Apostolic Horizon International

In my article titled “Thoughts on Leadership”, I ended with the following statement:

Leadership is not a popularity ticket. It is a call to productive, creative achievement with men and women of like-mind.

Recently this has been the focus of my thoughts on leadership. That is, the difference between popularity and leadership.

In a democratic society voting is a fairly standard way of appointing “office-holders” whom we then look to for leadership. Unfortunately voting is no guarantee that leadership will emerge because voters’ opinions and criteria will always dictate how they vote.

Popularity may get a friend into a position but it does not necessarily get the right leader into the right position of authority to ensure productive and creative achievement with others. (I trust that when you vote – in any situation – it is for effective leadership not popular opinion or personal gain.)

An article from Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal by Andy Stanley gives the following illustration:

In the World War II thriller U-571… submarine Lieutenant Andy Tyler… is denied an opportunity to command his own sub. As it turns out, it was his commanding officer, Captain Dahlgren, who encouraged the navy not to promote him.

In a stirring exchange, Tyler challenges his superior officer’s decision. He assures the captain he is qualified. Not only is he able to perform every job on the sub, he goes on to insist that he would be willing to lay down his life for any of the men on the crew.

At that point, Captain Dahlgren… says, “I’m not questioning your bravery. Are you willing to lay their lives on the line?”

Tyler is stunned by the question. Before he can respond, Captain Dahlgren continues;

“You see, you hesitate. As a captain you can’t. You have to act. If you don’t you put the entire crew at risk. Now that’s the job. It’s not a science. You have to be able to make the hard decisions based on imperfect information, asking men to carry out orders that may result in their deaths. And if you’re wrong, you suffer the consequences. If you are not prepared to make those decisions, without pause, without reflection, then you’ve got no business being a submarine captain.”

As Tyler leaves Captain Dahlgren’s quarters, the look on his face says it all. Peering at leadership through that lens has caused him to doubt his readiness to lead.

There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from this. For me the standout exemplar lesson comes from Captain Dahlgren. He was prepared to be “unpopular” with his 2IC – and the men who considered Tyler their friend – rather than promote him to a position he was not ready for. This is leadership, to be willing to make decisions that may cause you to be unpopular.

The principal lesson of leadership that stands out is that one may be willing to serve others, but are you willing to let others serve regardless of the cost? Leadership is often about inspiring others to go where they would normally not go. To cause them work harder, longer and pay more than others. To inspire others to sacrificial service if need be. To command a loyalty that gives you the right to challenge others and the willingness to risk losing followers for the sake of the outcomes.

Jesus demonstrated this type of leadership with his disciples. In John 6:53-71 Jesus’ words offended his disciples. In verse 66 we read: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” The popular position holder at this point would be inclined to smooth over the problem and try to find a compromise, but not Jesus. He turned to the twelve and said: “Do you want to leave to?” Jesus was not voted into his position by his followers; he was a man of purpose who called others to lay down their lives and join him in his great destiny.

Leadership is not about consensus nor friendship nor popularity; it is about making the right decisions at the right time and accepting the consequences regardless of popular opinion.

For me a good model of leadership versus popularity is found in Winston Churchill’s political life. Just prior to and at the start of the Second World War it was Neville Chamberlain who was the popular choice to lead the British parliament. His policy of appeasement with Hitler and Mussolini was popular at the time despite strong opposition from Churchill and the resignation of Eden, Chamberlain’s foreign secretary.

Chamberlain engineered the Munich Pact in September 1938, negotiating with Hitler to settle the question of Czechoslovakia. The agreement signed by Britain, France, Italy and Germany gave the Sudeten, a resource rich area of Czechoslovakia, (one-fifth of the country on the German speaking border) to Germany with other areas going to Hungary and Poland. Returning in triumph to Britain at Heston Airport on September 30th, Chamberlain told a cheering crowd “I believe it is peace in our time.” Copyright ©2001 Britannia.com, LLC (BRITANNIA.COM . . . AMERICA’S GATEWAY TO THE BRITISH ISLES SINCE)

Eventually popular opinion failed and Britain found herself in the midst of a war and the humiliating defeat of her troops in Norway.

The peace did not last long. Germany took the rest of Czechoslovakia in March of 1938 and Chamberlain was cornered into guaranteeing Poland against attack. When Germany invaded Poland Britain declared war. The handwriting was on the wall. Chamberlain’s own party rebelled against him, forcing his resignation after British forces suffered defeat in Norway. Copyright ©2001 Britannia.com, LLC (BRITANNIA.COM . . . AMERICA’S GATEWAY TO THE BRITISH ISLES SINCE)

At this time of national crisis a leader was needed – not a popular position holder – so Churchill was called upon to form a coalition government, which he did in May 1940, becoming its prime minister.

Churchill became the voice of Britain during the war, his emotional speeches inspiring the nation to endure hardship and sacrifice.

Churchill was never a popular politician but he was an excellent leader whom people called upon in a time of crisis. Churchill, like a true leader, believed that his entire life was training for that particular time. He had a sense of life-destiny and purpose.

I hope I have done justice to the concept of leaders versus popular people. Popularity is not bad it is simply not the stuff of leaders. Celebrities are example of popular people who have crowds wanting to see them but that do not necessarily make the ideal choice for leadership. (A line of reasoning that should be given more consideration in democratic societies.) The point is that leaders are not necessarily popular but they do lead and people do follow. If you are a developing leader don’t think popularity is what qualifies you for leadership.

In the words of General Colin Powell:

“Command is lonely”

Harry Truman was right. Whether you’re a CEO or the temporary head of a project team, the buck stops here. You can encourage participative management and bottom-up employee involvement, but ultimately the essence of leadership is the willingness to make the tough, unambiguous choices that will have an impact on the fate of the organisation. I’ve seen too many non-leaders flinch from this responsibility. Even as you create an informal, open, collaborative corporate culture, prepare to be lonely. (General Colin Powell)