March 10, 2010
The Top Ten Level 3 Stories of 2009
It’s customary at this time of year to reflect on the year that has passed by compiling lists of notable people and events. I was tempted to pick the low-hanging Level 2 fruit every year provides (“2009’s Worst Ethical Lapses” or “The Year’s Most Infamous Cases of Level 2 Dominance.”) But I had to ask myself: Do readers really want to rehash Galleon Group’s descent into insider trading … or Christian Bale’s obscenity-laden tirade … or the failings of Governor Sanford or Tiger Woods? While the editor lurking inside me said, “Yes, they do!” a nobler impulse prevailed. So here’s a look back at some of year’s more memorable Level 3 moments.
Treating Employees Like Owners
It’s one thing to say your employees deserve the credit for making your business a success. It’s another thing to reward them with the fruits of that success. When Leonard Abess sold his majority stake in Miami-based City National Bank, he took $60 million – money he could have simply chosen to pocket – and gave it instead as bonuses to 471 current and former bank employees. While Abess’s generosity occurred in November 2008, it wasn’t widely known until President Obama cited it in his inaugural speech last January. That’s because Abess made his huge distribution with no fanfare whatsoever, and it took a while for his deed to come to light.
“I just never thought that I was solely responsible for the success of the bank,” Abess explained to his alma mater, Wharton. “I owned the bank. I enjoyed the profits, the dividends. And I always realized that while there were 400-plus people doing the work, making it successful, the profits were going in one direction. … I felt that these people were owners. They acted like owners. They worked like owners.... I wanted to acknowledge that. …So it [the gift] felt right.” If you want to know how a Level 3 leader thinks, Abess’s full interview with Wharton is a must-read.
A “Loser’s” Triumph
Susan Boyle’s memorable debut on Britain’s Got Talent was the most watched YouTube video of 2009, with 120 million views after its initial airing in April. To watch the video (for the first time, at least) is to undergo a conversion of sorts. When she takes the stage, it’s hard not to see her, through Level 2 eyes, as a loser. She says she wants to be a professional singer, but she’s 47 – ancient! – and still hasn’t done it. She doesn’t have the figure, looks, or fashion sense we associate with stars. But when she opens her mouth and sings, she makes anyone who prejudged her feel shallow and foolish. And rarely have so many people been so glad to be proved wrong.
Boyle’s story generated a worldwide wave of empathy. People felt bad that her talent had been unfairly ignored (and largely limited to the choir loft at Our Lady of Lourdes in the village of Blackburn in Scotland). They were also enchanted by her vindication and voice, and remain so. Her debut album sold 3 million copies in its first six weeks and was No. 1 in total sales among all albums released in 2009.
Here’s hoping success doesn’t change her too much or lessen her faith, which doesn’t seem to be the case. Boyle entered the competition as a tribute to her mother, whom she cared for until her death in 2007. In November, an interviewer asked her if she was sad that her mom wasn’t there to see her success. “She sees what's happening,” Boyle replied. “She's still with me. She's still here.”
Surprise Hit from The Blind Side
The year’s top films in box-office terms are usually action flicks or movies for kids, so it wasn’t surprising to see Avatar, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Up make the Top 10. But it was a surprise to see The Blind Side, a low-budget sports movie, come in at No. 8 with ticket sales of $200 million. The movie, based on the life of Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher, revolves around his journey from an occasionally homeless and academically challenged teen, to an adopted son of the Tuohy family, to a star football player with grades sufficient for college eligibility. As many have observed, it’s not really a sports movie. It’s a movie about the incredible impact we can have on the lives of others when we take our ideals seriously and seek to live them despite opposition and obstacles.
Humble Hero of the Hudson
If you asked Americans to name 2009’s top hero, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger would win in a landslide. His poised emergency landing of his stricken Airbus jet in the Hudson River last January saved the lives of all 155 passengers and crew on board. But Sully’s hero status was cemented as much by his conduct after the event as his actions that day. He never glamorized or dramatized his achievement. He gave tremendous credit to his fellow crew members, who also showed great poise and Level 3 teamwork. And he insisted, with genuine conviction, that his heroics were nothing more than the skills that every professional pilot is trained in. “One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education, and training,” he remarked. “And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
There’s another thing the Spitzer Center really likes about Sully. When the plane sank into the river, he lost a library book on professional ethics, Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability. When he informed the library that he wasn’t able to return it, they kindly waived the usual fee for lost books.
A Good Captain and a Good Shepherd
So if Sully is the nation’s top hero, who does he look up to? In a brief essay in TIME, he pointed to Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, which was attacked by Somali pirates last April. When the attack commenced, Phillips instructed his crew to take refuge in a locked room. Then he faced the pirates alone and was taken hostage. After the crew took back the ship, he remained a hostage in a life boat for three days until he was rescued by Navy Seals. A few crew members later criticized him for not doing more to steer clear of pirate-infested waters, but one fact can’t be argued. Phillips put his own life on the line to protect the people he was leading. That's an example leaders may wish to ponder when faced with less extreme opportunities for personal sacrifice.
Cold Feet Leads to Warm Gesture
Six days before Teanne Harris’s wedding in Des Plaines, Illinois, her fiancé got cold feet and called it off. What’s more, the catering hall reserved for the reception told her it was too late to return her deposit. That’s when she noticed that a home for seniors, the Asbury Court Retirement Community, was right across the street from the hall. Teanne and her mom approached the home’s director, Mary Eichenfeld, and asked her if the seniors who lived there would enjoy the Halloween-themed party she was planning for her reception. “We were thrilled and so were our residents,” said Eichenfeld. More than 300 seniors attended the party, as did Teanne herself. It takes a very Level 3 heart to think of such a gesture at a time when self-pity and self-absorption would be understandable.
A Level 3 Remedy for Layoffs
The recession took its toll on jobs throughout the country last year, including hospitals like Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Last March, the Center’s CEO, Paul Levy, addressed an auditorium filled with more than 6,000 employees. He said the budget shortfall threatened 600 jobs, but suggested there might be ways to reduce the impact.
"I want to run an idea by you,” he started. “I'd like to do what we can to protect the lower-wage earners … A lot of these people work really hard, and I don't want to put an additional burden on them. If we protect these workers, it means the rest of us will have to make a bigger sacrifice. It means others will have to give up more of their salary or benefits.” The response was a thunderous ovation, and later, a flood of suggestions and generous gestures. Senior managers took pay cuts. Doctors wrote checks. Raises were postponed and employees threw vacation days, sick days, and 401 matching funds into an ever-growing pot of voluntary savings. When it was all tallied up, the number of layoffs was reduced from 600 to 70. Levy’s personal empathy and the empathy he inspired showed how a Level 3 culture can mitigate a crisis and improve morale under circumstances that normally undermine esprit de corps.
A Faithful QB
Florida Gator Tim Tebow is a tough guy on the field -- so tough he’s inspired his own line of jokes (“When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Tim Tebow.”) But the young star is admired as much for his character as his prowess. Tebow could have left Florida in 2008 for a huge NFL contract, but he stayed for his senior year in order to “be loyal to my teammates and let them know that I care more about them than trying to go to the next level and do something else.”
While many athletes embrace sports for the personal glory it can bring, Tebow sees it as a means to Level 4 ends. Sports Illustrated’s Austin Murphy called him “the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I've come across in 25 years at SI.” Tebow says, “The No. 1 way that you minister to people is through your actions – by them seeing you and how you act and how you treat people and how you love people. … When someone needs something, I want to be the first one there. If there’s a new sick kid in the hospital, I want to be the first one to visit him.”
The Hug Seen Round the World
Imagine attending major league games all your life and finally getting the thrill of making a great catch on a foul ball hit into the stands. Then imagine someone throwing your priceless souvenir back onto the playing field. What would you do? If you’re Phillies fan Steve Monforto, you give the offender a great big hug. Monforto became a role model for dads everywhere when he embraced his three-year-old daughter, Emily, after she threw his prized baseball away just seconds after he snagged a pop foul.
“My first thought was, ‘I’ve been waiting so long to catch a foul ball, and over the edge it goes,’” Monforto said. But when little Emily was startled by the fans’ reaction to her toss-back, he reassured her by wrapping his arms around her. “I just wanted her to know it was OK,” he explained. The moment was captured by the TV cameras, and the family was invited to appear on NBC’s Today Show.
Character is what you do when you don’t have time to think about what you’re doing. Monforto’s heart-warming hug revealed a dad who had his priorities in good order.
A Lasting Legacy
While the Kennedy family is famous for its political stature and tragedies, one of its greatest legacies lies in the two family members who never ran for office. Rosemary Kennedy, considered “mildly retarded” by the family, was lobotomized in 1941 in the belief the procedure would help her. Instead, it left her infantile, incontinent, and institutionalized. The tragedy inspired her younger sister, Eunice, to form the Special Olympics movement, which allows people with intellectual disabilities to compete in 30 different sports. It began under the name Camp Shriver in 1962 and held its first international event in 1968.
Shriver’s son, Tim, has described his mother as “really tough, ambitious, and strong-willed, but she also has this vulnerable and empathic side. After watching the struggles of her sister and visiting institutions and seeing this enormous amount of human suffering … she just couldn't take it anymore.” Shriver’s empathy for special needs kids and their families has literally spanned the globe and now embraces more than 3.1 million athletes of all ages in more than 170 countries. She passed away this past August 11, but her lasting, Level 3 legacy lives on.
– John Keenan, Editor
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Last changed: Feb 23 2010 at 5:34 PM