Henry V 4.3

This time of year people of the Christian faith celebrate Christmas, which at its essence is a celebration of incarnation: the belief that God cared enough about the world to enter into it.  There is a powerful leadership lesson for us in this notion of incarnation.  We know that leadership the craft of leading, and that the verb “to lead” is to show the way by going there in advance. To lead is to display a pattern of behaviors that have their root in conditions of being. “What I do” is then a reflection of “who I am.”  We tend to concentrate on the “what” as leaders, when we would often do better to begin with a focus on the “who.”  There is no easy formula.  But there are at least four things that we have to be, and all have to do with incarnation; entering into the worlds of the people whom we lead.

We have to be there.  The lion tamer Gunther Gebel-Williams is said to have had this piece of advice for his son as the young man entered the lion taming business.  “When you enter the cage,” he told his son, “you have to be there.”  It was my own son who first suggested this to me during his teenage years when he recognized my habit of not really paying attention to what I was doing and who I was talking to.  (It may have been manifest by my clipping through five or six children’s names before I got to the one I wanted.)  My toddler daughters used to take my cheeks in their little hands and turn my face towards theirs so that they knew that with eye contact I was really listening.  As my son would remind me, “Dad you have to be present.”  How much grief would we save ourselves if we resolved to be “attentional” and intentional? Continue reading →

“Among all the elaborate and exhaustive discussions of philosophers on serious and important subjects it appears to me that nothing is more generally useful than the principles of duty they have given to the world.  All our affairs, public or private, civil or domestic, our personal conduct, our social transactions, inevitably fall within the province of duty.  In the observation of duty lies all that is honorable.” (Cicero, “On Moral Duties.”)

Duty is something that one is expected or required to do by moral or legal obligation.  Getting duty right is worth thinking about.  We owe it to ourselves and to those whom we lead.  We owe it to our organizations.  Science-fiction philosopher Robert Heinlein wrote: “The basis of all morality is duty, a concept with the same relation to group that self-interest has to the individual” (Starship Troopers, 1959.)

Unfortunately duty is only a few simple letters away from being “to-do,” so that the things we have a true moral obligation to attend to can easily become check-boxes on the lists of life.  This is especially true for a Myers Briggs temperament ending in “J” (judging) like mine.  (“J’s make lists and use them… P’s make lists and lose them…”) The “J” temperament tends to be found disproportionately in leaders, so it is safe to say that this risk exists for many of us.

We have a duty to execute the technical aspects of our roles as leaders.  We have spoken before about “core competencies” and these include the range of abilities from managing our in-boxes and running meetings to strategic thinking.  Leadership requires us to master the basic skills of reading, writing, “rounding” (executive rounds or “management by wandering around”) and rhetoric.  Honing these skills and utilizing them to execute the mission are all reasonable entries on our lists.

But people should never be just “to-do list” entries.  Continue reading →

In a recent leadership discussion, a young officer asked what she could do to develop leadership skills even though she didn’t yet hold a leader position.  The answer struck to me right away, and I have been thinking about it since.  Leadership begins and ends with character.  It is something that we can work on throughout our lives.  The Romans used the Latin word “virtus” to refer to character.  The term was used of men and women, and meant to act with courage, with fortitude, and to act like a man (“vir:” Latin for man).  Virtus or character is something that you can focus on whether you’re four, fourteen or forty.  It is the foundation of all successful leadership because it is the fountain from which integrity flows, and integrity is the most often cited trait of successful leaders.

It is worth emphasizing that character is a lifelong pursuit.  We never need be stuck with “Well, that’s just the way I am.”  Some traits are harder to change than others and require increasing levels of support and insight from peers, from mentors or perhaps even from behavioral health professionals.  But we can change.

Character is developed in many ways throughout our lives.  It starts with watching and imitating parents and other role models throughout childhood.  I have mentioned before that leadership skills are a matter of “reading, writing and rhetoric.”  There are a number of ways that the leader interested in developing character can grow by reading, writing and reflection…

• Get your bearings.   Figure out what matters to you, what is important and live like you have figured it out.   If you are not at the point where you can articulate a personal vision and mission statement, this is a great time.  Set aside an hour or two on a quiet morning or evening and write down where you want to go (vision) and how you think that you will get there (mission.)  Include in your thought process principles and values that you think should characterize your actions and attitudes along he journey.  Then share your thoughts with someone you trust. Continue reading →

Several years ago one of my friends was promoted to the rank of general, which in the military is the civilian equivalent of a Senior CEO or Board Chairman.  In the course of a conversation, my friend asked me whether I had any suggestions or advice.  It did not take me long to think though some observations.  I owe a great deal to general officers who took the time to talk to me and to get to know me at crucial moments in my career.  These observations are worth remembering for all of us who are fortunate enough to find ourselves in positions of leadership.

1. Walk the halls alone.  Years ago I knew a colonel who became a general.  We were friends, although he was older.  Once he was promoted, I never saw him again without his aide or deputy or someone.   It is probably an unfair assessment, but it seemed as though he always had to have an audience for whom he was performing. It didn’t play too well with us.

2. Remember me.  As a young doctor, I was walking down the hallway of my community hospital and a general called out to me and greeted me by name.  She had met me exactly once in a previous job when she was my hospital’s Chief Nurse.  And here, two years later, she remembered my name.  That was huge.  I wish I knew how she did that…

3. Bring me in.  When I was a new subspecialist the hospital commander called me to his office, invited me to be part of some presentations, and gave me a glimpse of life at a higher level.  It was a watershed for me to begin thinking beyond the tactical level.  I wonder if he knew the seeds that he was planting.  Continue reading →