How - Dov Seidman [150]
Again, it boils down to disposition. Leaders stare in the face of conflicting desires and individual interests, and of limited, not unlimited, budgets. They open some doors and they close others. They make principled decisions in the face of conflict and so set a steady course through rough seas. Leaders are thirsty for truth and they go after it. By definition, the future that they have envisioned and the present are in conflict; change must occur to achieve something new. Within this tension lies the opportunity to thrive, but only in the hands of those willing to confront it.
Similarly, leaders eschew essentialism and reductionism in the approach to their goals. The goal is never about one thing, like profits or productivity or quality. Leaders acknowledge the inherent complexity of every journey. They balance many voices and many goals and seek to fulfill the needs of the many stakeholders in every effort. In the face of a multitude of choices, the self-governing person looks wisely and deeply to the core values at the center of their framework and makes considered decisions about the best way to uphold them.
Wield Charismatic Authority
We have taken as one of our foundational attributes that leaders seize authority. But what kind of authority? Stand up or I’ll punch you? Do this because I’m your mother or father, or because I’m your boss? In Japan during World War II, the Japanese military began sending their airmen, known as kamikazes, on tokko: suicide missions. Many young Japanese men died during these missions, but a few lived to tell the tale of what it was like. One of them was a Japanese Navy pilot named Shigeyoshi Hamazono. In his wartime memoir, Suiheisen (The Horizon), Hamazono describes being prepared to die for his country, but recalls an encounter he had before leaving on a mission on April 6, 1945. He tells of Vice Admiral Ugaki, who gave a farewell speech to the Kokubu No. 1 Air Base kamikaze pilots, of whom Hamazono was one. Ugaki shook their hands and said, “Please die for your country.” After finishing his remarks, he asked if anyone had any questions. A veteran pilot, whom Hamazono respected, stepped forward and said, “I am confident that I can sink two enemy transport ships with just the bombs carried by my plane. If I sink them, may I return?” Ugaki reportedly answered, “Please die.”9
Authority typically comes in two forms: charismatic authority and formal authority.10 Formal authority derives from reference to power, usually hierarchical power. “I’m your parent. In my house, I’m right, even when I’m wrong.” That is formal authority (and also the reason why most of us grow up and leave home).
Many young men died on both sides of that brutal war, and Ugaki is an extreme example, but we see examples of formal authority like “Please die because I ordered you to” wielded every day in matters from the mundane to the sublime. You get an e-mail that consists of one sentence, “Do this by four o’clock.” The implication is clear: “because I’m the boss.” Are you enlisted? Or has the wielding of formal authority introduced friction into the relationship? You might acquiesce for any number of rational reasons—you are new at the company, your boss is quite senior, she could help your career—but are you enlisted? Are you inspired? Formal authority lacks the ability to inspire and enlist. It can, at best, demand acquiescence, a grudging or even willing