By Howard Lovy
Introduction
Cathy Perme
Back in 2008, when layoff notices blanketed the corporate world like Minnesota snow, consultant Cathy Perme was in the middle of working with the leadership cohort of one company when word came down that half the people in her group had lost their jobs. So, she gathered them together and told them that, no matter what happens or where they go next, they are learning how to create a corporate culture where people want to work. “I truly believe that I’ve been training the next generation’s CEOs,” Perme said.
And, it turns out, she was right. “They all landed on their feet,” she said.
How did she do it? Well, she starts with the premise that everybody … everybody in a company, from the custodian to the CEO, has the potential to be a leader. And she does it with new applications of some very ancient ideas. Ancient by about 2,500 years and the words of a great philosopher and leader named Confucius. Perme shows how to apply the wisdom of Confucius in today’s corporate world in her book, Confucius in My Cubicle: Practical Wisdom for the Leader in All of Us, published by Wisdom Editions.
But how did a consultant who focuses on organization development find herself steeped in Confucianism? For that story, we need to go back a few years.
For the past 28 years, Perme’s Minneapolis-based consulting business has helped organizations handle change, whether that change is a new initiative or a new focus for a business. She puts together teams and then decides what needs to be done to make the change. That’s one part of her life. The other part is being a mom to an adoptive daughter who was born in China 22 years ago. Perme was 42 years old at the time and already had a successful career behind her.
The Interview
“So, what I learned to do is to go from an intensely focused career woman to somebody who had to juggle a lot of stuff,” Perme said. “I learned a lot more about work-life balance, made some fundamental choices.”
When her daughter was 15 years old, this quest for work-life balance brought Perme to her decision to study Confucianism. In the beginning her goal was to honor her daughter’s Chinese heritage. Then, the more she studied what Confucius was saying, the more sense it made in her work.
“The leadership consultant in me went, ‘Oh my God. This so relates to today,’“ she said.
That got her thinking more about her daughter’s generation. “If I were to pass on some wisdom to my daughter and her generation of millennials, what would I want to tell them?” She interviewed 20-somethings who had just started their careers. She asked them: “When you think about the future, when you think about what you want to do, what are the questions that you have? What would you want to know?”
The answers she received started to coalesce into a book. But it’s the kind of books that she likes to read, filled with short practical essays. Perme divided her analysis into four different themes
1. How do I take the lead?
This section answers questions posed by those who are not currently considered leaders. “I truly believe that everyone, everyone can lead from any position in the organization.” Perme has worked with custodians, bus drivers, shirt launderers, and CEOs. “Every single one of them can take the lead in their own jobs in their own ways and make a difference,” she said.
“We have an idealized version of what leaders at the top should be looking like and talking like, but everybody in an organization can take a leadership role in whatever they’re doing. And that is also what Confucius said. He truly believed that. He used the word ‘nobility.’ I would say that’s leadership.
“He said that nobility comes from education, and doing your job well and doing it with humanity. I believe anybody can do that.”
2. How do we get along?
In this section, Perme asks and answers the question: “If we are to take the lead, how are we to get people to come with us?” Confucius, and Perme, have much to say about building trust, empowering others, dealing with bullies, and training your team.
3. Managing yourself
“Everybody wants to manage change and they want to manage everybody else’s change, but I truly believe that change starts with you first,” Perme said. “If you’re going to rise or take the lead in your organization, you need to understand yourself. Examine yourself and really work your own change—whether it’s the culture changing, the organization changing, or you changing careers.”
4. Finding balance
Here’s where Perme departs from Confucius to some extent because in the male-dominated world of two millennia ago, work-life balance was not even a consideration. Women simply did everything, from housework to child-rearing. “But to be a modern American businesswoman and businessman, when you have much more responsibility for family life as well as work life, you need to think about work/life balance,” she said. “I learned some tough lessons in that regard.” Among the essays in that section: The Beauty of a Sabbatical and Aging Gracefully. Together, these four sections are meant to be browsed and consumed in short bites. You can read them on an airplane, start anywhere in the book and see if something resonates. In this way, Perme is taking ageless wisdom and making it newly relevant. Or, in the words of Confucius: “If you can revive the ancient and use it to understand the modern, then you’re worthy to be a teacher.”
Together, these four sections are meant to be browsed and consumed in short bites. You can read them on an airplane, start anywhere in the book and see if something resonates. In this way, Perme is taking ageless wisdom and making it newly relevant. Or, in the words of Confucius: “If you can revive the ancient and use it to understand the modern, then you’re worthy to be a teacher.”
HOWARD LOVY writes book reviews and conducts author interviews for Calumet Editions, LLC. Previously he was executive editor at Foreword Reviews and directed news coverage and analysis on Foreword’s website and Foreword’s Clarion book review service. Howard is a veteran journalist, spending the past 30 years working for newspapers, magazines, wire services, and websites as a reporter and editor.
