You Can Be a Humanistic Boss--and Still Make the Bottom Line

In the 1970s, General Motors Corp. hired Nancy Piro to find out why female supervisors failed more often than men. It didn’t take long for the career development specialist and psychologist to spot the problem.

“It was easy to see the support they weren’t getting,” she said. “Men wanted them to fail.”

Scoot ahead two decades to a new corporate era and, for Piro, a new employer. Several weeks ago, she got an e-mail message from her chief executive, who suggested that she join him at an elite conference aimed at helping corporate leaders bring out the best in workers. What a difference from the old days at GM, she thought.

Piro thus found herself participating in the event--sponsored by Claremont Graduate School’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Leadership--along with Mort Meyerson, her company’s widely respected CEO. Best known as the man Ross Perot chose to build Electronic Data Systems Corp. into a computer services powerhouse, Meyerson now heads Perot Systems Corp., an information technology and consulting company in Dallas.

“I have never felt so valued and so valuable,” Piro said of her work for a Perot Systems unit that is helping the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power prepare for a new era of competition.

To what does she attribute that attitude, unusual in this era of downsizing? Meyerson’s leadership style, which places a premium on keeping people energized and content.

Chances are Piro wouldn’t feel quite so warm and fuzzy if it weren’t for Meyerson’s discovery, when he took the reins at Perot Systems in 1992, that the world of business had changed markedly in the six years since his time at EDS. He realized he needed new management skills to cope with radically different markets, customers, technology and workers.

“Everything I thought I knew about leadership is wrong,” Meyerson is fond of saying.

Meyerson began to question the hard-driving ways that characterized his seven-year tenure (1979-86) at EDS. In purely financial terms, that era was remarkably successful, he said in an interview at the leadership conference, held in Beverly Hills.

Soaring equity enriched many EDS people. But employees were miserable working 80-hour weeks and adhering to a take-no-prisoners mentality that forced them to put the bottom line ahead of personal concerns.

Meyerson vowed that Perot Systems would not make the same mistakes.

Early on, he convened meetings of top people to discuss what ailed the company. From these emotionally charged gatherings, Meyerson quickly learned that employees were angry and frustrated. Abusive bosses were coached on how to lead without mistreating or discouraging.

Financial performance was still a priority, but employees were urged to consider the well-being of colleagues and customers as they made decisions. What Meyerson calls the “larger issues of life”--family, faith, outside interests--came to have the same weight as profit-and-loss tables.

“Leaders now and in the future are going to have to recognize that the 9-to-5 worker who was male and the head of household is gone,” he said. “The workplace is a rainbow of people. Leaders must create a climate for other people to be great.”

Meyerson encouraged workers to e-mail him with concerns and suggestions. He gets thousands of messages each month. More than once, he has personally intervened after receiving e-mail from workers with family medical emergencies.

A decision to cancel two holiday parties outraged employees, but Meyerson turned the tables, offering to donate $120,000 in groceries and toys to inner-city residents--if employees delivered them personally. The company wanted workers to “walk the talk” by contributing time and energy rather than just money. An office was established to help employees arrange afternoons off to teach English as a second language or volunteer at a senior or day-care center.

For Meyerson, who now considers himself to be more of a coach than a manager, success means not only thriving financially but also fostering a supportive, nurturing environment.

The process of building a team-oriented, humanistic organization has not been easy. The first two years were angst-ridden. But in the third year, he said, “miraculously, good things started happening.” Customers started signing on. Quality improved. Sales and profit rose.

Along with his business card, Meyerson routinely hands out a laminated card listing Perot Systems’ values and “style.” Among the elements: Lead by example, take risks, create an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.

And, perhaps surprisingly for a man who once made employees wretched with his emphasis on perfection and the bottom line, the card urges workers to “have fun.”

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Does your company have an innovative approach to management? Tell us about it. Write to Martha Groves, Corporate Currents, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or send e-mail to martha.groves@latimes.com