Their presentations were followed by a lengthy Q&A session, which Joan describes in her Blog post, “What Churches Can Learn from the Harvard Business School.”

After the line of social media experts had exhausted the authors with 90 minutes of questions attempting to decipher what these gurus might tag as the Next Big Thing, Joan stepped up to the microphone and asked a real good, simple question—one that all of us who are interested in business and spirituality will appreciate:

“How does a leader teach matters of virtue in an organization?”

Joan goes on in her Blog post to describe author Charles Green’s answer, as he discusses some interesting points about the need to shift capitalism philosophy away from one of pure competition to one of commerce, built on true relationship ethics. But then he throws out the real zinger:

“…the ultimate paradox is we need more ‘Buddhist Capitalism’. The best way to make money is to stop trying to make money. The best way to sell people is to stop trying to sell them. By serving customers, you will end up making a lot more money that someone who is trying to extract every last penny from their wallets. But not if you set out with it as your objective.”

He’s right, of course, but — Buddhist Capitalism? How did Jesus end up missing the boat here? Why not Jesus Capitalism? Or Christian Capitalism? Last I checked, Jesus was pretty much into authentic servanthood, too.

So there you have it. As Mr. Green and his fellow intelligencia in the Harvard Club are promoting a kinder, gentler business model for the future of commerce, they find a handy role model in Buddhism. For some odd reason, Christianity never made it out of the church pew to hit their radar screen as a compelling model of spirituality in commerce. I wonder why?

This may serve as a wake-up call for some Christian leaders in the business world, as it reveals – well, at the Harvard Club anyway – that the Buddhists have apparently become more spiritually relevant to our culture than Christians.

So, thanks, Joan, for asking the question. But now I have another shocking question for everyone:

What do you think Christian business leaders can learn from the Buddhists?

Bradley J. Moore posts regularly on the joy and challenge of business spiritually engaged at shrinkingthecamel.com. Bradley is an executive in a large corporation in the Northeast which shall remain nameless.

I’m not talking about only the poor people in Brazil who often live in outright misery. The worn-out people I know are middle and upper-class professionals. One self-employed lawyer I know, an honest guy who is good husband and father, has won numerous cases for his clients but he hasn’t been paid for months because of bureaucratic logjams. The situation has become so bad that he might have to sell his house, all because an anonymous public employee won’t sign a document. Last week my friend said, “Glenn, I’m tired.”

There are days when I feel tired, too. This is a confession, because I don’t have any real reasons to feel tired. I have a great wife and marriage. My sons are thriving. We squeak by financially every month, but we’re far from being broke. My work is not overly stressful. With the exception of bad knees and ringing in my ears, I am in good health. Still, there are days when I feel tired. And I feel guilty about that.

Most people in the US, even in the middle of a major economic downturn, enjoy unprecedented wealth and a quality of life that the rest of the world envies. But the statistics show that a lot of people are also tired in their souls. Richard Winter, a former staff member with L’Abri in England, says in his book The Roots of Sorrow that one out every seven people will at some time experience depression.

That doesn’t count the number of people who aren’t actually depressed but feel burned out.

This problem, it seems, is as old as the history of humankind. Old King Saul, depressed and forlorn, wanted David to play music for him so he would feel better. Adam was no doubt the first guy to experience fatigue, a latent sense of futility that came with his choice to pursue self-sufficiency and autonomy from God. The Psalms are full of sorrows. If you’re not careful to read it in the broader context of the Bible, the whole book of Ecclesiastes will make you sad.

Some of the great old writers in Christian history seemed to have a better perspective about tiredness than us modern folk. Perhaps it’s because we feel more entitled to happiness. Whatever the case, this week I was reading a poem by the seventeenth-century metaphysical poet George Herbert (1593-1633). In his very short life he seems to have done a lot of thinking about tiredness. In his poem The Pulley, Herbert describes, from God’s perspective, the meaning of tiredness. Reading it strengthened my soul.

In the poem, God holds a glass full of blessings. He pours it out on humankind, his treasure. In the cup was strength, beauty, wisdom, honor, pleasure. Then, “When almost all was out, God made a stay, perceiving that alone of all his treasure, rest in the bottom lay.” God, says Herbert, decides not to give us the fullness of rest. Why not, we wonder?

“For if I should,” said he,

“Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:

So both should losers be.

“Yet let him keep the rest (the other blessings),

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.”

This great writer, who lived in harsher times than ours, reminded me that the dryness in our souls has a magnificent purpose. It is proof that we were made for something more, something beyond work and wealth. The tiredness we feel is the beckoning of God.

“Let him be rich and weary,” writes Herbert, that weariness may toss us to God’s breast.

Glenn McMahan is InsideWork’s man in Brazil. Glenn is the author, with David Russ and Jim Petersen, of More Than Me: The 4 Essentials of Relational Wholeness.

1. Move on to something better. Expect to make where you are going a far better situation than the place you’re leaving. Get your mind really clear on this point. God doesn’t want you planning to do less good tomorrow than you did yesterday. He always wants better for you and better from you.
2. Be grateful to your former employers. Whatever your exit reason, frame your parting message to your bosses and colleagues with deep gratitude. The past battles may have been intense, but God does not want you leaving people with a sour taste. There’s a perfect exit at Acts 20: 17-24.

3. Leave a roadmap behind. Before your final exit, get your current job affairs fully in order and communicate the truth of what will be left undone. Do what you can to enhance the likelihood of success for those who pick up projects you leave uncompleted.
4. Spend plenty of time with God. Managing your spirit through a transition is more important than managing your network. God is, as the psalmists have it, “an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Don’t ignore him.
5. Get Focused. Create a strong Spiritual Purpose Statement (SPS)—a concise expression of what you and God both want from your working life—and then pray it to him out loud. Here’s my own SPS: My true purpose is to help leaders from all walks of life achieve their greatest potential for growth.
6. Identify those who will help you. Create a list—hopefully a long list—of people you trust. Then take your SPS and share it—face to face wherever possible—with each of them. Listen to them carefully. These are the people through whom God is most likely to reveal your future pathway. There’s a good chance your next boss is known to one of them.
7. Always give something back. Whenever you meet with people to share your SPS always give a gift (not necessarily a present—could be an idea, a contact, or simply praying with them) and always follow up afterward with a message of gratitude.
8. Don’t necessarily take the first thing that comes along. Be careful of opportunities that emerge too quickly, there’s often a good reason they’re not filled. Don’t assume that, just because you’re hungry, the first morsel is the whole meal.
9. Be honest and respectful. Tell the truth as well as you understand it and show good manners in all your job search activities. God knows a relationship that starts in lies and disrespect will continue and end that way.
10. Fill your pipeline with many job opportunities. It may appear that your options are desperately limited but what seems to be be case is not necessarily what is the case. What if God intends your transition as a pathway to a new location or a radically different way of working? Let God’s creative abundance flow in the form of as many positive options as you can find. You are far stronger that way.

Finally, pray the “Career Transition” prayer every day:

God: Today, I surrender my working life to you. By your grace, help me reveal more of your amazing power and love as I serve you through my next job. Lead me on your abundant pathways to serve the highest and greatest good of the organizations and people you bring into my life. I ask this in the name of my savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Dr. Stephen G. Payne practices leadership strategy and executive coaching through Leadership Strategies in Princeton, N.J. A former CEO himself, Stephen works with leaders in companies small and large (including the likes of Johnson & Johnson, General Motors, AOL Time Warner, Abbott Laboratories, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). Stephen is the author of First Rule of Leadership: Achieve Far More by Leading Your Self BEFORE You Lead Others

How in the middle of all of this do you get ahead?

The author of Psalm 127 says it is vain to rise early or to stay up late.  Gosh, I thought that was one of the secrets of success…just work harder.

The psalmist says it is vain to be a diligent worker (guarding or watching over the city). What?

He even says you can work your tail off trying to be a good father, husband, wife, or mother and it all can go up in smoke.

This author seems like a real killjoy.  What point can he possibly be making?

Here is his point:  “Unless the LORD builds the house…unless the LORD watches over the city” (verse 1)…all these things can be in vain.

This author is not anti-work or anti-family. In fact it is here that we find “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him” (verse 3).  “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them” (children, that is!) (verse 5).

The author happens to be the man regarded by Jesus as the wisest to have lived, Solomon. In fact, Solomon wrote an entire book about the brevity of life and what counts (the book of Ecclesiastes). He knows his stuff.

What Solomon has learned is that I can use all my self effort to work hard and be a committed family man and still find the result is all in vain.  BUT, if I work and lead my family with the Lord’s effort, with God’s strength, with his provision, then we’re getting somewhere.

Lasting results spring from the only one who lasts, the LORD God Almighty.

My part is to learn how to get out of the way and let God build, let him guard, let God establish his ways.

But it sure is hard for me to learn to get out of the way!

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  ² In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves.  ³ Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.  ⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.  ⁵ Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
— Psalm 127

Howard Morrison is a partner in Gilbert, Arizona’s Morrison Ranch (where one of his nicknames is Bias for Action). In addition to being an active second-generation partner in the the family owned business, Howard identifies himself as a pastor (in a previous life), a husband, and the glad father of three.

Marshall Goldsmith with Mark Reiter
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There - How Successful People Become Even More Successful!, (p. 17), Hyperion, 2007
…our delusions become a serious liability when we need to change. We sit there with the same godlike feelings, and when someone tries to change our ways we regard them with unadulterated bafflement.

It’s an interesting three-part response.
First, we think the other party is confused. They’re misinformed and don’t know what they’re talking about. They have us mixed up with someone who truly does need to change, but we are not that person.
Second, as it dawns on us that maybe the other party is not confused - maybe their information about our perceived shortcomings is accurate - we go into denial mode. The criticism does not apply to us, or else we wouldn’t be so successful.
Finally, when all else fails, we attack the other party. We discredit the messenger. “Why is a smart guy like me,” we think, “listening to a loser like you?”

Proverbs 26:12
The New International Version
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.

We have in the century since then perfected more ways to lie, prominent among them the art and craft of modern advertising (see Seth Godin’s must-read All Marketers Are Liars for an extended discussion).

Not so long ago, back when Worthwhile Magazine was a thing, columnist Curt Rosengren did an Andy Rooney with the practitioners of Big Advertising:

You know what really irritates me? “You’re not good enough” marketing. The kind that uses the message, “You’re not good enough as you are, but if you buy this product you will be.” It tries to get into people’s wallets by fanning the flames of insecurity.

Who can disagree? We’re grateful when marketers tell stories that help us find products and services that will really help us. But when the problems marketers solve aren’t problems at all—your car isn’t new enough; your hair is grey—how are they not just shills?

“Enjoy our beverage and you won’t be thirsty for a while,” is a fair message. “Our beverage makes you a better person,” is ridiculous on the face of it.

• So, why do companies spend so much money on that kind of marketing?
• How clear is the line between “You’re not good enough” and “Our product or service can make your life marginally better?”
• Which side of the line does your company’s marketing inhabit? Did you get there on purpose?

Consider this from 1 Timothy 6:6-10:

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

• Does this seem a long way from marketing? If consumers suddenly took that paragraph to heart, what would that do to your quarterly earnings?
• How much marketing and buying do you believe falls into the category of “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction?”
  • How much Christian evangelism slips into that trap?
• Is there a more honest way to market what you produce than you currently employ? What makes you think that? How can you find out if you’re right?

That phrase has almost replaced “Carpe Diem” as the motto for this generation on “how to live a happy life”. The very fact that people think about that when facing their mortality must show the importance of that question in people’s lives.

But I think there is something fundamentally wrong with that motto as a blanket statement for all folks. The creed almost implies “work is fundamentally evil” and the less you do of it, the more you will enjoy life.

After having triple bypass surgery, a friend of mine told me that he had an epiphany that “no man ever laid on his deathbed wishing he had spent more time working”, and that he vowed not to work so hard in the future. It was almost verbatim from the movie!

Work less. Be happier? Shouldn’t some folks say, “I wish I had spent MORE time at work”?

Back to my friend who had the surgery. I thought about his life. His saying the deathbed motto was ludicrous. He’d worked half-heartedly all his career and enjoyed the heck out of his life, but at the expense of his wife and kids. She had worked herself to exhaustion providing for the family and covering for his indulgences and lack of employment. Now he faced the possibility of leaving behind a wife and 4 kids with a huge mortgage, two car payments, no life or medical insurance, no cash savings, no retirement account, stacks of unpaid bills, and a ton of credit card debt … what then? Obviously, that happens to good, hard working people, but what about those that work half-heartedly like my friend. And, heck, I’ve heard guys like this piously say, We just need to trust God. He’ll provide for us in these trying times.

What’s the right balance between work and play, work and family, work and friends, work and rest?

I think my nephew Andrew hit it on the head when he explained how he tackled his summer classes/vacation in England: ”I worked harder than all the students (and made better grades) and I played harder than all the students!” And the greatest thing my niece Annie has in all her success in soccer, is that she just seems to have fun … I think lots of sports stars perform great, but have forgotten how to have “fun”.

Give your best to your job and give your best to God, your family, friends, and others … and you shouldn’t have many regrets on your deathbed. “Work Hard! Play Hard!”