[March 20, 2017] One of my favorite senior leaders in the President George W. Bush administration was Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of Defense. Yet, next to Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld was the most disliked member at the White House and I found his thinking to be profound and insightful. It is therefore not uncharacteristic of Rumsfeld to challenge us to not avoid the sharp edges of leadership because they are occasionally necessary.
Leadership can be viewed as a balancing act. The balancing is often between competing views or ideologies that will color our perceptions and subsequently affect our decision making. It is also our attempt to balance competing resource limitations requiring serious thought into unpopular but necessary prioritization of things that are important. And, it can be balancing our leadership methods and perceptions that will impact our credibility and ability to get things done.
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” – Jim Rohn, American businessman and business philosopher
The challenge of leadership is to be seen as the right kind of leader who is both fair and honest; a difficult task. As we know, people buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.1 It is no surprise to those of us who study leadership that much effort and expense is expended to improve leader skills that affect this directly. That goes directly to the clarity in communication and a lesson that should never be forgotten.
“If a prospective Presidential approach can’t be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn’t been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won’t ‘sail’ anyway. Send it back for further thought.” – Donald Rumsfeld
Avoiding the appearance of weakness, arrogance, laziness, and disrespect goes a long way toward helping a leader achieve their mission. And this is not so easy. Patience is an important characteristic that can be mistaken for these since the skill is not developed in a week or a month but over a long period of time. That is why communication is so crucial for good leadership.
Challenges for leaders come in many shapes and sizes and often unpredictable. Humor can help.
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- John C. Maxwell