"No Easy Victories"

I was reading a Harvard Business Review article ("How to Stay Optimistic (When Everything is Awful)") just last week that referenced another article written many, many years ago by former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (under President Lyndon Johnson) John W. Gardner.  The article, "No Easy Victories" was published in the journal American Statistician on February 1, 1968 and is based on a speech that Gardner gave at the American Statistical Association's annual meeting in December, 1967.

Gardner made several points about leadership in general that I thought were worth repeating here.  They fall into the following high level points:

1. It's lonely when you are in the arena.

Gardner opens (after a few introductory comments about how he came to be speaking at the American Statistical Association's meeting) with the following statements:

I cannot speak with assurance, only with concern.  I constantly marvel at the number of people outside the arena of action who know precisely how to solve our problems, and the number of people in the heat of action who lack that superhuman clarity.  

I think that Gardner provides a key point on leadership here.  First, as I've stated many, many times, leadership can be lonely (see my posts, "Reflections on leadership", "12 O'Clock High", "It's lonely at the top", and most recently, "Fortress of Solitude").  It's lonely because: (1) as a leader, you are always "on stage" in that everything you say or do can be scrutinized, questioned, evaluated, or criticized; (2) the expectations for leaders oftentimes far exceed what they can deliver; and (3) almost everyone believes that he or she could do a better job leading.  I am reminded of Theodore Roosevelt's "In the Arena" speech or Brene Brown's speech "Why your critics aren't the ones who count".  As William Shakespeare said, "Uneasy is the head that wears a crown".

2. Leaders have to make difficult choices.

Gardner talks about some of the difficulties that leaders encounter.  Foremost among these is the job of making rational choices when resources are limited (and he offers the qualification that resources "will always be limited relative to expectations").  He said:

Forced choices are of course not the only consequence of a limit on resources.  We can have our cake and eat at least some of it if we can get a higher yield from the dollars, talent, and institutional strength available to us...somewhere up the line hard decisions will be necessarily made.

As a leader, you will have to make difficult decisions at times, some of which will be unpopular.  It's important that leaders make decisions that advance the organization's mission and vision, as well as ones that are consistent with the organization's core values. 

3. Expectations oftentimes do not match reality.

I mentioned above that one of the reasons leadership can be lonely is that the expectations for leaders oftentimes far exceed what they can deliver.  The same is true for organizations.  Gardner said that most of the individuals today believe that their institutions can accomplish "just about anything".  Moreover, when these same institutions fall far short of those expectations, the natural tendency is to blame "the people who love power or money more than they love mankind".  He suggested that this mismatch between expectations and reality has created some of the mistrust and cynicism that we are seeing today in the workforce:

The modern belief that man's institutions can accomplish just about anything he wants, when he wants it, leads to certain characteristic contemporary phenomena.  One is the bitterness and anger toward our institutions that occur when high hopes turn sour...cynicism is continually fed and renewed by the rage of people who expected too much in the first place and got too little in the end.

4. Leaders will have to lead their organizations through change.

Gardner said:

Even excellent institutions run by excellent human beings are inherently sluggish, not hungry for innovation, not quick to respond to human need, not eager to re-shape themselves to meet the challenges of the times...We are going to have to do a far more imaginative and aggressive job of renewing, redesigning, revitalizing our institutions if we are to meet the requirements of today.

I am struck by how much of what was true in 1967 is still true today.  Some of the challenges that leaders faced back then are faced by the leaders still today.  However, Gardner's message is one of hope and optimism.  He ended his speech with the following statement:

The fight for a better world is a long one, a recognition that retains high hopes but immunizes against childish collapse or destructive rage in the face of disappointment...We face the gravest difficulties in the days ahead.  But if we could bring to bear on our toughest problems all of the talent and resources of this Nation we could accomplish some things that would leave an indelible mark on the history books.