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Men of Integrity, Mar/Apr 2000
Emotionally Exposed CEO
This Week's Theme: You and Your Job
Thursday, April 6
Key Bible Verse: Rich and poor have this in common: The Lord is the Maker of them all (Proverbs 22:2).
Bonus Reading: Romans 12:1-3
Bill Foote stood before 150 managers to deliver his first speech since becoming the chief executive officer of USG Corporation, a building products manufacturer in Chicago. It was anything but the typical "here's-my-vision" talk.
The CEO opened with an intensely personal story. Eighteen months earlier, his wife, Andrea, was diagnosed with breast cancer. The Footes, parents of three young girls, courageously waged an all-out battle with the disease; but one month before Bill was named CEO, Andrea died. She was only 42 years old.
Now, shouldering the new roles of widower, single parent and chief executive, Bill Foote elected to stand before his management team emotionally exposed. The Wall Street Journal later reported that; "As managers talked afterwards, … the clear message was 'If we have to go through a few walls for this guy, we're going to do it.'"
Additionally, the company showed a renewed attentiveness to family issues and a broader sensitivity to employee needs.
"Both Mr. Foote's leadership and the corporate culture at USG," concluded the Journal, "emerged stronger."
—Michael A. Zigarelli in Management by Proverbs
Personal Challenge:
- Let down your guard with a trusted coworker this week—and see what God will do!
Thought to Apply:
No man will work for your interests unless they are his.
—DAVID SEABURY
Credits: Adapted from—Thursday: Management by Proverbs (Moody Press, Moody Bible Institute, 1999)
Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information click here.
July/August 2000, April 6, 2000
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