TOV Values in Business

There is a very interesting article in the Business section of the Dallas Morning News by Cheryl Hall, entitled, "CEO pushes priorities, and family is first."  The piece is written about Mark Layman the chief executive of Balfour Beatty Construction US, a Dallas based company known for projects like The Gaylord Texan Resort, Perot Museum and a host of other global ventures. Layman credits a loving single mom, "caring angels" from his church who helped pay bills to supplement his mother's income to cover the needs of four children and other father figures who "straightened him out" as a kid when he was headed for trouble. There were "dads" who stepped in to buy him a suit for a job interview and who directed him. One of them taught him a valuable lesson when he was on the track team and lost a race -- "What matters is how you respond to life and how people see you react. That's far more important than whether you won or lost this race." This is MENTORING! DO YOU DETECT TOV YET?

Layman often brings in his hardest-charging employees, hands them a copy of "Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Family and Work Collide?" -- and then tells them to spend more time at home. The premise of the 2003 book is that one or the other is going to get short shrift, and Layman has no doubt which one deserves top priority. He says, "I preach to our strongest, most valuable, but highly professionally, driven folks that you can't define success as succeeding professionally but costing personally."

He exemplifies the difference between being a "boss" and being a "leader." Layman sees his key management strength as being able to juice up the troops. He said, "Management by fear leads to obedience. People will follow but never give you anything special. If you want `followership’ rather than `obedience,’ and you want to turn the people loose to do special things, you've got to inspire them." I add, “you have to Value them!”

Mark Layman may not be aware of the word TOV, but everything he's doing as a father, husband and CEO, are all TOV. His actions represent the metaphor of the "Good Shepherd" of the prophet Ezekiel. He protects his flock, preserves them, helps them to function and increases the quality of their lives. He nurtures and nourishes them, leads them and brings back those who wander off back to the flock. These are TOV Values. They increase productivity, creativity, integrity and loyalty. This in turn creates a "TOV Community " -- all types of different people with a Common Set of Values and Common Goals, each contributing their uniqueness, Discovering people with a spark and Mentoring them for the Common Good.

Using the Wisdom of TOV Values from the past, and practicing those TOV Values in the present, will bring about a TOV future for all. I just wanted to share a great story about a man who is doing TOV in Big “D” today.

Do TOV. Choose Life!

Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor

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