People need a hope beyond the change. They need an anchor, a purpose that does not change and that provides meaning for their life and for their work.

What is the role of our organizations in responding to this need for meaning? What will be the social contract between an employer and employee as we move to the 21st century? Have we defined the mission of our organizations to include bringing purpose and meaning to those who are fulfilling the mission? How do we measure the effectiveness of our organizations? Can our organizations become moral communities to help shape the human character and behavior of our people? Can our mission be an organizing principle?

The first job of leaders is to ask, and try to answer, such questions. But our ultimate job is to be champions of the mission of the firm and, more important, to live that mission. We also must recognize that our values and character will be tested in the process.

I ask these fundamental questions not as a philosopher or educator but simply as a businessperson -- someone who, with my colleagues, is seeking to lead a fast growing, dynamic service company.

ServiceMaster has experienced rapid growth, doubling in size every 3 1/2 years for over 25 years, with systemwide revenues now exceeding $6 billion. Yes, we have experienced massive change. Over 75 percent of our current business lines we did not do just ten years ago. And we face the same pressures as every public company. Revenue and profits must be reported quarterly. The shareholders to whom we are responsible vote every day on our leadership -- they have the choice to buy, hold or sell.

But a business leader's success cannot be limited to the calculation of profit or a return on equity. My success must be measured by the 240,000 people with whom I work -- the people who deliver value to customers and shareholders every day.

Much of our business may be seen as routine and mundane. We clean toilets and floors, maintain boilers and air-handling units, serve food, kill bugs, care for lawns and landscapes, clean carpets, provide maid service, and repair home appliances. Our task as leaders is to train and motivate people to serve so they will do a more effective job, be more productive in their work and, yes, even be better people.

A Reason for Being

When you visit our headquarters in Downers Grove, Illinois, you walk into a large, two-story lobby; on your right is a curving marble wall, 90 feet long and 18 feet high. Carved in stone on that wall in are four statements that constitute our mission: To Honor God In All We Do, To Help People Develop, To Pursue Excellence, and To Grow Profitably. It's a statement simple enough to be remembered, controversial enough to require continuous dialogue, and profound enough to be lasting.

The first two objectives are end goals. The second two are means goals. All of them provide a reference point for people seeking to do that which is right and avoiding that which is wrong. Our goals remind us that every person has been created with dignity, worth and great potential. They remind us, too, that our core principles, like the wall itself, do not change.

In a pluralistic society, some may question whether our first objective is an appropriate goal for a public company. However, we do not use that goal as a basis of exclusion. It is, in fact, the basis for our promotion of diversity, as we recognize that different people are all part of God's mix, in whatever way (and whether or not) they choose to worship.

The New World of Work

Fifty years ago pundits were predicting that by the year 2000, everyone would be enjoying a 30-hour work week. The balance of our time would be spent in rest and leisure. But now it seems that most of us work harder. Others retire earlier or are in transition because their job is no longer needed. We use words like downsizing and rightsizing to mask the reality that people lose jobs for reasons other than performance. In fact, it has been suggested that we now live in a post-job world.

While we work with many accomplished people seeking new ways to contribute, we also have many workers coming to us with little or no formal training, social skills, or understanding of standards of civility. As a result, the workplace is increasingly becoming -- or must become -- a place of training and education, a University of Work. The distinctions we once made between going to school during part of our life and then working for the other part are no longer meaningful. For all people, the lines between school and work are blurring.

As we recognize the importance of dealing with the whole person, we seek to link the performance of the task with the development of the person, and to assume responsibility for what happens to the person in the process. What are they becoming in their work? Are the task as defined, the tools as designed, and the training so provided contributing to or detracting from the work and the worker? Are there opportunities for personal and professional advancement? These questions force a self-energizing, self-correcting, ongoing process that is the basis for continuous improvement in how we serve customers.

Bringing Meaning to Work

Why is Shirley Nelson, a housekeeper in a 250-bed community hospital, still excited about her work after 15 years? She certainly has seen some changes. She actually cleans more rooms today than she did five years ago. The chemicals, the mop, and the housekeeping cart have all been improved. Nevertheless, the bathrooms and the toilets are the same. The dirt has not changed nor have the unexpected spills of the patients or the arrogance of some of the physicians. So what motivates Shirley?

Shirley sees her job as extending to the welfare of the patient and as an integral part of a team that helps sick people get well. She has a cause that involves the health and welfare of others. When Shirley first started, no doubt she was merely looking for just a job. But she brought to her work an unlocked potential and a desire to accomplish something significant. As I talked with Shirley about her job, she said, "If we don't clean with a quality effort, we can't keep the doctors and nurses in business. We can't serve the patients. This place would be closed if we didn't have housekeeping." Shirley was confirming the reality of our mission. She was in command of her work, of herself, and of her own small piece of our business. And in a very real sense she was leading me, by talking about her work, her customers, and her role in our shared mission.

Leading the Whole Person

The scope of training must include more than teaching a person to use the right tools or to complete an assigned task within a defined period. It also must include how people feel about their work, about themselves, and how they relate to others at work or at home.

Thus, if I am involved in the leadership process, then as part of my training, I should also experience what it is like to do the hands-on work and to feel the emotions of those I am going to manage. That is why every manager in ServiceMaster spends time actually doing the tasks he or she will ultimately manage others to do.

Over 20 years ago, when I started as senior vice president responsible for the legal and financial affairs of the company, I spent the first three months of my training doing cleaning and maintenance tasks in hospitals, factories, and homes. It was a learning and serving experience that helped me to identify with the needs and concerns of our service workers. It was a great lesson in servant leadership and the role of a leader in implementing the mission of a firm. It has been a constant reminder that I must always be prepared to serve and should never ask anyone to do something that I am not willing to do myself. As a leader in such an environment, I should always be ready to be surprised by the potential of people.

A colleague tells of an experience that has been a great reminder to me of this point. It is often the custom for firms to hand out service pins in recognition of years of service. As my friend was involved in such an event, he was surprised by the response of one of the recipients. The young man opened the box, took out the sterling silver tie tack, said thanks, and with a wide grin proudly put the pin into his ear lobe, not on his lapel.

Several years ago I was traveling in what was then the Soviet Union. I had been asked to give several talks on the service business and our company objectives. While I was in the city then called Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, I met Olga. She had the job of mopping the lobby floor in a large hotel which at that time was occupied mostly by people from the West. I took an interest in her and her task. I engaged her in conversation through an interpreter and noted the tools she had to do her work. Olga had been given a T-frame for a mop, a filthy rag, and a bucket of dirty water. She really wasn't cleaning the floor; she was just moving dirt from place to place. The reality of Olga's task was to do the least amount of motions in the greatest amount of time until the day was over. Olga was not proud of what she was doing. She had no dignity in her work. She was a long way from owning the result.

I knew from our brief conversation that there was a great unlocked potential in Olga. I am sure you could have eaten off the floor in her two-room apartment -- but work was something different. No one had taken the time to teach or equip Olga. She was lost in a system that did not care. Work was just a job that had to be done. She was the object of work, not the subject.

But think back to Shirley -- what makes her experience of work so different from Olga's? Yes, one was born in Moscow and the other in Chicago, and their cultures, language, and nationalities were different. But, their basic tasks were the same. They both had to work for a living. They both had limited financial resources. One was proud of what she was doing. Her work had affected her view of herself and others. The other was not, and had a limited view of her potential and worth.