Defining Leaders

A conversation about true leaders and leadership

with Richard Russack

CG: Leadership is something you’ve thought a lot about over the years, Dick. And you’ve certainly worked with your share of [corporate] leaders. Why is it so much on your mind now?

RR: If you look at the world today, it’s devoid of enough true leaders. We used to have so many. This troubles me. What has happened? Is it because people don’t want to step up to the higher responsibilities of leadership, or don’t know how to be great leaders?

CG: What in your view defines a true leader?

RR: The first quality of leadership is moral and ethical character. When we look at the [now former] CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, for example, his whole attitude and behavior from a public relations point of view was ridiculous. Making me wonder how he ever got into such a significant leadership role.

Many times individuals arrive in a major leadership position because they were great salespeople or CFOs or prominent public figures, but then didn’t behave like true leaders; in some cases revealed serious character flaws. Yet too few people ever questioned whether they met high standards of leadership to begin with.

Aside from moral integrity, another essential leadership quality is vision. In contrast to a manager with goals. And, a sense of team, which enables a leader to attract the experts they need to help them lead and help them create a culture that can achieve both short-term goals and a long-term vision. There’s also a certain wisdom, a blend of intelligence and street smarts.

CG: What about charisma?

RR: Yes, but it’s overused. I’d say courage. Because as a leader you’re faced with many unknown situations, and need courage to assess them, take decisive action -- and stake your reputation on this.

CG: Yet we have people in the world, in business, government, academia and elsewhere in society, who we call leaders but who don’t meet the criteria we’re talking about, even though they’re technically “leading,” i.e. running something.

RR: Yes. But there’s no clear understanding or commonly accepted definition of what a leader actually is.

CG: Despite countless books and articles written on the subject.

RR: All this represents are different points of view. Even if you talk with those who are considered or consider themselves leaders, you would still get a range of attributes instead of two or three consistent ones.

They used to be defined as people with deep experience, who knew how to deal with change and who had significant accomplishments. Like Dwight D. Eisenhower. He never set out to be President of the United States. He worked his way up in the military and when it came time to deal with the Normandy invasion he showed himself to be a real leader. He staked his reputation on a point of view and course of action, against great odds and opposition. And he succeeded.

CG: Looking at the landscape now, who stands out for you as an exemplary leader?

RR: At one point President Obama came to mind, who had a vision but has run into too many uphill political issues. In sports, I’d say someone like Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals stands out as a true leader. He has character, moral integrity and vision, has been terribly consistent and is held in esteem by his teammates as a leader.

CG: Other than Eisenhower and Pujols, who else is in your pantheon of leaders?

RR: George Washington.

CG: Why Washington?

RR: He wasn't a very well educated man, but he demonstrated leadership through the [American] revolution and in building a nation. He was able to bring a brilliant group of people together – philosophers, orators, visionaries, innovators and organizers – to work toward a larger purpose and vision.

Inspiring loyalty is something I didn’t mention earlier, but it is a hallmark… though we see so little of it today, to anyone or anything.

IBM’s Thomas J. Watson is a fine model for this. He was in touch, face-to-face, with his employees, and personally acknowledged them and their value, and they were extremely loyal in return.

I once advised a CEO to walk around the company campus at Christmas time to wish our people happy holidays. He didn’t want to do it. He was afraid it would appear insincere. I told him if you start and do it every year it’ll be tremendously sincere; if not, employees will view you as someone who doesn’t care about them.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, one of seven projects of the Pew Research Center supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts, are leaders. Both institutions have been around for decades, and have never strayed from their visions, missions or basic criteria. They’ve kept their purpose, focus and investments vital and consistent with our evolving world.

Theirs is a different form of leadership, but a critical one, that impacts society by influencing trends, identifying individual leaders and helping to shape public awareness and opinion.

CG: An unsung leader for me is a man I recently interviewed, Claus Biegert, founder of the Nuclear Free Future Awards. Because he leads a valiant, selfless effort and vision for a nuclear freer world; championing the rights of victimized indigenous peoples, uniting scientists, politicians and activists worldwide, and doing all this with wisdom and integrity.

CG: Are leaders made, or born?

RR: I’d like to think genetics play some part, but I have no scientific proof. Some of it is serendipitous. You can have a desire to be a leader, but you may not achieve it because you lack some essential trait or simply miss the right opportunity because of timing or age.

The military has a system that over time separates leaders from non-leaders, but you find few people who left it in the last 10 to 20 years and became recognized leaders in other fields.

CG: What pitfalls do leaders need to avoid?

RR: They have to avoid becoming arrogant. It’s an occupational hazard. In business especially, also government. They move in very narrow circles of people and thinking, and many lose their objectivity and forget their humbler beginnings. Making it hard to relate in any normal way to what’s going on outside their bubbles.

Great leaders never lose touch like this.

CG: What about sustaining leadership?

RR: This is a true test of whether someone is a leader: the ability to realize a significant vision over time.

CG: Are the best leaders also heroes?

RR: Absolutely. And acknowledged by a broad not just a narrow group of people.

An inventor can be a leader. Maybe not at the point of the invention. Thomas Edison took his invention, electric light, drove the development and application of it, and made it [and electric power generation] a backbone of the world.

CG: Not to mention the phonograph and motion picture camera. What’s so pivotal about Edison’s role is his impact on mass communications, especially telecommunications. And how he led the application of mass production principles to the process of invention, out of which came the first industrial research lab.

CG: Now coming back to the scarcity of true leaders, does this leave society too rudderless? Who do we follow; support; trust; believe in?

RR: This is a quandary. Among the public, it makes people afraid to go out and vote. Which is why in most cities do you have a 10% turnout for elections of mayors.

CG: Is it a loss of faith?

RR: Yes, and part of a true leader’s role is to restore faith, confidence, belief. To be honest about things. To make decisions in the best interests of the many vs. the few.

CG: Any books about leadership you’ve found worthwhile?

RR: For a number of years, I have been reading historical fiction. Right now Tested by Fate, a trilogy about Lord Horatio Nelson, a leader and a hero. A man who held every single job and knew every aspect of operating and navigating a ship. No matter what I read, I see that those who turn out to be the most successful leaders, are also those who have learned everything along the way so when they reach a top position they know exactly what has to be done by each person on the team, bottom up – because they’ve done it.

If we could achieve this today, we would have enlightened leaders, not people racing through important steps or skipping them altogether.

CG: Is this a critical observation we should be making about our current and future leaders?

RR: It probably is.

I’m consulting for a private company that’s leaderless right now. And the question is whether to bring someone in from the outside or cultivate a leader internally over a few years. I’m in favor of cultivating, of incubating: it’s critical for forming the right and best kind of leaders.

CG: As the world changes, will the fundamentals of true leadership change?

RR: No, but because the world will continue getting more complicated, it’ll be harder to find people who have the drive and stamina and interest as well as the ability to lead in all the ways we’ve talked about here.

We have schools trying to teach leadership, but we need to look at and questions these curricula. I don’t believe you can really teach it, but I do believe you can inspire it.

As American voters head to polls this Fall, they have an opportunity to

think beyond party lines and make choices based on the defining qualities of leadership we’ve been discussing.

This is a critical time for our country. And we all need to evaluate whether the challengers understand the issues and have the ability to really lead and inspire others to follow. Because voting out the incumbents just to vote them out would be a catastrophic mistake. We can take advantage of the mid-term elections to advance a meaningful, shared vision and populate Congress with new and true leaders who will earn – and deserve – the public’s trust and support.

CG: Dick, thank you for your time and thoughts.

Colin Goedecke is a strategic story developer and senior-level interviewer, with a 25-year history helping leading and emerging companies worldwide platform and tell their marketing stories. Defining Leaders is the 23rd in a series of thought pieces to help us think, act and communicate in wiser ways. Others can be found at www.tenowls.blogspot.com

Richard Russack, is a senior management & communications consultant. He retired in 2008 from a 16-year role as VP of corporate relations for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation and president of its foundation. His Linked In profile is www.linkedin.com/in/richardrussack His e-mail: richardrussack@charter.net

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