GARY BURNISON
Gary Burnison
Chief Executive Officer
Michael Distefano
Chief Marketing Officer
Joel Kurtzman
Editor-In-Chief
Creative Directors
Robert Ross
Roland K Madrid
Marketing and Circulation Manager
Stacy Levyn
Project Manager
Tiffany Sledzianowski
Web Comm. Specialist
Edward McLaurin
Contributing Editors
Chris Bergonzi
David Berreby
Lawrence M. Fisher
Victoria Griffith
Dana Landis
Stephanie Mitchell
Christopher R. O’Dea
P.J. O’Rourke
Glenn Rifkin
Adrian Wooldridge
Board of Advisors
Sergio Averbach
Cheryl Buxton
Dennis Carey
Bob Damon
Joe Griesedieck
Robert Hallagan
Katie Lahey
Byrne Mulrooney
Indranil Roy
Jane Stevenson
4
The Selflessness
of Self-Interest
W
e never get out of sixth grade.
As adults, our toys are different and our games have bigger rewards and higher penalties, but we never really move beyond
the desires and motivations of the playground. We want to be
liked, to be loved, to be accepted and to have what everyone else has. We want
to be popular, to stand out, to win. Otherwise, we’re taking our toys and leaving
the sandbox. Self-interest rules.
Rather than trying to hide our self-interest, we need to embrace it for what
it is — an invitation to join with other, similarly motivated people. It becomes
the leader’s job to meld individual self-interests into a kinetic force for good, to
advance the overarching goals of the organization, community or even society
as a whole. Then self-interest is elevated, even to
the point of morphing into selflessness.
The great economist Adam Smith observed
Self-Interest:
that the pursuit of self-interest leads to the best
The pursuit of
outcome for society as a whole. And yet, we often
try to hide our self-interest out of fear that it
one’s interest
makes us selfish or self-centered. But they are not
or advantage.
the same concepts.
S
Selfish:
elf-interest is key to our survival and
our ability to join with others in similar
Having concern
groups — from the people with whom
only for oneself,
we work, to the family members and friends with
without regard
whom we celebrate meaningful times. In this
to others.
season of thankful and special holidays around
the globe, individual and collective self-interests
often play out around the dinner table.
Self-Centered:
First, there is the cook, who may also be the
Egotistically
host. Eager to showcase his or her culinary talents
consumed by
(self-interest), the cook works tirelessly in the
one’s own affairs.
kitchen to prepare a sumptuous meal. But a selfless cook who spends all her time cooking and
serving will never truly enjoy the meal. A happy,
contented cook is one who sits down with the guests or, better yet, has a plate in
the kitchen. (I always eat as I cook. This way I get the seasonings right and, with
five kids at my table, I’m not counting on leftovers.)
Politeness may keep diners from being the first in line at the buffet, but selfinterest won’t let them wait too long. Hungry humans are not all that dissimilar
from rapacious rabbits that can turn a garden into an all-you-can-eat salad bar,
or smug sharks at the top of the food chain, for whom virtually any creature in
B R I E F I N G S
FROM THE CEO
the ocean can be the next meal. (Sharks are so sure
of their dominance that they are complacent when
caught by fisherman, because they don’t have the
built-in fear of being pursued by predators.) When it
comes to our next meal, by obeying our self-interest,
we make sure we get fed.
Self-interest is grounded in our basic drive for survival — having food, water, shelter — and extends into
the comforts of modern life — to have a home, to provide for ourselves and our families, to pay for college, a
car and the occasional vacation. Even deriving personal
satisfaction from making a difference, while seemingly
higher-minded, is still self-interest. So are enjoyment
and engagement in an activity.
I observed this in action recently with my own
children. On our last day of vacation at a beautiful
beachside condo, as we scrambled to pack — my wife
and I and our five children — somebody knocked over
a fruit smoothie the color and consistency of pink
lava. Of course, it landed on a white rug. Cleanup
quickly gave way to chaos as someone grabbed bath
towels (white, of course) to sop up the mess, and
someone else got the bright idea of squirting shampoo
on the rug and then dousing it with water. As kids ran
in and out of the room like the Keystone Cops, my
daughter, Emily, stayed with the task, even though it
wasn’t her drink or her accident. Wondering what had
sparked this sudden display of selflessness, I asked
her why she was working so hard. She shrugged and
smiled. “I’m having fun.” Her self-interest of pursuing
enjoyment in the moment spurred her into action
that was, on the whole, positive (except when the
blow-dryer she used to get the water out of the carpet
burned it instead).
Self-interest is intrinsic in everything we do,
from the companies we build and operate for profit
to the charitable acts that make us feel good about
ourselves. By no means is this meant to denigrate any
of those activities; rather, it sheds light on what drives
human behavior — the need to survive and the desire
to thrive, which we all share. Even when those drivers
are sixth-grade basic — I want you to like me — when
brought together on behalf of the whole, myriad
self-interests connect into a web of positive actions,
and for all the right reasons. A paradigm shift occurs:
Self-interest — aligned and connected with an overarching purpose — transforms into selflessness.
In this issue of Briefings on Talent & Leadership,
we look at selfishness, selflessness, science and the
mind. One piece of note is an interview with Nick
Hanauer, a Seattle-based entrepreneur who’s had
“Self-interest
is key to our
survival and our
ability to join
with others...
with whom we
work, to the
family members
and friends
with whom we
celebrate...”
a lot of success. His controversial message is that
“plutocrats” — his word, not ours — are taking too
much of the economic pie, even if they are the ones
who created the pie. In Hanauer’s view, first come
ideas, followed by new companies, and then comes
the greed. What comes after greed? Pitchforks, in
Hanauer’s opinion. Hanauer’s points are subject to
debate and definitely at the extreme. But they are
certainly worth the read. 
T A L E N T + L E A D E R S H I P
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