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170 PART 3: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP

IN THE LEAD doubled the amount of paid service time for employees and managed to turn the
company around. Since then, Timberland has seen growing sales and profi ts. Swartz
is an avowed capitalist and has no desire to pursue his social objectives through a
nonprofi t. He believes commerce and justice should go hand in hand and he’s using
Timberland as a living laboratory to prove it.
People like working for a company that puts its values into action. “I love my
job,” says staff attorney Michael Moody. “The core values are humanity, humil-
ity, integrity, and excellence, and I see those values used as a touchstone in all
23
conversations.”
Leaders like Jeffrey Swartz illustrate that leaders can run successful orga-
nizations based on moral principles. There is some evidence that doing right by
employees, customers, and the community, as well as by shareholders, is good busi-
ness. One study by Governance Metrics International, an independent corporate
governance ratings agency in New York, found that the stocks of companies that
are run on more selfl ess principles perform better than those run in a self-serving

manner. Top-ranked companies such as Pfizer, Johnson Controls, and Sunoco also
outperformed lower-ranking companies in measures like return on assets, return
on investment, and return on capital. 24

Becoming a Moral Leader

Leadership is not merely a set of practices with no association with right or
wrong. All leadership practices can be used for good or evil and thus have a
moral dimension. Leaders choose whether to act from selfi shness and greed
to diminish others or in ways that serve and motivate others to develop to
25
Moral leadership
Moral leadership their full potential as employees and as human beings. Moral leadership is about
distinguishing right from wrong
distinguishing right from wrong distinguishing right from wrong and doing right, seeking the just, the honest,
and doing right; seeking the just,
and doing right; seeking the just,
honest, and good in the practice
honest, and good in the practice the good, and the right conduct in its practice. Leaders have great infl uence
of leadership
of leadership over others, and moral leadership gives life to others and enhances the lives of
others. Immoral leadership takes away from others in order to enhance oneself. 26
Leaders who would do evil toward others, such as Hitler, Stalin, or Cambodia’s
Pol Pot, are immoral. The following historical example illustrates the height of
moral leadership.
IN THE LEAD Raoul Wallenberg
During the waning months of World War II, a young man climbed atop the roof
of a train ready to start for Auschwitz. Ignoring shouts—and later bullets—from
Nazis and soldiers of the Hungarian Arrow Cross, he began handing fake Swedish
passports to the astonished Jews inside and ordering them to walk to a caravan
of cars marked in Swedish colors. By the time the cars were loaded, the soldiers
were so dumbfounded by the young man’s actions that they simply stood by and
let the cars pass, carrying to safety dozens of Jews who had been headed for
the death camps.
Virtually alone in Hungary, one of the most perilous places in Europe in 1944,
Raoul Wallenberg worked such miracles on a daily basis, using as his weapons cour-

age, self-confidence, and his deep, unwavering belief in the rightness of his mis-
sion. No one knows how many people he directly or indirectly saved from certain
death, though it is estimated at more than 100,000.
Wallenberg was 32 years old in 1944, a wealthy, politically connected, upper-
class Swede from a prominent, well-respected family. When asked by the U.S.
War Refugee Board to enter Hungary and help stop Hitler’s slaughter of innocent