Sometimes it feels like I need trifocals for my mind. That’s because I often have to focus on three different time-horizons simultaneously – past, present, and future. Success in most professional endeavors requires the right combination of leadership, management, and administration. By leadership, I mean the ability to look ahead and to imagine and articulate a future state. More than that, it is about getting others to see the goodness and wisdom of the future we aspire to. It is about helping them see that this future is achievable and worthy of investment and commitment. Management, on the other hand, is about seeing and dealing with the here and now. It is about ensuring that our work will enable us to achieve the future we desire. Lastly, administration is about the past. It is about reviewing results to ensure that we are achieving objects on our path towards our short and long-term goals and ambitions.
Today, as we commemorate and celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it is important to contemplate the impact that his life and leadership had on each of us. I consider my generation to be fairly enlightened in terms of race relations, certainly more enlightened than my parents’ and grandparents’ generations. I have close friends, colleagues, neighbors – even a president – of races different from my own. These relationships never seemed unusual or surprising. In fact, I have always taken race relations for granted. As the son of a United States Naval officer, I grew up seeing leaders of color as a normal and expected thing.
We can find wisdom anywhere we look. Sometimes we don’t even have to look that hard. It just jumps up and smacks us in the head. One of my favorite sources is comic strips. For me, The Far Side is a constant spring of priceless life lessons. One of my father’s favorite quotes came from Walt Kelly’s cartoon, Pogo, which originated in 1948. Pogo, the title character said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” While it may be grammatically imperfect, the wisdom is flawless.
Everyone knows the story of Benedict Arnold. His name has become synonymous with “traitor” in the American lexicon. Yesterday was the anniversary of one of his more infamous acts as a turncoat. On January 5, 1781, Arnold led a British raid on Richmond, Virginia, destroying a large portion of the city. Arnold is an easy guy to hate, but his treachery is only part of the story.
I have always known that great leadership and great parenting have a lot in common. Like parents, leaders often make sacrifices for the sake of those they lead. Just like parenting, leadership sometimes calls for a generous dose of tough love. Good leaders recognize that long-term happiness and success may mean short-term disappointment or frustration for their followers.