By: Dr. Andrew Abela
As I traveled my superhabits journey of discovery, I had the privilege of putting what I learned into practice, not just in my own life, but also offering it to the hundreds of students in our business school, the Busch School of Business at the Catholic University of America. We began informally, right from the founding of our school 11 years ago, promoting virtue among the students primarily through explanation and example. For example, one of our early hires, Dr. Michael Pakaluk, is a leading authority on Aristotle, and his textbook and class on Accounting Ethics are firmly grounded in the theory of virtue.
Over time we have started to become more explicit, encouraging our students to explore the system of virtues that is the human operating system, and to practice and build each of the virtues in their own lives. The results have been very encouraging. Employer demand for our graduates has been strong, as companies find in them not just the knowledge and skills that you expect of business school graduates, but also something deeper: self-discipline, politeness, courage, respect for others, and other virtues. No surprise, I think, that our graduates are commanding higher salaries, both at graduation and afterwards. A survey published in the Wall Street Journal last year ranked our accounting alumni salaries 11th. nationwide in the first 10 years after graduation. Impressive for a school that we consider to be still in its start-up phase. Recently Gallup polled our alumni and compared the results to a nationally-representative sample of graduates from other undergraduate business schools. On every measure, our undergraduates outscored the sample significantly. On one important measure, workforce engagement, our students were at double the national average.
Can we attribute all of this success to our efforts at virtue formation alone? There are surely other factors. Our university ranks in the upper tier of colleges and universities in the United States, so the students we admit are already significantly above the national average for college-going students. Our business school faculty, by design, consists of equal numbers of PhD-qualified scholars and former executives; the latter have made their money and now enjoy their lives as full-time professors. This mix ensures a very practical orientation to our education, and doubtless contributes to our graduates’ success. Nevertheless, the focus on virtue is surely helping us to achieve these excellent results.
The virtues are truly superpowers. Together they provide what is needed to deal effectively with the challenges we face in our organizations and society. They provide a basis for a uniquely effective business education — and for a flourishing life.