I Want To Start a Movement: Evaluate Your Leadership
If you’re an active reader of my blogs, then you know I love the movie The American President. I recently watched it again as a part of a homework assignment for a class I was taking. In the movie, there is a great short speech during one of the scenes. Picture, if you will, a press conference in the White House. The president is running for office and his opponent, Bob Rumson, has been making nasty comments about the president’s girlfriend among other things to attack him. The press wants to know what the President Andrew Shepard is going to do about it. His speech is as follows:
“For the past couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character. And although I’ve been unwilling to engage in his attacks on me, I have been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation that being President of this country is entirely about character.”
He continues on to say, “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight.”
I was at KenCrest for four years and 104 days when the pandemic hit, and leading through a pandemic has really put a spotlight on my character. I have experienced all the things a leader can expect under pressure, and as a result, I can tell you that all leadership needs to be evaluated…not just mine, but all.
Here are some thoughts on the questions which have guided me so far.
Do you know how to learn?
As a leader you cannot know everything. You need to learn formally and informally all the time. There will be new challenges, and you will need to reach out to new sources and to others who share the task with you. Learning cannot stop.
Do you know how to hold everyone’s interest in mind?
No doubt there will be someone who thinks their position is more important than someone else’s. There will be someone who ranks the priorities very differently. There will be someone who will not ask first, and will decide if you are right or wrong in any given moment. Some needs will be greater than others, and you need to navigate all those differences to come to some conclusion.
Can you handle despair?
Things will not go as you want. Accomplishments — which you see as essential to justice, fairness, or even basic kindness — will seem so far out of your grasp that it will bring you to your knees (which may be the best place you can be). You will only move at the speed at which you can engage the hearts and minds of those around you…and many of those people are out of sight.
Can you be grateful and see joy always?
Even on the most challenging of days, there will be joy. Can you see it? When you see it, will you be thankful?
Andrew Shepard is a fictional character running for office. Presidents of agencies don’t run for office. But nonetheless, we are just as responsible for all the obligations that leadership entails.
As I look forward to the next chapters in this pandemic, I will continue to evaluate myself. I will continue to call on all leaders to do the same. Dr. Fauci has repeatedly said that this will end. As far as I can see, we can end better than we started. And that is the only choice I am willing to accept.
Our character — yours and mine — demands nothing less.
