Be remembered: Not how big a campfire you built, but how you kept others warm
THE book offers “nuggets of wisdom on leadership along the not-so-beaten path towards greatness.”
“We’ll all be remembered for something. The question is, for what? What will others say about you when you’re no longer around.”
This is the question authors Kouzes and Posner ask in their latest book, “A Leader’s Legacy.” It is a thin 202-page, easy-to-read book, where you pick nuggets of wisdom about leadership along the not-so-beaten pathway toward greatness in leadership.
The authors themselves reveal that the book is a product of a challenge hurled from their editor who “cajoled them to come down from the podium and be much more personal, introspective, subtler and, at times, more blunt, in our writing style.”
The way this book is written, full of aphorisms from the authors themselves, peppered with their own disagreements with what they call “clichés about leadership,” and sprinkled with wise advice distilled from years of scholarship—Kouzes and Posner have indeed passed the challenger remarkably well.
Every advice is dished out in a “fireside chat.”
For instance, they advice leaders to consider this crucial thought: What is important is “how big a campfire you built, but how well you kept others warm, how well you illuminated the night to make them feel safe, and how beautiful you left the campsite for those who would come after you to build the next fire.”
The book is simply divided into four parts dealing with these elemental topics: Significance, Relationships, Aspirations and Courage. From this outline alone, one senses what the authors consider crucially important.
Significance
And they tie these all up in a unifying thread of “leaving a legacy.”
For significance, they simply say, like our Dads use to say: “When we move on, people do not remember us for what we do for ourselves. They remember us for what we do for them.”
Pulsing in every page is the truth the authors want to share at every opportunity –like that oft-repeated phrase, “what you do for others last.” In a very terse statement, Kouzes and Posner say: “Their [the leaders’] greatest achievements are the triumphs of those they serve.”
Still on significance, the authors counsel us that one should lead others to causes bigger than themselves. “People commit to causes, not plans. A lasting legacy is built on a firm foundation of principles and purpose.”
They wrap up the discussion on significance descending from the abstract to the concrete: “Do something significant that makes families, communities, work organizations, nations, the environment, and the world better places than they are today.” How do our leaders, past and present, score in this test?
At every chance they get, the authors demolish popular trends. Great leadership, they say, is unlike “reality shows like Survivor, The Apprentice, and the Amazing Race. They make it appear as if success is a winner-take-all game.” This book makes it clear in every part and chapter that it believes in achieving a win-win outcome.
Relationships
The authors next tackle Relationships.
During the Cory Presidency, the debate was whether a leader must aspire to be loved or to be feared. President Cory chose to lead with love in her heart—and, in return, the people exalted her beyond measure. She turned out to be the antithesis of her successor who wanted to be feared more than loved.
“Leaders should want to be liked,” the authors stress.
And they have this advice to leaders: “If you have people working for you in leadership roles who truly don’t care if other people don’t like them, then fire them. They may not like you (those fired), but everyone else will.”
And yet the authors commiserate with leaders who are surrounded by sycophants whose flattery is aimed at gaining favor and enemies whose business is to relentlessly to bring him down at every point.
“Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers,” they comment.
The “unloving critics” are the incurable obstructionists. The “uncritical lovers” are those who refuse to tell the naked Emperor that he has no clothes.
The authors advise us leaders to have “loving critics”—people who care deeply enough to give us honest feedback.”
Mentoring
A favorite topic on leadership talk is mentoring. The authors do not fail to address this. They take the bull by the horns on whether leaders are born or made.
They have a homespun way of sharing this truth: “Leadership is not the private property of a few at the top. Leadership is a common area that’s accessible to everyone. The best leaders turn their followers into leaders, realizing that the journey ahead requires many guides.”
Authenticity is what they address next. “We all know deep down that people can only speak the truth when speaking in their own voice. The techniques and tools that fill the pages of management and leadership books are not substitutes for who and what we are.”
Leaders are advised to “lead from the inside out.” The authors just stress a key thought on the soul of leadership, because leadership is more about substance, not about form.
Closer to the conclusion, the authors bring us to consider the future—and introduce a memorable phrase for leaders preparing a legacy for leaders to be left behind:
“Today’s leaders have to be concerned about tomorrow’s world and those who will inherit it. They are the custodians of the future, and it’s their job to make sure that they leave their organization in better shape than when they found it.”
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this advice is like saying every Moses should prepare his own Joshua.
Another memorable quote comes from the book: “Liberate the leader in everyone.”
Finally, as if in a crescendo in music, the book is ready to dish out something almost sacred among serious leaders concerned about the legacy they will leave behind. They advise us to be ready for “moments of courage.” There are the times when the leader is confronted with a choice, and his decision will decide whether his legacy will be one of honor or of shame.
“Resolutely seize the moment when our values are challenged,” the authors solemnly tell us. They narrate choice moments when some leaders—or even ordinary people – took a stand in history in this borderless world.
They tell of Rosa Parks, an Afro-American back in the dark history of civil rights in America. Rosa refused to yield her seat to a white man, even when the latter demanded it. The lady inspired an entire movement to stand their ground.
The authors call this RPM – the “Rosa Parks Moment.” “Courageous acts flow from a commitment to deeply held beliefs,” the book says. The conclusion of the book is inescapable: Leaders must leave behind a legacy of courage.
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