- (MSG) Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; GOD probes for what is good.
- (AMP) All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits (the thoughts and intents of the heart).
- Samuel 16:7 [AMP] But the Lord said to Samuel, Look not on his appearance or at the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
As a society, we have become focused on what “looks good.” People magazine and others like it would go out of business if society’s focus were on what “is good.” The domination of political correctness is more about looking good than doing what is good. The drive for quarterly results by some corporations to meet analysts’ expectations was (is?) more often based on what looked good (until the exposure of Enron, WorldCom, etc and then Sarbanes-Oxley began to be implemented). Ethical behavior must be intentional: people left to their own devices will always drift toward appearance-thinking – looking good while being bad.
Where do we see this kind of thinking this --“looking at the appearance” -- in business? One place is in our hiring practices. Succession planning begins here: hiring people who reflect the core values of the organization starts with the first interview.
I admit: discovering a candidate’s real core values (how they behave) is not easy: it takes work to probe and do that with care. Probing is not asking questions like, “Have you read our core values?” or “What do you think of our values?” “Tell me why I should hire you for this job.” Those answers can be rehearsed. Even if you ask them to tell a story to illustrate how they have handled a particular situation, their view of the story will reflect their belief that their actions were “pure.”
Probing is discovering “the thoughts and intents of the heart” by asking questions like, “Why did you do it that way?” “What was the result?” “What would ___ say about the result if I asked him/her?” “What would you have done differently today, now that you have more life experience?” “How does what you did (or said) reflect your value system? (your employer’s core values?) These are questions that go beyond the “looking good” answer. Questions that begin to help us understand the “heart.” Answers that will demonstrate, through stories of behavior, whether they are other-centered instead of self-centered.
Another place in business where appearance instead of goodness can drive behavior is in our financial statements. Revenue, for example: Sales executives who want their numbers to look good sometimes have been known to report numbers with questionable ethics – working side deals so that business will be booked that should not be – you know, conversations that might go something like, “…Send me the PO now, we will ship, but between you and me, I’ll send out a our return authorization so next month so you can return…” Your business probably has your own set of examples of behaviors that look good, but would not pass the ethics test.
Leaders must learn to look behind the appearance and probe the ethics and behavior. This takes work, discipline and willingness to practice active listening.
Copyright (c) 2006 by P. Griffith Lindell
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