Leadership and Change

“Enlisting others” speaks to my direct experience as a grassroots activist. Most of Kouzes and Posner’s leadership mores are directed to an audience of listeners that are working in Corporate America or in hierarchal organizations. Chapter six relates beyond those boundaries into my world as a person who has been enlisting others for years in the volunteer realm. Much of what is shared in chapter six relates same techniques one employs in enlisting volunteers specially the importance of ‘connecting to what’s meaningful to others’. (p.134) One of the only issues I have with this book comes from my desire to learn of examples relating leadership issues to volunteerism. Motivating and enlisting people’s time, resources, and talents without a steady paycheck or any reward except the satisfaction inherent in working for a cause, presents it’s own set of hurdles and rewards. Yet there runs a parallel of information in this chapter that contributes to both realities, of being enlisted for pay or for goodwill.

How many times will we hear from experts that sharing the vision as the main tenant of enlisting others? You can pick up any leadership manual and read quite clearly how important concepts around sharing a vision means for achieving the ends. The goals of a company, an organization, a parent manifests when alignment happens from ‘painting a powerfully compelling picture of the future. (p.130 Ngo-Roberti,) Yet why does it remain such problems for leadership that chapters and chapters are written on the subject? Either you have the gift or not right? Seems there are those that possess an ease and grace to enlist others through their speeches, charisma, and congruency like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, yet others really struggle to become the leaders with ‘enthusiasm, with a bounce in their step and a positive attitude’. (p.147). So what is the obstacle that’s so hard to grasp, or understand, or implement about sharing a vision?

Not once did K & P mention the struggle one goes through internally on believing in the vision yourself first. Perhaps that’s the reason there is a dearth of statements on the importance of a vision, endless offerings on how to share a vision, or why a vision is so vital, but not enough concrete suggestions or “how to’s” provided when leaders lack faith in the vision or in themselves. Skirting around the messier personal humanistic struggles a leader has with leading and providing an emphasized focus on the prescribed concrete “do this” list and endless external actions some how fills this void. Not mentioning any of the possible internal turbulence and disruption one might hold while carrying out these external recommendations, or offering any tangible remedies thwarts any of the K & P advice making these leadership suggestions ineffective and unattainable. If the goal of enlisting others isn’t easy or creating a desired response of enlisting others doesn’t come naturally to most, why aren’t the internal obstacles within an individual even mentioned or acknowledged? Can we presume these internal issues aren’t relevant? Most every one of the points offered in this chapter are abundantly available and even second nature to those leaders solidly convinced in themselves and the role they play in birthing a vision.

Seems to me and in my own personal experience in the volunteer world, many leaders fail because they don’t have the inner resolve to translate these suggestions in chapter six, beyond the pages in a book or heard from a lecture because they don’t have the resources within themselves to incorporate these ideas. Since I don’t have experience in the corporate world, yet have a fair imagination, I would hazard a guess that there are plenty of corporate and business leaders that lack the necessary internal skills required to employ these external skills as well. I just watched “Michael Clayton” last night and was completely struck with the boldness in which the producers took on ‘the system’ by exposing some of this internal quandary of which I am referencing. A key lynch pin lawyer fell apart in a deposition by stripping naked, extolling the virtues of the enemy, and how he couldn’t be a part of the duplicity any longer. Later we learn that this man wasn’t able to be the leader of the litigation team he ran for 12 years anymore due to his questioning everything about himself and the role he had been playing for years at helping a monster grow and profit at the expense of innocent people’s lives. Michael Clayton is the one put on the job to get this guy back on track and toting the corporate line. As in Hollywood fashion one of them ends up dead. Not unlike many visions we all have, they fall away based on our own personal fears and self-doubt. This is an extreme example of being a leader and obvious that someone might have a break down or an epiphany of being on the wrong side, yet this man could no longer serve the role of leader as long as he was in question, contained the doubt, and longed to understand how he could better serve the world with his skills. The funny thing was to see a Hollywood movie take the sacred cow of corporate life and start exposing the dark and dirty side of keeping alive visions of grandeur to the expense of people’s lives.

How does this have anything to do with K & P? I just believe that as seen by the popularity of a blockbuster Hollywood movie, that there is a current of people seeking more than just the externals. People want to go deeper than the top coating, polish, and gloss. From my experience it is incredibly difficult to liberate someone else’s vision, express your emotions, or speak from your heart if your having trouble with believing in yourself or understanding what your heart is trying to tell you. I also know, from my own personal experience, all of these suggestions are so much easier and effortless when I am confident in myself and trust the impeccability of my vision. Where I was challenged and continue to incorporate into enlisting others is the ability to connect to the aspirations (p.152) and appealing to the common ideals of the volunteers I work with connecting them to the bigger picture and vision I hold dear and carry forward. Throughout the chapter, nuggets of wisdom and repetition offered were helpful to remember and hear anew. I am going to try and write out more than a one liner, a unique and ideal image of the future for myself and those I enlist to further my cause. Right now, since I have just undergone a rigorous slew of introspective and integrative personal work, breathing life into the vision (p.154) comes very easy. Expanding on my communication and expressiveness skills (p.154) become second nature as I connect to the truth and sureness I have regarding the vision for my work and so far has been producing positive results. Aside from my grass roots activism, as I become more successful and gain academic credibility, I intend someday to contribute to the validity and necessity of providing those nuggets of wisdom on overcoming the internal obstacles of enlisting others. Diana Turner