This website concerns the issue of Leadership and Race. It allows me to share my personal struggles with the issue of Race. It also allows me to share insights that I have gained through the many and varied leadership opportunities that I have had throughout a fulfilling life..
My book, The Only One In The Room addresses the issue of race from a personal, emotional, honest and thought provoking manner. It is not a work of fiction, but opens the reader up to what it feels like to be treated differently because of your race in every area of your life.
Hopefully, I pull back the curtain and give you insights that some of you have never experienced given where or how you grew up. There are people who have no close relationships or interactions with African Americans, even in the year 2018.
It is my sincere hope that this book can help you to understand why there are still issues about race in the lives of people across our country.
Mlton Thompson
Author
My book, The Only One In The Room addresses the issue of race from a personal, emotional, honest and thought provoking manner. It is not a work of fiction, but opens the reader up to what it feels like to be treated differently because of your race in every area of your life.
Hopefully, I pull back the curtain and give you insights that some of you have never experienced given where or how you grew up. There are people who have no close relationships or interactions with African Americans, even in the year 2018.
It is my sincere hope that this book can help you to understand why there are still issues about race in the lives of people across our country.
Mlton Thompson
Author
Good Leadership, Part 3,
Good Leadership: Talent and fit, which is more important?
In this article I want to add a few more insights about leadership.
The two earlier installments were mostly talking about characteristics and principles. In this column, I want to focus on some very practical advice for new and aspiring leaders.
It can also be a reality check for leaders who are at a crossroad.
You were trained by non-collaborative, non-empowering leaders. Maybe your personality is abrasive, and you are on an endless carousel of jobs because you wear people out very quickly.
Whatever the case, this can help you.
Good Leaders look for fit when they are looking for a place to develop their talents.
When you interview for your first job that entails leading others, you are just thrilled to be interviewed.
You may take a job where you are not sure that it is the best fit for you.
Sometimes you ‘fake it to make it’. By this, I mean that you alter your natural style, personality and thinking to fit into the organization that hired you.
If the culture is toxic, you don’t care. You deal with it. Maybe your ego is such that you believe that you can turn around any business or organization. Like me, you may have had great mentors.
Maybe in your first job you followed a person who was an ineffective leader. Or you followed a leader who had poor interpersonal skills or was Machiavellian and the drama they created finally caught up with them.
To the people who hired you, you are a breath of fresh air. You did not care about fit. When I got my first superintendent job, I was just glad that someone hired me.
The issues that awaited me were not even on my mind.
As time went on, I began to realize that some places were a mismatch for me. What they were looking for was not me. Since I had been well prepared, I could get an interview. That fed my ego. Then, I made the career move that changed my career for the worst.
Let me tell you about it.
My own misstep
I was working in a district where it was a great fit. When I went to work, I could be myself. My talents, personality and style of leadership fit.
I had a good school board, with two difficult members. My job was 60 miles from home, and I got to see my wife on alternate weekends.
I found out about a district that was one of the worst in the region they were located. It was within about 20 miles of my home. I was also full of myself. I was enjoying some success in my current district and thought that I could take on any challenge.
Boy, was I wrong.
The job almost literally killed me. It affected my health. I went from a school board with people that I liked as people and respected for their child-first approach to a school board that created its own constant drama.
I dreaded board meetings. The state oversaw the school district. I came to find out that the autonomy that they promised me was a lie. I also had constant meddling, and they micromanaged every idea, decision and expenditure.
After one year, they offered me a buyout. I was sad because I felt like a failure. I was also happy because it was the worst fit of any job in my lifetime. When I drove home on my last day, I could have shouted, “Hallelujah!”
I resolved that unless I was dying of starvation and on the verge of becoming homeless, I would never again let my ego lead me to take a job that was beyond my abilities and that was a horrible fit for me.
By the way, to show you how large my ego was I need to give you one more piece of information about that district. They had 21 superintendents in 19 years. I thought that I would be the exception to the rule.
That is true deception.
Fit is more important than talent
Do not underestimate the fact that fit is more important than talent.
Talent has limits. You will meet leaders that you know are less talented than you.
You may be smarter, a better people person and other things. If they are in the right situation that matches with who they are and what they do well, they will be greatly successful.
I am primarily talking about this from a school administrator’s perspective, but I can also tell you that this is true from a pastoral perspective.
As a pastor, everything that I am writing about leadership is just as true. Let me boil this down for you:
There was a book out years ago entitled “The Peter Principle.” In a nutshell, the book was a cautionary tale to warn people not to take that one step beyond their level of competency.
There are master teachers who become mediocre principals. There are principals who become mediocre superintendents. They go one step beyond where their talent can be maximized, and it shows.
The example of the district where I was a miserable misfit is an example of this principle. I went one step beyond where my skills could take me.
If they have talents in areas where you are deficient, they will be the key to your success, and you to theirs.
I fell into this situation in Beloit. I had highly capable leaders working with me. My executive assistant was one of the best people I have ever worked with. Her strengths complemented my weaknesses.
I also had a school board with smart, honorable and respectful people.
It was set up for my success.
If you sense that the place you are considering is a circus, guess who their clown will be in the end.
I will not take a job where it is clear during the interview that I will fill the role of a hatchet man.
If you are perceptive, you can tell it by the questions that you are asked. If they ask you if you have ever fired people and they follow up with other questions that are similar, look out.
If you like being a hatchet man or hatchet woman, take the job. If you do not want your career to be defined by how many people you can get rid of, say no if offered the job.
Ultimately, you must live with you.
By the way, I have fired people. It is the worst feeling that I experienced at work. I gained the perspective that people are of infinite worth, even if they do not fit the needs of my organization.
When a person is released, it affects their entire life.
I once heard of a leader who told a person they were not necessary and “don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt (my word, theirs was harsher) on the way out.” Do you want to be that person?
A friend who was my assistant superintendent of human resources was a military lawyer. When I had to make a tough decision that would cost me dearly and was potentially going to cost me too much, he would ask me this question: “Is this a hill to die on?”
He was really asking me, “What do you value, and what are you willing to end your career for?”
In most careers that moment of truth will come unexpectedly. God help you if you willingly take a job in which falling on your sword is called for repeatedly.
By the way, you can only fall on your sword once —unless you miss a vital organ the first time.
I am not a type A personality. I will work hard, but I am not the driven, high-stress personality.
As I wrote in an earlier article, only life and death are life and death to me. I also cannot change my moral convictions. I cannot work in an environment where I am always being asked to commit to things that I do not believe in.
I also cannot whip others into a frenzy. I do not believe in driving people. Shepherds lead they do not drive. I look at being a leader in that way. I am pastoring people within an organization.
I must be credible in what I do and what I ask people to commit to. I believe that people can sense a phony. Whatever the “company line” is that I must be a spokesman for, has to be what I really believe in.
I was once warned to never use my ability to sell something to sell something that I do not really buy into. The person perceived that I could persuade people and told me not to use it to be a “snake oil salesman.”
That was a seminal moment for me, and I try to avoid situations where I will be asked to sell snake oil as if it is a legitimate cure.
Good Leadership, Part 2: Good leadership lets others use their strengths
July 14, 2021
I want to continue this series of articles about Good Leadership.
Most of what I am writing on this topic is simple and just common sense. If you have worked in enough places, you have experienced good and bad leadership.
You have enjoyed working certain places and dreaded working in others. The leader may have been the “X” factor that determined whether you enjoyed working there or not.
The culture of most places is merely a reflection of the leader.
Here are some more characteristics I’ve witnessed that make up a good leader.
No one is good at everything. God has distributed talent in such a way that it makes us interdependent on each other.
All of us have strengths and weaknesses. The ability to recognize what those are is the key to becoming a good leader.
I have been identified as a visionary leader. I like to envision what the organization could become. I love coming up with creative solutions and different ways of doing things.
I am not, however, a detail person. I used to think of this as a weakness. However, over time, I began to realize that it is only a weakness if I am not humble enough to locate people with the skills that I lack. I need to find people who enjoy managing detail so that I can do what I do best.
Let me give you a personal example when this was possible.
In my first job as an elementary principal, I can remember learning this lesson. It did not take very long for me to realize that I had some leadership skills and talents but lacked others.
My secretary was an extremely capable person. She could multi-task and manage complexity very well. I found out that she co-managed a dairy cooperative with her husband. Managing things was as easy as breathing to her.
One day, I called her into my office and told her what I had observed about her talents. I also shared with her what my talents were, and what they were not. We made an agreement. Each of us would play to our strengths.
She would keep my calendar and keep me on point as far as schedules and obligations. We would operate as a team. When I left that job for another job and required an executive assistant, I offered her the job. I knew that if I was going to be successful, I needed her skills.
She came along with me and did her usual outstanding job.
1.B. Utilizing others’ skills
About utilizing the talents and skills of others to strengthen your organization, a good friend once said something to me that has stuck with me over the years. He was one of my assistant superintendents in a school district where I was the superintendent.
In fact, I brought him with me, along with several others, to try to turn around a failing district.
As a team, we would meet frequently, brainstorm and formulate plans to address issues. He said that he enjoyed the fact that we would sit down and work collaboratively like this. In one of our meetings, he quoted someone who said, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
I have tried to follow that wisdom since then. On the rare occasions when I deceived myself into believing that I was the “brightest bulb in the pack,” I have paid for it.
A team of people bring a wealth of knowledge, talent and diverse perspectives to an issue.
Have you ever worked for a controlling leader? They tend to micromanage you into a coma. They subscribe to the thinking that if you want something done well, you must do it yourself.
They lack the ability to entrust and empower people. They are afraid if people screw up it will blow back on them.
This is a risk and may happen. I have found, however, that the downside is that this behavior does not get the best that people can give. People do not share innovative solutions with a controlling leader. Why bother? They know that the person is not a good listener.
They also know that they lack the creativity to implement the idea. Controlling leaders are also very insecure.
Conversely, good leaders are secure enough to realize that they cannot have a tight grip on power. They are good delegators.
If that is combined with a knowledge of the strengths of the individuals who work with them, it is even better.
They empower people by giving them the power and authority necessary to accomplish the task that has been assigned to them.
There are times when they let other people take the lead. They are not threatened by the talents of others.
I once had an assistant superintendent of business who was one of the best in the state. When he suggested that we do things to improve the food service of the district, I not only listened, but also, I encouraged him to make the improvements.
He took the lead and did an outstanding job.
I remember working in one district where we had a large problem to solve. I had an idea of how to do it.
In time, it was apparent that my solution was not the best one. My executive team came up with a much better idea than mine, and it led to a successful reconfiguration of the district.
When the school board wanted to know where the idea came from, I did not hesitate to tell them that it was not my idea; it was the idea of the team.
Harry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Good leaders do not take credit, they give it.
In my previous column on bad leadership, I talked about leaders who are Machiavellian. They create drama and intrigue through the manipulation of people.
As a leader, I hated the kind of Machiavellian advice that a leader should guide people to come to the same conclusion or solution that the leader already had in mind. That kind of manipulation eventually erodes trust.
Once trust is lost, it is hard to get back.
Good leaders, because they do not manipulate people, are straightforward with people.
Good leaders do not waste people’s time by pretending that something is collaborative and a group decision when they have already made up their mind.
I have seen this done in the hiring process. If a leader gathers a group of people and tells them that they will be empowered to help choose a candidate, it should mean that they are really empowered and that they have a real hand in deciding who gets hired.
People hate when their time is wasted.
I have watched people spend days interviewing various candidates. By consensus it seemed that a particular candidate was the best hire. The leader, however, chooses someone else despite the apparent group consensus.
This is a form of manipulation. The leader is only using the committee for “cover” in case their choice of the candidate is ever questioned.
I learned to involve a committee on things where I was not the sole person who had to decide something. Few things demand that the leader make decisions without the meaningful input and empowerment of others.
Good Leaders look for opportunities to make decisions collaboratively.
4.A. A non-manipulative hiring process
I also learned how to create hiring processes that kept me from manipulating the system to hire my own preferred candidate.
In one district, I used a point system that gave everyone equal power in the decision. The people on the hiring committee were shocked. Given their history, they thought that I was playing some kind of “shell game” with them.
They were astonished when, at the end of the process, we tallied the points and a particular candidate emerged as the strongest candidate by consensus. I told them that I would hire that person. I thanked them for their hard work and told them how much I appreciated their time.
I then hired their candidate.
Follow decision of collaborative process
I have found over and over again that, if you create collaborative processes, it can create a culture of trust — as long as you follow through with the collaborative decision or solution.
In one district, we spent several months tackling a merit-based, professional teacher pay system. New and experienced teachers had a role on that committee. We started with large group input and then worked in smaller groups and found elements that we could use to formulate a comprehensive plan.
I was excited to be a part of the discussions and the brainstorming that happened. I just had to sit and interject any parameters that would affect our solutions. I was able to take the role of a facilitator and, at times, take a recessive role.
Due to the mentoring of many excellent leaders, this was not hard to do. When I was younger, this kind of role would have been impossible for me. If you think that everything is about you, you do not share power.
If you know that it is about us, you involve people who have a vested interest. This creates the support and buy-in most good leaders truly want.
Trial and error too costly
I am not saying that I am a model of effective leadership. I have made mistakes along the way and have taken too many classes in the school of hard knocks. I am simply sharing the lessons that I learned from good leaders.
I wish that I had applied them as well as they did.
I have found it is easier to use the wisdom that others have gained than to learn by trial and error.
Trial and error are way too costly.
Good Leadership
July 10, 2021
In my last article I concentrated on the characteristics of Bad Leadership. I talked about some of the characteristics of bad leadership and just want to add one or two other points about Bad Leadership before I turn to the subject of Good Leadership.
One of the other characteristic of Bad Leadership is that it thrives on drama. Where there is no drama, they create it. I once had a principal that I worked for who created unnecessary drama. I was the Dean of Students at the school and handled all of the discipline for about 750 students. One day I had a very interesting conversation with the Assistant Principal. In referring to the principal she said to me that he was a "Monday/Friday Principal". I asked her to expound on what she meant. She explained that every week on Mondays he would create some situation that demanded that we drop whatever we were doing and spring into action. Many times the drama was created by his overreaction to a circumstance. It could involve students or staff. She also pointed my attention to the fact that he would do the same thing at the end of the week on Fridays. When I thought about it I knew that it was true. My conversation with her gave me insights that prepared me for the increases in student discipline that were going to be happen, particularly on Mondays and Fridays.
Bad leaders have a habit of turning molehills into mountains. They can take relatively small circumstances and make them larger until they become a focus that demands large amounts of time, resources and emotional energy. At their worst, they are like a character out of Machievelli's book, The Prince about drama and intrigue in the Italian Court. These leaders thrive on intrigue. If there is none they manufacture it. The result is an atmosphere with an underlying current of fear. People begin to engage in self protective behaviors. No one does their best work out of fear of reprisal
This type of leader confuses fear with respect. No one crosses them out of fear, not out of a respect for their leadership. After a while people cannot take the stress of working where there is constant drama and intrigue. The smart ones leave. The ones who remain remove to 'fly under the radar'. They fo to work, keep their heads down, do their jobs, and enjoy life outside of work. They hate going to work because of the unnecessary stress. The organization suffers. It creates an environment where people leave their talents and creativity at home. This type of leader is also threatened by people who exceed them in talent and ability. They bully, they intimidate people and exercise extreme amounts of control to keep people in line. These behaviors betray large amounts of inferiority and a lack of security. Unfortunately these leaders leave in their wake people who also become insecure and begin to doubt their own abilities and talents.
Though I could write much more about Bad Leadership, I want to turn my attention to the characteristics of Good Leadership.
1. Good Leaders make mountains into molehills
If I visited your work environment I could tell in a few minutes certain things about the leader by the culture in the organization. Unfortunately in many places the culture is simply a manifestation of the personality and nature of the leader. In my comments on educational environments I am not just singling out the principal or the superintendent. I would also include the school board, which is a collective leadership group. In any of these people, if they are toxic personalities who thrive on power, drama and control, the culture manifests the fruit of those behaviors. If I noticed a joyless environment, void of personality, it would set off an alarm within me. High levels of stress and anxiety I would certainly be evident.
I, thank the Lord that I have worked for very few of these type of leaders. The leaders that I was privileged to serve under created work environments where they decreased stress and handled most of the drama. They could walk into stressful situations and defuse the human created elements of the situation. I have watched leaders who had to make tough decisions in very stressful situations. I have watched them personally take on the stress and not pass it on to others. Conversely I have watched leaders who almost take pleasure in passing on the pressure that has been exerted upon them by their 'higher ups'. This passing on of pressure and stress eventually permeates the entire organization. To use a comical analogy from my childhood. I will make reference to The Three Stooges. Some of you that are older will understand this. The way that bad leaders pass down pressure is like this: Moe slaps Larry, Larry slaps Curly, Curly slaps Shemp, Shemp slaps Curly Joe. It all runs downhill.
Conversely, Good Leaders try to diffuse stressful situations I first learned this ability as a teacher for students who were emotionally disturbed and were emotionally volatile I learned how to deescalate these behaviors and not inflame them. Later, when I was an elementary principal I applied this knowledge in order to deal with irate parents. If an irate parent came into my office, alleging some transgression committed by a teacher against their child, I had a consistent way of handling it. I knew that teachers rarely did anything that were intentionally harmful or demeaning to a children. When the irate parent came in I would invite the teacher to the meeting in my office. Prior to that meeting I would talk with the teacher, hearing their side of the story. One I had gotten their side of the story I told them what their role would be in the meeting. They were to come in and recall the circumstance that occurred with the student. In the meeting I would simply turn to the teacher and ask them to recall what happened. They would tell their side of the story. I would allow the parent to interact with the teacher for a while. I would oversee the interaction. In situations where the meeting would 'go south', I would turn to the teacher and say, "Mr. Jones, I know that you have another meeting that you have to go to". I would then excuse them. I would sit with the parent and try to resolve what ever the issue was. I would not sell out the teacher or throw them under the bus for the sake of the parent. I was the leader. I bore ultimate responsibility. I got paid more for a reason and did not feel that it was right to have the teacher sit and get reamed out. If the teacher did something questionable, not criminal, we would talk about it privately. My staff grew to respect that I would not turn molehills into mountains.
When I became a superintendent I took this even further. I tried to exhibit a calm demeanor in stressful situations. I had found that in the midst of chaos, anxiety does not help. Doing this proved to be a blessing and a curse. I once had a school board member say that my greatest strength was that I didn't react to highly stressful situations, and he also said that it was my greatest weakness. I had to explain to him that my lack of reaction did not spring from indifference or naiveté. It was born from a perspective that I had gained over the years, beginning with my own parents. Most things that happen are not life and death! They may be important, but few of them result in the end of the world. I have found that the sun rises the next day. In stressful situations, wisdom and peace on the inside can help navigate you through the circumstances that would otherwise overwhelm you. In the poem, "If", by Rudyard Kipling, there are two lines that speak to me about this. The first says, "If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you." The second line says, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same." In other words, leaders must have a perspective that does not cause them to overreact, so that they can act wisely and decisively. In all but a few life circumstances Triumph is not as lasting as we would think and Disaster is not something that you cannot recover from.
2. They do no harm
When I was starting out as a teacher one of my first jobs was to work in the Hutchinson Public Schools. I started my job the same time as the newly hired superintendent, William Hawver. If I remember, he was about 42 years old. I was 26 and he seemed wise and seasoned to me. He personally hired me to do research into areas that would guide change in the district in time to come. In this capacity I came to know him and observed his leadership up close. One day he gave me insight into one of his guiding principles. I asked him what guided him. He said that he had resolved that as a leader he would, 'First do no harm'. I came to understand that he was a humble leader who valued people and showed respect from the lowliest person to the highest. I also came to see that when a person did not fit and had to be fired he did it in a way that did not demean or rob people of their dignity. Unlike the leaders who create drama and intrigue, he was honest and forthright with people. Some leaders act as if people are disposable and when they have to make a tough decision for the good of the organization, they act like releasing people is like taking out the trash. He never exhibited this attitude. Instead he would minimize the collateral damage (and carnage) that so often can happen in such situations. As a result, he was superintendent of that district for 18 years. He is in my Leader and Superintendent Hall of Fame.
I can think of one or two situations where I did not follow this dictate and did harm people. The consequences were the downside of the saying in the Bible that the measure that you mete out shall be measured to you. It really does not take a lot of effort to do no harm. if you value people and treat every person with honor, respect and dignity, then you work hard at figuring ways of not doing undo damage to their lives. If you are a leader all of your decisions can have unforeseen consequences. It is better to think that through first instead of not caring about the damage done. The end does not justify the means if people are irreplaceably damaged as a result.
In my next article I will address three other characteristics of Good Leaders. One, they elevate the talents of other people. Two, they treat people with respect and never rob another of their dignity and three, they believe that best about people
Bad Leadership
A pretty blunt title, don’t you think?
I thought about naming this toxic leadership or another synonym. This fits better. There is good leadership, and there is bad leadership.
Certain leadership behaviors have a positive impact wherever they are displayed. They supersede contextual circumstances. Likewise, there are leadership behaviors that are negative. They also supersede contextual circumstances. Both become self-evident, or as Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.”
I need to preface everything that I am about to write with the following disclaimer: I am not the epitome of good or great leadership. Some of you reading this have been in schools, districts and churches that I have led throughout my career. You have seen the areas of my strengths and, equally, the areas of my weaknesses and failures.
You may be asking then, ‘Why are you writing this since you do not qualify as a perfect leader with unquestioned success at every stop’? Let me use an analogy from sports that explains why I think that I am qualified.
Great athletes, bad coaches
History demonstrates that the very best athletes tend to make some of the worst and ineffective coaches (Bill Russell, Jerry West, Bart Starr, etc.). Conversely, some of the more pedestrian athletes make great coaches.
Why is this? Great athletes expect that anyone can do what they did. They are annoyed when someone can’t always replicate great performance on a consistent level. They are not patient and are highly intolerant of the weaknesses of others.
However, the non-all-stars and benchwarmers have a perspective that can shape them into great coaches. They have a bird’s eye view of both what makes for success and failure. They know talent has limits, and without hard work talent never reaches its apex. They watch the team dynamics, what makes for high morale and what destroys it. If they are under a good coach, they make an inner vow to copy the positive characteristics of that coach. If they are under a bad or ineffective coach, they notice behaviors that they vow they will never duplicate.
That is why I dare to share my observations honed over a 40-plus year career.
(By the way, my wife wants me to add that I have also won awards throughout my career, so that you don’t think that I am just some slug with a computer, spouting off.)
That is a long introduction to what I want to say about bad leadership. Let’s concentrate on a few characteristics of bad leadership.
What is bad leadership?
I wanted to say something about humility, but I am concentrating on the characteristics of bad leadership. This characteristic is the opposite of humility.
If a person is secure, they can see their own failings and faults. They know the limits of their talents. They realize that others may have greater talents and abilities. They can look inside and admit when they failed. As a result, they do not overreact to having their faults, ideas or motives questioned. They are introspective enough that they do a kind of self-weeding within their own self.
It has taken me years to learn how to examine my own motives and come to grips that they are not always as pure and selfless as I think they are. I have learned to move from my initial reactions to correction.
Sometimes I would seethe for a day or two. Other times I would draw inward and give the person who corrected me the silent treatment. I would also use the “I’m only human” defense. Once I got past the hurt, I had to deal with the truth of what was pointed out to me and decide to change what I was doing, or ‘double down’ on what I was doing.
Bad leaders always ‘double down’.
All these non-correctable behaviors hurt me whenever I used them, because they kept me from the growth and change that was necessary to be a better leader.
Similarly, I have watched others in leadership do the same things; it always creates the same collateral damage in school districts and churches in which they lead. If you cannot be corrected, you are headed for repeated failure.
Some of my growth is a result of looking back at past stints of leadership and being repentant. There are things that I did before that I would never do now. I realize that my reactions were wrong, and if I had been more mature and more humble, the outcome would have been different.
Bad leaders are like brittle rock. They are not flexible.
Part of the reason for this is pride. I can remember being superintendent in a district where we needed to close schools to make the district more financially viable. We went to the public immediately and held public listening sessions and did all the things that you should do in those circumstances. My leadership team and I spent many hours thinking about how to reconfigure the district.
I wanted to create specialty learning academies in science, world languages, the fine arts, etc. I kept pushing the idea, and my team listened to me as I tried to sell it. I wanted to double down and use the fact that I was the superintendent to push it through.
After a while, I had to conclude that my magnificent idea would not work. It was a hard pill to swallow. One of the other members had a better solution, and we created a plan in line with their idea. It was the perfect solution.
Inflexible leaders believe that they are the smartest bulb in the pack. They use authority rather than collaboration to find solutions. In extreme circumstances, the people who work with them — who have brilliant ideas about how to deal with a particular crisis —sit in meetings silently.
They can tell whether or not the leader is flexible enough to listen to their idea or not. They also know whether it is worth the risk to offer it up for scrutiny.
I have been blessed to work for very flexible leaders who valued the ideas and perspective of others. They seek input all the time. They can change course on a plan or decision that they have made when they see that it will not produce the desired results.
Bad leaders are like the captain of the Titanic. The fact that there is a warning about icebergs along the way never causes them to change course. Inflexible leaders see flexibility as a weakness rather than a strength.
Bad leaders are like Scrooge in the Christmas Carol. They lack the milk of human kindness. The end is all that matters.
In human institutions, the means always has a direct impact and sometimes severe consequences on people.
In my leadership positions, some of my decisions were benign and had little effect on people. However, hiring, firing, and demoting always has a life-changing impact on people.
I have watched bad leaders treat people like disposable diapers. They do not agonize when someone does not fit within their district. Instead, they treat them like a cancer that must be immediately excised.
They do not care about the damage to the person or their career. They kick the person off the ship in a manner that robs them of any modicum of dignity.
I watched a superintendent I was under in Hutchinson, Kansas, agonize because he had to cut staff. I was a young teacher, who also did research at the central office. He had to cut a large amount from the budget and confided in me about it. Me, a nobody.
I can remember walking into his office, and he was holding his Rosary beads. He was in distress because he realized that his decision would have a powerful impact on the lives of others. It was a decision that he knew he had to make, but he took no pleasure in it.
He cared about the people who would be affected. This was a teachable moment for me. I vowed that I would never treat people like a disposable commodity. I have violated this once or twice since and suffered the deserved consequence of being treated like a disposable commodity myself.
Jesus said, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” That is the epitome of empathetic leadership.
I have heard leaders say things to people like, “Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt on your way out” or “good riddance to bad rubbish”.
Some non-empathetic leaders are cruel and bully people. They use authority to hurt and bruise people.
How do you know that you are under a bad leader? The answer is low morale.
When the alarm sounds to wake a staff member up so that they can go to work and their mind turns to thoughts of whether they could continue to pay their bills if they quit their job, it is an indicator of a horrible work environment.
When people dread and fear going to work, it is an indictment against bad leadership.
I have seen and am currently aware of situations in which people jumped ship rather than be treated in a constantly demeaning manner. If one person jumps off the ship, that is one thing. If a significant number of people jump off the ship or are thrown off, it is another thing.
Bad leaders never question their behavior as far as employee morale. Unfortunately, part of this is the fault of those who are over the bad leader.
I have heard it said that this leader gets the job done, is carrying out the plan, is moving the vision ahead. To me, two analogies come to mind.
The first is that it’s like saying he is a good wagon train leader (in the days of the Oregon Trail), and when someone asks, ‘How many people made it to Oregon?’, and the answer is “none”, it should cause you to question why they are considered a good wagon train leader.
Isn’t their job to get everyone their safely and not lose them along the way? If everyone dies on the journey, it was not a successful trip.
A shepherd who loses all his sheep is not a good shepherd.
Where you see high levels of turnover, there is bad leadership. If people leave voluntarily in high numbers, it is not because there are so many job opportunities out there that justify leaving a district that they have been a part of for years.
If a large number of people are forced out, then you have to question the reason why. You also must question the leadership and their ability to develop talent. Cynically, there are leaders who figure that there are enough applicants out there so that they can consider anyone replaceable.
To use an analogy from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, good leaders do not throw people off the bus until they have evaluated whether they are in the right seat.
You may think that I am saying that work must be fun and completely free of any stress. I am not saying that at all.
There is a certain amount of stress, and even drama, in the jobs that we do. When the leader creates the drama and increases the stress unnecessarily, it hurts the reputation and long-term sustainability of the district, company, etc.
Why corporate boards and school boards tolerate bad leadership that demeans their most important resource, their employees, is beyond me.
I have failed in areas as a leader. However, from contact that I have with people who have worked with me, this is not one of them.
I had great examples of leadership who treated people with dignity and lightened the load when possible. People love to work with them and jumped out of bed because they were made to feel significant by the leader.
Valuing people costs nothing and, for the most part, just takes being human and humane as a leader.
The Death Of Individualism
I hesitate to write this because no good deed goes unpunished. I am writing it because I am tired of sitting on my opinions because of fear of censure. As I look back at my life, I have come to the conclusion that I have always been an outsider. When I was a child I liked school and learning. Though my parents were from the South, my brothers and I did not have any accent. In the words of my peers in my neighborhood, ‘ I talked white.’ Black kids in my neighborhood derisively called me “the Professor”. It hurt but I decided right there and then that I was not going to act dumb or make myself like everyone else, just to please the crowd. My parents were the non-conformists in their families. Most of the family stayed in the South. My parents moved North. My mom joined organizations that included white people in the late 50’s and beyond. She was not intimidated by anyone and did not care what other people thought. Though dad and mom had many stories of being treated unfairly in the South, they did not pass on a hatred of white people to us. I watched them maximize their grit and hard work to set an example for us. We were not raised to believe that we were inferior because we are black, or to believe that we were victims because we were black. My mother modeled a keen intellect and the willingness to go her own way and not settle into any type of group think. She demonstrated to me that black people can have a difference of opinion from other black people and still be black. That truth seems to be in abeyance today.
Their example caused me to take risks. I tried out for and got the lead in our junior high musical. I played the uncle to a young lady (who was white). I fought to change our school symbol, the Confederate Flag, when a senior in high school. All of this was because my parents showed me how to be an individual, and think and act for myself, while still having an awareness of the needs of others. I was not raised to think like a victim.
Today, I hate what I see. Individualism is being driven underground. Everyone is offended by every slight and opinions counter to their own. As a result, people have been completely intimidated out of their opinions and convictions. People are afraid of being called a homophobe, racist and every other name that can be thought of. I am not talking about people with extremist views on the left or the right. I am talking about your average rank and file American. People have become suspiciously silent, which makes some think that they have driven people away from their wrong thinking. They don’t realize that real change happens in the heart. Just because you can silence me, it doesn’t mean that you have changed my thinking. We have seen how well that works in history. People will eventually stand in front of tanks when they have reached the Nth degree. God did not make people to tolerate long term domination. I look at the fact that whether I am watching the news or even a sports channel, the opinions are all the same. There is no dissenting voice. On the few rare occasions where people voice a counter view, they are vilified, lose their jobs or are called some pejorative.
The term “Sheeple” comes to mind more and more frequently in my thinking. A friend of mine used that term about 20 years ago and it has stuck with me. Never has it been more accurate than today. Half of my country is filled with people who are opinionated on a variety of topics and they think that their sensitivities are the only ones that matter. They are always right. They believe that the other half is stupid, wrong and have no right to an opinion that is opposed to theirs. They know what is best and will push through whatever they like, having an air of superiority. I hate this with a passion. You see, I really value free speech. Though I am a devoted Christian, I do not want you silenced if you are an atheist. That is one of the characteristics that I have treasured as an American. I am a student of American History and know that there have always been groups that have been forbidden to express their views openly. As long as a group does not use political coercion to silence others, I may not like what a person believes, but I am afraid of living in a country which is just an echo chamber for what is considered the ‘acceptable viewpoint. I have lived most of my adult life discussing controversial topics with people who disagreed with me. I did not dehumanize them for what they thought, and most of them did not dehumanize me. I have suffered for holding to the desire to be me and not just reflect the opinions of a group, even people of my own race. You see…being black does not make me an expert on any topic, including race.
I will conclude this short opinion piece with some satire. It is modeled after a bit that was entitled, “You might be a redneck”. I call it, ‘You might be a Racist’. I guarantee that about half of you will disagree with what I think but that’s alright. The country is about split down the middle, so why wouldn’t you be. For those of you who are not astute enough to recognize satire…I am writing this tongue in cheek.
You Might Be A Racist
If your opinion on any topic differs from mine since I am a black man…You might be a racist.
If you believe that countries should have secure borders…You might be a racist.
If you believe that asking people to show some form of identification (even that which is provided by their state for free…You might be a racist.
If you believe that Meghan Markle is not one hundred percent truthful in everything she says and does…You might be a racist.
If you don’t believe that governments, businesses, banks and everyone else engages in some overt from of systemic racism…You might be a racist.
If you disagree with any politician who is a person of color …You might be a racist.
If you don’t believe that Major League Baseball should move the All-Star Game from Georgia because of their new election Law…You might be a racist.
If you don’t agree with kneeling during the National Anthem…You might be a racist
If you don’t like Lebron James…You might be a racist
If you don’t believe that schools that were named after people who lived several centuries ago who were slave owners or didn’t stop slavery (Daniel Webster)…You might be a racist
If you are critical of any protest that involves people of color, including BLM and Antifa…You might be a racist
If you vote Republican, or have ever voted for a Republican…You might be a racist.
If you didn’t vote for the Democratic Presidential nominee in the last election…You might be a racist
If you own a gun for the protection of your family…You might be a racist.
If you disagree with the views of race of any white liberal Hollywood star…You might be a racist.
If you get you news from Fox News…You might be a racist.
If you don’t watch CNN or CNBC…You might be a racist.
If you live in the suburbs…You might be a racist.
If you aren’t excited every time that Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson appear on TV…You might be a racist.
Good Leadership: Talent and fit, which is more important?
In this article I want to add a few more insights about leadership.
The two earlier installments were mostly talking about characteristics and principles. In this column, I want to focus on some very practical advice for new and aspiring leaders.
It can also be a reality check for leaders who are at a crossroad.
You were trained by non-collaborative, non-empowering leaders. Maybe your personality is abrasive, and you are on an endless carousel of jobs because you wear people out very quickly.
Whatever the case, this can help you.
Good Leaders look for fit when they are looking for a place to develop their talents.
When you interview for your first job that entails leading others, you are just thrilled to be interviewed.
You may take a job where you are not sure that it is the best fit for you.
Sometimes you ‘fake it to make it’. By this, I mean that you alter your natural style, personality and thinking to fit into the organization that hired you.
If the culture is toxic, you don’t care. You deal with it. Maybe your ego is such that you believe that you can turn around any business or organization. Like me, you may have had great mentors.
Maybe in your first job you followed a person who was an ineffective leader. Or you followed a leader who had poor interpersonal skills or was Machiavellian and the drama they created finally caught up with them.
To the people who hired you, you are a breath of fresh air. You did not care about fit. When I got my first superintendent job, I was just glad that someone hired me.
The issues that awaited me were not even on my mind.
As time went on, I began to realize that some places were a mismatch for me. What they were looking for was not me. Since I had been well prepared, I could get an interview. That fed my ego. Then, I made the career move that changed my career for the worst.
Let me tell you about it.
My own misstep
I was working in a district where it was a great fit. When I went to work, I could be myself. My talents, personality and style of leadership fit.
I had a good school board, with two difficult members. My job was 60 miles from home, and I got to see my wife on alternate weekends.
I found out about a district that was one of the worst in the region they were located. It was within about 20 miles of my home. I was also full of myself. I was enjoying some success in my current district and thought that I could take on any challenge.
Boy, was I wrong.
The job almost literally killed me. It affected my health. I went from a school board with people that I liked as people and respected for their child-first approach to a school board that created its own constant drama.
I dreaded board meetings. The state oversaw the school district. I came to find out that the autonomy that they promised me was a lie. I also had constant meddling, and they micromanaged every idea, decision and expenditure.
After one year, they offered me a buyout. I was sad because I felt like a failure. I was also happy because it was the worst fit of any job in my lifetime. When I drove home on my last day, I could have shouted, “Hallelujah!”
I resolved that unless I was dying of starvation and on the verge of becoming homeless, I would never again let my ego lead me to take a job that was beyond my abilities and that was a horrible fit for me.
By the way, to show you how large my ego was I need to give you one more piece of information about that district. They had 21 superintendents in 19 years. I thought that I would be the exception to the rule.
That is true deception.
Fit is more important than talent
Do not underestimate the fact that fit is more important than talent.
Talent has limits. You will meet leaders that you know are less talented than you.
You may be smarter, a better people person and other things. If they are in the right situation that matches with who they are and what they do well, they will be greatly successful.
I am primarily talking about this from a school administrator’s perspective, but I can also tell you that this is true from a pastoral perspective.
As a pastor, everything that I am writing about leadership is just as true. Let me boil this down for you:
- Know who you are — including the limits of your abilities.
There was a book out years ago entitled “The Peter Principle.” In a nutshell, the book was a cautionary tale to warn people not to take that one step beyond their level of competency.
There are master teachers who become mediocre principals. There are principals who become mediocre superintendents. They go one step beyond where their talent can be maximized, and it shows.
The example of the district where I was a miserable misfit is an example of this principle. I went one step beyond where my skills could take me.
- Look, as much as possible, at the people you will be working with.
If they have talents in areas where you are deficient, they will be the key to your success, and you to theirs.
I fell into this situation in Beloit. I had highly capable leaders working with me. My executive assistant was one of the best people I have ever worked with. Her strengths complemented my weaknesses.
I also had a school board with smart, honorable and respectful people.
It was set up for my success.
If you sense that the place you are considering is a circus, guess who their clown will be in the end.
- Decide what you are unwilling to do.
I will not take a job where it is clear during the interview that I will fill the role of a hatchet man.
If you are perceptive, you can tell it by the questions that you are asked. If they ask you if you have ever fired people and they follow up with other questions that are similar, look out.
If you like being a hatchet man or hatchet woman, take the job. If you do not want your career to be defined by how many people you can get rid of, say no if offered the job.
Ultimately, you must live with you.
By the way, I have fired people. It is the worst feeling that I experienced at work. I gained the perspective that people are of infinite worth, even if they do not fit the needs of my organization.
When a person is released, it affects their entire life.
I once heard of a leader who told a person they were not necessary and “don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt (my word, theirs was harsher) on the way out.” Do you want to be that person?
A friend who was my assistant superintendent of human resources was a military lawyer. When I had to make a tough decision that would cost me dearly and was potentially going to cost me too much, he would ask me this question: “Is this a hill to die on?”
He was really asking me, “What do you value, and what are you willing to end your career for?”
In most careers that moment of truth will come unexpectedly. God help you if you willingly take a job in which falling on your sword is called for repeatedly.
By the way, you can only fall on your sword once —unless you miss a vital organ the first time.
- Be able to tell what you can change about yourself and what you can’t.
I am not a type A personality. I will work hard, but I am not the driven, high-stress personality.
As I wrote in an earlier article, only life and death are life and death to me. I also cannot change my moral convictions. I cannot work in an environment where I am always being asked to commit to things that I do not believe in.
I also cannot whip others into a frenzy. I do not believe in driving people. Shepherds lead they do not drive. I look at being a leader in that way. I am pastoring people within an organization.
I must be credible in what I do and what I ask people to commit to. I believe that people can sense a phony. Whatever the “company line” is that I must be a spokesman for, has to be what I really believe in.
I was once warned to never use my ability to sell something to sell something that I do not really buy into. The person perceived that I could persuade people and told me not to use it to be a “snake oil salesman.”
That was a seminal moment for me, and I try to avoid situations where I will be asked to sell snake oil as if it is a legitimate cure.
Good Leadership, Part 2: Good leadership lets others use their strengths
July 14, 2021
I want to continue this series of articles about Good Leadership.
Most of what I am writing on this topic is simple and just common sense. If you have worked in enough places, you have experienced good and bad leadership.
You have enjoyed working certain places and dreaded working in others. The leader may have been the “X” factor that determined whether you enjoyed working there or not.
The culture of most places is merely a reflection of the leader.
Here are some more characteristics I’ve witnessed that make up a good leader.
- Good leaders are not proud and have a right estimation of their own abilities.
No one is good at everything. God has distributed talent in such a way that it makes us interdependent on each other.
All of us have strengths and weaknesses. The ability to recognize what those are is the key to becoming a good leader.
I have been identified as a visionary leader. I like to envision what the organization could become. I love coming up with creative solutions and different ways of doing things.
I am not, however, a detail person. I used to think of this as a weakness. However, over time, I began to realize that it is only a weakness if I am not humble enough to locate people with the skills that I lack. I need to find people who enjoy managing detail so that I can do what I do best.
- A. Being humble to let others use their strengths
Let me give you a personal example when this was possible.
In my first job as an elementary principal, I can remember learning this lesson. It did not take very long for me to realize that I had some leadership skills and talents but lacked others.
My secretary was an extremely capable person. She could multi-task and manage complexity very well. I found out that she co-managed a dairy cooperative with her husband. Managing things was as easy as breathing to her.
One day, I called her into my office and told her what I had observed about her talents. I also shared with her what my talents were, and what they were not. We made an agreement. Each of us would play to our strengths.
She would keep my calendar and keep me on point as far as schedules and obligations. We would operate as a team. When I left that job for another job and required an executive assistant, I offered her the job. I knew that if I was going to be successful, I needed her skills.
She came along with me and did her usual outstanding job.
1.B. Utilizing others’ skills
About utilizing the talents and skills of others to strengthen your organization, a good friend once said something to me that has stuck with me over the years. He was one of my assistant superintendents in a school district where I was the superintendent.
In fact, I brought him with me, along with several others, to try to turn around a failing district.
As a team, we would meet frequently, brainstorm and formulate plans to address issues. He said that he enjoyed the fact that we would sit down and work collaboratively like this. In one of our meetings, he quoted someone who said, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”
I have tried to follow that wisdom since then. On the rare occasions when I deceived myself into believing that I was the “brightest bulb in the pack,” I have paid for it.
A team of people bring a wealth of knowledge, talent and diverse perspectives to an issue.
- Good Leaders Are Not Controlling.
Have you ever worked for a controlling leader? They tend to micromanage you into a coma. They subscribe to the thinking that if you want something done well, you must do it yourself.
They lack the ability to entrust and empower people. They are afraid if people screw up it will blow back on them.
This is a risk and may happen. I have found, however, that the downside is that this behavior does not get the best that people can give. People do not share innovative solutions with a controlling leader. Why bother? They know that the person is not a good listener.
They also know that they lack the creativity to implement the idea. Controlling leaders are also very insecure.
Conversely, good leaders are secure enough to realize that they cannot have a tight grip on power. They are good delegators.
If that is combined with a knowledge of the strengths of the individuals who work with them, it is even better.
They empower people by giving them the power and authority necessary to accomplish the task that has been assigned to them.
There are times when they let other people take the lead. They are not threatened by the talents of others.
I once had an assistant superintendent of business who was one of the best in the state. When he suggested that we do things to improve the food service of the district, I not only listened, but also, I encouraged him to make the improvements.
He took the lead and did an outstanding job.
- Good leaders do not take credit for the ideas of other people
I remember working in one district where we had a large problem to solve. I had an idea of how to do it.
In time, it was apparent that my solution was not the best one. My executive team came up with a much better idea than mine, and it led to a successful reconfiguration of the district.
When the school board wanted to know where the idea came from, I did not hesitate to tell them that it was not my idea; it was the idea of the team.
Harry Truman once said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
Good leaders do not take credit, they give it.
- Good leaders are not manipulative.
In my previous column on bad leadership, I talked about leaders who are Machiavellian. They create drama and intrigue through the manipulation of people.
As a leader, I hated the kind of Machiavellian advice that a leader should guide people to come to the same conclusion or solution that the leader already had in mind. That kind of manipulation eventually erodes trust.
Once trust is lost, it is hard to get back.
Good leaders, because they do not manipulate people, are straightforward with people.
Good leaders do not waste people’s time by pretending that something is collaborative and a group decision when they have already made up their mind.
I have seen this done in the hiring process. If a leader gathers a group of people and tells them that they will be empowered to help choose a candidate, it should mean that they are really empowered and that they have a real hand in deciding who gets hired.
People hate when their time is wasted.
I have watched people spend days interviewing various candidates. By consensus it seemed that a particular candidate was the best hire. The leader, however, chooses someone else despite the apparent group consensus.
This is a form of manipulation. The leader is only using the committee for “cover” in case their choice of the candidate is ever questioned.
I learned to involve a committee on things where I was not the sole person who had to decide something. Few things demand that the leader make decisions without the meaningful input and empowerment of others.
Good Leaders look for opportunities to make decisions collaboratively.
4.A. A non-manipulative hiring process
I also learned how to create hiring processes that kept me from manipulating the system to hire my own preferred candidate.
In one district, I used a point system that gave everyone equal power in the decision. The people on the hiring committee were shocked. Given their history, they thought that I was playing some kind of “shell game” with them.
They were astonished when, at the end of the process, we tallied the points and a particular candidate emerged as the strongest candidate by consensus. I told them that I would hire that person. I thanked them for their hard work and told them how much I appreciated their time.
I then hired their candidate.
Follow decision of collaborative process
I have found over and over again that, if you create collaborative processes, it can create a culture of trust — as long as you follow through with the collaborative decision or solution.
In one district, we spent several months tackling a merit-based, professional teacher pay system. New and experienced teachers had a role on that committee. We started with large group input and then worked in smaller groups and found elements that we could use to formulate a comprehensive plan.
I was excited to be a part of the discussions and the brainstorming that happened. I just had to sit and interject any parameters that would affect our solutions. I was able to take the role of a facilitator and, at times, take a recessive role.
Due to the mentoring of many excellent leaders, this was not hard to do. When I was younger, this kind of role would have been impossible for me. If you think that everything is about you, you do not share power.
If you know that it is about us, you involve people who have a vested interest. This creates the support and buy-in most good leaders truly want.
Trial and error too costly
I am not saying that I am a model of effective leadership. I have made mistakes along the way and have taken too many classes in the school of hard knocks. I am simply sharing the lessons that I learned from good leaders.
I wish that I had applied them as well as they did.
I have found it is easier to use the wisdom that others have gained than to learn by trial and error.
Trial and error are way too costly.
Good Leadership
July 10, 2021
In my last article I concentrated on the characteristics of Bad Leadership. I talked about some of the characteristics of bad leadership and just want to add one or two other points about Bad Leadership before I turn to the subject of Good Leadership.
One of the other characteristic of Bad Leadership is that it thrives on drama. Where there is no drama, they create it. I once had a principal that I worked for who created unnecessary drama. I was the Dean of Students at the school and handled all of the discipline for about 750 students. One day I had a very interesting conversation with the Assistant Principal. In referring to the principal she said to me that he was a "Monday/Friday Principal". I asked her to expound on what she meant. She explained that every week on Mondays he would create some situation that demanded that we drop whatever we were doing and spring into action. Many times the drama was created by his overreaction to a circumstance. It could involve students or staff. She also pointed my attention to the fact that he would do the same thing at the end of the week on Fridays. When I thought about it I knew that it was true. My conversation with her gave me insights that prepared me for the increases in student discipline that were going to be happen, particularly on Mondays and Fridays.
Bad leaders have a habit of turning molehills into mountains. They can take relatively small circumstances and make them larger until they become a focus that demands large amounts of time, resources and emotional energy. At their worst, they are like a character out of Machievelli's book, The Prince about drama and intrigue in the Italian Court. These leaders thrive on intrigue. If there is none they manufacture it. The result is an atmosphere with an underlying current of fear. People begin to engage in self protective behaviors. No one does their best work out of fear of reprisal
This type of leader confuses fear with respect. No one crosses them out of fear, not out of a respect for their leadership. After a while people cannot take the stress of working where there is constant drama and intrigue. The smart ones leave. The ones who remain remove to 'fly under the radar'. They fo to work, keep their heads down, do their jobs, and enjoy life outside of work. They hate going to work because of the unnecessary stress. The organization suffers. It creates an environment where people leave their talents and creativity at home. This type of leader is also threatened by people who exceed them in talent and ability. They bully, they intimidate people and exercise extreme amounts of control to keep people in line. These behaviors betray large amounts of inferiority and a lack of security. Unfortunately these leaders leave in their wake people who also become insecure and begin to doubt their own abilities and talents.
Though I could write much more about Bad Leadership, I want to turn my attention to the characteristics of Good Leadership.
1. Good Leaders make mountains into molehills
If I visited your work environment I could tell in a few minutes certain things about the leader by the culture in the organization. Unfortunately in many places the culture is simply a manifestation of the personality and nature of the leader. In my comments on educational environments I am not just singling out the principal or the superintendent. I would also include the school board, which is a collective leadership group. In any of these people, if they are toxic personalities who thrive on power, drama and control, the culture manifests the fruit of those behaviors. If I noticed a joyless environment, void of personality, it would set off an alarm within me. High levels of stress and anxiety I would certainly be evident.
I, thank the Lord that I have worked for very few of these type of leaders. The leaders that I was privileged to serve under created work environments where they decreased stress and handled most of the drama. They could walk into stressful situations and defuse the human created elements of the situation. I have watched leaders who had to make tough decisions in very stressful situations. I have watched them personally take on the stress and not pass it on to others. Conversely I have watched leaders who almost take pleasure in passing on the pressure that has been exerted upon them by their 'higher ups'. This passing on of pressure and stress eventually permeates the entire organization. To use a comical analogy from my childhood. I will make reference to The Three Stooges. Some of you that are older will understand this. The way that bad leaders pass down pressure is like this: Moe slaps Larry, Larry slaps Curly, Curly slaps Shemp, Shemp slaps Curly Joe. It all runs downhill.
Conversely, Good Leaders try to diffuse stressful situations I first learned this ability as a teacher for students who were emotionally disturbed and were emotionally volatile I learned how to deescalate these behaviors and not inflame them. Later, when I was an elementary principal I applied this knowledge in order to deal with irate parents. If an irate parent came into my office, alleging some transgression committed by a teacher against their child, I had a consistent way of handling it. I knew that teachers rarely did anything that were intentionally harmful or demeaning to a children. When the irate parent came in I would invite the teacher to the meeting in my office. Prior to that meeting I would talk with the teacher, hearing their side of the story. One I had gotten their side of the story I told them what their role would be in the meeting. They were to come in and recall the circumstance that occurred with the student. In the meeting I would simply turn to the teacher and ask them to recall what happened. They would tell their side of the story. I would allow the parent to interact with the teacher for a while. I would oversee the interaction. In situations where the meeting would 'go south', I would turn to the teacher and say, "Mr. Jones, I know that you have another meeting that you have to go to". I would then excuse them. I would sit with the parent and try to resolve what ever the issue was. I would not sell out the teacher or throw them under the bus for the sake of the parent. I was the leader. I bore ultimate responsibility. I got paid more for a reason and did not feel that it was right to have the teacher sit and get reamed out. If the teacher did something questionable, not criminal, we would talk about it privately. My staff grew to respect that I would not turn molehills into mountains.
When I became a superintendent I took this even further. I tried to exhibit a calm demeanor in stressful situations. I had found that in the midst of chaos, anxiety does not help. Doing this proved to be a blessing and a curse. I once had a school board member say that my greatest strength was that I didn't react to highly stressful situations, and he also said that it was my greatest weakness. I had to explain to him that my lack of reaction did not spring from indifference or naiveté. It was born from a perspective that I had gained over the years, beginning with my own parents. Most things that happen are not life and death! They may be important, but few of them result in the end of the world. I have found that the sun rises the next day. In stressful situations, wisdom and peace on the inside can help navigate you through the circumstances that would otherwise overwhelm you. In the poem, "If", by Rudyard Kipling, there are two lines that speak to me about this. The first says, "If you can keep your head when all about you, are losing theirs and blaming it on you." The second line says, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same." In other words, leaders must have a perspective that does not cause them to overreact, so that they can act wisely and decisively. In all but a few life circumstances Triumph is not as lasting as we would think and Disaster is not something that you cannot recover from.
2. They do no harm
When I was starting out as a teacher one of my first jobs was to work in the Hutchinson Public Schools. I started my job the same time as the newly hired superintendent, William Hawver. If I remember, he was about 42 years old. I was 26 and he seemed wise and seasoned to me. He personally hired me to do research into areas that would guide change in the district in time to come. In this capacity I came to know him and observed his leadership up close. One day he gave me insight into one of his guiding principles. I asked him what guided him. He said that he had resolved that as a leader he would, 'First do no harm'. I came to understand that he was a humble leader who valued people and showed respect from the lowliest person to the highest. I also came to see that when a person did not fit and had to be fired he did it in a way that did not demean or rob people of their dignity. Unlike the leaders who create drama and intrigue, he was honest and forthright with people. Some leaders act as if people are disposable and when they have to make a tough decision for the good of the organization, they act like releasing people is like taking out the trash. He never exhibited this attitude. Instead he would minimize the collateral damage (and carnage) that so often can happen in such situations. As a result, he was superintendent of that district for 18 years. He is in my Leader and Superintendent Hall of Fame.
I can think of one or two situations where I did not follow this dictate and did harm people. The consequences were the downside of the saying in the Bible that the measure that you mete out shall be measured to you. It really does not take a lot of effort to do no harm. if you value people and treat every person with honor, respect and dignity, then you work hard at figuring ways of not doing undo damage to their lives. If you are a leader all of your decisions can have unforeseen consequences. It is better to think that through first instead of not caring about the damage done. The end does not justify the means if people are irreplaceably damaged as a result.
In my next article I will address three other characteristics of Good Leaders. One, they elevate the talents of other people. Two, they treat people with respect and never rob another of their dignity and three, they believe that best about people
Bad Leadership
A pretty blunt title, don’t you think?
I thought about naming this toxic leadership or another synonym. This fits better. There is good leadership, and there is bad leadership.
Certain leadership behaviors have a positive impact wherever they are displayed. They supersede contextual circumstances. Likewise, there are leadership behaviors that are negative. They also supersede contextual circumstances. Both become self-evident, or as Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.”
I need to preface everything that I am about to write with the following disclaimer: I am not the epitome of good or great leadership. Some of you reading this have been in schools, districts and churches that I have led throughout my career. You have seen the areas of my strengths and, equally, the areas of my weaknesses and failures.
You may be asking then, ‘Why are you writing this since you do not qualify as a perfect leader with unquestioned success at every stop’? Let me use an analogy from sports that explains why I think that I am qualified.
Great athletes, bad coaches
History demonstrates that the very best athletes tend to make some of the worst and ineffective coaches (Bill Russell, Jerry West, Bart Starr, etc.). Conversely, some of the more pedestrian athletes make great coaches.
Why is this? Great athletes expect that anyone can do what they did. They are annoyed when someone can’t always replicate great performance on a consistent level. They are not patient and are highly intolerant of the weaknesses of others.
However, the non-all-stars and benchwarmers have a perspective that can shape them into great coaches. They have a bird’s eye view of both what makes for success and failure. They know talent has limits, and without hard work talent never reaches its apex. They watch the team dynamics, what makes for high morale and what destroys it. If they are under a good coach, they make an inner vow to copy the positive characteristics of that coach. If they are under a bad or ineffective coach, they notice behaviors that they vow they will never duplicate.
That is why I dare to share my observations honed over a 40-plus year career.
(By the way, my wife wants me to add that I have also won awards throughout my career, so that you don’t think that I am just some slug with a computer, spouting off.)
That is a long introduction to what I want to say about bad leadership. Let’s concentrate on a few characteristics of bad leadership.
What is bad leadership?
- Non-Correctable
I wanted to say something about humility, but I am concentrating on the characteristics of bad leadership. This characteristic is the opposite of humility.
If a person is secure, they can see their own failings and faults. They know the limits of their talents. They realize that others may have greater talents and abilities. They can look inside and admit when they failed. As a result, they do not overreact to having their faults, ideas or motives questioned. They are introspective enough that they do a kind of self-weeding within their own self.
It has taken me years to learn how to examine my own motives and come to grips that they are not always as pure and selfless as I think they are. I have learned to move from my initial reactions to correction.
Sometimes I would seethe for a day or two. Other times I would draw inward and give the person who corrected me the silent treatment. I would also use the “I’m only human” defense. Once I got past the hurt, I had to deal with the truth of what was pointed out to me and decide to change what I was doing, or ‘double down’ on what I was doing.
Bad leaders always ‘double down’.
All these non-correctable behaviors hurt me whenever I used them, because they kept me from the growth and change that was necessary to be a better leader.
Similarly, I have watched others in leadership do the same things; it always creates the same collateral damage in school districts and churches in which they lead. If you cannot be corrected, you are headed for repeated failure.
Some of my growth is a result of looking back at past stints of leadership and being repentant. There are things that I did before that I would never do now. I realize that my reactions were wrong, and if I had been more mature and more humble, the outcome would have been different.
- Inflexibility
Bad leaders are like brittle rock. They are not flexible.
Part of the reason for this is pride. I can remember being superintendent in a district where we needed to close schools to make the district more financially viable. We went to the public immediately and held public listening sessions and did all the things that you should do in those circumstances. My leadership team and I spent many hours thinking about how to reconfigure the district.
I wanted to create specialty learning academies in science, world languages, the fine arts, etc. I kept pushing the idea, and my team listened to me as I tried to sell it. I wanted to double down and use the fact that I was the superintendent to push it through.
After a while, I had to conclude that my magnificent idea would not work. It was a hard pill to swallow. One of the other members had a better solution, and we created a plan in line with their idea. It was the perfect solution.
Inflexible leaders believe that they are the smartest bulb in the pack. They use authority rather than collaboration to find solutions. In extreme circumstances, the people who work with them — who have brilliant ideas about how to deal with a particular crisis —sit in meetings silently.
They can tell whether or not the leader is flexible enough to listen to their idea or not. They also know whether it is worth the risk to offer it up for scrutiny.
I have been blessed to work for very flexible leaders who valued the ideas and perspective of others. They seek input all the time. They can change course on a plan or decision that they have made when they see that it will not produce the desired results.
Bad leaders are like the captain of the Titanic. The fact that there is a warning about icebergs along the way never causes them to change course. Inflexible leaders see flexibility as a weakness rather than a strength.
- Non-Empathetic
Bad leaders are like Scrooge in the Christmas Carol. They lack the milk of human kindness. The end is all that matters.
In human institutions, the means always has a direct impact and sometimes severe consequences on people.
In my leadership positions, some of my decisions were benign and had little effect on people. However, hiring, firing, and demoting always has a life-changing impact on people.
I have watched bad leaders treat people like disposable diapers. They do not agonize when someone does not fit within their district. Instead, they treat them like a cancer that must be immediately excised.
They do not care about the damage to the person or their career. They kick the person off the ship in a manner that robs them of any modicum of dignity.
I watched a superintendent I was under in Hutchinson, Kansas, agonize because he had to cut staff. I was a young teacher, who also did research at the central office. He had to cut a large amount from the budget and confided in me about it. Me, a nobody.
I can remember walking into his office, and he was holding his Rosary beads. He was in distress because he realized that his decision would have a powerful impact on the lives of others. It was a decision that he knew he had to make, but he took no pleasure in it.
He cared about the people who would be affected. This was a teachable moment for me. I vowed that I would never treat people like a disposable commodity. I have violated this once or twice since and suffered the deserved consequence of being treated like a disposable commodity myself.
Jesus said, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” That is the epitome of empathetic leadership.
I have heard leaders say things to people like, “Don’t let the doorknob hit you in the butt on your way out” or “good riddance to bad rubbish”.
Some non-empathetic leaders are cruel and bully people. They use authority to hurt and bruise people.
- Low Morale
How do you know that you are under a bad leader? The answer is low morale.
When the alarm sounds to wake a staff member up so that they can go to work and their mind turns to thoughts of whether they could continue to pay their bills if they quit their job, it is an indicator of a horrible work environment.
When people dread and fear going to work, it is an indictment against bad leadership.
I have seen and am currently aware of situations in which people jumped ship rather than be treated in a constantly demeaning manner. If one person jumps off the ship, that is one thing. If a significant number of people jump off the ship or are thrown off, it is another thing.
Bad leaders never question their behavior as far as employee morale. Unfortunately, part of this is the fault of those who are over the bad leader.
I have heard it said that this leader gets the job done, is carrying out the plan, is moving the vision ahead. To me, two analogies come to mind.
The first is that it’s like saying he is a good wagon train leader (in the days of the Oregon Trail), and when someone asks, ‘How many people made it to Oregon?’, and the answer is “none”, it should cause you to question why they are considered a good wagon train leader.
Isn’t their job to get everyone their safely and not lose them along the way? If everyone dies on the journey, it was not a successful trip.
A shepherd who loses all his sheep is not a good shepherd.
Where you see high levels of turnover, there is bad leadership. If people leave voluntarily in high numbers, it is not because there are so many job opportunities out there that justify leaving a district that they have been a part of for years.
If a large number of people are forced out, then you have to question the reason why. You also must question the leadership and their ability to develop talent. Cynically, there are leaders who figure that there are enough applicants out there so that they can consider anyone replaceable.
To use an analogy from the book “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, good leaders do not throw people off the bus until they have evaluated whether they are in the right seat.
You may think that I am saying that work must be fun and completely free of any stress. I am not saying that at all.
There is a certain amount of stress, and even drama, in the jobs that we do. When the leader creates the drama and increases the stress unnecessarily, it hurts the reputation and long-term sustainability of the district, company, etc.
Why corporate boards and school boards tolerate bad leadership that demeans their most important resource, their employees, is beyond me.
I have failed in areas as a leader. However, from contact that I have with people who have worked with me, this is not one of them.
I had great examples of leadership who treated people with dignity and lightened the load when possible. People love to work with them and jumped out of bed because they were made to feel significant by the leader.
Valuing people costs nothing and, for the most part, just takes being human and humane as a leader.
The Death Of Individualism
I hesitate to write this because no good deed goes unpunished. I am writing it because I am tired of sitting on my opinions because of fear of censure. As I look back at my life, I have come to the conclusion that I have always been an outsider. When I was a child I liked school and learning. Though my parents were from the South, my brothers and I did not have any accent. In the words of my peers in my neighborhood, ‘ I talked white.’ Black kids in my neighborhood derisively called me “the Professor”. It hurt but I decided right there and then that I was not going to act dumb or make myself like everyone else, just to please the crowd. My parents were the non-conformists in their families. Most of the family stayed in the South. My parents moved North. My mom joined organizations that included white people in the late 50’s and beyond. She was not intimidated by anyone and did not care what other people thought. Though dad and mom had many stories of being treated unfairly in the South, they did not pass on a hatred of white people to us. I watched them maximize their grit and hard work to set an example for us. We were not raised to believe that we were inferior because we are black, or to believe that we were victims because we were black. My mother modeled a keen intellect and the willingness to go her own way and not settle into any type of group think. She demonstrated to me that black people can have a difference of opinion from other black people and still be black. That truth seems to be in abeyance today.
Their example caused me to take risks. I tried out for and got the lead in our junior high musical. I played the uncle to a young lady (who was white). I fought to change our school symbol, the Confederate Flag, when a senior in high school. All of this was because my parents showed me how to be an individual, and think and act for myself, while still having an awareness of the needs of others. I was not raised to think like a victim.
Today, I hate what I see. Individualism is being driven underground. Everyone is offended by every slight and opinions counter to their own. As a result, people have been completely intimidated out of their opinions and convictions. People are afraid of being called a homophobe, racist and every other name that can be thought of. I am not talking about people with extremist views on the left or the right. I am talking about your average rank and file American. People have become suspiciously silent, which makes some think that they have driven people away from their wrong thinking. They don’t realize that real change happens in the heart. Just because you can silence me, it doesn’t mean that you have changed my thinking. We have seen how well that works in history. People will eventually stand in front of tanks when they have reached the Nth degree. God did not make people to tolerate long term domination. I look at the fact that whether I am watching the news or even a sports channel, the opinions are all the same. There is no dissenting voice. On the few rare occasions where people voice a counter view, they are vilified, lose their jobs or are called some pejorative.
The term “Sheeple” comes to mind more and more frequently in my thinking. A friend of mine used that term about 20 years ago and it has stuck with me. Never has it been more accurate than today. Half of my country is filled with people who are opinionated on a variety of topics and they think that their sensitivities are the only ones that matter. They are always right. They believe that the other half is stupid, wrong and have no right to an opinion that is opposed to theirs. They know what is best and will push through whatever they like, having an air of superiority. I hate this with a passion. You see, I really value free speech. Though I am a devoted Christian, I do not want you silenced if you are an atheist. That is one of the characteristics that I have treasured as an American. I am a student of American History and know that there have always been groups that have been forbidden to express their views openly. As long as a group does not use political coercion to silence others, I may not like what a person believes, but I am afraid of living in a country which is just an echo chamber for what is considered the ‘acceptable viewpoint. I have lived most of my adult life discussing controversial topics with people who disagreed with me. I did not dehumanize them for what they thought, and most of them did not dehumanize me. I have suffered for holding to the desire to be me and not just reflect the opinions of a group, even people of my own race. You see…being black does not make me an expert on any topic, including race.
I will conclude this short opinion piece with some satire. It is modeled after a bit that was entitled, “You might be a redneck”. I call it, ‘You might be a Racist’. I guarantee that about half of you will disagree with what I think but that’s alright. The country is about split down the middle, so why wouldn’t you be. For those of you who are not astute enough to recognize satire…I am writing this tongue in cheek.
You Might Be A Racist
If your opinion on any topic differs from mine since I am a black man…You might be a racist.
If you believe that countries should have secure borders…You might be a racist.
If you believe that asking people to show some form of identification (even that which is provided by their state for free…You might be a racist.
If you believe that Meghan Markle is not one hundred percent truthful in everything she says and does…You might be a racist.
If you don’t believe that governments, businesses, banks and everyone else engages in some overt from of systemic racism…You might be a racist.
If you disagree with any politician who is a person of color …You might be a racist.
If you don’t believe that Major League Baseball should move the All-Star Game from Georgia because of their new election Law…You might be a racist.
If you don’t agree with kneeling during the National Anthem…You might be a racist
If you don’t like Lebron James…You might be a racist
If you don’t believe that schools that were named after people who lived several centuries ago who were slave owners or didn’t stop slavery (Daniel Webster)…You might be a racist
If you are critical of any protest that involves people of color, including BLM and Antifa…You might be a racist
If you vote Republican, or have ever voted for a Republican…You might be a racist.
If you didn’t vote for the Democratic Presidential nominee in the last election…You might be a racist
If you own a gun for the protection of your family…You might be a racist.
If you disagree with the views of race of any white liberal Hollywood star…You might be a racist.
If you get you news from Fox News…You might be a racist.
If you don’t watch CNN or CNBC…You might be a racist.
If you live in the suburbs…You might be a racist.
If you aren’t excited every time that Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson appear on TV…You might be a racist.
