Standards for Leadership

On Saturday, October 27, two hours after the terrorist attack by a white supremacist at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Dr. Barbara Kellerman took the stage to conclude the 2018 conference of the International Leadership Association. While a moment of silence was observed to honor the victims, questions swirled in my head.

Add October 27 and the 11 lives taken that morning to the incomprehensible list of sad anniversaries and legion of victims we mourn as a result of gun violence in the U.S.A. And let there be no question – this is a failure of reason and leadership and I won’t waste the time to explain why. This situation in the U.S.A. and many other examples in countries throughout the world highlight where leadership has failed – in business, clergy, education, and elsewhere. Bringing this into full detail, Dr. Kellerman asked the audience to look at the meteoric rise of the leadership industry over the last 40 years, an arc that just happens to match the rising realization of failed leadership. These are not curves that should match; if leadership specialists were as effective as we aspire to be, the curves would mark a huge “X” with inverse correlation between the two phenomena.

This was the context for a call to standards for leadership. Professionalizing Leadership (Kellerman, 2018), which I’ve previously reviewed, challenged the effectiveness of the leadership industry. It proposed that leadership specialists must strive for coherence, purposefulness, and long-term cultivation in order to have an impact. The International Leadership Association conference provided the platform to call for standards within the leadership industry that will require deeper and more sustained effort, will require appropriate credentials for those claiming leadership expertise, and will form the basis for assessment of outcomes, and refinement of practice.

Kellerman was deliberately provocative when she urged leadership specialists to establish standards. What she advocated wasn’t the recognition of elite institutions, programs, and processes, or a growing uniformity among all programs. Instead, the idea is to create standards that will provide reasonable expectations and professional practices that can inform all efforts to cultivate and recognize leadership capacity. Although formulating standards will involve some complexities, most people will readily agree to certain leadership expectations that should be the foundation of a standards statement – decency, respect, humanity, seeking the common good...

The leadership industry is maturing, there are now many specialists involved – faculty, staff, consultants, and coaches. Agreeing to standards will require effort, compromise, cooperation, and creativity but the ultimate outcome will be sustained transformation, documented impact, and credibility that will allow the field to survive. And, there is no question – standards are critical at a time when the basics of reason are being violated each and every day.

I left Dr. Kellerman’s speech almost euphoric, rushing to my shuttle. Excited about the conference and complacent about my travel, I missed the stop on the train that was to deliver me to the airport. When I realized my error and the fact that it might prevent me from getting home that evening, I became impatient, angry, and at least mildly disrespectful of a staff member on the train who I thought should have informed me of when to exit the train.

Then I realized – what standard do I expect of myself in relation to treatment of others? I became increasingly uncomfortable with the way I behaved. I had violated my own standards of conduct – decency, respect, appreciation, good humor, and hope. Fortunate for me, once I sought out the staff member I’d offended, and apologized for my impatience and rudeness, she embraced me with grace and appreciation, wishing me well on the rest of my journey.

Resetting my own standards, taking responsibility for my own actions, and offering apology set in motion six subsequent encounters with people who would help me. I would like to think that returning to my minimum standards of conduct allowed me to recenter all the subsequent interactions so that I was receptive to being helped. Six encounters followed that took me on a pleasurable path to home not only on time but one-half hour earlier than I would have had I made my original flight.

The link between the need for professional standards and holding myself accountable for personal standards may seem unrelated. I don’t think so. Standards, professional or personal are about expectation, holding ourselves accountable, modifying where we have not achieved what we had hoped, and improving the effectiveness of our ongoing practice. It’s that simple and it’s time we got on with it.

Kearns Goodwin - Leadership in Turbulent Times

Doris Kearns Goodwin, noted U.S. Presidential historian, weaves the lives of four U.S. Presidents into an enlightening exploration of Leadership in Turbulent Times(2018). Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Baines Johnson faced extraordinary circumstances during their terms in office. Their experiences as youth could not have been more different yet their experiences cultivated resilience and persistence that allowed them to rise to the moment when they could make a difference – and they did.

Kearns Goodwin does not explicitly reference any leadership theory in her analysis yet she notes some of the most prominent leadership theories in a section titled “Business Books on Leadership Skills” at the end of the book. I would not characterize most of the books she lists as either related to business nor would I recognize them as skill-based in their approach. However, any differences in word choice I have are eclipsed by the depth of her documentation of historical and biographical conditions that shaped the leadership of these four Presidents. Among the questions she visited in preparing to write the book were: “Are leaders born or made? How does adversity affect the growth of leadership? What is the difference between power, title, and leadership? Is leadership possible without a purpose larger than personal ambition?” (Forward). While exploring these questions, Kearns Goodwin concluded that what distinguished the four Presidents most was their fierce ambition, high drive to succeed, perseverance and hard work, and tenacity in enhancing the qualities they were granted by personality or experience.

Leadership provides a chronology of the four Presidents’ lives that aligns with the four broad areas on which they are compared: ambition and the recognition of leadership; adversity and growth; how they led; and their legacy. In fascinating ways, the four compose a family tree or lineage that spans over a century. Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt were Republicans and Franklin Roosevelt and Johnson were Democrats, yet all four strove to grant full rights to all within the provisions of the U.S. Constitution and they worked tireless to address the inequities of economic privilege that existed in their time.

The combined details of each President’s youth and young adult years resulted in a collection of attributes that are often associated with leadership promise; Lincoln’s remarkable memory, ability to break down complex issues into more simple elements, empathy and affection for others, and willingness to admit errors and learn from them; Theodore Roosevelt’s voracious appetite for reading, laser focus, and abandonment of his own privileged background; Franklin Roosevelt’s humility, congeniality, optimism, and emotional and connective intelligence; and Johnson’s negotiation skills, ability to exploit the levers of power, work ethic, and wisdom in securing wise and faithful mentors.

Each of the four experienced deep tragedy or disappointment in their youth or early adult years that helped prepare them for the greater challenges they would face in political life. Kearns Goodwin identified a broad set of strategies that became the collective tools for success in the Presidency. These tips are most useful for positional or political figures. Examples included: for Lincoln – find time and space in which to think, anticipate contending viewpoints, set a standard of mutual respect and dignity, shield colleagues from blame, and keep your word; Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘embattled hero’ view led to – calculate risks of getting involved, remain uncommitted in the early stages, adapt as a situation escalates, be visible, cultivate public support, frame the narrative, keep temper in check, find ways to relieve stress, share credit for success; for Franklin Roosevelt – infuse shared purpose and direction, tell people what to expect and what is expected of them, lead by example, forge a team aligned with action and change, address systemic problems and launch lasting reforms, stimulate competition and debate, adapt and change course quickly when necessary; and finally, for Johnson – make a dramatic start, lead with your strengths, simplify the agenda, know for what and when to risk it all, impose discipline in the ranks, identify the key to success, set forth a compelling picture of the future, know when to hold back and when to move forward, and celebrate by honoring the past and building momentum for the future.

Throughout her writing, Kearns Goodwin provides quotes that, compiled together, comprise some of the most enduring phrases of all time; Abraham Lincoln’s “Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom” or “I must die or be better,” Theodore Roosevelt’s “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are” or “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” Franklin Roosevelt’s “Above all, try something” or “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and Lyndon Johnson’s “Time is the most valuable thing you have; be sure to spend it well.”

Abraham Lincoln brought a young nation through civil war, Theodore Roosevelt challenged the “Gilded Age” titans of industry, Franklin Roosevelt steered the nation out of the 1930s economic depression and to victory in war, and Lyndon Johnson’s tragic entry into the Presidency after the assassination of John F. Kennedy led to negotiating essential civil rights legislation – these were the turbulent times each faced and transcended. Capturing a common challenge to all four Presidents, Franklin Roosevelt implored citizens to work for the common good because the “rock of class hatred” was “the greatest and most dangerous rock in the course of any republic.” Capturing the spirit of all four of these U.S. Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed during his unsuccessful bid for a return third term as President that, “Win or lose I am glad beyond measure that I am one of the many who in this fight have stood ready to spend and be spent.”