Benedictine Way of Leadership

We can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within each one of us to make a difference and being prepared when the call to lead comes. But when that time comes, there are certain rules that you must apply to achieve success.

As a student of San Beda College, we must equip ourselves with a proper work attitude in the corporate world. Because of the Benedictine Rule of Leadership, we are taught on how to strike balance a true Benedictine Character and Industrial competitiveness. Benedict's renowned practicality makes his way of life appropriate wherever people live and work together. His values can be applied to the family, the parish, the school, and the workplace.

1. The Benedictine Rule Of Leadership:

Rule of Common Interest:
Superior organizations are at all times shaped as elite fraternities, with a clearly stated common purpose. Mission statements must be precise declarations of the common purpose, as well as promises of organizational behavior.

Rule of Selection and Formation:
Organizations are only as good as their people; superior organizations should not be easy to join, and the primary motivator for selection and formation is the promise of fraternity and stability. There must be no preferential treatment of members.

Rule of merit and Seniority:
This rule explains how to deal with job-assignment issues. Age should not be considered a relevant measure of talent, and, while seniority must be honored because it creates continuity and a reference point for experience, merit should always be the determinant for rewards or positions of authority.

Rule of Focused and Independent Ventures:
Benedict believed organizations should remain lean, self-sufficient and focused on a common objective. He warned against too many levels of management or bureaucracy, and of the dangers of centralization and hierarchy. He believed that subsidiary or offshoot groups should be economically autonomous, maintaining only cultural and philosophical bonds.

Rule of Innovation:

Benedict recognized that paradigms would be challenged and periodically upset. He believed innovation within the existing paradigm would come from the lower levels of the membership, while innovation that challenged the paradigm would come from senior members. Innovations that break the paradigm had to come from outside the organization.

Rule of Ethics:
The rule states that ethics is a fundamental, structural part of the organization and its management system; ethics cannot be forced, so the leader must create an environment in which members naturally make the proper ethical decisions. The ethical leader must ensure that there are no fraud, dishonesty and greed in business practice. He or she must give emphasis to disciplinary acts and have corporate cohesion.

Rule of Stability:

Vow of stability means building strong and sure foundations, avoiding unnecessary and foolish risks, and investing for the long term. A leader must invest in their training, make the workplace enjoyable, and ensure that they remain on board for the long run. Maintaining stability in his relationships with subordinates means building a strong is a good start to achieve success. For the Christian leader, seeking stability means building a solid, disciplined spiritual life and knowing and holding to one's spiritual values despite the pressures of competition and a constantly shifting marketplace. This rule provides for continuity in leadership succession, ideals, culture and job security.
Stable organizations provide continuity – continuity in leadership succession, in organizational ideals and culture, and in job security. The three keys to stability are community, fairness and tenure. The rule does allow for organizational transfers, but only under proper conditions and if a certain process if followed.

Rule of Purposeful Ritual:

Cohesiveness is an all-important bonding process. It is the Positive power inherent in the motion of "elite fraternity". it creates the sense of group "togetherness". However, St. Benedict said that it comes from a management process. it can be traced to purposeful ritual. Ritual provides a powerful sense of stability in a troubled world. the rule also carefully lays out the nature and times of different prayers, and how they change it according to the season. Customary is a document that describe the special custom, celebration, ideal, and other standards of behavior fit the community. it reflects the collective experiences and wisdom of the community. Rituals, must be tied clearly and unambiguously to the shared common objective of the group to be achived. Ritual cannot be contrived or fake. It must be cyclical events and consistently applied. It must be aesthetically pleasing and does not create cohesiveness.

Rule of Group Reliance and Mutual Respect:

Building and nurturing a cohesive working team, St.Benetict would likely offer mutual reliance. Members must learn to rely on other community members. In a Truly cohesive organization, reliance is deep, intimate, and multidirectional. Mutual respect must be given for any and all members of the team,regardless of social status, job title, or station in life. He calls the emphasis on mutual respect between group members the "good zeal", of the community.

Rule of Discipline:
Benedict held that leaders should see discipline as a lesson plan, not as punishment. Benedict believed that cohesive organizations gave second and third chances. He stated that there should be no favoritism in matters of discipline and that the ultimate penalty of discharge from the community, while sometimes necessary for the health of the group, was as traumatic as an amputation and had to be very carefully considered.

Rule of Counsel:
Benedict's idea was that executive appointments should be democratic. Any member of the organization could become a leader, regardless of seniority, as decisions had to be based on merit alone. For St. Benedict, efficiently accomplishing a set of complex and diverse task, require a blend of single-leader management structure and the cohesive dynamics of modern team management. The rule outlines a strict process for selection of senior executive. It also establishes how that senior executive must subsequently interact with the group. He believed that the initial selection of Chef Executive Officer should be a largely democratic process. Sound judgement thus become the standard in Benedictine model. Age, rank, and seniority should be irrelevant. Only the best and the most deserving need apply. Merit is the most consideration.

Rule of Grumbling:
Benedict discouraged complaining, but recognized that grumbling was a major indicator of the health of his organization. He declared that the source of grumbling ought to be found and any problems fixed. Subordinate grumbling is a vital sign that is believed to be the best indicator of health of an organization. Vital signs are not just monitoring devices. Tracking grumbling should be an obsession for the senior executive. Leader’s decisions may be the root cause for subordinate grumbling. Grumbling is contagious and infectious. Some grumbling may, in fact, be justified; if so, fix the problem.

Rule of Leader:
The Rule of Leader explains that actions speak louder than words. Leaders were to teach by example, and were to keep track of, and study, their own failures and successes.

Rule of Humility and Moderation:
Benedict thought the basic leadership virtue was humility. Leaders had to show aptitude and objective, but their enthusiasm was to derive from a aspiration to look up and contribute to the health of the organization, not from individual personality. He believed that true humility was a skill one had to learn and practice.

Rule of Iron Resolve:
Effective managers need to be good administrators and leaders attributes are the inner or personal qualities that constitute effective leadership. To a practicing executive it seems obvious that an effective leader's behavior is a critical factor and will depend not only on his or her own innate personal attributes including ethics and his or her own acquired skills but also on the situation, people and tasks involved. Persistence, honesty, and humility. Persistence pays off! Honesty may not always get you what you want, but I believe it should be a core value in all aspects of life. And humility is self-explanatory. People want to relate to you and feel like they are being seen eye-to-eye. Arrogance tends to alienate others.

The Rule of Stability: Finding a Happy Home

When he [the new member] is to be received, he comes before the whole community… and promises stability.
-The Rule of St. Benedict (Rule, 58)

One of St. Benedicts contribution to leadership comes from the notion of community stability, or in Latin, stabilitas loci.

Stable organizations provide continuity – continuity in leadership succession, in organizational ideals and culture, and in job security.

From the Family Grows Organizational Stability
The concept of stability was not new to Benedict. Stabilitas loci was a well established tradition of organization and leadership during the peak of Roman culture.
This grand tradition of organizational stability was a natural outgrowth of the time-honored Greco-Roman notion of family.
The extended family provided stability, commitment, and the primary structure of organization. Parents, children, uncles, aunts, cousins, and even ex-spouses and in-laws were all formally networked together into a cohesive organization.

• Each extended Roman family had a formal head, typically an older male.
• The family head held enormous power over almost all activities, from marriage proposals to business contracts.
• Commerce was built around family ties, and politics relied upon family connections.
• Each extended family developed its own system of customs and governance.

But in the declining years of the Roman Empire, extended families began to act more like petty gangs pursuing economic rewards than caring social units.
By Benedict’s time, the family leader had the feel of a crime boss or dictator, not a concerned and compassionate father.
Institutional and political commitment no longer existed.
To Benedict, virtues of stabilitas loci seemed completely lost.

However, Benedict still firmly believed in the organizational power of the traditional family model. To Benedict, it provided a clear and definable sense of organizational commitment within an uncertain world.
Benedict’s Rule reestablished stability as a pillar of organizational power. It continually reminded the reader of stabilitas loci:
“When he [a new member] is to be received, he comes before the whole community… and promises stability.” (Rule 58) And
“Any clerics who wish [may] join the community… but only if they, too, promise to keep the rule and observe stability.” (Rule 60)

Stabilitas loci is essentially a contract.
Each individual member and the organization promise certain things to each other. The member promises to work and obey. The member expresses a desire to perform to the best of his or her abilities. And, above all, the member makes a commitment to stand by the organization, in good times and bad.
But stabilitas loci is a two-way street. As in a cohesive family, if the leader asks for stability from his followers, he must also provide it for his supporters. The promise of stabilitas loci made by the organization to its members involves community, fairness, and tenure.

Three Keys of Stability

• Community
  Under stabilitas loci, the organization has to be committed to the notion of community.
  All members, from novices to those most senior in position are considered members of the family.
  There is a sense of belonging and security
  People support one another in a family, even though there are different roles, responsibilities and levels of authority.
• Fairness
  Under stabilitas loci, the organization must also be committed to the notion of fairness.
  According to St. Benedict, fairness implies a sense of even-handed application of discipline and rewards.
  There are no favorites. Everyone is subject to the same expectations, rules and rewards.
• Tenure
  Under stabilitas loci, the organization must be committed to the notion of tenure.
  Benedict believed that cohesive families were not meant to be revolving doors communities.
  Members were to be nurtured and encouraged, problems addressed and worked through, jobs kept secure, and errant behaviors forgiven and hopefully modified.
  Only in the most extreme situations would members be “disinherited.”

Stability is Management Creedo
The rule does allow for organizational transfers, but only under proper conditions and if a certain process if followed. The rule warns, for example, “The leader must take care never to receive into the community another monk from known monastery, unless the monk’s abbot consents and sends a letter of recommendation.”

Leadership the Benedictine Way

Stable organizations provide continuity in leadership succession, organizational ideals and culture, and job security.
Stability bonds the members to a particular organization.

Stability is a real contract inherent upon the organization and each individual member promising certain things to each other.

Stability is a standard of organizational commitment, not a penalty.
Stability provides the foundation for the daily rhythms of work and business.

The Rule of Group Reliance and Mutual Respect: The Glue That Binds

The Rule of Group Reliance and Mutual Respect: The Glue That Binds

Mutual Reliance- members must learn to rely on other community members. It must be deep, intimate and multidirectional.

“ the Brothers should serve each other.” (Rule, 35)
Punishable Act- Breaking the harmony and pursuing personal interests

Punishable Act- Breaking the harmony and pursuing personal interests

THE RULE OF MUTUAL RESPECT

In successful organizations people do things together and function as a team.

Absolute respect must be given for any and all members of the team, regardless of social status, job title, or station in life.

True organizational respect lies in the creative tension between hierarchical power and egalitarian justice.

All members must show respect for all other members, in both title and behavior.

Mutual respect within the group started with the actions of the senior executive and others will follow.

“Good zeal” - emphasis on mutual respect between group members

“ they should each try to be the first to show respect to the other” and that to “their fellow monks they show the pure love of brothers.” (Rule, 72)

The Rule of Grumbling: Measuring the Pulse of Community Health

The Rule of Grumbling:
Measuring the Pulse of Community Health

The buzz heard within a group is a vital sign of whether or not the system is working properly. Vital signs are critical to understanding and monitoring the health of any complex system like an organization. Like the human body, organizations are composed of subsystems which has its own specialization. Regardless of purpose, each part interacts with another part. In a healthy system like an organization, everyone works together in a symbiotic or harmonious manner.

Monitor the Health of Your Organization
Subordinate grumbling is a vital sign that is believed to be the best indicator of health of an organization.
Vital signs are not just monitoring devices.
Tracking grumbling should be an obsession for the senior executive.
Leader’s decisions may be the root cause for subordinate grumbling.

Emphasis on Grumbling by St. Benedict
Rule 4
Rule 5
Rule 23
Rule 34
Rule 40
Rule 41
Rule 53

The Lessons of Grumbling
Subordinate grumbling will effectively destroy the basis of group cohesion.
Grumbling is contagious, and if left untreated it can take on a life on its own.
Some people may just be chronic grumblers and habitual whiners.
Poor management decisions can cause grumbling by even the most dedicated employee.

Pay Attention to Your Public Face
A certain type of person should staff the so-called "front desk," someone who is informed and hospitable.
Seemingly unglamorous positions should have special attention, training, and rewards.

Leadership the Benedictine Way
Grumbling is the most important vital sign of group health and dysfunction.
Grumbling needs to be tracked and the source of the grumbling needs to be identified.
Grumbling is contagious and infectious.
Some grumbling may, in fact, be justified; if so, fix the problem.

Bedan Alumni Testimonials:

To all Bedan Alumni and friends,

Please answer our question through citing your experience with St. Benedict's rules.

How St. Benedict and his rules influenced the corporate world?

How St. Benedict and his rules influenced the YOU?

Your testimonials will serve how St. Benedict affects each one of us.

Thank you.

The Rule of Ethics: Organizations in Equilibrium

The Rule of Ethics: Organizations in Equilibrium

“Keep constant guard over the actions of you life.”
The Rule St. Benedict (Rule, 4)

Definitions of Business Ethics

Int’l Business Ethics Institute

"A Form of applied ethics. It aims at inculcating a sense within a company’s employee population of how to conduct business responsibility.”

Business Ethics Center of Jerusalem
“The value structure that guides individuals in the decision-making process when they are faced with dilemma of how to behave within their business or professional life. Usually the impact of that decision will be felt only on their immediate organizational environment.”

Create the Climate for Ethical Actions

Balance the natural desires of individuals and the imperatives of organizational action.
Leader’s job: build org. incentives, controls, disciplines, promotions, and hierarchy around the four most fundamental Benedictine management concepts:
◦Stability and cohesion
◦Obedience and humility
◦Fundamental equality and respect
◦Flexibility and innovation

Ten Steps Toward an Ethics- Based Organization
1. Explicit
II. Well thought out and limited
III. Clear
IV. Regularly and Formally Reminded
V. Properly designed Selection and Formation Process
VI. Leader: Highest Example of Ethical Behavior
VII. Equality in Rule and Moral Standard Enforcement
VIII. Clear Enforcement Mechanism
IX. Properly Designed Organization
X. Give importance to Survival of Organization

Competition and Fair Play
The ethical leader must ensure that there are no fraud, dishonesty and greed in business practice.
Giving emphasis to disciplinary acts.
Corporate cohesion

Recognize the Power of “Either/Or”

The use of either/or describes human condition. (S. Kierkergaard)
…life is a series of choices
Better choice of the proper path.

Summary
Business Ethics: part of broader mgt. system; involves either/or choices.
Ethics cannot be forced upon orgs.
Environment of choosing ethical choices.

The Rule of Discipline: Designing a Lesson Plan

The Rule of Discipline: Designing a Lesson Plan

(The leader) must exercise the utmost concern for the wayward member…Therefore (the leader) ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in mature and wise brothers…to support the wavering brother.
- The Rule of St. Benedict (Rule, 27)

Objectives:
See discipline as formative plan more than a punishment.
Discipline is applied to all.
Forgiveness (Second Chances) is fostered.
Learn that discipline is a communal value.
Discharge of a member must always be the last resort.

In reality…
Three strikes and you’re out.
In baseball, a player has three chances for success.
Many modern organizations, the subordinate is given far fewer opportunities.
Some CEOs of high-profile corporations are even reputed to have fired unfortunate employees who don’t happen to recognize them in an office hallway.

Benedict, however,…
Saw mistakes as a natural process of human development and learning; forgiveness was, after all, an important Christian doctrine.
That basic leadership beliefs of group stability and cohesiveness required a serious look at subordinate discipline and punishment.
Organizational Cohesion - Built on mutual reliance and trust, not fear of punishment.

How do you deal with errant behavior?

Discipline
Disciplina connotes the concept of instruction, education and training, an exercise designed to provide a lesson in proper conduct.
Organizational discipline
More of a leadership process, one that needs to be carefully conceived and implemented in order to have the desired results.
Diciplina and Punishment are not one and the same.

Lessons of Discipline:Four principles
Rule of Consistency
Rule of Four Strikes
Rule of Sanctions by Peers
Rule of Discharge

Rule of Consistency – Never Make an Example
All member of a group are subject to the SAME rules of discipline, regardless of position, power or personality.

"The (leader) should avoid all FAVORITISM…and apply the same discipline to all according to their merits." (Rule, 2)

Rule of Consistency – Never Make an Example
Cohesion is a community-wide concept and not based on a privileged few.
Acceptance of hierarchical nature of organization, particularly by those in lower echelons, is a realization that everyone plays by the same rules.

To resolve dilemma, the responsibility clearly at the feet of the senior executives.
They were expected to set the Standards and overcome the natural inclination to play favorites.

Rule of Four Strikes
Stabilitas loci - Demands a degree of tenure.
Requires an implicit agreement of bonding between the group and its members.
Every individual will give the group the best of his abilities and 110% effort.

Four-step lesson of disciplina:
For Senior and Middle Management (Deans and Priors):

"If so deserving of censure, he is to be reproved once, twice and even a third time. Should he refuse to amend, he must be removed from the office and replaced." (Rule, 21)

For subordinates who defy the orders of superiors

"He should be warned twice privately by the seniors…If he does not amend, he must be rebuked publicly…but if even then he does not reform, let him be excommunicated." (Rule, 23)

Applies to all infractions including actually leaving the community and then seeking reentry

"If he leaves again, or even a third time, he should be readmitted under the same conditions (loss of seniority)." (Rule, 29)

Several lessons:
The rule of four is applied equally to all from senior managers to the lowest in seniority.
There is an increasing severity of sanctions with at least the first 2 disciplinary actions given in private.
The sanctions or discipline such as removal from the office become public to the rest of the group.
The final sanction is one of peer pressure where the basic motivation for proper behavior comes from the group rather than the supeior.

Rule of Sanction by Peers
Benedict recognized the tremendous power of cohesive groups in adjusting errant behavior.
In case of a monastic order, it is called "excommunication", which is a form of short-term isolation.
Objective: That warnings would provide sufficient motivation for the errant member.
The degree of peer pressure should be proportionate.
"If a brother is found guilty of less serious faults, he will not be allowed to share the common table." (Rule, 24)
"A brother guilty of a serious fault is to be excluded from both the table and oratory." (Rule, 25)
Rule of Sanction by Peers
"(The leader) must exercise the utmost concern for the wayward member…Therefore (the leader) ought to use every skill of a wise physician and send in mature and wise brothers…to support the wavering brother." (Rule, 27)
This meant to be used ONLY as final wake-up call.
The Rule demands that the leader make every effort to compassionately modify the errant behavior of subordinates and provide for several "SECOND CHANCES."

Rule of Discharge
The Rule allows for final counseling session and one final opportunity for change.
If this does not work, then there is only one remedy:
DISCHARGE and SEPARATION from the group.
Rule of Discharge
"Yet if even this procedure does not heal him, then finally, the (leader) must use the knife and amputate…lest one diseased sheep infect the whole flock," (Rule, 28)

Honesty is the ONLY Policy
Benedict speaks another theme…
People are human and make mistakes.
The leader’s job is to foster an organizational climate that encourages mistakes, even serious ones, to be immediately reported without fear of repercussion (except fair restitution)
Honesty is the ONLY Policy
"If a (subordinate) whle working does anything wrong, breaks or loses something…he shall go at once to the (leader)…and confess, offering to make satisfaction. If he does not and it later becomes known, he shall be severely punished." (Rule, 46)

Leadership the Benedictine Way
Superior leaders see discipline as a lesson plan, not as punishment.
There should never be favoritism in the application of organizational discipline.
Cohesive organizations give second chances.
Discipline should be based on the principle of calculated peer pressure.
Discharge is like an amputation and must always be carefully considered.