Questions and Stories for Leaders

A De Pree Center Monograph by Max De Pree

some excerpts

“For me, asking the question, “Does leadership have a future?” opens up a large window into the work of leaders, where questions have a special function. It’s a great misconception, you know, that leaders have the answers. I can tell you that isn’t true. Really good leaders, I think, have good questions. Questions have played a role in my life for many years. The first question is probably, ‘Do we have a problem with leadership?’ I don’t know how you feel about it, but when I look at what’s going on in business and in government and in the church and in education and elsewhere, I think we have problems of ineffective, unprepared, errant, and selfish leaders. If leadership is to have a future, are there questions we need to ask in order to find our way?

Questions are important, but they’re not always successful. Even so, leaders have a key role in initiating questions, in inviting questions, in examining questions, and in testing questions.

• Who do we intend to be?
• What is the source of our humanity?
• In the company cafeteria, how good should the bagels be?
• What will I die for?
• Is the behavior of leaders public property?
• What may a leader not delegate?

Even if they don’t have all the answers, really good leaders do have stories. Stories help us learn and remember who we are, where we have been, where we are going. Stories preserve our sense of community.

My definition of a leader is a person who has followers. Leaders are those from whom we learn. They influence the setting of a society’s agenda. They have visions. They acknowledge the authenticity of persons. They create. Leaders set standards. Leaders are those like Rosa Parks who endow us with surprising legacies. They meet the needs of followers, and their behavior and words positively reinforce the best in our society. Leaders trumpet the breaking up and the breaking down of civility. They offer hope and the say “There is hope.” They are givers and they are takers. They ask the painful and necessary questions. They are those like Mother Theresa who create trust, and they are those who accept responsibility for their own behavior.

I have been thinking and writing about leadership for over twenty years now, and I’ve watched with great interest as attention to the subject has grown by leaps and bounds. The quality of leadership is so different these days, when some leaders have become celebrities and vice versa. Yet still I believe leadership has a future, but it will not be easy nor is it guaranteed. As a society, we need to care more about faithfulness than success. We need to celebrate the potential of communities more than individual accomplishment. We need to pursue inclusiveness more deliberately than winning. Actions like these can take place only in a environment of high moral standards. I know, I’m asking a lot of leaders. I believe you are up to it.”

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