The Four Foundations of A Great Personal Life, Great Leadership, and Great Organizations

“We argue here that the four factors we identify as constituting the foundation for being a leader and the effective exercise of leadership can also be seen as the foundations not only for great leadership, but also for a high quality personal life and an extraordinary organization. One can see this as a “value free” approach to values because, 1) integrity as we define it (being whole and complete) is a purely positive proposition, 2) authenticity is also a purely positive proposition (being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others and who you hold yourself to be for yourself), and 3) being committed to something bigger than oneself is also a purely positive proposition (that says nothing about what that commitment should be other than it be bigger than oneself). ” 1. Authenticity: Being and acting consistent with who you hold yourself out to be for others, and who you hold yourself out to be for yourself.  When leading, being authentic leaves yuo grounded, and able to be straight without using force. 2. Being Cause In the Matter of Everything In Your Life:  Being Cause in the Matter is a stand you take for yourself and life – and acting from that stand.  It leaves yuo wil power.  You are never a victim. 3. Being Committed to Something Bigger than Oneself:  Source of the serene passion (charisma) required to lead and to develop others as leaders, and the source of persistence (joy in the labor of) when the path gets tough. 4. Integrity (in our model a positive phenomenon):  Being whole and complete – achieved by “honoring one’s word” (creates workability, develops trust). from The Four Foundations of a Great Personal Life, Great Leadership and a Great Organization, by Werner Erhard and Michael C. Jensen, May 3, 2012; posted at SSRN

Financial Times on Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen

FINANCIAL TIMES, April 28, 2012 Excerpts from: The only way is ethics: Andrew Hill on where Erhard and Jensen are coming from “Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen look an unlikely pairing but their leadership teaching fits into a broad stream of business education and research about ethics and integrity. ” “In ‘A Positive Theory of the Normative Virtues’, the draft introduction to their forthcoming book, they write that their desire to confront their own “personal contributions to the mess generated by out-of-integrity behaviour” was one trigger for their research. But it was the Enron scandal of 2001 that prompted business schools to refocus attention on this area. The financial crisis of 2008-2009 gave this effort new impetus, as management schools realised they had to bear some responsibility for the bad corporate behavior of their alumni. ” “Jensen and Erhard’s latest work shifts the emphasis away from external incentives and structures to leaders’ internal motivation, encouraging self-examination and personal action. Whatever the strengths and weaknesses of this approach, managers seem to have an appetite for it. Another eminent Harvard professor, Clay Christensen – one of whose HBS classmates was the disgraced Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling – is about to publish a book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, offering advice on how to build a successful life and career that avoids ethical compromise. The 2010 Harvard Business Review article on which it is based is one of the best-read in the journal’s history.” Andrew Hill is the FT’s management editor Werner Erhard and Michael Jensen’s book on integrity is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press Read the full article in the Financial Times