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Leadership in the Crucible:
The Paradox of Character and Power
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The Myth of Achilles' Heel
For the discerning listener, these all have subtexts of the presence of pride--that ancient human flaw of hubris that felled Achilles and brought down Rome. If I am a good coach, my job is to ask some questions about now. Do you think that these senior leaders always acted in these ways? What causes these characteristics in leaders-- DNA, bad parenting, or their education? What do you think makes the "great" leaders become great and the "lousy" leaders become lousy? And now here is the one question hardest for many to really hear: How about you, what will make you different or the same when you are a senior leader? How will you avoid becoming like this and cultivate a character that others will want to follow? I recognize that these are hard questions and perhaps in this era of "relativised" values and virtues they are even imponderable questions. But I am certain, based on all I have heard from public service leaders, that they are the most important questions to address for the development of future leaders (and, indeed, for the future of public service itself). They are even more critical than the kind of questions, as important and as long overdue as they are, that now are on the agenda: personnel grade and classification systems, executive pay compression, staffing processes, information architecture, human capital plans, performance measures, and de-layered structures that currently are being asked about human capital and leadership development.
And they are certainly more critical questions to address for future and present leaders than understanding how to craft a strategic plan, what the eight steps to organization change are, or how to distinguish an outcome from an output that are standard fare in leadership development programs.
Character and Failure
Unfortunately, the question of character is most often raised in the wake of failure. National confidence in corporate executives has been shaken by the Enron, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom failures. Questions have been raised about business ethics in disarray, as more revelations of other companies' malfeasance emerge almost daily. Leaders in the Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church and the United Way have had a blind eye in moral failures on their watch that has eroded trust in the social sector and the church. And, in the public sector the toleration of sexual predators by their failed leaders at the Air Force Academy, the presence of groupthink and truth suppression in both the Columbia and Challenger disasters, and the repeated public lies by senior officials that are associated with Vietnam, Watergate, and Monicagate--all these have contributed to the erosion of the trust placed in public servants as national leaders and in leaders in all sectors of the US. But these visible failures only are the harbingers of what is seen in small ways in many more organizations as the great-lousy exercise indicates. Perhaps the good news is that maybe we can use this time of increased attention to human capital to do something to better prepare tomorrow's public service leaders than we are doing today. By placing the subject of character and power forthrightly back on the agenda of how we develop young people to become tomorrow's Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, George Marshall, and Jane Addams--to name a few who grow larger the closer we have looked across the years--we can get our focus on the main thing in leadership. All of these people we now revere came of age in a time when character was founded on some core truths and was part of the consciousness of culture beginning with teaching small children and carrying on into public life.
Character Courses We want character but without unyielding conviction; we want strong morality but without the burden of guilt or shame; we want virtue but without the moral justifications that invariably offend; we want good without having to name evil... we want moral community without any limitations to personal freedom. In short, we want what we cannot possibly have on the terms we want it.
-James Davison Hunter in The Death of Character
Let us return then to Mr. Lincoln. How do you prepare leaders for the crucible of power that Lincoln warned of so that they become the "great" leaders--humble, courageous, caring, persevering, and with an evident sense of integrity? And, for our day, how do we overcome what has been described as the "death of character."
I don't yet know that answer, not entirely at least, but let me suggest briefly three character "courses"--in many ways lifelong courses--that I am finding in working with tomorrow's leaders that may help to avoid the trap that power has laid and to help prepare for the crucible or power. For if you listen to the stories of the great and lousy leaders that people have worked with, it is the subtle corrosion of the leader's character over time, beginning early on and intensifying as greater and greater power is assumed, that creates the Achilles heel of pride and arrogance, eroding the trust of followers. And what should be cause for all of us to pause: no one is immune from this allure. Course I. Live with Purpose: The first course is what I would call the core character course. It has two facets: one is finding and then living out a guiding purpose, a life mission; the second facet is then placing a touchstone at the place of the core values and enduring beliefs--a place where you return to check yourself periodically. Some would call this a worldview, a telos. For five years I taught a selected group of mid-career leaders in the Council for Excellence Fellows Program. Each year, the beginning point for these next generation leaders was to do something I was told is unusual for many of them--to take some time to pause and reflect over the course of a few days and even a few weeks in order to get clear about their life mission. What gets them out of bed every morning?
Key Questions
Here are some questions that I find help in that exercise:
- What would you want to hear people say about your life if you were able to listen in at your retirement dinner, your funeral? What would your kids say about you, or your spouse, your friends, and your enemies? What are the "blasphemies" that you would hate to hear people name as your typical behaviors and attitudes?
- For what beliefs would you "bet your job" and resign your position?
- What does a life of "success" look like for you at the end of the day? In all honesty--is success for you rank, proximity to a powerful person, money, relationships, service, or improved lives?
- What is the one sentence epitaph that you would choose to sum up your life?
I then ask them to take all of that reflection and square it against their daily calendar and the feedback that a trusted few will be willing to give them along with their own honest self-examination. Then, finally, I ask them to address the question--What do you need to do to get clearer about your purpose and your core values and beliefs--and then live them out consistently for the next 40 years? For busy people, it is not uncommon to find that they have never taken the time do this work--a lesson from my own life as well. One final note: this is an exercise that takes time, time marked by a calendar, not by a clock. A wise leader knows that this is not "soft" work; that, on the contrary, this reflection is the "hard" stuff that is at the center of shaping a good leader--one of character. I have been told time and again by Fellows and other learners where I use this that so often they are too busy today and unaccustomed to reflection. The urgent drives out the important. Only a forced pause on a periodic basis such as the Fellows program requires plus some helpful feedback from a trusted few keeps them heading to that North Star. And that brings us to the importance of mentors.
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