different levels or ranks of people. The lowest rank is a people known as the “untouchables.” The untouchables were forbidden to shop at certain stores, own land and have jobs suitable to sustain life. Gandhi wanted to stop this prejudice but before he took any action to correct this persecution he lived with the untouchables for months, eating what they ate, doing the jobs that they do, and living in nearly all ways the life of an untouchable. After this experience he was able to assess the situation, create a plan to fix the problem and then go to work to make it happen. Each of us must make a commitment to live by a single standard of conduct – for if we do, our leaders will have to follow. If we are already those leaders and that standard of living is based on true principles, our people will follow. If they don’t, they do not belong and should be asked to leave the team. Through Gandhi’s example I learned how to get the people who report to me, to follow. When I managed Customer Service, the work hours extended until 10:00pm. I was there in the office two to three times a week until 10:00 at night and worked side by side. Each month on the last day, the work hours extended to midnight. I never missed an end-of-month midnight adventure. I could not expect my employees to work that late if I wasn’t willing to do so. When I moved to manage the warehouse, I loaded all the trucks, packed the daily orders, off loaded the delivery trucks, applied shrinkwrap to the pallets, counted inventory and did all else I expected my team to do. They followed. I don’t want to sound like I’m patting myself on the back or trying to make others think that I am more special than most. I really don’t want that impression to come across. If anything I have to work twice as hard to be half as good as some of the other talented people I work with. I just know that I cannot ask people to do something that I am not willing to do myself. Gandhi did not talk the talk, but he certainly walked the walk. Gandhi taught “One of the great challenges of leadership is to develop harmony between service and the power that is necessary for the exercise of leadership.” To be perfectly honest, I want to be a great leader, a great exemplar, a great motivator, a great friend. I want my message to be found in my service to others, and in no other way will my message be accepted. I cherish the life of Gandhi, yet there are so many others that I have known personally who have left an everlasting impression of goodness on my soul. If we all choose to lead through service our businesses will thrive, our sales will sky rocket, our name “Agel” will be known only for good and as a tremendous opportunity for health and wealth throughout the world.