by Max De Pree

some excerpts

“Leadership is an art, something to be learned over time, not simply by reading books. Leadership is more tribal than scientific, more a weaving of relationships than an amassing of information, and, in that sense, I don’t know how to pin it down in every detail.”

“A good family, a good institution, or a good corporation can be a place of healing. It can be a place where work becomes redemptive, where every person is included on her own terms. We know in our hearts that to be included is both beautiful and right. Leaders have to find a way to work that out, to contribute toward that vision.”

“When we think about the people with whom we work, people on whom we depend, we can see that without each individual, we are not going to go very far as a group. By ourselves, we suffer serious limitations. Together we can be something wonderful.”

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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