As a proud descendant of Wackes German ancestry, I could not believe that VW/Audi was being accused of something I would expect from Toyota or Hyundai! But guilty they are! (By the way… it’s a great time to buy a VW or Audi!)

Then I came across this article, “6 Actions to Prevent Your Company Becoming the Next Volkswagen”, a must-read from Entrepreneur by Neel Doshi and Lindsay MacGregor. It caused me to think about leadership and esprit de corps in Christian schools and how similar we are to an industry like cars. And how leadership plays a crucial role in not allowing the pressures of the classroom, or capital needs, or Board meetings, or parent demands to drive us to less-than-exemplary behavior.

And in case you think this is hyperbole without application to schools, I am familiar with a for-profit Christian school in another state that kept hidden from their school community the fact that they owed the IRS over $500,000 in back taxes, had three liens on their property, and had let health insurance for the staff lapse.

Parents wondered why so many Asian students were arriving on campus (they had quickly grown to 40% of the student population) and why “Christian” mysteriously disappeared from the school’s front web page.

Financial pressures led the school’s owners to behave in ways unthinkable just two years before. As a result, they have lost most of their loyal parent-base and faculty. They experienced the VW debacle!

Doshi and MacGregor offer six actions to avoid the VW debacle. But first a few choice comments from their article.

How could an industry leader with supposedly high standards mess up so badly? What many people don’t understand about performance is that why we work determines how well we work — which includes performing with integrity. Our research shows that the motives of play, purpose and potential improve performance, while emotional pressure, economic pressure and inertia diminish it. . . .

We see these same pressures at what should be some of the most moral organizations: schools. In Atlanta, public school teachers were under serious emotional and economic pressure to produce improved student test scores. Teachers faced the threat of being fired, not receiving bonuses and even losing the federal financial aid that helped their students. This pressure manifested in a massive cobra effect [ read the article to see what they mean by the cobra effect] and by the time the dust settled, the state investigation had implicated 178 teachers and principals at 44 schools. . . .

In all likelihood the employees at Volkswagen — just like the Atlanta teachers — were under pressure from time or budgetary constraints. When they managed to get away with installing the deceptive software, they probably kept going, despite knowing that their actions would probably harm Volkswagen in the long run. When an employee’s ToMo is low, he or she will take the shortest path possible to alleviate the pressure. . . . .

Instead, what should have been done was improve the working experience for employees through building a culture that values things like enhanced communication and realistic goals. Transforming a complete culture requires work on many systems within an organization — from how you lead, to how you compensate, to how you design roles and responsibilities, as we describe in detail in our book Primed to Perform.

Here are the six ideas from Doshi and MacGregor. Read the article to understand these six ideas more fully.

1. Assess your risk.
2. Refine your metrics.
3. Set learning goals.
4. Troubleshoot.
5. Set the water line.
6. Admit mistakes.

They also provide a free resource. “Think about where emotional pressure, economic pressure or inertia may be high in your organization. If your company is larger than 50 people, you may have trouble assessing that by gut feel. Our free survey enables you to quickly measure the motives of your people and find out.”

To access their free individual and team surveys go see: vegafactor.com/survey.

Other good leadership articles at Entrepreneur:

• 5 Traits of Successful Leaders
• 6 Things True Leaders Do