In an earlier article, we introduced the idea of not compromising on attention to detail. We offered the example of Toto Wolff the leader of Formula 1 Mercedes-AMG team. He inculcated this idea into the organization for its benefit.
Unfortunately, Just like fish rot from the head down, a compromised culture can seep into the bones of an organization by what those at the top do. Compromising can be compounded when done by a leader. The culture of a team or an organization flows down from that modelled at the top. In Your Next Five Moves, Patrick Bet-David writes, “When you compromise standards at the top, you create an environment in which low standards are accepted. It’s all downhill from there.”
Recent quality issues seen at Boeing offer a timely example. This mega-corporation is just outside the top 100 sized companies in the world, employing over 170,000 employees, and generating revenues of almost $80B US annually. It has been a stalwart of the S&P 500 for decades. Nonetheless, as our financial prospectuses regularly remind us, the past isn’t a predictor of the future. Just because a company has a long-lasting track record of reliable results doesn’t guarantee that this will continue.
Two Boeing planes crashed between 2018 and 2019 which led to the grounding for several months of all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The safety standards of the entire organization were thoroughly reviewed and decades of stability in the manufacturer eroded. Changes were suggested because of the review and Boeing carried on. Unfortunately, the last few months have brought safety standards and quality management of the company back into the forefront. Several midflight glitches that have become public has renewed skepticism of the organization. From engines catching fire, to doors and wheels falling off, a number of flights have been deeply disrupted causing angst amongst travelers and analysts.
As a result of these mishaps, Boeing’s share price has dropped 20% in recent months. This has erased tens of billions of dollars of investment wealth from the company’s market capitalization. A former employee that had tried to warn of potential problems flowing from lapses in quality management stemming from the organization’s top management levels down to the factory floor continues to place blame at the feet of the top brass. Mr. Pierson, quoted in an article, “called on shareholders to ‘get the board out, and get the C-suite out, because they’re crushing the company.’”
At least from this past employee’s perspective, management has migrated away from being meticulous and there are real costs to the corporation for compromising on quality. Standards have slipped. Manufacturing process control, parts handling, parts storage, and more have all been identified by regulators as showing sub-par performance relative to what is expected. These lapses have been seen at multiple facilities at varying levels of the organization. As Warren Buffet has observed, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.” You’re only as good as your last at bat. We can’t ride our reputations or our historical resumes forever. If we’re not producing, our credibility is being eroded. What have you done for me lately? What we did in the past matters less than what we’re doing right now. Dave Rubin writes in Don’t Burn This Book, “As the old saying goes, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. But if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
The corporate goal isn’t to sell your soul for a lump of coal. Integrity matters. Producing a reliable product that serves a customer base isn’t a joke. It’s not about squeezing the lifetime legacy out of the lemon for the last drop of juice. It’s short sighted to compromise and cut corners in quality to make a dollar today. The whistleblowers that have tried to have their concerns about compromised quality heard internally have had to go to external places to get help. They have sacrificed their jobs and reputations as reliable, conforming, employees in the industry but have held on to their personal integrity.
Knowing who you are, what you’ll stand for, and who you want to be are important not just for yourself but for your ability to function well with others. Relationships with others and with your work depend on an alignment of core values. The wider the gap, the deeper the dissatisfaction with the environment. Mike Monahan writes in From the Jungle to the Boardroom, “The longer you stay in an environment that lacks your values the longer you live your life for others the more stress you’ll experience.” Similarly, Stan Beecham offers in Elite Minds, “When belief and behavior are not aligned, we will again experience tension. And when thought and behavior are not aligned, again—tension and poor performance.”
Whistleblowers, not just at Boeing, but in other contexts find themselves in a position where the disconnect between their personal values and those of the organization in which they find themselves becomes too great to bear. The mental discomfort deepens. Their angst amped. Job performance suffers. They find themselves in a position where they would either have to lie to themselves to stay or to step away. The contemporary author, Brene Brown, details the cost of compromise observing, “I belong everywhere I go, no matter where it is, or who I am with, as long as I never betray myself. The minute I become who you want me to be, in order to fit in and make sure people like me, is the moment I no longer belong anywhere.” 150 or so years earlier, the Russian author, Fyodor Dostoevsky, shows us injury an insult to personal integrity causes when he wrote, “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” We know when we’re being honest with ourselves. There’s a clear cost to compromising integrity.
Our personal confidence comes from a belief in ourselves. Do you know what your values are? Do you know the values of the organization for which you work? Do your actions align with your values? Do your actions align with those of the organization for which you work? Do we make and keep commitments? Our actions are either deposits to our integrity accounts or withdrawals from them. When our integrity account balance is high, we feel good and our ability to perform is enhanced. When our integrity account balance diminishes or goes negative, our soul is sapped. We become mentally uncomfortable and less capable. Do the words you speak ring true to your soul or do they make your insides cringe? How about your actions? Just like seeking to hold the line with respect to attention to detail, keeping a 100% commitment to your integrity is likely to lead to personal and organizational success.
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