Saturday, July 24, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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COVID-19, shutdowns, isolation, economic instability, racial/political division, rising crime rates, depression. These are but some of the major issues facing many Americans today.
I just wrote a book on leadership called “The Art of Ronin Leadership,” using the lens of my 40 years of leadership experience as a police officer, a member of the Central Intelligence Agency and a Microsoft executive as the basis for my book. With all these major issues facing our nation and the world, the need for selfless leadership, caring leadership, leadership by example and servant leadership is more vital now than ever before. This includes leadership in both the public and private sectors. I contend that such leadership is lacking in many of our institutions today.
Many people in the United States are fearful of what is happening in our country and our world. They are fearful for their health, their jobs and their families, and feeling as if they have no control over what is happening to them. If this statement strikes a chord with you, you are probably not alone.
But despite all the bad things we face in life as a society, there is still hope. Some of this hope must be internally driven. You, as a human being, as a citizen of this great nation and as an inhabitant of this planet, must find ways to instill hope in your spirit and soul. Maybe this comes from your religious beliefs, or the love of your family and friends, or you just have a “glass half full” mentality to begin with.
But the flip side of internally driven hope is externally driven hope, which is provided by great leadership. In times of turmoil and crisis, we look to our leaders to not only provide solutions to problems, but to provide hope — hope that things will get better, and hope that these leaders are looking out for our welfare and best interests.
In my book, I describe one of the best leaders I ever worked for, who stressed the need to be selfless in leading people. He meant that leaders need to look out for the welfare of their employees and teams first. You, as a leader, come second to the care and welfare of those you are entrusted to lead. Unfortunately, too many times in both the public and private sectors, we find so-called leaders doing just the opposite. They are out for themselves first. They care little or nothing about the people working for them or their constituents. When something goes wrong, they pass the blame on to their teams, never shouldering the blame themselves. Real leaders, selfless leaders, know that when things go right in their organizations, they give their teams the credit for their successes; and when things go wrong, they accept the blame since they are in charge, and this comes with the territory.
In the private sector, we need selfless leaders who empathize with what their workers are going through in these extraordinary times. Yes, work must get done, and that is certainly a priority in any business. But real leaders must be willing to listen, really listen, to their employee’s concerns about work, health and family.
Real leaders need to be transparent and honest. They need to provide mentoring and coaching, and they must put the needs of their employees first. Employees need to know that the person they work for is not only their leader, but their advocate.
In the public sector, real leaders must also be honest and transparent. Don’t just tell us, your constituents, what you think we want to hear. Tell us the truth about what is going on in the pandemic, or our economy or the world situation. And stop fueling the fire of division, whether it be racial, religious, political, gender, etc., with rhetoric designed to divide and conquer vs. uniting us a people and as a country. You were elected as public officials to work on the common good of all the people, not just for your political party or your financial donors.
We need leadership in the media as well. People have become jaded by the press because they perceive it as being biased one way or the other, based on political persuasion. There is a perception out there that you cannot trust the news given these biases. Leaders in media must remember their responsibility to the consumers of their news. The responsibility to leave bias and personal political ideology out of the news and report the news objectively and honestly, which is what the press is charged with and has a moral responsibility to do.
All of this leads us back to hope. There are many problems in this world, as I have articulated. We all need hope that things will get better. Great leaders can not only instill that hope in people but can also show by their own example that they genuinely care for us and that as a people, we will get through this.
Mike Howard is the author of “The Art of Ronin Leadership – Strategy, Success, Sustained Excellence.” He served at Microsoft for 16 years as its chief security officer, is a 22-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, and was a police officer with the Oakland Police Department in California. He now lives in Las Vegas.
