Instead, work for most employees not in leadership is more like marking time. At AES Corporation, the international power company Bakke co-founded, he noticed that people in their 20s would, within a few weeks of starting work, put their retirement date on a calendar and start circling the days until they could leave. "Can you imagine a job like that?" Bakke asked his audience of over 1,100 people at the Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center. "It's a jail sentence."
The desire to free workers from employment prison led Bakke to two great passions: creating the most fun workplace in history, and understanding the real purpose of business. This quest also led him to write the bestseller Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job and to a post as president and CEO of Imagine Schools, which operates charter schools in 10 states.
The most fun workplace in history
Joy is a more important benefit than salary, Bakke said. And joy comes from allowing people to use the skills that make them human: the ability to think, to reason and to make a difference. "Most of us in the business world aren't allowed to be human," he said.
Leaders need to get out of the way. At AES, Bakke promised—and persuaded his board and other top executives to promise—to make no more than one major decision each year. "The chance to have the ball at the end of the game would be spread around," he said.
The real purpose of business
Just as individuals do not work mainly for material gain, businesses do not exist mainly for profit. "People don't work for money, especially not for other people's money," Bakke said. "We were called to work to provide a service. Until we understand that, we'll never have joy."
A graduate of Harvard Business School, Bakke hates the term "manager." "Management is all about control. Leadership is all about character," he said. Character comes from humility and love. The kind of humility leaders show when they put themselves at the same level as those they lead. The kind of love leaders show when they love the people they lead enough to give up their own joy for them.
About the forum
The annual FPU Business Forum seeks to teach and inspire the business community, students and faculty on topics central to the university's mission: leadership, ethics and values, and healthy communities and organizations. Among the largest events of its kind in Fresno, the forum attracts over 1,100 business and civic leaders and other professionals. Past speakers include Ken Blanchard and Patrick Lencioni.
After the breakfast meeting Bakke spoke to almost 500 FPU students and faculty in a College Hour chapel and at a roundtable discussion on leadership with students and faculty from the School of Business.
Major forum sponsors include Wells Fargo, The Business Journal, Bank of the West, Beechwood Advisory Group, Dumont Printing, K-Jewel 99.3 FM, Quiring General and Pardini's Catering and Banquets.