Mettle Matters, and Other Brief Leadership Lessons for the Year Ahead
We will remember 2020 for years to come.
The body blows seemed never to end: protests in the streets, an electoral crisis, wildfires, conspiracy peddlers, food lines and — looming over everything else — a virus that has killed some 340,000 Americans so far while turning the lives of millions upside down.
A question running through it all is who was in charge? Where were the leaders this year? Who was responding to the call of public need in the face of collective danger and compounding crises?
On the national stage, that kind of leadership may have been in short supply.
But it flourished in many other places, embedded in the fabric of our communities, in city and state and even federal government departments, in law courts, the armed forces, medical systems, and in corporate C-suites.
Leadership in 2020 was the stuff of quietly determined individuals in almost every walk of life marshalling the people around them to do what needed to be done. Most of them remain unsung; but they responded in ways big and small, direct and indirect, with both common sense and uncommon boldness.
It’s worth reflecting, as the calendar turns, on the example these leaders set and the qualities that make for the kind of leadership that matters when the chips are down. I offer a few of them here, in the form of leadership lessons for the year ahead:
1. Truth matters. Facts still exist. Honesty is still the currency that binds leaders to their followers. Sure, you can fool some of the people some of the time, but people will ultimately know whether what comes out of your mouth can be taken to the bank. And if it can’t, they will withdraw their loyalty and invest it in someone who won’t betray them with untruths. (There is a reason why Anthony Fauci was among the most trusted individuals in America this year.)
2. People matter. If you want to matter to the people you lead, they have to know they matter to you. People — all of us — are complicated, conflicted, inconsistent, self-interested bundles of emotion, intuition and individual experiences. To convince people to go with you where you want to go — to take them, even, where they know they need to go — you need to care about their state of mind, their circumstances, their hopes and fears. Really care. Leaders who are more committed to their personal agenda than they are to their people will lose the latter and fail the former.
3. Better angels matter. Too many national politicians dined out this year on their provocation of angry discord, division and fear. I’ve seen that from a few corporate leaders as well. But history proves over and over that successful leaders are the ones who paint a brighter picture of who we can be and a hopeful picture of where we can go. Thunderdome may be good entertainment, but most people would rather invest their loyalty, creativity, teamwork, sweat and spirit in building a shining city on a hill.
4. Words matter. Here’s a pop quiz. Which of these imaginary CEO messages is more likely to inspire your company’s culture:
“We at XYZ, Inc. mourn George Floyd with his family and are committed to redoubling our efforts on diversity and inclusion”
or
“I am angry. I am ashamed. I won’t rest until I’ve exhausted what power I have to help finally heal the centuries-old wound of racism — in my company and in my community.”
If your communications department is still producing leadership messages like the former, you need a new communications department.
5. Mettle Matters. I have on my desk to this day a hand-written note from Colin Powell, written when I was a navy lieutenant commander drafting speeches for him at the Pentagon. He jotted it down during a difficult week that I was not handling well. “GCM was something,” he began, referring to George C. Marshall, a figure that he admires nearly as much as I admire Powell himself. He went on in Marshall’s words: “‘Gentlemen, enlisted men may be entitled to morale problems, but officers are not. I expect all officers to take care of their own morale. No one is taking care of my morale.’” 2020 was a year in which I was reminded often of Marshall’s (and Powell’s) message: Real leaders contain themselves. They don’t lash out. They don’t sling blame. They don’t run scared. They don’t whine. They don’t put themselves first. They don’t ever forget that to be a leader in difficult times is to be the rock that people can count on.
There is nothing new in these lessons. They have been around since at least the time of Pericles. But the year just ended was a powerful reminder of how important they are. Here’s to embracing them in the new year.
