Wired to care in the family and business

As I mentioned last week, my reflections on Moses will focus on certain situations, instead of walking through the entirety of his life. But to get us started, recall that Moses, after he was born, was placed in a basket near Pharoah’s house, where he was found and raised by one of Pharoah’s daughters. We then meet Moses as a young man:

One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” (Exodus 2:11-13)

The killing of the Egyptian, and the observation of Hebrew infighting, happens early in Moses’ story. The murder by Moses is a bit shocking, but the bigger picture is that as a young man, Moses cares deeply for his people. He not only sees their “burdens” – their position as slaves being brutally managed by Pharoah – but he is pained by two of his brethren fighting each other. Moses was wired, from early on, to be in touch with injustice. He was wired to care for others.

Our family members and business partners are also wired a certain way when it comes to others. They care about the well-being of people in their business, or the health of the community in which they live and work. They see others’ burdens, their challenges, or their difficulties. They seek to put relationships right, to improve the condition of those they know. Of course, some family members may seem wired to think only of themselves, to focus only on their needs or goals. And maybe we are all wired both ways: to at times see others’ needs, and at other times to think only of ourselves. The author David Brooks describes the difference between the two in his book How to Know a Person, in which he describes people acting as either “Illuminators” or “Diminishers.”

Are you, or is someone else in your family or business, wired to see other peoples’ burdens? How might you encourage an ethic of care in your family company?