Real Leadership for Social Responsibility and Sustainable Abundance
February 20, 2009 by Will Marre
We are living in a time of immense challenges. It’s an era that begs for the wisdom of real leaders. Leaders who have the moral imagination to empathize with unborn generations who will inherit our legacy. Such leaders are always in short supply because most people pursue leadership to validate their own special importance and the social myth that power, fame and wealth matter. Our common human fear is the illusion that we live a meaningless existence followed by the darkness of non-existence. This fear leads us to frantically find strategic ways to magnify our self-importance. The most dangerous manifestation of this fear is to bully and manipulate others to bend to our will because we mistake power for personal significance.
The central problem of our leadership class is that for the past forty years we have put tens of thousands of MBA students and millions of business managers through training in the arts of power. We have reduced leadership to a set of skills and attributes. Often when I ask an audience of business leaders what the signs of great leadership are they recite a list of attributes such as vision, risk taking, inspiration, decisiveness, intelligence, focus, and a host of “competencies” that we can fill flip charts with. Then I show slides of Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Osama bin Laden and ask them how they would judge these leaders against their list of admired traits.
Most often the audience is stunned because all of these leaders were “great” in terms of their skill; however they used their leadership skill to torture, kill and impoverish millions.
Then I show a picture of Ken Lay, the affable former CEO of Enron who died before he went to prison for defrauding investors and manipulating energy prices that kept old widows freezing in their tiny apartments during a long dark winter of highly manipulated energy prices. If we only consider skill, Ken Lay was a great leader too.
The point I make is that the essential attribute of a real leader is not just their leadership skill but their noble intention. Unless the prime motive of a leader is to serve and to promote the greatest good for the greatest number that leader will construct a dark universe with a twisted moral physics that seek only to aggrandize themselves and their friends. They will seek to remake the world in their own image. They will create business models that require work without end because their work has no intrinsic value. It is only work that results in money.
The real question of leadership is not what skills you possess but rather, “What are you trying to accomplish?” The problem with our leadership education and development system is that we haven’t been asking the right questions so we have few of the right answers. We have glorified accumulation instead of contribution, and our economy thrives on consumption instead of creation. There is too much “me” and too little “we.” Nobel Prize winner John Nash (of the movie A Beautiful Mind) proved that the greatest good for each of us occurs in an economic system that promotes the greatest good for all of us. Isn’t it time to extinguish the illusion that we are not responsible for the world we have created? Isn’t it time to elevate the avowed commitment of every leader to fulfill the mandate to create a future of sustainable abundance? To do that we must radically reject the synthetic justifications for selfishness and embrace the practical imperative of our mutual responsibilities to each other. In the only future we honestly desire our social responsibility to each other is the only ideal with the power to reduce human suffering and enable our pursuit of genuine happiness. This is not a burden of leadership; rather it is its essential opportunity.
These are not new ideas. The noble call of real leadership is as old as human society. It is, however, a largely forgotten ideal. Perhaps the best thing we can do as leaders of our own lives is to carefully consider “What are we trying to accomplish?” in our careers, our relationships and in our lives. We all need to be the leaders we wish we had.
Questions: Considering what’s going on with our banks, businesses and government, do you agree we have an epidemic of leadership failure? What’s the cause? What can we do?
What’s the cause?
“Human suffering stems from desire” - Buddha
What can we do?
“You must be the change you want to see in the world” - Gandhi
I believe a major factor required of a great leader is the ability to identify a just and worthy cause and to convince the team that the cause is worthy of their highest degree of devotion.
I absolutely agree that there is a lack of capable, thoughtful and forward looking people in leadership.
I think there are 3 major reasons for this both of which are rooted in our educational system and thought process.
First. there is the split between the bean counters and academic/business in how they think and act. The bean counter believes that nothing should occur that doesn’t “make money” while the other contingent believes that they should be able to anything without regard to any financial constraints. Either of these approaches,if not thoughtfully balances with the other will result in chaos. To successfully bridge this crevasse requires people in leadership roles who understand and appreciate the need for and balance with both ideologies. Yet management is routinely selected BECAUSE they are in this camp or that. Prior to all the business program-when an individual worked there way from the bottom up- there was a much greater possibility that they would understand how “all the pieces fit together” and not be so short-sighted.
Second, as a society we have become driven for instant gratification. This has shown up in the business world as the uber-focus on this quarter and possibly the next. Things that are done for the good of the short term are often not good and may even be disastrous in the long run-witness the present economic mess-but as long as the current numbers are good the company is viewed as good.
Third, we have a post-secondary school system that is more and more designed to make money and stay “in business.” In many instances they have adopted the worst of business models and forgotten their true function. Those that are able have focused on generating research dollars and hired RESEARCHERS who grudgingly teach-often poorly- future leaders, teachers, scientists, business people etc.- who then go and and train and teach others. After several decades of this we now wonder, form committees, and research where “things” went wrong. To me where we went wrong is the easy answer; how we change it for the better is the tough question and the one we should be asking.
A few days ago in the New York Times there was an article on student expectations. They reported that students overwhelmingly felt that they should be highly rewarded-get a B-for always coming to class and trying hard and should get a B or higher for doing all the required work. Yet, how can we fault them when they live in a society that seems to do exactly that. These are our future leaders. I want better for them. for myself, for my 5 year old. It is places like this that raise the tough questions and create a dialog to make a difference that give me hope that a different and brighter future is possible.
Thank you
Will
This article should be read and required to be “thought about” by all citizens… You speak of noble intention as the essential attribute of a true leader… I think as long as “leaders” are required to “answer” to “shareholders” first and foremost, money or the bottom line will always be the driving force of his or her leadership style… As long as stock prices, along with its primary motivator greed, are the measure of a successful enterprise, it will be difficult, even for a well intended leader, to instill noble ideals… It almost appears as though our economic system won’t allow for that type of behavior… It’s about making shareholders rich and as a side effect maybe allows the company to prosper long term… When labor is looked at as an easy way to cut costs and satisfy the shareholders, human feelings and noble intentions seem to fall to the wayside… I think it is a “system” problem… One that cannot be fixed by just noble leadership, but will require a complete mind shift by investors as well, as to what is really important… I think the current economic state is a hint to all of us that perhaps our way of measuring success and accumulating wealth is misguided… I hope this current situation lasts long enough to awaken us all to consider more noble directions in our work, as well as our personal lives… A sincere desire to change, will take us ALL as individuals, as well as corporate leaders to foster the greatest good in all of us and for all of us…
Yes - this is a powerful piece. The current HBR has a nice companion piece that on some level addresses your thought provoking questions.
Moon Shots for Management: What great challenges must we tackle to reinvent management and make it m;ore relevant in a volatile world?
Gary Hamel
Harvard Business Review
February 2009
There has been a “leadership void” for a long, long time. I was raised with the idea that “you get out of life what you put into it”.
Many people were raised with the idea that you are owed the best that life has to offer “now go out there and claim it”. Unfortunately the human ego is drawn more to holding unto the later belief. We do not as a society seem to have the work ethic concept that everybody must invest themselves into whatever it is that may be the challenge before them and all must do their part so all will benefit. We’ve become indidualistic to the point of ineffectiveness as a group and a society.
Lucky for me I had good role models and saw my parents (who were very average, everyday, middle class people) seek out being INVOLVED in Red Cross, community politics, library committee and other public service. In retrospect I now know they were not “average”. Most people will take the “path of least resistance”. I saw this model repeat itself over and over again as a member of a single’s organization that existed for the benefit and growth of the the group. About 1 in 100 people would ever come forward and invest some time, energy and thought to planning the group’s activities yet, if something was not to the satisfaction of someone and even though they had not contributed, they still felt it was their right and duty to complain and critize!
Most people choose to sit back and let others do the work. I guess maybe it all comes down to that word I hear all the time “entitlement”….? I for one was NOT raised with it. My Dad loved the old Rodney Dangerfield joke where the kid says “I did’nt ask to be born” and then the Dad says “yeah and if you had the answer would have been no”! By today’s standards that sounds really unnecessarily mean but, I got my Dad’s meaning. He wanted me to assume obligation and responsibility and not take life for granted and that is a hard lesson for a youngster.
I have since learned (now in middle age) that responsibility and obligations are ongoing. Even when assumed reluctantly, I learned that a challenge that is met and mastered can be part of a life well lived. We must always be looking to assume new challenges and not turn away from life but, face it full on and believe that things can be better if we work at it. This is a lesson of maturity and it can be painful. Often times its hard to keep up one’s morale day to day. There are ups and downs and dissappointments and maybe only once in a while a pleasant surprise. What I have so painfully learned is that no one really has a right to kick back and rest on last year’s or last week’s efforts with so much to be improved and made better in the world this very minute.
It is incumbent upon each and every individual to figure out where and if they can contribute and where and if they can lead. I think this is the change we all need to except in a permanent way, the change our new president is trying to urge upon us and ultimately a great gift we give out children.
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What we need is servant leadership and true power (Mostly we don’t have and have not had either) based on TRUTH which is the ultimate irrefutable power. Not FORCE which is confused with power all the time anymore.
Let’s stop pussy footing around it, most of the so-called leaders who led us into this financial mess should be in jail along with certain members of Congress who also encouraged and facilitated this mess and continue to do so. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Let’s continue to reward greed, immorality, lack of fiscal responsibility and accountability by spending hundreds of billions of hard-earned tax dollars and giving it right back to the people who created and devised the problems and are still running the show. Are we all NUTS? If we continue to allow this we have no one to blame but the guys in the mirror - ourselves.
The root cause is not poor leadership per se it is lack of accountability backed up by no enforcement. It is the same reason why our Congress could care less about any of us. They have us where they want us and they know it. Once elected, they can do whatever they want and no one can really stop them. They are the only ones who get to vote on everything they do including spending all of our money, disciplining of members (or not) and setting their own benefits and compensation. No wonder they are in bed with lobbyists and special interests. Theirs is one helluva job and they know it and will do anything to preserve the status quo and business as usual. In other words, there pretty much are no rules when it comes to these people. It has to stop before we have no country to worry about.
Somehow the real issue is to institute restraints on these people where they don’t control their own destiny entirely. It will only get worse if it remains the same going forward. They are duplicitous and hypocritical day in and day out. They lie and smile to our faces and then stab us in the back. They fake attacks on bank execs and car execs and then go back to taking trips to Italy on our money with no purpose.
If we ever tried to not pay our taxes in protest to all of this waste, I can guarantee we’d be made an example of and put in jail. Things in Washington have really got to be reformed or our President’s mandate of change will mean nothing because there will be nothing left to change. Think about it, do you seriously want these crooked, bungling fools running anything of substance, let alone the U.S. Government?
I was discussing this very topic of leadership with a friend from Germany who is a mid-level executive in a major corporation. He grits his teeth when we talk about executive compensation and ‘talent retention’ policies at his company. He believes GM and Chrysler and all companies with their hands out for government help should, if it comes to it, die as ‘honorably’ (he says this sardonically) as they have lived and thrived: according to the free market, just like his job position (which he knows will be eliminated soon; he is privy to the information).This middle-aged gentleman was of the same opinion: there is a leadership crisis. Thing is, there always has been a dearth of true-blue leadership which no amount of technical, tactical and strategic training in any culture has been able to provide. It is a problem as old as Cain and Abel: are we our brothers’ keepers?
In Homer’s “Iliad,” the egos of two men, Agamemnon and Achilles, drive the story, particularly Achilles. The dramatic motivation of the story was the clash of egos in a culture that valued ego exaltation above life itself. Achilles famously chose a brief life, full of sound and fury, rather than a long, less eventful life. He wanted his name remembered through the ages. It has been so, but as a cautionary tale? Everyone in his contingent idolized and lionized the martial and athletic skill and courage of Achilles, though his selfishness lost lives. Achilles did not care about them, though. He only re-entered the action when he lost something dear to him. Do we get the leaders we deserve?
In the other Homeric epic, “Odyssey,” Odysseus goes to the Underworld, and among the many phantoms he sees there is Achilles, regretting his choice. Culturally, then, ‘nothing in excess’ and ‘know yourself’ became high spiritual values, and yet we know that, after coming together gloriously to defeat the Persians, Athens warred against the other Greek poleis, particularly Sparta. At the beginning of the Peloponnesian War Pericles reportedly gave a funeral speech extolling such high-culture virtues. Failure to live up to those values brought down Athens, leader of pre-Alexander Greek civilization, and the coda to this concern was Socrates drinking hemlock and Plato’s teaching that power did better allied to philosophy.
But we prejudge as absurd the idea of a ‘philosopher-king’, whether because we do not like the literal denotation of ‘king’ and pooh-pooh the ‘philosophy’ bit, or because we are cynical about the ways of the world overwhelming anything so good and wholesome. What do we want? We have been vacillating since…forever, it seems. A couple of millenia after Homer, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, initially a vacillating mid-level aristocrat with an ambitious, amoral wife, returns to Achilles’s reflection on the glory of the sound and the fury (in modern lingo, the ‘drama’) after taking the plunge and exploring his greed for power. What did he want it for? He basically asks himself, and us, “What is the point?”
We have not decided yet what is the point, and meanwhile live out our dramas, full of sound and fury. Leadership begins…within? In the words of the William Butler Yeats poem, “things fall apart; the center does not hold.” Is this about the ‘emotional intelligence’ of culture? The world may not be coming to an end right now, but it does not have to for us to gnash our teeth; we have done these things to ourselves, gratuitously, because we want more, and what that is, we still know not. Sorry, we do know one thing: we want it to come easy and conveniently, without giving up ANYTHING, the dark side of ‘enlightened self-interest’.
Is Obama our latest ‘philosopher-king’ (to use the Platonic trope)? We certainly voted him into office hoping to get some enlightened Presidential leadership. Did majority cynicism give way to (temporary) hopeful optimism? Is the concept of ‘enlightened self-interest’ in temporary abeyance or is it dying slowly? Obama’s presumably ‘philosophical kingship’ is not enough; we need philosopher-kings in Obama’s Cabinet, in Capitol Hill, in banks, in the offices of the ‘Big Three’ US automakers, and in each household of the land. Philosopher-kings, in Plato’s imagining, live frugally and labor unselfishly.
Call it ’servant leadership’ or whatever the going vocabulary is these days. This is not about ‘welfare states’ or providing financial handouts, though we are reduced to doing so these days. We are our brothers’ keepers. In the meantime, we live our drama, our ‘odyssey’, using our smarts in fits and starts.
Solutions: ‘know yourself’, ‘nothing in excess’. Not enough? This is a problem.
Voltaire:
“I would be glad to know which is worst, to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, to have one buttock cut off, to run the gauntlet among the barbarians, to be whipped and hanged by the Inquisition, to be dissected, to be chained to an oar in a slave ship; and, in short, to experience all the miseries through which every one of us has passed, or to remain here doing nothing?” –”This,” said Candide, “is a grand question.”
In my humble opinion, all of those torturous things mentioned in the previous Voltaire paragraph would be totally preferable to having to deal with our unscrupulous Congress. At least the things mentioned by Voltaire would have a foreseeable, albeit painful, ending. I can’t say the same for Congress.
We are all deeply enriched by your thoughtful and passionate comments. Their are millions of us who every day, in our own way, make our stand for something better than what we are getting. We must keep it going… we are moving the rock of change, so keep pushing!
Will, one of your best posts. Brought tears to my eyes. This should be required reading for all leaders (and all humans!). Thanks for the great work you do!
I always try to the best of my ability to maintain a root cause focus about all problems. In my opinion, why our leadership is lacking across the board is because “Absolute Power Corrupts, Absolutely.”
Throw in unimaginable, unrealistic and totally undeserved compensation plans for these same “leaders” and there is not a room big enough to contain these egos, their sense of entitlement and the extents they will go to proving they are the invincible kings of the world. Leadership hell, these guys think they are many levels above common leadership and yet, funny enough, as great as their egos make them think they are, they can’t seem to take even the slightest amount of responsibility when things go wrong on their watch. Then the blame game starts and they start lining up all the expendables to blame it on. The buck never stops with these teflon gods. We have got to find them all and eliminate them from every position they hold in every organization and eradicate the problem as if it were a disease epidemic, because in effect that is exactly what it is.
I agree that this is a great opportunity. I believe that the burdens we associate with leadership and responsibility are an illusion– for each and every one of us. There sure seems to be a lot of anger about what the broken leadership model has cost us. Maybe if we redirect that energy towards living up to our own responsibility we can change the results. I write about this in my blog here:
http://breakroom.buildingbsolutions.com/2009/02/20/this-is-your-responsibility.aspx
I love you, Will Marre! Thank you for speaking out. Thank you for saying so eloquently what I feel in my heart, but am unable to put into words.
(I will eventually tie this in with the topic of discussion, thanks for you patience.) I was in a sociology class yesterday and my professor was discussing the downward slide of the middle class in this country, and informing us of the way that the government reaches its flawed numbers that are published as the official unemployment rate figures.
During this part of the lecture, he took the time to mention a former student whom he had taught last semester. This student was in his 50’s and had recently been laid off and was attempting to get into the registered nursing program so he could earn a comparable salary to the one that he had. He had earned $75,000/year at his job at a technology firm and in the weeks before he was to lose his position he had been ordered to train a replacement. This replacement was, of course, younger, but also was only here in this country just for training purposes and would soon return to his native country, India. This new trainee would earn $15,000/year.
I am not ranting necessarily about the outsourcing of our jobs to other countries, although that is a serious issue. I am just so incensed that there is no dignity afforded to us anymore because our value is measured only in dollars. Who makes these decisions?
This is where the leadership is seriously lacking. Will’s bringing in the concept of noble intention as a sorely needed quality at the executive level is so very necessary at this juncture. Unfortunately, I am rather suspect of corporate culture when it comes to implementing any of these suggestions. However, I am carrying around with me a small ember of hope that an idea like this will take hold and burst into the perfect sustainable flame.
Questions: Considering what’s going on with our banks, businesses and government, do you agree we have an epidemic of leadership failure? What’s the cause? What can we do?
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Main Question: Considering what’s going on with our banks, businesses and government, do you agree we have an epidemic of leadership failure?
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Answer is yes, the leadership is mutated into a misconcieved illusion of what success is all about. You input on the educational system is also moving in the correct direction. We have a system largely developed in its construct to re-educate and maintain the stature of military soilders that deserved to be recongnized for their achievements and their great sacrifice to our nation and its future citizens. We are so reluctant to look at our past and scrutinize these wonderful people. We forget that it may be the wall that holds us at bay to really understand the strings our political leaders thread into our life and how far they are willing to go to control our future.
we have people that have proven their dedication to employment and their families. they have what it takes to perform at numerous differently applied jobs but the educational system has trained our corporations and its leaders to pigeon hole our people into limited roles. How could someone with a degree not be able to do another job. How could a self made person not be qualified due to their lack of educational degree that they are qualified.
I can tell you from my failure on any type of agreement i will look for the real qualifications of a persons capabilties. I will look to the real attributes, not their degree but their own moral standards. Not if they win at all cost like our trained students but will they succeed in delivering true morality to our firm. Real success is not next quarters gains but the gains we make as firm to enrich the people we service and the people who serve them.
We are all about financial success. Shallow achievements and malnipulative objects. Hidden truths and sheilded lies. I have yet to witness a stand-up firm that focuses on the true nationality of real patriotism and prosperity for all. not just the few at the top who control in our life in a vertical linear matrix format that resembles the military dictatorship required to send people to certain demise at all cost.
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What’s the cause?
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We are fearful to place blame on honorable people and truthful intent. Truth does not garantee happiness but it helps to face underlying problimatic conditions. I have faith in the that americans will in any system provide incredible people with only the highest of morality. Becuase of this it is hard to look at almost anything we do as a nation as a failure. If we only focus on the the perspective results we are presented. The truth is that the real issue is unspoken and hidden from truth of who we are and how we act and what we call professional achievements. What we call qualifications and ability to rule and run people is the mutated vision of the ability to send people to their death to achieve victory at all cost. We layoff families, not employees. We hold down the american dreams not imigrants and low income families. If success could only be judeged by the financial statement we would be just fine. Society in the view of our educational is judge by its prosperity of its entities, and their financial success at all costs.
We should educate our wonderful people how to view success as to what we delivered to our future people. How we influence to proper direction for successful intergration and collaboration with the natural world, its humanity, and the ability to edify peace, and promote the higest of morality.
When your firm produces this and is successful in the financial arena I will pledge my devout allegence to your view of success.
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What can we do?
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Pigoens fly with purpose, Eagles of the americas fly with dignity.
With all the respect I have for the multifacitied individual of franklin, both in his success and his failures. We would have been better to have a turkey as our national bird. it would better fit the morality of our true leaders the monarchy of the corportae world and their revolving door of political puppets.
We the people must must stand for the real constitution. The real origin of our commencement in history. We have strayed we have failed, nothing is better to learn from but we can not fear our failures we must inbrace the lessons. our strength is in the creation of new ideas from our failed endevours. Do not let anyone person or administration decide what we the people must do to return to our origin of the constitution and the purest intend it had for the future people of our wonderful nation and its existing people and its future people. We need not to control the others that do not follow this idea we need to maintain our itegrity to maintain our faith that it is sign of strength that we are willing to except our human frailties and overcome them, it will express our true strength, adaptibilty and willingness to maintain our focus on the real sign of success that we have not controlled our fears we faced them with american morality and dignity we soared with our true spirit within the american soul of our people the EAGLE.
Lets work together to change fear, to change bad habits they need to be replaced not eliminated. We can change we can adapt, we can return to our origin with out releasing the lesson of failure that brought us to the great future we call the american dream.
I am a real hidden patriot and leader. Smothered by the educational system that has failed to nuture my real american spirit.
During the last 15 years the corporate management mentality of only the gross margin of return on investment matters has worked its way more and more into businesses that used to have a mentality of providing a work place where the employee’s lifes are the most important part of the business. This was and is a serious mistake and now we all have to pay for it. Managing or leading a business should be about providing secure jobs and a living wage for your employees first. Hopefully there’s enough good leaders in America to fix all the problems that have been created by the bad ones.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. There have been many changes made in business all to do one thing, destroy the middle class of this country. A country is only as strong as it’s middle class. The middle class in this country has been purposely destroyed. The elites (really only about 12 people in the U.S.) make these calls. They don’t work for you or me, they simply don’t care. Our country as a whole is being privatized, everywhere you look. There is a much greater plan in all of this, and that is to destroy America. Why ? Because it’s much easier to implement your own plans of being the “savior” to a crushed former super power. Hello China, you just got picked to become the super power of the 21st century, good luck and hopefully it doesn’t end as bad as ours.
Michelle, great points by the way.
God speed everyone.
I don’t have a degree, MBA, etc. I know deep down I am a great man and live with righteousness. I respect everyone and want everyone to live a great life. That alone would make me a good leader for any of these companies. Life experience, knowing people, on and on, it doesn’t always take a piece of paper. If experience is everything then that would mean all of our Presidents would of been great right ?
It’s long over due to shake it up.
The problem is deeply rooted in the circumcision of unity. False prophets reign in their pretenses of saviors but they’re ripping our skins off with our own hands. From this narrow perspective, these hungry hyenas must only feast until there is nothing left to feast on. There’s no sense of preservation, contemplation, nor consideration for anyone even themselves. The egocentric id is focused on only nourishing itself so in this solipsistic state the logic is: there are no others, only “I” matter.
It’s like we’re a pack of wolves and the feast is found. The real leader leads the rest of the pack to the meat. In honesty, there’s also a conscious understanding that if the whole pack is healthy and fed, there’ll be more strength, more opportunities and more yummy yummy feasts. On the other side, these selfish assh0les sent us down the icy Russian rivers to freeze our paws off while they’re engorging their esophaguses. Well, frankly, I hope the meat gets stuck and you bet we’re coming right back to roast your ass!