Become a Champion

Let me tell you about one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in leadership.

When I was just out of college, I went to work in West Texas. Now, my life prior to that had been about as foreign to West Texas as it could have been. I grew up the son of a US Army officer and largely in Europe. I moved often and had a highly international perspective on the world given where I lived and my father’s work in military intelligence.

The people I met in West Texas at that time were wonderful, but they were far removed what I had known. Most had lived there all their lives. They had large families nearby. They had roots. They loved their traditions. They were leery of strangers.

When I arrived for work, I felt foreign. In my insecurity, I couldn’t stop talking about it. I told Yankee jokes and mimicked West Texas jargon. I even wrote an article for the local paper having fun with some Texas expressions and attitudes toward Yankees. I just couldn’t shut up. Again, this was all fruit of my insecurity about being an outsider in a tight, insular culture.

What I was doing with each joke and mention of differences was building a wall. I was defining myself as apart. I was separating myself. I was saying in every way I could, “I’m not like you. We are foreigners to each other.”

You can probably see more clearly than I did at the time what my mistake was. You see, a leader should do all he or she can to champion the people he or she leads. You want to be one of them while leading them. You want to embody the highest elements of the people you lead, be a symbol of their aspirations. You want them to know that you understand them, love them, feel their pain, and can connect them to their best. You want them to trust that you have their future in your compassionate hands.

I did the opposite. I kept telling them I didn’t get them but wasn’t it all fun anyway. They didn’t find me entertaining. They also didn’t find me a good leader. That’s why I failed.

Now, not being a complete idiot, I later learned my lesson. I learned how to be Churchillian. I began to understand how to champion a people, embody the noblest things about them, and show them I yearned to take them to new heights. This is what leaders have to do, what great leadership is all about.

Learn from your failures. Take a look at how you lead. Are you creating separation? Are you defining yourself as apart based on wealth or position or ethnicity or cultural background or education or any other potentially defining factor? Are you sending any, “I’m not one of you signals?” Well, stop it!

Instead, start building bridges. Become one. Become an advocate. Become a champion of those you lead. You can do this. You must do this. Don’t be an early Stephen Mansfield. Be a fully developed you and both embody the good about those you lead and take them lovingly to their best. This is one of the arts of leadership greatness.