Leadership is dangerous. It can produce amazing good or incredible harm. It is not to be treated lightly. It is a powerful force that should only be handled with the utmost care and deepest thought. Leaders handle power, people, vision, intention, and aspirations flamed by the spark of action. Itâs a wonder that more destruction doesnât occur. Itâs also a wonder that more good is not accomplished in the world.
Leadership is a volatile mix of action, vision, mobilization, and change when put together in the right amount, at the right time and in the right degree will explode into a new reality, a new vision of what is possible in the world. We should not restrain it because its power to heal the world is greater than its power to harm. We should not contain it because we so desperately need its momentum, its drive, its incredible inspiring presence, but, we do need to channel this powerâthis focused and determined energy toward change.
Leadership can be subtle. Sometimes you donât see it operating. It can be very deceptive. Sometimes when you think you see it displayed, it turns out to not be leadership at all, but one of its lesser cousins of aggression or boldness. Leadership is often not loud. It is not always forceful, but it is incredibly persistent. Leadership will have its way with the world. Leaders will prevail and the result of this persistent action is a world change that no one will be able to ignore.
Leaders create reality. They possess clarity of vision and insight with the will and courage to pursue a new future. The good ones do so while connecting meaningfully to the past and working effectively in the present. The best ones bring an inner life of consciousness, awareness, thought, and spirit that anchors them as they walk into the uncertainty of an unknown future.
Leaders have always been fascinating to us. We are drawn to both their power and their celebrity while being aware of the need to keep a safe distance. Burns (1978) recognized this tension when he observed that
We search eagerly for leadership yet seek to cage and tame it. We recoil from power yet we are bewitched or titillated by it. We devour books on powerâpower in the office, power in the bedroom, power in the corridors. Connoisseurs of power purport to teach about itâwhat it is, how to get it, how to use it, how to âgain total controlâ over âeverything around you.â ⊠Why this preoccupation, this near-obsession, with power? In part because we in this century cannot escape the horror of it. (p. 9)
The Power and Horror of Leadership
The power and horror of leadership are with us today. The world recoils at the devastation in the Middle East setting loose a worldwide immigration crisis and brutal killing, recalling for many the dark days of 1994 when in a period of 100 days, over 800,000 people from the Tutsi tribe in the African country of Rwanda were butchered by the ruling Hutus. After the slaughter, the questions began: Why didnât more people act to stop the killing? Why had so many participated in or ignored such awesome brutality? One person who decided to act was Paul Rusesabagina who ran the Hotel des Mille Collines in Rwanda. Paul used his hotel, influence, and simple willingness to act to save 1200 Rwandans who otherwise would have certainly been slaughtered.
The first thing that Paul did was to communicate to the world what was happening as his country spun out of control. âWe sent many faxes to Bill Clinton himself at the White Houseâ (as cited in Gourevitch, 1998, p. 132). Paul would stay up until four in the morning, âsending faxes, calling, ringing the whole worldâ (p. 132). His faxes and calls went mostly unanswered. Paul often was able to save lives simply by refusing to comply. When the authorities demanded that he release one of his hotel guests to them, he stood his ground, âThey wanted to take him out, but I refusedâ (p. 133); when asked why his refusal was heeded, he answered âI donât know ⊠I donât know how it was, but I refused so many thingsâ (p. 133). Some asked why Paul acted as he did, but more began to ask why others did not act in the same way. Paulâs response was, âthatâs a mystery ⊠everybody could have done itâ (p. 135). Though individual acts of positive leadership were documented, the harsh reality remains; the world as a whole failed to actâfailed to exhibit the necessary leadership to stop the killing. Many claimed that this was not their responsibility, or that it was not their place to act, but are these not leadership questions? Are we not dealing with leadership when we ask whether we are responsible to act in a given situation? We may not be able to agree on the answers, but we must agree on the need for positive leadership at such times.
The Irish philosopher Edmund Burke in a 1795 letter to William Smith suggested that âthe only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.â In what ways does leadership address these issues? In what way is leadership my personal responsibility and response to the concerns that trouble the world? Perhaps leadership is about good men doing something; about women rising above self-interest to pursue the benefit of the other; about people who just canât stand to sit back any longer as the world around them desperately calls for movement and change.
The Power and Beauty of Leadership
We find the power and beauty of leadership displayed in our world as well. Mother Teresa lifts the head of a dying man and speaks words of comfort and hope into his ear. Nelson Mandela walks free after 27 years in prison, becomes the first black president of South Africa and then leads a bloodless revolution through democratic vote while extending a hand of reconciliation to his former oppressors. Mahatma Gandhi, a stooped old man in his 60s, personally leads a 240-mile march to the sea to protest the British occupation of his country and their monopoly over the salt trade resulting in, India, a nation of over 1 billion people, standing free. Yes, it seems that both the horror and the beauty of leadership action play out on the world stage and the actors continue to pursue their dreams of domination or self-sacrifice.
But what about you and me? Most of us are not world leaders living in such dramatic times. We are not called to lead nations. We donât have the personal power or opportunity to make such a far-reaching impact on the world. Perhaps then the issue is not about having an impact on the world, but on our world. Is leadership something that pertains to me? Is leading a responsibility that I can choose to pursue or not? If I choose to lead, what kind of leader will I be? The answer to these and other questions is what this book is all about.
Yes, leadership is dangerous. Much too dangerous to leave it unexamined, untested, and untried. Leadership is, in fact, a call and a choice for us all.
Archimedes and the Metaphor of the Lever
Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world.Archimedes, 230 BC
Archimedes, the brilliant mathematician and scientist, was born in 287 BC in Syracuse, Sicily. He spent his life developing mathematical solutions toward challenges like the development of the calculus and the determination of circular area and the surface area and volume of a sphere. He was an eccentric who would often lose himself in the development of his theorems while drawing with his finger in the dirt or in a special writing box of sand he often carried with him. His intense focus sometimes led to neglecting personal needs, prompting friends to rescue him from his musings and force him to bathe and eat.
Archimedes moved beyond theory to apply his mathematical principles to the problems of his time. This included the creation of innovative weapons of war. When Syracuse was attacked by Rome, Marcellus, the Roman general, surrounded the city bringing his army to the city gates while using his entire naval fleet to block the harbor. Archimedes created huge cranes that were actually able to lift the Roman ships out of the water and either smash them by dropping them or swing them over the wall into the waiting hands of the Syracuse army (Hirshfeld, 2009). It must have been difficult for Marcellus to realize that he was being defeated by the wiles of a mathematical genius rather than the might of a hardened military leader. This was power of a different sort. He must have felt that a conjurer was creating dark arts to defeat his army. Plutarch in his work Marcellus describes this reaction:
Such terror had seized upon the Romans, that, if they did but see a little rope or a piece of wood from the wall, instantly crying out, that there it was again, Archimedes was about to let fly some engine at them, they turned their backs and fled. (as cited in Hirshfeld, 2009, p. 86)
Another example of Archimedesâ ability to solve problems came at the request of the King of Syracuse. It seems that King Hieroâs ship had been built but could not be launched. It sat firmly and stubbornly on dry land just a short distance from the water. All the men of Syracuse attempted, through brute force, to move the ship with no success. The ship simply was immovable. Archimedes created an elaborate system of levers and pulleys, put the entire crew onto the ship, and then handed the end of the pulley rope to the King. With a pull of the rope, the King was able to move the huge ship, with its crew, into the sea. King Hiero who had been a skeptic of these complicated machines of Archimedes made a proclamation that Archimedes was to be believed in everything from that day forward. From this real-life experience of practical applied mathematics comes the most famous quote attributed to Archimedes; âGive me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world.â
Archimedes was certainly thinking of the physical applications that his new machine would address and certainly did not have leadership on his mind. However, with this statement he has provided us a powerful metaphor to analyze and develop a concept of leadership that can, in fact, move the world. We make use of the metaphor of the lever to present a new framework for understanding the discipline and effective practice of leveraged leadership.
Work and Leadership: The Limits of Force
Work involves movement and force represented by the formula W = F Ă D (work equals force times the distance of movement). Consider the energy that it would take for you to move your office desk across the floor. The success of your work would be measured by your ability to get the desk moved across the room.
Leadership is often seen in this same way and can be represented by the formula L = F Ă D (leadership equals force times distance of movement of followers). This presents a leader-focused view of leadership placing the leader as the central actor upon the followers (those to be moved). The mediating variable is force. This can be physical force, emotional force, or social force, but is ultimately a coercive energy used to get someone to do what the leader wants done. One thinks of Atlas lifting the world up on his powerful shoulders. The problem with this view of leadership should be clear. On a pragmatic level, sometimes a leader cannot exert enough force or the right kind of force to create the desired movement. More importantly, the leaderâs use of force will often create resistance to the movement they are trying to create. All of the men of Syracuse could not build up enough human power to overcome the weight and inertia of the large ship. Marcellus could not muster the force of his army and navy to overcome the special, seemingly magical machines of Archimedes. We need more than a model of leadership based on the level of force that one leader can exert. Belief in this model of work (W = F Ă D) applied to leadership has led people to call for ever-stronger leaders, leaders with the personal characteristics to move others to where they need to go. It is time to propose a better way to do leadership. It is time to move beyond brute force toward a different kind of power that truly changes people and empowers them to voluntarily join in the leadership process of moving the world. The metaphor of the lever calls for a different way of viewing the role of the leader, the role of the led, and the overall purpose of leadership. Atlas and his brute strength must give way to Archimedes and his lever.
Unfolding the Metaphor of the Lever
The lever allows for the effect of power to be maximized while the need for direct force is minimized. More movement can be accomplished with less force due to the dynamics at work within the lever. Yes, force is exerted, but the power to create movement is magnified. The leader (the one initially exerting power) is just one part of the process. When considering the metaphor of the lever we are able to identify five key elements that help us form a new framework for understanding leadership effectiveness.
Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I will move the world.Archimedes, 230 BC
The Object to Be Moved: The Purpose of Leadership
The output of the work of the lever is movement. When leaders act toward a vision to change something in the world they are focused on the real purpose and outcome of leadership. When leaders expend large amounts of energy in promoting themselves, or building up their organization, they are involved in an altogether lesser purpose. True leadership is about changeâworld change. Leaders acknowledge that the world is not as it should be and something must be done. Th...