Inspirational Shame in the Era of Behavior

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When a leader shames, the leader is telling his or her people that they are not honoring their shared values. Inspirational leadership is about much more than coercing or motivating people; it is about connecting people more deeply to their shared values.

Moral Authority

Interestingly enough, leaders in the financial services industry tried to shame their own customers—homeowners who have the ability to make payments on outsize and ill-conceived mortgages, but who choose not to—into changing their behavior. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. warned homeowners who default on their mortgages that it will send the wrong message to their children, other family members, and friends.

The effectiveness of shaming depends, of course, on the moral authority of the person(s) doing the shaming—on whether they have exemplified sustainable values in how they have conducted their lives and business. In this case, since few banks in recent years are believed by many to have demonstrated the sustainable values that the industry association CEOs urged customers to demonstrate, the President's attempt at shaming will likely ring hollow. This is not to suggest that more homeowners should adopt the situational values our financial institutions demonstrated to such ill effect in recent years and voluntarily walk away from their loan payments.

Still, I believe this attempt at shaming serves as a wake-up call.

If banks are going to hold customers to high moral standards (good people pay off their debts), why shouldn't customers hold banks, and other corporate entities, to the same moral standards? Why shouldn't we judge a corporation's success based not only on its bottom line but also on its behavior?

Values That Sustain

Leaders seeking new ways to connect with their people should ask themselves what values they are communicating (both explicitly and through action) to their people and what values are their people guided by? Values that sustain or values that are situational?

Inspirational leaders understand the values needed to be sustainable if their organizations are to succeed in the 21st century. Just ask Whole Foods (WFMI) CEO John Mackey. Last August, Mackey made a startlingly revelation in The Wall Street Journal when he, the leader of a grocery chain that prides itself on high-quality, healthy fare, acknowledged, "we sell a bunch of junk." The comment immediately spread to other media outlets and blogs all over the world.

Mackey was admitting that his company's behavior—which includes selling chocolate, candy, and other delicious but unhealthy food—was not consistently honoring the company's mission to promote healthy eating. In making this statement, Mackey helped reconnect his employees with Whole Foods' mission and guide them on the next phase of their journey and inspired them to develop new ways to help customers choose healthier food. With sustainable values in mind, employees then came up with innovations in how they relate to customers and created new programs, such as in-store demonstrations, cooking classes, and other educational efforts that enable them to connect with customers in new and more meaningful ways.

Innovating when inspired by sustainable values and shaming those who are guided by situational values—this is what our leaders need to do in the Era of Behavior.

Dov Seidman is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of LRN, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures and inspire principled performance, and the author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life). LRN recently announced the acquisition of leading green strategy firm, GreenOrder.

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