In anticipation of President's Day and the recent transfer of power from President Bush to President Obama, we are struck by how President Obama is not just leading in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln but also in the spirit of George Washington. In Washington's case it was about voluntarily turning over power to another yet to be determined leader. In Obama's case it's sharing his power (but not his responsibility for leadership) with a collective group of advisors and beyond that the American people.
Friends, And Fellow Citizens
The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the timeactually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed, to decline being considered among the number of those out of whom a choice is to be made...
Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors. Whatever they may be, I fervently beseech the Almighty to avert or mitigate the evils to which they may tend. I shall also carry with me the hope, that my country will never cease to view them with indulgence; and that, after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.
- G. Washington
United States, 17th September 1796
These words represent a transition of leadership unprecedented in all of human history up to that time. This can be said without American bias. This was the first time a soldier, turned citizen-leader, willingly and voluntarily turned over the power of civilian government to another yet to be determined citizen leader. Known as Washington's Farewell address, it was not an address at all but an open letter to the then nascent American People.
In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of this transfer of power, some historical context is important. Also, there is much that can be learned by entrepreneurs from George Washington, aside from this act of selfless leadership and dedication to his ultimate objective of creating a nation.
Washington was after all, an entrepreneur himself. He had to creatively resource the new and under-resourced Continental Army. As a leader he had to train, organize, motivate and manage this new and different fighting force. His competition was larger, better trained, more mature and better established in its approach, and very well capitalized. He led his people through very adverse circumstances, always keeping them focused on their higher purpose rather than their current difficult state of affairs.
Washington had a keen understanding of the importance of making time your ally rather than your enemy. He did this through conscious procrastination, the art of picking your spots and not acting in haste. He knew that in order to achieve his ultimate objective, he did not have to defeat his enemy in every situation. He needed to achieve small, important victories that would inspire his people and sow the seeds of doubt in his enemy.
Washington understood that the most important thing was to sustain and persevere. Rather than defeat the British militarily, he had to break their will. He had to convince the British command and the British soldier in the field that although the Continental Army might not achieve a decisive military victory, they would also deny that opportunity to the British. He needed to give the new enterprise, known as America, the gift of time. The time to develop, congeal and coalesce as a nation.
To understand the monumental task that Washington undertook is to understand the stature he gained upon having achieved it. Achieving victory with the forced expulsion of the British via the Treaty of Paris, gave Washington nearly unprecedented power and popularity. He was a truly mythic figure. His likeness was everywhere. Nearly all revered him and even his enemies and detractors had deep respect for his achievements. There were greater thinkers, orators and writers at the time, but no greater recognized leader then Washington. Washington could have had himself crowned king of America at that time and there would have been little to stop him.
Instead he chose a different path. And with that choice set off a chain of events that has led to over two hundred years of peaceful, orderly transitions of power in the world's oldest operating democratic republic.
In September of 1796, Washington demonstrated that he knew something that entrepreneurs, founders and leaders of all types should know, but all too often fail to realize -- it was time. It was time to transition to the next level of stability and maturity as a government and as a nation. Good leaders know how and when to lead, great leaders also know how and when to leave. Had Washington chosen to continue, he knew intuitively, that the entire future, and nature of leadership in America, would be forever different, and not better. He would have left the members of this new democratic republic with the sense of dependency on charismatic leadership vested in a man, rather than the independence derived from faith in themselves, institutions, process and their guiding principles.
In effect, Washington had come to an inflection point in the development of the new nation. Done well, the orderly transition would set this new country on an upward trajectory for growth and prosperity. Done poorly, the course would be set for dissention, dependency and the strong possibility this new enterprise would never reach its potential or survive at all.
By powerful example, Washington created a fundamental precept that resonates today in American culture. That dedication to a cause, an idea, or a principle larger than yourself, demands that you subjugate yourself for the good of the whole. The power of humility cannot be underestimated in a great leader. A clear understanding and recognition of our faults can have a profound impact on others. The Farewell Address is a masterfully conceived message that in its entirety embodies both great ideas with the humility of a Virginia farmer of the day.
The Farewell Address is a great study of how one gets the message out, and also about knowing your audience. The Farewell Address was never delivered as a speech, as many messages of its type were delivered at the time. Instead it was published as an open letter to the American public in a local newspaper and subsequently picked up and reprinted all over the country.
Washington was a master of symbolism, rituals and traditions from his years of military service. The crafting and placement of this message is no exception. Instead of an address to the Congress which may or may not have made its way to the people, he bypassed Congress completely and took his case directly to the public. It was his way of sending a powerful message about their role as a central player in the future success of their country. Again, an unprecedented notion for the time.
The new country and its people were still trying to find their way in this new experiment, in effect seeking their vision. This strategically brilliant use of media and direct communication not only conveyed the message in its content, but reinforced it through its method and use of plain language. Certainly, most of those reading the message then did not take the time to analyze the strategic nature of it, but it set a tone and created an environment that while conceptual, was also palpable.
That is what great leaders do. They set the tone and create the environment for future success for those best placed to make it happen, on the street, the shop floor or the local cubicle.
It is much easier to pull together when the enemy you have in common is them, than it is to pull together when the enemy you have in common is you.
In the late 1930s FDR's New Deal did not truly pull us out of the Depression. It was the looming dark clouds of WWII. Then the Marshall Plan helped us rebuild what was destroyed and in the process create viable markets for U.S money, defense, products and supplies on which the rest of the world would then become dependent (and under our sway) for decades to come.
It was in fact that dependence that caused the rest of the world to bite their tongues as America became and acted more impudently, arrogantly and entitled. No one dared bite the hand that fed or protected them.
The threat of Communism also helped us pull together in the 1950s through 1970s. We got another quick taste of that on and after 9/11. However the threat of terrorism although a villainous blight on humanity is hardly a world war to galvanize against.
As global communication has grown we see that the enemy love their children, they hurt from poverty and hunger, they fight disease and natural disasters, they have old who grow older, more feeble and dependent on increasingly fewer resources. It's nearly impossible to externalize responsibility for your woes on an enemy who cares about the same things and is more similar to you than they are different.
The real enemy is the fact that human beings don't see their fellow humans' needs as valid as their own nor accept that the natural resources we all need to survive are exhaustible (and being exhausted). Instead they just take and take and take. Greed is expecting and taking more than you deserve and throwing the need to give back to the wind. The real challenge is to put the well being of our fellow man (woman and child) as a goal to aspire towards equal to our own and to replenish, restore and give back to the natural world when the human race has become a race of pillagers that are hell bent on sucking it dry.
To live with and give back to the world so that it will be there to support our children, their children and their children's children requires us to not only do without so many things we have become addicted to, but to learn things that we have refused to learn -- because learning was hard to do so, was boring AND we could get away with not doing it.
Years ago Sigmund Freud advised and admonished us with: "Where id (avaricious impulsivity) was, there shall ego (common sense and judgment) be." As un-American as it might seem, Freud's focus on the sanctity of the individual is possibly an idea whose time has come and gone. For the good of you and me and all of us, we'd do better to follow this proviso: "where selfishness and greed were there shall generosity and sacrifice be."
It shouldn't be all that difficult doing with less. After all, we weren't that satisfied, happy and content with more.
President-elect Obama has stated his intention to stimulate the economy by creating jobs improving education, transportation infrastructure, and health care.
I heartily agree with those areas to focus upon, but the vision of each may need to be adjusted according to what the desired and successful end result of each looks like.
For example, what does being educated look like? Does it mean being able to read and write? Understand mathematics and science? Speak a foreign language? Would those by themselves enable American youth and young adults to compete successfully with their peers around the world? Maybe so... but maybe not.
I would submit a slightly different and additional goal, especially with regard to how older workers in their forties and older are now having to "learn new tricks" to stay employable. Let's make the goal of education that every American at age 18 if they don't attend college and age 22 if do, be teachable and trainable. More than that, let's make the educational process something where they want to learn more at those ages and to continue to learn past them. Have them develop the mindset to accept, embrace and look forward to lifelong learning.
That would be in stark contrast with an all too common mindset of many young and older Americans which is to hate reading, thinking, learning and the all too common tendency to quit or bail when subject matter becomes challenging, not easily mastered.
Jack Welch said: "I avoided the Internet, because I couldn't type." Too many Americans avoid becoming educated (even if they "passively" and reluctantly attend classes), because they can't stand reading, thinking and learning when it stops being fun. And how can education compete with the fun of video games, face book, shopping? In essence how can becoming more competent and capable compete with having or doing things just for the sake of a distraction?
America's greatest challenge if it is to compete successfully with the youth and young adults of the rest of the world is to enjoy learning as opposed to viewing it as a burden and hoping to never have to do it again once they graduate high school or college.
*Future blogs will cover the challenges of defining what greater infrastructure and health care looks like.
It took Pearl Harbor for America to enter WW II despite Germany and Japan having all but ravaged its enemies. It took the Cuban missile crisis for America to risk nuclear war even after many countries had fallen to Communist totalitarianism. It took 9/11 for America to take terrorism and the enemy across the border seriously enough to wage an all out war while other countries and continents have been living with that reality for decades.
Before that America slept just as Britain had prior to WWII (and that was written about by John F. Kennedy when he was a college student in 1940).
Why did we sleep? Because despite Americans having espoused their lofty ideals (maybe it’s a case of “the country doth protest too much”), when push came to shove perhaps it really hasn’t cared about other countries unless it served our self interests. It is not lost on the global observer that yes, helping rebuild Germany and Japan may have helped them, but it also enabled America to help itself to those countries as a market for our products and services that spanned decades.
Now what if America is getting a taste of its own “your problem, not my problem” medicine from countries that we served up to them for decades (maybe even centuries)? What if just like us they are content to let America be in the crosshairs of terrorist regimes and turn a jaundiced eye rather than roll their sleeves up and help? Why put their young men and women in harm’s way, when we resisted doing the same in every international conflict until we were unable to avoid it any longer?
Bless President elect Obama and I wish him luck. He is running on all cylinders enjoining us to finally get it. It’s no longer about “us” vs. “them,” it has to be about “we” with “them.”
Until America switches its mineset (only about America) to ourset (about the world), we will remain stuck.
When America was born it had before it the tremendous opportunity to utilize massive untapped resources, a desire to explore the unknown mindset, an eagerness to be educated and develop the necessary skills to be successful, and a chance to build a new infrastructure without being mired by the outdated ones supporting Europe and Asia.
For most of the past 400 years (dating back to 1620) America has made the most of that opportunity. An analogy is how most law firms or investment firms are similarly opportunistic and mostly transactional (find the client/deal, do the case/deal, next – and bigger and more profitable – case/deal). The problem is that America (and possibly law firms and investment firms) and its mindset, skillset, and infrastructure have become outdated like those of the rest of the world when America was born.
Truth be told seizing an opportunity can get you into the game and win early and expand, but only developing the vision that Rosenberg mentioned at the top can keep you growing.
To Obama’s credit, he has been able to be transformational in his mindset and values.However he is surrounded by transactional and often non-cooperative players. His vision of more jobs (to stem the panic and give fearful out-of-work people something purposeful to do instead of just spinning their wheels), be more energy efficient (America and the rest of the world have not been too kind to the Earth), have better health service (unhealthy people tend to withdraw and not participate) and improve education (we need to go from a “what will it get me” educational myopia to “learning is fun”) is one that can enroll Americans to make happen.
His biggest challenge will be in transforming the American mindset from “all about me” to “all about us” (still not global minded and us vs. them) to “all about we” (becoming communally proactive vs. reactive).*
In essence, how to stop looking for a competitive advantage and replace it with a Collaborative Advantage.
*The best guide that I know for doing this and something that should be on Obama's short list is Tribal Leadership by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fisher-Wright.
SPECIAL TO FAST COMPANY COMMUNITY: December 11, 2-3:30 PM EST, 1-2:30 PM CST, 11-12:30 PM PST. Your chance to go from bright and smart to wise. Listen with your teams to "Moving from Managing to Leading" a live webinar where Mark Goulston will interview Warren Bennis and take your questions. Use this link to get a special Fast Company $50 discount off the regular fee of $349 when you register.
McCain and Clinton made you think you’d get a better deal, Obama makes you want to be a better person
Skeptical though I may be, here are three reasons that I feel optimistic that President elect Obama has “the right stuff” to lead us out of the crises we face.
1. Actions speak louder than words. For us to get through this crisis, we need to act as a “we.” “All about me” and “All about us” are passive and reactive mindsets. Children – and Americans – learn more how to behave not from what parents and Presidents tell them, but from what they do.Obama in conducting his campaign and in selecting the best, the brightest and hopefully the wisest is not just talking about the need for “us” to work together, he is demonstrating in actions how “we” can do it.
2. Engender trust, command respect and inspire confidence.Many reasons have been given for why Obama won including his mastery of the Internet, his amazingly error and gaffe free campaign and his playing it cool.All of those were important, but we still would not have voted for him had he not engendered trust, commanded respect and behaved more presidential than his opponents.The latter quality inspired our confidence in spite of his lack of experience.
Why did we trust and respect him as a person more than Clinton or McCain? Why did have trouble trusting and respecting and why did we lose confidence in Clinton and McCain to make up for whatever confidence we didn’t have in Obama?
Rightly or wrongly, Clinton’s, McCain’s and Palin’s ambition, need to be right, and appetite for power kept seeping and peaking through much of what they said and did.
Too often they appeared to care more about winning than in helping America.Too often they resorted to tearing down Obama than in proposing solutions. When in the face of their attacks, Obama occasionally chuckled I was reminded of Ronald Reagan saying repeatedly to Jimmy Carter, “There you go again” as if he was sharing an inside joke with all of us suggesting, “Look at my opponents posturing and thumping their chests.Look at how they are losing your respect each time they do it, and they don’t even see it. I’m even a little embarrassed for them aren’t you (think of third Obama McCain debate).” Both Barack and Michelle Obama appeared more comfortable in their own skins because instead of trying to poorly disguise ambition in power hungry clothing as did their opponents, the Obamas manifested aspirations in possibilities clothing.
3. The mom and dad we didn’t have, but wished we did. Children get their mannerisms from either parent, but get the values they live by more from how their parents like, respect, trust, support and collaborate with each other.
Many people over the years have told me that they were “homesick for a home they never had and sick from the one they had.”Children who see parents who are “all about me” grow up into “all about me” adults who don’t value cooperation or collaboration and are unable to do it.
Barack and Michelle’s regard for each other serve as a wonderful role model for the “we” that is lacking between most mothers and fathers.I have heard many people say how much they wish they’d had parents like the Obamas instead of the parents they did have.
The more we see them trusting, respecting, supporting, cooperating and collaborating the more we want to entrust our well being into their care.
A skeptic is reluctant to believe; a cynic refuses to believe. A skeptic is someone who once believed and was disappointed; a cynic is someone who once believed and was betrayed. Deep inside all skeptics and even most cynics is a deep hunger to believe once more but to do so without the fear of being disappointed or betrayed again.
One of the main honorees at the conference was Warren Bennis.Warren is always on the short list, if not at the top, of authorities on leadership in the world.On a personal note, he is my mentor (as he has been to hundreds of other lucky mentees during his career).The most satisfying aspect of our relationship is not just to know him, but to feel known by him.
As he was being introduced and then when he spoke, it was clear that the audience deeply trusted, believed, had confidence in, enjoyed (if not adored) and respected him.As I left the conference it occurred to me that perhaps the key to effective leadership was evoking those experiences in followers.
How as a leader do you spawn those feelings in those you lead?Here are several tips that would do it for me and that would cause me to sign on as an enthusiastic follower:
1.Trust
a.Speak the truth – People will forgive an honest mistake, they won’t forgive you if you lie.
b.Do what you say you’re going to do – Follow through means never having to say you’re sorry.
c.Be transparent and candid along the way – As Louis Brandeis said, “Sunshine is the greatest disinfectant;” never be hesitant to let it shine on you.
d.Take full responsibility for the consequences of your actions and those of people working for you – The buck stops with you, don’t pass it.
2.Confidence
a.Be clear and concise – as opposed to confused and confusing.
b.Be prepared to the best of your ability – Don’t shoot from the hip and don’t be afraid to say you’ll get back to us when you don’t know, but then get back to us.
c.Know how to get things done – By getting the right people in the right positions, doing the right things.
d.Have a track record of already getting done positive measurable results – And for the benefit of others (vs. your own ambitions) that you represent
3.Enjoyment
a.Be comfortable in your own skin – Comfort and discomfort are contagious.
b.Put a smile on other’s faces – And cause others to feel that they put a smile on yours.
c.When you smile, have it touch your eyes (and when possible your heart) – The eyes are the royal road to the soul and not a bad lie detector.
d.Don’t take yourself too seriously – Laugh at yourself and the world laughs with you and not at you, and we could all use a good laugh.
4.Respect
a.Know what’s important and what isn’t - Have the wisdom to know the right the thing to do, the integrity to do it, the character to stand up to those who don’t, and the courage to stop people who won’t.
b.Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should - When possible, have your personal house in order (you can still lead if people discover your having engaged in personal indiscretions that don’t substantively and negatively affect them, but their positive feelings for you will be sullied by wishing you hadn’t).
To borrow a quote from the iconic film Field of Dreams, if as a leader you engender in followers trust, confidence, enjoyment and respect,“People will come” and enthusiastically follow.
We need look no further than the campaign and election of President elect Barack Obama to see how true that is.Whether or not he can build a field for our dreams remains to be seen.We’re all hoping that he will.
Don't start a post merger integration -- or Presidency -- without it
If you don't get the wheels for your car balanced and aligned, they'll pull to the left or right and wear out faster. Evidence of that is how many of us have had to replace our tires with the tread on one side okay, while the other side was bald. A faulty balance or faulty alignment and you may not finish the journey.
Front end alignments are not just about automobiles and road trips. They are critical to successful change initiatives, post merger integrations and even to new Presidential administrations. Former head of strategy at Texas Instruments during its heyday, industrial engineer turned management consultant and founder/owner of Los Angelesbased Management Overload (www.m-overload.com) Ward Wieman has developed a Triaxial Model™ to do for management teams what your car mechanic does to keep your car on track.
Before you can take his model for a ride, your company, organization or your administration needs to pick a destination - a compelling, convincing and consistent vision of a future that your people will want to be part of and make a reality.
X Axis – What's important? Wieman has set out 14 key functions that most business leaders would agree are essential to the success of any enterprise. Ask your team members to prioritize which of the 14 key functions they believe are the most important to success. This will immediately tell you two things: 1. What people view as the most important and critical functions to focus on; and 2. Who's on the same page.
Y Axis – How good are we at thosethings? After arriving at a consensus about the most mission critical functions, do an assessment of how good your company or organization is at them. This type of assessment approach has the wonderful advantage of preventing your organization from becoming distracted by people's personalities; rather, it's about making sure that there are only strong links in the chain. It's not personal, it's about performance.
Z Axis – How do we align the corporate culture to get good at what we need to be good at? This is about getting the right people in the right job doing the right things, realigning others who might not be a fit, and letting others go who might be a better fit in another company or organization (Note: delaying the inevitable hurts everybody).
Wieman claims that he helps companies and organizations run like a swiss watch. I've watched him do just that for fifteen years.
P.S. - So that there is no confusion, Wieman is not an auto mechanic or tire salesman. Therefore, you are still stuck with the more basic task of aligning your own car tires.
NEXT: Part 2: Building an "All for One, One for All Team" in an "All About Me" World
One of my spiritual challenges is to find inspiring thoughts and ideas that can help me lift myself above my “day to day” worries that I know will pass, but in the moment don’t believe they will.
Here are several I found today:
MARTIN LUTHER KING
In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly affects all indirectly… I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the inter-related structure of reality.
PIERRE TEILHARD de CHARDIN
The egocentric ideal of a future reserved for those who have managed to attain egotistically the extremity of ‘everyone for himself’ is false and against nature… The outcome of the world, the gates of the future, the entry into the super-human — these are not thrown open to a few of the privileged or to one chosen people to the exclusion of all others. They will only open to an advance of all together, in a direction in which all together can join and find completion in a spiritual renovation of the earth… No evolutionary future awaits man except in association with all other men.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
A human being is part of the Whole…He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest…a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
To err is human, to take full responsibility for it, divine.
I don’t know how heartfelt or sincere John McCain’s concession speech was on Tuesday, but there was much in it to be admired, learned from and emulated by all Americans.
The two most important elements were in his going from critical to gracious and from making excuses to taking full responsibility for the results as the commander-in-chief of his campaign.
As a management consultant, group facilitator, team builder and marriage therapist I have taken to setting the stage by asking the participants three questions:
1.What would success look like at the end of this meeting?
2.What would be the effect on achieving that success if everyone could monitor themselves so that instead of being critical and disrespectful they were gracious and respectful and instead of blaming someone else or making excuses for problems they were to acknowledge and take personal responsibility for their contribution to causing them?
3.How can we institutionalize this?
If Americans in their dealing with each other in their families, marriages, communities, work places, towns, cities and in reaching across the aisle in Washington and across oceans and borders to the rest of the world could practice that, there is no telling how much good will, cooperation, collaboration, peace of mind and peace on Earth we might find.
