The Spiritual Shield

While using religion as a professional sword often results in a backlash of resentment and allegations of favoritism, most of the executives I interviewed found some role for spirituality in their professional lives. While they do not make religious proclamations at work, they also reject the notion that they must compartmentalize their religious and their professional lives. Rather, they use their religion as a shield. "It is an individual thing," says Joe Ryan of Marriott. "It is important professionally but not necessarily for the public to see." Or, as Mike Sears of Boeing put it, "It is a back-drop, it's values, it's you—but it is not tied directly into how you run your business."

This shield manifests itself in several ways. First, religion provides a moral context in which to make business decisions, according to Jack Danforth. You go to church or temple, and that immersion in faith reminds you of the values by which you must conduct both your personal and your professional life—fairness, accountability, and respect for other people. These qualities are not constraints upon professional success, but rather means to professional invincibility. In that sense, religion protects you from making the big mistakes that can destroy careers—serving, as I said, as a shield rather than a sword.

However, you also use your religious beliefs to temper your competitive nature—to keep you from relying too much upon money or power as a measure of success in life. You develop, for example, the faith-based qualities of generosity and charity. Virtually every invincible executive devotes countless hours to raising money for charities and community causes, and many attribute this activity to lessons that they learned from religious teachings.

Religion also gives you a perspective that assists in strategic decision making, according to Bill Marriott. "Religion gives you the long-term look at things. In business, everything is 'today'—you've got ten catastrophes going on at once. Then you go home at night and you have to take an eternal perspective. Where am I going to be years from now? That's where religion comes in."