The Good Ones. Bruce Weinstein
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cultural differences do not mean that honesty is an integral component of character for Americans but not for Japanese; rather, they mean that the two cultures both value honesty but express it differently. And that applies to all of the ten qualities we’ll examine. “Nobody would argue that patience, for example, isn’t important,” says Scott Erker. “But the way you demonstrate patience in one culture versus the next is different.”
Evaluating character has profound implications for the conduct of business today. “Global organizations are struggling with this,” Scott notes. “The world is getting smaller, people are competing on a global level, businesses are transferring executives all over the world — picking people from one country and moving them over to another — and they’re trying to figure out, ‘Who’s going to be able to operate where, and how do I know it?’ If we were able to come up with a universal character model, that would really help people.”
A universal character model is a tall order, one that may be beyond the scope of this humble enterprise, but I will present evidence that high-character employees are reliably distinguished by these ten crucial qualities. I’ll also show why it’s in a business’s own interest to place a much greater importance on looking for people with these qualities than most companies do now.
The Three Groups Who Should Read This Book
Three audiences, with some overlap, will benefit from the stories and discussion in this work:
Managers
You will gain a deeper understanding of ten qualities of high-character employees and why these qualities are so valuable to you and your organization. You’ll also learn how to identify them in job candidates and determine whether current employees seeking raises or promotions have demonstrated them consistently. If you’re charged with reducing the size of your workforce, taking these qualities into consideration will help you make informed decisions about whom to keep and whom to let go.
Job Candidates
It’s in your best interests to understand what smart employers look for in employees. You’ll put yourself far ahead of other applicants by explaining why these ten qualities of high-character people are fundamental to who you are as an employee and as a person. During interviews, talk about how these qualities help you deliver strong results. Mention them in your follow-up emails. I guarantee that few, if any, of your fellow candidates will be doing this. You will shine — and for good reason.
Employees
Whether you’re seeking a raise or a promotion or simply want to remain in good standing in the organization, demonstrating these qualities regularly will help you and your organization succeed. During your performance reviews, explain how you’ve done so and describe the positive consequences for clients and the organization. This isn’t bragging: it’s making your supervisor aware of how you benefit the company in ways that go far beyond your knowledge and technical skills. (Note: Because managers of an organization also work for it, I sometimes use the word employees to refer to both managers and members of their teams.)
Earlier I stated that honesty is the most important of the ten crucial qualities associated with high-character employees. Let’s now see why this is so and how it is essential to the flourishing of organizations and the people who work for them. You’ll read true stories that vividly illustrate how employees who evince these qualities help their organizations — and themselves — succeed.
SUMMARY
An employee’s character is as crucial to an organization’s success as the employee’s knowledge and skills are.
Ten qualities associated with high-character employees are
1. Honesty
2. Accountability
3. Care
4. Courage
5. Fairness
6. Gratitude
7. Humility
8. Loyalty
9. Patience
10. Presence
Every story in this book is based on interviews I conducted or experiences I’ve had. To protect confidentiality, however, I have sometimes changed identifying characteristics of the people involved, such as their names, where they live, and what they do.
When I was a medical school professor, one of my mentors used to advise, when writing a case study about patient care, “Write it in such a way that the people it’s about won’t recognize themselves.” It’s a good rule, and I’ve followed it here when necessary to honor a subject’s wish to be anonymous.
You’ll know I’ve applied this rule when the story you’re reading introduces someone only by a first name. That isn’t the person’s real name. In some stories, subjects allowed me to use their names but asked me to mask the identity of other people, which I’ve done.
TEN CRUCIAL QUALITIES OF HIGH-CHARACTER EMPLOYEES
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
—Willy Wonka to Charlie, after the boy makes a difficult but honest choice, in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (originally from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice)
After the closure of the furniture factory where she had been working for twenty years, Brenda Harry found a minimum-wage job at the Goodwill Store and Donation Center in Pearisburg, Virginia (population 2,786). Her job was to process clothes and other items that people deposited in collection boxes around town. She made sure that they were in good condition and that the donors hadn’t left anything in the clothing. Most of the time the pockets were empty, but one day in January 2014, she discovered four envelopes inside a suit jacket.
Those envelopes contained $3,100 in cash. This was more than she made in two months of full-time work at Goodwill. If she had pocketed it, no one would have known. But Brenda Harry immediately turned the money over to her supervisor.
When Deb Saunders, chief compliance officer for Goodwill of the Valleys, told me this story, I wanted to know why Brenda didn’t keep the money for herself. So I called Brenda and asked her. “I was raised to be honest,” she told me. It was that simple. “It doesn’t matter if you need the money. It’s not yours. So you turn it in. My parents told me that if you’re honest, you will get your reward at the end of time. If you’re not honest, you will pay for it on Judgment Day.”
It’s hard to know how many people would do what Brenda did, because the sort of people who would keep the money might not report doing so. It doesn’t even matter, really. What does matter is that smart employers hire people like Brenda Harry, because they can trust her.
All of the ten qualities we’ll examine in this book are hallmarks of high-character employees, but honesty is the most important one. No matter how knowledgeable or skilled a person may be, if he or she is fundamentally dishonest or doesn’t value honesty, that person is detrimental and possibly even dangerous.
What isn’t immediately obvious is how honest employees benefit the organization. In some cases, a business can quantify a benefit; the Goodwill store in Pearisburg had $3,100 added to its monthly revenue when no one claimed the money that Brenda turned in. But there are other ways that honest employees are a boon to a business, as we’ll see.
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