Campaign Behaviors

Candidates for executive offices should be held to account for contradictory and misleading statements. "I'll lower taxes" often accompanies "I'll create jobs" and "I'll make our schools #1 in the nation." Presumably, "I'll eliminate wasteful spending" and "I'll not let government spend more than it takes in" are the strategies that will work the necessary miracles.

But really; is this evidence of leadership ability or even recognizable leadership tendency?

Or is it just blather?

Clearly, it is useless rhetoric that offers no indicator of leadership skills.

And it is a sad testament to the quality of American political campaigning that this sort of blather may have come to be expected.

"Strong" Leadership

Awakened with the morning alarm to the sound of a California gubernatorial candidate saying that the state needs "strong" leadership.

This "call" for something other than, presumably, "weak" leadership, gets one's attention.

What followed?

A brief summary of the state's budget shortfall, education-related problems, and the need for jobs.

Then, a statement by this candidate of pertinent qualifications--specifically, a listing of business positions held, where the individual claims to have created many many jobs.

That's it; neat, simple, and direct.

The implication: "Strong" leadership means "I'll make good things happen."

The problems: California isn't a business; California governors don't create jobs by themselves (and, incidentally, neither do the best CEOs); and jobs creation will often compete for dollars and legislation with the very same problems in education and the economy that also need attention and concerted action.

Perhaps the most misleading aspect of this sort of call for "strong" leadership is that it fails to recognize the roles all California residents must play in solving these sorts of gripping problems.

If this candidate could list past successes in engaging groups and motivating consensual action toward shared goals (starting with the clear acknowledgment that some corporate "we" rather than "I" did so much in previously held positions), the call for "strong" leadership would sound more compelling and the list of qualifications would be more relevant. It would also demonstrate real-world understanding of the tasks facing elected representatives.

Jobs Creation Summit

Some will say President Obama is "passing the buck" on solving unemployment due to the recession and dispiriting economic climate. Consider, however, the way in which a summit opens the door, encourages teamwork, and steers a course toward development of shared goals.

Why haven't others called for those with ideas, from whichever party or ideological stripe, to contribute toward solutions to pressing problems?

Fears of being called "weak," "indecisive," or "lacking in ideas."

What has long been mistaken here is that leadership requires getting past these sorts of fears.

In reaching out, this president squarely places the emphasis and the reward on the quality of good ideas.

The Value of Timing

Health care, Afghanistan, gay rights/issues, and climate change have each demanded consideration and all beg for action. President Obama seems, at the outset, to provide calls to action and, then, to the consternation of many, seems to let things percolate.

The "right" screams and hollers. The "left" moans and groans. Senate and House members take sides and photo ops. Talk-show hosts of every stripe rant and rave. And all-day all-night "news" services keep the talking heads talking.

Slowly, very slowly, things quiet. Reason more than shouting and name-calling appears to take precedence. The only folks listening and giving ideas are ones who actually have thought about and worked unstintingly for some change.

And then, the President speaks out in support of policy action.

Leading by following? Only after setting a general direction and only moving as fast as those who are interested are willing to move at all.

Creating shared vision and enabling participation. Two particular virtues of this president's sense of timing.

And What a Breath It Has Been...

From my last post to this one, the world has undergone a sea-change not seen previously in my lifetime. No need to describe the particulars, save to say that community is more critical than ever, and President Obama appears to be one leader who can pull people from various walks together in common purpose.

It isn't a given that he'll successfully "reach across the aisle," but more important is the work he is doing to develop a shared vision among citizens as to the status and prospective world role of the U.S. And the emphasis he's placed on demonstrating our core values complements the country's efforts to engender a world-wide sense that can be areas of mutual cooperation and agreement.

Taking the U.S. economy as a context, what I'll do beginning this week is to examine how the actions of this president may be evaluated according to the 11 dimensions of community: shared vision, shared values, shared purpose, trust, caring, respect, recognition, communication, participation, teamwork, and incorporation of diversity.

A Timely Breath

This blog is about the practice of leadership; that is, helping individuals understand how they can work within groups large and small to increase collective effectiveness. It is not intended to support any particular ideology or substantive point of view on political, religious, or other issues.

That said, I confess to having taken a break from posting leadership strategies over the past several months for reasons related to the cumulative effects of close-minded unilateralism and dogged intolerance on the parts of our national administration.

The leadership vacuum in Washington, D.C. had expanded to such a degree, with such tragic and deadly consequences for this nation and for the world, that I admit to feeling my contributions could make no difference.

What has given me 'the audacity to hope' once again over these last eight weeks, however, isn't that the quality of national leadership has improved, because it has not. Rather, it is that everyday people at every level showed before and during the recent election that they could organize groups and work effectively to call for national leadership. These citizens demonstrated the human need for community and for building community, and in the process attested to the hard-wired leadership instincts we all share.

Most important, they reminded me that everyone of us can recognize when leadership is absent and that we can fight to find our breath through the feelings of powerlessness and of immobility that characterize a leadership vacuum. For this reason above all, I'm once again hopeful there's a point to boring into the mechanics of effective leadership strategies.

Perhaps anyone who worked with John Gardner should have naturally trusted in what he called the 'tremendous resources of strength and spirit' of the American people. But it's helped me to see these qualities at first hand, among friends and as an observer of many others.

So, let's 'press on,' in this place, to tackle the specifics of building community.

Let's Build

Looking over the first four posts, I'm inclined to end the preamble and say something substantive about how to build the sense of community in a group. To that end, let me describe the two major approaches to community building:
Modeling and Opportunity Creation

Modeling
It's no over-simplification to say that one way to build trust is to trust, just as a first step toward building shared values involves articulating one's own values with respect to or for the group and asking others in the group about their views. Incorporation of diversity or participation? Model regard for pluralism within the group context, and ask others to join in a project or in a decision affecting the group. There are many nuances related to modeling, and we'll get into them as we discuss the building of each of the 11 elements, but it's good to begin with an understanding of the general strategy.

Opportunity Creation
Strengthing the sense of community in a group involves motivating group members to build the 11 elements of community with one another. To keep things straight, I'm saying in essence that strengthening community involves leaders in a cycle of encouraging leadership. The opportunities they create are just the situations and the circumstances they judge will move group members to build trust, respect, shared vision, and so on with one another. What are examples of these sorts of situations or circumstances? Well, in a work setting, it might be requiring every department head to attend a weekly staff meeting (really!). In a neighborhood, it might amount to calling together two individuals and exciting them about a project they can work on together. In a congregation, it might be organizing a study group on some aspect of the faith. There are many possible opportunities that might be created from the resources within any particular setting, and we will consider quite a variety as we begin work on building specific community elements.