Leadership: Awakening the Best in People

by Carl H. Neu, Jr.

Leadership and stewardship are not bestowed upon public officials at swearing in ceremonies. They are, instead, obligations of one’s position as a county commissioner, mayor, council member or public administrator. One can hold power and possess authority without ever being a leader. Conversely, some highly effective leaders hold no formal authority, but command people’s attention and engage their energies toward bringing about constructive change and responses to challenges facing communities.

The rise of neighborhood groups and citizens participating directly in community decision making are testimony to the impact of leaders without formal authority. In fact, it has been the primary means by which previously disenfranchised persons such as women, minorities and political outsiders captured people’s attention and affected change. It is at the heart of populist philosophy. Effective leaders and stewards especially at the local level must learn, exhibit and master at least these six

attributes:

1. Leaders engage people and their energies rather than give them ready answers and “quick-fix” solutions.

Leadership isn’t about possessing Herculean strength, Aristotelian brilliance, or the oratorical skills of a Pericles. It isn’t about being charismatic, handsome, beautiful or even perfect in every aspect of one’s life. It is about touching someone’s imagination and conscience. It can start with no more than a simple question or an invitation to become involved in something. It is a process of “reaching out and touching” someone in a way that incorporates that person into a community of people. Leaders move people beyond preoccupation with self and the mundane elements of everyday life to a heightened sense of awareness and the potential to make a difference about issues that really matter to them and their future. Leaders engage people on issues that matter.

2. Leaders inspire themselves and others to their very best efforts.

Leaders inspire a worthwhile vision, goals and commitment to make desired future happen. Stewards ensure the capacity to keep the process vital, that required resources are made available, that responsible leadership and management succession occurs, and that the institution will survive and prosper. But, first, people must be inspired to see within themselves their inherent potential for “best. ” Leaders expand the consciousness and capacity of those whose lives they touch toward becoming the best they can be.

Leaders inspire by example. When they err, they admit it. When they succeed, they are not vainglorious. They know one’s actions demonstrate their inner character and always “speak” louder and more truthfully than one’s words. Many who aspire to be leaders fail to grasp this essential concept. They fail as leaders, they fail as persons ethically, they hurt people and their communities, and they lack the humility that comes with maturity and wisdom. T rue leaders never define a people downward. They inspire themselves and others upward.

3. Leaders focus on the future and get agreement on common vision, goals, priorities and direction.

Leaders, in the words of Thomas Cronin, “make things happen that might not otherwise happen and prevent things from happening that ordinarily might happen. [Leadership] is a process of getting people working together to achieve common goals and aspirations--a process that helps people transform intentions into positive action, visions into reality. ”

4. Leaders empower and support - rather than control and direct - people toward achieving desired outcomes.

All too often, people in authority or high office feel a need to control or limit the options of others, especially those with whom they disagree. This is the consequence of untamed ego and self importance which over time, if unchecked, produce forms of tyranny. Leaders help those they engage to discover the leadership capacity within themselves and, when that discovery occurs, they step aside so that these new leaders can act and repeat the process. They know human energy and creativity, once released, are limitless.

Leadership is not just giving people the resources and the authority to act; it also is helping people learn and grow to develop with themselves the capacity to evaluate events and issues, make decisions on how to proceed, to resolve conflicts and build trust, and to achieve the outcomes they desire.

5. Leaders engender a perspective of “we” and partnership.

Leaders work with and through people recognizing that organizations and communities really are teams -- people joined together to achieve outcomes no individual can achieve alone. They build a sense of “we” rather than a sense of “me” or “them. ” They do not divide people against each other into camps or factions. They unite people toward common goals.

Leaders engage people individually because they know one person can make a difference, but they also know that this one person united with others in a sense of partnership produses the “power of many” captured in the phrase “we the people” and the term community. Leaders see communities as living entities in which people interact with and mobilize others to bring about change and progress. Healthy communities, successful societies and even harmonious neighborhoods result from diverse groups focusing on working together toward common goals in a sense of collaboration--a sense of “we. ”

People are capable of so much if they unite. Leaders are the catalysts of union and progress that result from awakening within people the possibilities they possess. In this sense, leaders really are stewards and servants rather than rulers and masters.

6. Leaders are principled persons possessing moral behavior, character, values and integrity.

A leader’s main strength is the ability to operate close enough to people (followers) to draw them to the leader’s level of moral development and maturity. If leaders are to elevate people’s capacities and awareness, they, first, must elevate within others their standards and sense of equity, fairness, prudence, honor, courage and civility.

Values define personality, behavior and one’s character. Values allow one to operate with integrity even in the absence of incentives or sanctions. They give one the courage of conviction, respect for the rules that bind people together, and the ability to act responsibly even in times of chaos and conflicting opinions and choices. When integrity and values flee, people flounder, “we” degenerates into “them,” harsh conflict results, and communities experience that which is referred to as “crises in leadership.

Leadership is never values free or values loose. Leaders know that their private values and character always impact their public character and behavior. To believe otherwise is self-deception and sophistry. Leadership that lacks personal integrity spawns disingenuousness, perfidy, irresoluteness and incivility as precludes to decadence and community disintegration. These are the very antithesis of the leader’s purpose. For this reason, real leaders never engage in campaigns of deception, manipulation, pedagogy, and self-promotion.

7. Leaders promote mutual respect and civility in all relationships.

With increasing frequency, local government officials complain about the increasing amount of coarseness and lack of civility they are experiencing within their councils and in their community’s public discourse especially when controversy arises. Controversy, conflict and disagreement are natural occurrences in all meaningful relationships. The issue is not that disagreement occurs, but how one deals with that disagreement without being disagreeable, rudely hostile and, in extreme cases, irrationally immature.

All too often, we witness coarseness and incivility in national debates and on many “scram fest” radio and television talk shows. We’ve seen it reach inane proportions in our nation’s capitol and, now, in state legislatures. The cutting edges of coarseness and incivility destroy relationships, productive communications, and reason as the

basis for resolving disagreements constructively. Ultimately, they destroy communities, render leadership bodies impotent, and become a major disincentive for entering public office. Leaders understand that community is achieved and sustained through relationships nurtured and maintained by courtesy, respect, personal maturity and

civility. All of these essential elements can be preserved even in instances of controversy and disagreement by discussing the issues rather than attacking and belittling those with whom we disagree or whose opinions differ from ours.

Carl Neu is President of Neu and Company and director of the Center for the Future of Local Government™. He is a former council member in Lakewood, Colorado.

Saturday, November 27, 2010