Enduring Leadership: How We All Gain From Max Schireson’s Experience

While Mongo—an open source database provider—lost a leader, his family and society gained one. What lesson can we take from Schireson’s decision?

Families give us meaning and purpose. This is very much in line with the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming who referred to this as a “constancy in purpose.” Leaders, much like fathers and mothers, must have a stated constancy in purpose. The message must be clear to employees, suppliers and customers. While it can change and improve as conditions dictate, it should not vary much long-term as we so often see in American leadership today. How might the following mission and values statement be applied to your business purpose?

“To help our spouses and children consistently prosper by benefiting society and one another. We will do so by raising great human beings through continuously improving one another along with those we come in contact with. … To provide an environment to promote joy at home and at school where we can all achieve our personal goals and give families in the future an opportunity to share in the same values. These must be pursued in a manner that is socially responsible and commands respect for integrity by making positive contributions to society.” (1)

Unfortunately, the company responsible for these statements lost their way and closed their doors a few years ago, but Max Schireson did not. He learned that some things are more important than money, fame and the allure of trying to lead by being away from home.

Here are three points of advice to help you stay focused on continuously improving yourself, your people and your business without sacrificing your personal values:

1. Create a Constancy in Purpose. At home, Schireson found he had a higher calling that created a more purposeful life. While not every leader may feel the same calling, having a purpose for employees can help chief executives achieve the same objective. Brief, but meaningful activities—in Schireson’s case, being there to take care of his kids when they get sick, for example—can have an enduring impact.

2. Adopt a Philosophy of Quality. Just as Deming taught the Japanese decades ago, American consumers can no longer live with the levels of quality they once tolerated. Variation, masquerading as wasteful activity, must be driven out of our businesses. As continuous improvement strategies spread around the globe, it will only make it more difficult for us to compete if we don’t adopt the same principles. By engaging employees in quality improvement activities to find the most common causes of variation, we increase throughput rates, expand capacity—which gives us more time to innovate—and create more jobs.

3. Lead from the “Gemba” (a Japanese term meaning “real place”). Schireson decided his real value to humanity was to lead from home. Being with his children meant more to him than anything else. That’s value-added activity, not waste. By seeing, watching and understanding the needs of his kids, he’ll be able to help influence them going forward, giving real value to them as they become the world’s next generation of leaders.

The key lesson here is not to quit your job and stay home with your family: it’s to step down from the corner office and spend more time in the field. You will not only learn more about your people and your processes, but you will be able to more effectively influence them as well.

(1) Four Days With Dr. Deming (p. 56) (by William Latzko and David Saunders)