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Leadership in the Crucible:
The Paradox of Character and Power
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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.
Course II. Gain Wisdom from Mentors: The second character course is
one that is most often 'taught' by a mentor or, better yet, by
mentors--throughout life.
What I say normally to aspiring leaders is this. First, find someone who
has the wisdom and the character that you would like to emulate--not a
perfect person, but one that embodies many aspects of your own purpose and
core values and is further down the road of life. There are no "methods"
to this course; no set of steps or techniques. Do not read a book about
mentoring. This is a simple act of a relationship with someone whom you
can trust with your thoughts, your life purpose, and your heart--even your
flaws. Spending time, parts of life together--walking, having a cup of
coffee or a beer, sharing a meal--is the key to this character course.
A mentor most often is not someone in the chain of command. For example,
someone recently retired from one's organization would be a place to
start. That person has both the time and the generative impulse to give
back to others. Also I recommend looking for mentors in places outside of
work--at church, an older neighbor, or an older family member.
The agenda is yours, not theirs. So, use the time to ask questions about
similar challenges and conflicts they have had. Delve into life issues as
well as work issues as they are hardly separable. Draw out their stories
in particular, as this will give you both context and a memorable learning
mode.
For More Mature Senior Leaders
For more mature senior leaders, here is something key to note.
In countless conversations that I have had with mid-career leaders, there
is the constant theme of a hunger for a good mentor. For those of you who
are "elders at the gate," this is an opportunity to give back and to
employ the things you have learned--often the hard way--by telling your
stories; by spending good time with one or two people.
And one other thing, not all mentors need to be alive today. Find some of
the teachers and mentors from our past that should be listened to again.
Read the old books. Often in them you will find that there are similar
situations from our past that were addressed by people who think
differently than you and I do today. Yet human nature never really changes
nor do the best and worst aspects of human behavior and the essential
nature of good leadership character. Whatever you choose to do, go back
and find what Washington and Jefferson read, what shaped Adams and
Frederick Douglas, Lincoln and Lee. In the old books and the old stories,
we find the wisdom of character that it seems people today still hunger
for from older mentors.
Course III. Be Engaged in a Community of Practice: The third course
is one that is experienced in a community of people where mutual learning,
support, and even accountability occur and where mutual purposes are
shared. Like the hunger for a good mentor, today's organizational and
societal culture has left most people, not just public servants, with a
"bowling alone" sense of the worlds they inhabit.
While extensive research over the last 30 years confirms in stark terms
the significant loss of community that has characterized the American
democracy, my work with mid-career and senior government leaders
underscores this finding even more poignantly. Very common themes include
not only the pressures of time, but of information overload, financial
insistence, commuting, downsizing, and outsourcing. These factors and
others all seem to contribute to this sense of "more with less" that
today's public service leaders face. They describe a workplace where the
urgent is constantly at the fore and the more important has to take a back
seat. These factors contribute clearly to time pressures and choices that
result in a sense of disconnection from families and others to a striking
degree.
Mid-Career Leaders
Despite whatever leadership topic is under discussion, I continue to be
struck by how often mid-career leaders want to talk about the pressures
they feel on their time that have them living an in-box life--at work and
at home. Lack of balance is a subject that is raised time and again as the
reason for not being able to stop and reflect, to learn, to build
relationships with people.
What I have begun to realize as these conversations occur in leadership
development programs is that this also is an opportunity to reexamine some
things that we likely took for granted in earlier generations. By being a
part of a community of people that choose to regularly spend time
together, rising leaders will also find the tacit learning that helps to
reinforce the lessons of character in the first two character courses.
Here you are able to test ideas, learn from others' experiences, and gain
the encouragement of heart to persist at the "long obedience in the same
direction" that it takes to accomplish complex organization and public
policy changes. It is here that values are passed on, that the culture is
embedded, and where the very stuff of intellectual, emotional, social, and
character capital is born.
Case Illustrations
Let me cite two examples I often share with people as examples for them
that seem to be working well--what many call communities of practice.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Academy Sharing
Knowledge (ASK)
The first is at NASA where they have begun something called the ASK.
Essentially, this is a time-tested method of passing wisdom from one
generation to another--telling stories. The idea is simple and would work
well almost anywhere in government.
NASA, facing the loss of an entire generation of experienced project
managers--its key leaders--began to embed their wisdom through the use of
public storytelling forums and the publication of
ASK Magazine. It
is within these forums and the conversations that ensue where younger,
perhaps more technically advanced project managers can learn the wisdom
and character traits that mature leaders have gained in both successes and
failures--both of which are shared openly. They have found that there is
something about telling a story that is not only remembered but changes
people through tacit learning--it is almost experiential.
Council for Excellence in Government--Evenings on K Street
A second example is in something that has begun at the
Council for
Excellence in Government where I have been a leadership coach. Each year
approximately 150 Fellows are selected by their organizations for
participation in a unique leadership development program at the mid-career
point--GS-14 and GS-15 typically. Over the past dozen years or so almost
2,000 Senior Fellows ("graduates") are now advancing throughout the
federal government. Many of these Senior Fellows continue to sense a need
to continue as part of a community of leaders who share their experiences
and continue to learn from each other. They are people who share a common
purpose and a common set of values around public service leadership and
seek to effect change where they are.
This past two years, the Council has sponsored a series of weekly
evening
discussion forums around a variety of current topics and issues that
typically involves a short presentation, extensive time for discussion of
the whole group, and then a time of informal networking by smaller groups
and one on one conversations. A board of Senior Fellows volunteers its
time to work with the Council to chart out how these leadership
communities of practice can continue to be nurtured and grow within their
home organizations. It is a creative means to reinforce the character
qualities and leadership behaviors that often get extinguished once a
person leaves any educational program and to continue to learn over a
career.
Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
There is a not-so-old saying that "people join organizations and leave
supervisors." While this may be a vast oversimplification, it remains
primarily true. With recent studies showing that one-third of federal
employees are considering leaving public service, and with the
conversations about leadership many of us have been involved in over the
years, we can find ourselves asking a Bob Dylan-type question--Where have
all the leaders gone?
My own experience with hundreds of senior executives and mid-career
leaders in these past years has convinced me that the potential leaders
are there. Many good people have been called to public service and many
have the skills that are needed for today's leaders. But, as we tackle the
sea change of the departure of a generation of senior leaders, I am
convinced that the question of shaping character in future leaders is the
central issue. The crucible of power is one that continues to be the place
where many have faltered. Lincoln saw it clearly and named it, beginning
with himself. That is a good place for us all to start.
The question of character when power is assumed is one that needs to be at
the fore of all succession and leader development efforts in public
service. Helping people to forge a purpose and core values for life that
are rooted in timeless, enduring principles; seeking out (and also
becoming) mentors who will spend time to share their lives; forging
communities of practice where public servants share a common purpose to
continue to learn and to grow as leaders and as people of integrity--these
are the places to begin working on building something that will last and
leave behind a legacy of service.
Leaders grow leaders. More precisely, leaders of character grow other
leaders of character who, in turn, do the same.
References
I am indebted to Dr. Steven Garber for his framework on the leadership
crucible. He co-taught a "Leadership in the Crucible" seminar for
Excellence in Government Fellows in 2002. His lifelong work preparing
university students and his research on those who succeed at life has
influenced this understanding as well as methods I have begun to use with
effect in leadership development for mid-career and senior leaders in
public service.
Ray Blunt is currently the Associate Director and Fellow at the
Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture. For the past ten
years he has served as a leadership consultant and teacher for the
Council for Excellence in Government and the Federal Executive Institute
as well as for several government and non-profit organizations. He spent
35 years in public service in the US Air Force and the US Department of
Veterans Affairs. He is B.J.'s husband of 41 years and the father of two
grown children, and grandfather of five aspiring servant leaders.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2003-04
issue of The Public Manager.
Reproduced by GovLeaders.org with the publisher's kind consent.
©2003-04
The Public Manager
Used with permission.
