Paul Lambert is aiming to shift the perception that faith and work should be kept separate. Through his research and teaching on religious pluralism and its impact on economics and business, Lambert hopes to empower students at the BYU Marriott School of Business to see their faith as one of their biggest assets in the workplace.
Outside of his roles at BYU, Lambert runs a consulting firm that helps business leaders better understand the importance of faith in the workplace and destigmatize conversations about personal matters at work. “Individuals have identities,” he says, “and if business executives want the most out of their employees, they need to recognize that employees aren’t just machines but complex individuals who can give amazing contributions if they are empowered.”
Lambert’s commitment to exploring the intersection of religion and society started early in his career. While working at the National Defense University in Washington, DC, Lambert taught foreign military and government leaders about different aspects of American society. He noticed that many of these leaders had questions about the prominent role that religion plays in American culture and politics, even though the US has a separation of church and state. “You can’t understand the United States without understanding religion,” Lambert says. “It’s impossible—it’s in our history; it’s in our DNA today.”
During Lambert’s years teaching in DC, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were encouraging church members to get involved in their communities and advocate for religious freedom, and this led Lambert to ask himself what he could do in his own sphere of influence. “I felt like I was in a really unique position with all of my international students who had a lot of influence in their own countries,” he explains. With his students in mind, Lambert began researching and teaching about the role of religion on foreign affairs.
Lambert’s new focus led him to several organizations that conducted research about religion and economics. He continued research as the assistant dean of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and started applying his knowledge on the ground by consulting business leaders on making the workplace more faith friendly.
In 2021, Lambert was invited by Brigitte Madrian, dean of BYU Marriott, to be a visiting fellow and help incorporate principles of religious pluralism into the school’s curriculum and research. In 2023 he became an affiliate faculty member within the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics. Visiting a variety of BYU Marriott classes as a guest lecturer, he hopes to help students understand that religion can play a positive role in business growth, market expansion, and management.
He is also serving as the director of Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute Religion Initiative where he looks at the role religion plays in different aspects of society. Currently he is working on research with Eva Witesman, director of the Ballard Center for Social Impact, to look at the effects of religious pluralism on business outcomes and social issues. “Having an explicit focus on what’s most important—our identities as children of God—is what makes BYU such a unique place,” Lambert says. “We don’t have to tiptoe around the indisputable power of faith.”
“At BYU it’s pretty easy to be a member of the Church because most people are also members,” Lambert says. “But what does discipleship look like when students go out into the world where they’re not among thousands of other members?” Lambert observes that people often head into work and try to compartmentalize their faith and career, but doing so prevents employees from performing at their best. He encourages students to instead be confident in their identities as people of faith.
Throughout his career, Lambert has relied on his faith to navigate his career while prioritizing being a husband and father. He says, “Praise or correction from my colleagues is important, but I’ve found that those don’t give me the kind of peace and confidence that I feel when I go to the Lord and ask, Am I getting it right?”
For Lambert, one of the most invigorating, exciting, and inspiring parts of lecturing is the moment when students finally realize that “their faith is their greatest asset.” He wants students to understand that, above all, “the best professional they can be is the best disciple of Christ that they can be.”
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Written by Elizabeth Walker