More Than Work: Self-focused executives need to strive for common good

Tim McGuire is a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and former editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He writes about workplace issues.

The earnest CEO stares intently at the pink crystals in the golden bowl and asks his employee: "What's this?"

"It's pixie dust," comes the reply. "We sprinkle it on our servers and they're fixed!"

Television viewers are then told that pixie dust is cheap and biodegradable because it's made from soy!

In a hilarious series of ads for a leading systems solutions company, the same executive is presented with a time machine, magic binoculars and a host of other "magic bullets" that will make the executive's business run smoothly.

The advertiser's message is that there is no magic bullet, but the systems solutions company is pretty darned helpful. The deeper message of the funniest series of ads I've seen in a long time is that American business is obsessed with finding that magical solution to make business perfect.

From software engineers to managers to executives, we think, "If only this" or "only that," all our decisions would be perfect. Those television ads prick that bubble with style and grace, but I really wonder if most managers and executives actually get the joke.

Many of us lose sleep, ruin our health and destroy our family lives because we think we can be perfect. We're convinced a 10 percent increase in profits each year or a 1 percent gain in market share will make our world a beautiful place.

We think we can rise to "the top" if only we solve this one last problem. Our vision of "the top" includes riches, power and adulation.

We work 70-hour weeks and wrap ourselves in corporate jargon about solutions, processes and machines, and we don't think at all about meaning, purpose, personal fulfillment and the fulfillment of all the people around us.

Dave Koch is an ardent capitalist and a good friend of mine. He ran an international company called Graco for many years. He believes American business can and should solve most of America's social problems. His conservative values and commitment to business cannot be questioned.

Several years ago Koch wrote, "Historically, when elected officials decided they would allow corporations to be formed, I don't think they had in mind enhancing shareholder value as the objective. I don't think they decided to set a process in place to allow a few people to make a lot of money. Their objective was to serve people and increase the general standard of living." Koch was saying business should enhance the common good.

Unfortunately, there are not a lot of executives, managers, supervisors or employees who spend their frenetic workdays worrying about serving people or increasing the general standard of living.

Too much of our corporate and work life is self-focused and not community focused. In a fascinating book called "Why Smart People Do Dumb Things," the authors cite the four pillars of stupidity: hubris, arrogance, narcissism and an unconscious need to fail.

Those four pillars obviously overlap, but they are bound together by an inflated sense of self.

When we make ourselves the center of all action in our workplace, we set ourselves up to fail. When we set ourselves at the center we make business an end and not a means to create a better society.

When we focus on our selfish personal interests and short-term financial goals, and not the common good, we doom ourselves to a fruitless search for magic pixie dust, time machines and magic binoculars.

Tip for your search

Don't beat yourself up for being self-focused. We all are. Instead, reflect on your past week at work and write down all the times you were "other focused." Concentrate especially on things you did that benefited the broader community outside your workplace.