GREAT LEADERS ARE A H.I.T., CH. 3
CHAPTER 3
GREAT LEADERS ARE A H.I.T.
In chapter 1 we discussed the need for great leaders to be fully trained and developed to engage in the management/ leadership sprint. Great leaders, much like their world class athletic sprinter counterparts, must have developed the razor sharp focus and sculptured and firm muscular tone necessary to be able to bolt from the starting blocks. What better training can there be but to be fully trained in the art of honesty? What better muscle group to develop to a chiseled finish than the integrity muscles? Finally, for the great leader where better to target the razor sharp focus than on the truth?
When I discussed the I.O.U. chapter to this brief manual I received a number of inquiries from my classes on leadership asking why the truth (the T of H.I.T.) was relegated to the last paragraph and not placed at the beginning of the chapter where it belongs. Good question. The answer is that truth was not placed last; for it surely holds a place of preeminence over all other aspects of communication. However, the truth does not live in a vacuum, but rather, is a logical consequence of being impartial, objective and unbiased. When the person seeking to be a leader speaks, both verbally and in writing, in a biased and non-impartial manner he or she not only loses objectivity but loses the truth as well. To speak with an I.O.U. (Impartial, Objective, Unbiased) is to give the audience what is owed to it and to gain the means to make the message a H.I.T. (Honesty, Integrity, Truth). It seems paradoxical to think that a leader can be biased, prejudicial, and extreme in the communication process and arrive at the truth with any semblance of honesty and integrity. Most people that I know place truth and honesty at or near the top of all the lists of leadership traits. A truthful leader tells the truth; it is no more complicated than that. Telling the truth is paramount to any other aspect of leadership as it is in public speaking, writing and in every other leadership or communication class that I have taught. I am convinced that the leader cannot arrive at the truth if he or she tries to get there by wearing the blinders of preconceived notions, prejudices, biases or other communication and leadership truth blockers.
Truth, much like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. I can behold the wet rainy day today and state truthfully that it is a good thing as it is filling the reservoirs prior to the potential hot summer drought season. Another person can behold the same rain and be truthful in declaring it a miserable and depressing day. Neither of us has lied; we merely perceive things in an honestly different way. This leads to one of the contemporary problems with finding the truth. It is what I call the "Unholy Trinity" whereby Marketing leads to Perception which then leads to Reality. In this world of Madison Avenue, internet, cable and network television, satellite radios, and a seemingly endless array of technological "news" media sources it seems that the more something is said (Marketing), whether true or not, the more it becomes the general Perception and eventually the accepted Reality. This trinity can prove to be dangerous as it can be used as a manipulative tool to gain the favor of an audience without the necessary impartial, unbiased and objective approach. The leader knows this. The good leader acknowledges it. The great leader avoids it at all costs and reaches out to his or her followers with an unswerving bias for the truth.
Volvo is the safest automobile in the world, not because it really is (it may not) but because we have been told over and over that it is and, therefore we buy Volvos for safety. Research analysis may show that the newer models of other cars are actually the safest. Volkswagens were designed for driving enthusiasts not because they were (they were not), but because we have been told so repeatedly. The truth is that Volkswagens were designed during the Nazi regime and first driven off the assembly line by Adolf Hitler who praised the "Peoples Car "(Volks Wagon) as a noted accomplishment of his abhorrent Third Reich. Hitler, of course, was the most heinous villain in history not because he was (I think he was not) but because we have been told that he was. While a monster by any measure, Hitler’s evil is trumped in my view by Josef Stalin the murderous dictator who terrorized the Soviet Union and its people from 1924-1953 and is credited with causing the deaths of millions of his own people. All of this falls into the dangerous category commonly known as "conventional wisdom," the convenient (lazy?) way to get knowledge or wisdom; just be told what is "true" often enough and you will believe that it is true. Great leaders are not bogged down with this wasteful and time consuming need to acknowledge things as true simply because everyone else does. Great leaders challenge the conventional wisdom, seek the truth and sprint ahead with it.
Truth is an absolute; it is not interpretative, subjective or variable. Something is either true or not true; there is no third choice. Great leaders do not seek to find that third choice for the sole purpose of acknowledging political correctness or the conventional wisdom of the day. We may disagree on whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, but still tell the truth in offering our opinion. The opposite of the truth is dangerous, hurtful and, unfortunately, prosperous for some. I can tell you first hand of the pain that can be caused by lies and I can also tell you of the profit that all of these lies have gained for the perpetrators. Does this mean that the truth loses to a more aggressive and dominant force? Should great leaders tell the truth only when it benefits them? Does this mean that we should discard the truth as a phenomenon that has outlived its usefulness and replace it with the more politically correct doublespeak and sound bites that gain us fame and fortune? Should the great leader lip synch the popular verses of the day so as to avoid controversy? It has been said that the future of this nation will be determined by the moral values that we carry forward from one generation to the next. If that is the case, one can argue that the nation’s future is not a bright one as we continually push the truth further back in our list of positive and productive virtues. Great leaders push the truth forward and do so at an impressive speed. Great leaders constantly strive to be Impartial, Objective, and Unbiased. It is for that reason that at the end of the sprint they have broken the tape of Honesty, Integrity, and most importantly, the Truth.
Great leaders always tell the truth and sprint ahead with it. Great leaders are also very often criticized for doing so. Telling the truth is a risky venture. While truthfulness yields marvelous leadership results, it also has the potential of upsetting those who are quite complacent in a world of customary and institutionalized, beliefs and habits. Great leaders challenge such behavior and often pay a price for doing so. This, however, is the new breed of leadership so desperately needed today; leadership that will not compromise the truth regardless of the consequences. The great leadership sprinter holds his or head up high at the finish line because the truth propelled him or her down the track.
GREAT LEADERS ARE A H.I.T.
In chapter 1 we discussed the need for great leaders to be fully trained and developed to engage in the management/ leadership sprint. Great leaders, much like their world class athletic sprinter counterparts, must have developed the razor sharp focus and sculptured and firm muscular tone necessary to be able to bolt from the starting blocks. What better training can there be but to be fully trained in the art of honesty? What better muscle group to develop to a chiseled finish than the integrity muscles? Finally, for the great leader where better to target the razor sharp focus than on the truth?
When I discussed the I.O.U. chapter to this brief manual I received a number of inquiries from my classes on leadership asking why the truth (the T of H.I.T.) was relegated to the last paragraph and not placed at the beginning of the chapter where it belongs. Good question. The answer is that truth was not placed last; for it surely holds a place of preeminence over all other aspects of communication. However, the truth does not live in a vacuum, but rather, is a logical consequence of being impartial, objective and unbiased. When the person seeking to be a leader speaks, both verbally and in writing, in a biased and non-impartial manner he or she not only loses objectivity but loses the truth as well. To speak with an I.O.U. (Impartial, Objective, Unbiased) is to give the audience what is owed to it and to gain the means to make the message a H.I.T. (Honesty, Integrity, Truth). It seems paradoxical to think that a leader can be biased, prejudicial, and extreme in the communication process and arrive at the truth with any semblance of honesty and integrity. Most people that I know place truth and honesty at or near the top of all the lists of leadership traits. A truthful leader tells the truth; it is no more complicated than that. Telling the truth is paramount to any other aspect of leadership as it is in public speaking, writing and in every other leadership or communication class that I have taught. I am convinced that the leader cannot arrive at the truth if he or she tries to get there by wearing the blinders of preconceived notions, prejudices, biases or other communication and leadership truth blockers.
Truth, much like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. I can behold the wet rainy day today and state truthfully that it is a good thing as it is filling the reservoirs prior to the potential hot summer drought season. Another person can behold the same rain and be truthful in declaring it a miserable and depressing day. Neither of us has lied; we merely perceive things in an honestly different way. This leads to one of the contemporary problems with finding the truth. It is what I call the "Unholy Trinity" whereby Marketing leads to Perception which then leads to Reality. In this world of Madison Avenue, internet, cable and network television, satellite radios, and a seemingly endless array of technological "news" media sources it seems that the more something is said (Marketing), whether true or not, the more it becomes the general Perception and eventually the accepted Reality. This trinity can prove to be dangerous as it can be used as a manipulative tool to gain the favor of an audience without the necessary impartial, unbiased and objective approach. The leader knows this. The good leader acknowledges it. The great leader avoids it at all costs and reaches out to his or her followers with an unswerving bias for the truth.
Volvo is the safest automobile in the world, not because it really is (it may not) but because we have been told over and over that it is and, therefore we buy Volvos for safety. Research analysis may show that the newer models of other cars are actually the safest. Volkswagens were designed for driving enthusiasts not because they were (they were not), but because we have been told so repeatedly. The truth is that Volkswagens were designed during the Nazi regime and first driven off the assembly line by Adolf Hitler who praised the "Peoples Car "(Volks Wagon) as a noted accomplishment of his abhorrent Third Reich. Hitler, of course, was the most heinous villain in history not because he was (I think he was not) but because we have been told that he was. While a monster by any measure, Hitler’s evil is trumped in my view by Josef Stalin the murderous dictator who terrorized the Soviet Union and its people from 1924-1953 and is credited with causing the deaths of millions of his own people. All of this falls into the dangerous category commonly known as "conventional wisdom," the convenient (lazy?) way to get knowledge or wisdom; just be told what is "true" often enough and you will believe that it is true. Great leaders are not bogged down with this wasteful and time consuming need to acknowledge things as true simply because everyone else does. Great leaders challenge the conventional wisdom, seek the truth and sprint ahead with it.
Truth is an absolute; it is not interpretative, subjective or variable. Something is either true or not true; there is no third choice. Great leaders do not seek to find that third choice for the sole purpose of acknowledging political correctness or the conventional wisdom of the day. We may disagree on whether something is right or wrong, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, but still tell the truth in offering our opinion. The opposite of the truth is dangerous, hurtful and, unfortunately, prosperous for some. I can tell you first hand of the pain that can be caused by lies and I can also tell you of the profit that all of these lies have gained for the perpetrators. Does this mean that the truth loses to a more aggressive and dominant force? Should great leaders tell the truth only when it benefits them? Does this mean that we should discard the truth as a phenomenon that has outlived its usefulness and replace it with the more politically correct doublespeak and sound bites that gain us fame and fortune? Should the great leader lip synch the popular verses of the day so as to avoid controversy? It has been said that the future of this nation will be determined by the moral values that we carry forward from one generation to the next. If that is the case, one can argue that the nation’s future is not a bright one as we continually push the truth further back in our list of positive and productive virtues. Great leaders push the truth forward and do so at an impressive speed. Great leaders constantly strive to be Impartial, Objective, and Unbiased. It is for that reason that at the end of the sprint they have broken the tape of Honesty, Integrity, and most importantly, the Truth.
Great leaders always tell the truth and sprint ahead with it. Great leaders are also very often criticized for doing so. Telling the truth is a risky venture. While truthfulness yields marvelous leadership results, it also has the potential of upsetting those who are quite complacent in a world of customary and institutionalized, beliefs and habits. Great leaders challenge such behavior and often pay a price for doing so. This, however, is the new breed of leadership so desperately needed today; leadership that will not compromise the truth regardless of the consequences. The great leadership sprinter holds his or head up high at the finish line because the truth propelled him or her down the track.
posted by Mark Willand | 11:43 AM
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