Ron Potter

Image source: Frank Kovalchek, Creative Commons

As a leader, how do you get from here to there if a vision for something greater currently does not exist within your organization? Consider the following ideas.

1. Clean up your act.

It is difficult to convince others to stand for something greater if your own life and values are mediocre. Make no mistake: Regardless of what you hear from assorted voices, your personal moral standards are inseparably linked to long-term leadership success.

I once worked with a vice president of a large company who appeared very successful but did not adhere to high personal standards. He was very good at what he did and had a magnificent reputation.

This V.P. liked to call himself “a player.” Essentially, being a player meant that he messed around outside of marriage. He did not see this as wrong (pride talking) and told us it would not affect his people or the quality of the job they were doing (pride again).

Twenty-four months later, the vice president’s inability to control his pride and lust cost him everything, including his job. His clever scheme fell apart. His self-focus swallowed him up.

It’s fun to be a leader, flattering to have influence, and invigorating to have a room full of people cheering your every word. It is a powerful boost to set a direction for the troops and then draw them out to march toward the goal. However, nothing will spoil this pretty picture more quickly than a willful, proud attitude. Pride can cause an uncontrolled will, which is fatal in a leader’s life.

2. Examine your values.

While attending seminary, Martin Luther King Jr. read extensively in the areas of history, philosophy, and religion. As he read, learned, and reflected, he molded his values and vision on the anvil of discovery, questioning what he truly believed.

This kind of personal searching is essential for every good leader. How can you clarify values, set vision, get beyond yourself, and stand for something greater if you have not participated in the intense, personal struggle to clarify, define, and establish who you are as a person? As a leader you will be asked many questions—economic, moral, and personal. How will you know what answers to give unless you have wrestled with some of the questions?

The result of this struggle is personal integrity and credibility.

3. Elevate people to a higher purpose.

Lincoln motivated people by leaving his office and spending time with everyone in the government and military hierarchy. One hundred and twenty years later, Tom Peters dubbed this kind of management style as “management by walking around.” When a leader gets out and interacts with all the people, the vision is communicated, the values are acted upon, the leader is observed, and the people are inspired.

Whether or not leaders literally walk around, the important factor is elevating and transforming people to serve a higher purpose. People respond by seeking higher moral standards for themselves and the organization. A higher purpose serves to develop common ground, and the common ground leads to energy in attaining goals. It creates a center of importance around which the team can rally and be unified.

4. Seize the higher ground.

John Gardner, Stanford professor, former secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founding chairperson of Common Cause, has written that there are four moral goals of leadership:

1. Releasing human potential
2. Balancing the needs of the individual and the community
3. Defending the fundamental values of the community
4. Instilling in individuals a sense of initiative and responsibility.

Gardner notes that concentrating on these aspects will direct you to higher purposes. They take the focus off of you and place it on the people around you. They enable you to let go of the things in life that do not matter and instead make time and create energy for the things that do matter: the welfare of others, the organization, and the larger community.

5. Recognize the cost.

Standing for something greater often exacts a significant price. Senator John McCain, told the story about a special soldier whom he met while a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

McCain spent over five years imprisoned by the North Vietnamese in what was called the “Hanoi Hilton.” One of the men in Senator McCain’s cell was Mike Christian.

The men were allowed to receive packages from home. McCain stated, “In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing.” The prisoners’ uniforms were basic blue, and Mike Christian took some white and red cloth from the gifts and fashioned an American flag inside his shirt.

Mike’s shirt became a symbol for the imprisoned Americans. Every day, after lunch, they would put Mike’s shirt on the wall and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. You can imagine that, for these men, this was an emotional and significant daily event.

One day the Vietnamese found Mike Christian’s homemade flag. They destroyed it and beat Mike for over two hours.

McCain remembers, “I went to lie down to go to sleep. As I did, I happened to look in the corner of the room. Sitting there beneath that dim light bulb, with a piece of white cloth a piece of red cloth, and another shirt and bamboo needle was my friend, Mike Christian. Sitting there with his eyes almost shut from beating, making another American flag.”

Lt. Commander Mike Christian is a real-life example of how leaders can shift their focus away from themselves, their power, and their potential to something outside themselves, seeking the greater good for others as well as for the organization and the community at large.

Standing for something greater moves leaders past their own interests to something that benefits everyone. It takes controlled strength not to fall back to the shortsightedness of doing things only for selfish gain or selfish reasons.

Standing for something greater means standing for something other than yourself. The cause is not “all for you”; it is something greater of which you are part. You bring value, but so do others. People whose view doesn’t reach outside themselves are ultimately limited to their own box of knowledge and vision.