Callan…Coffee…Contemplation for the Week of September 8th
The Hero’s Stance
I have always liked the quote attributed to the Greek philosopher and mathematician, Archimedes, who said, “Give me a place to stand and a lever, and I will move the world.” This image is a great metaphor for heroic leadership because it reminds us that great leadership always balances two vital components: reflection (a place to stand) and action (a lever). The hero’s stance, as I call it, is the self discipline to create the reflective space to master oneself. Before we can exert the lever of leadership on others or the outer world, we must first master ourselves and develop inner authority. When we create time for reflection, and do the hard work of self mastery, we create a solid ground on which to stand, and a trusted fulcrum upon which to lay our lever of influence. This is what creates trustworthiness, dependability, self regulation, and consistency. Once we have developed the hero’s stance we can then move more confidently into outer action. In the end, great leadership, truly heroic leadership, will always be the admixture of reflection and action. This is how great leaders move the world.
A Unified Field
I was recently asked, “what is it that allows Marines to cohere around common purpose and common intentionality—to become as one?” My answer was this: Marines operate in a unified field. What did I mean? Through deep, almost DNA-level grounding in ethos and cornerstone principles, Marines are gradually transformed from small private worlds into a kind of grand parade fusing past, present, and future. This unified field is like discovering a solid wholeness—the perennial foundation—underneath otherwise passing and superficial phenomena. Look around society today and it is hard to find many organizations or companies operating in such a unified field. Instead, we see a lot of folks operating in fractured fields characterized by episodic meaning, trivial experiences, and passing phenomena. When people operate in a unified field they become sure, confident, and focused on elevated meaning. When people operate in a fracture field they become unsure, lack confidence, and remain focused on selfish purposes. Heroic leaders must lead us across the threshold from fractured to unified fields of existence.
Expectations
One of the most important things leaders do is set an expectation for leadership. By this I mean: Create clear expectations from the moment a person joins the group that we prize leadership above all other qualities; we expect individuals to lead; and we are, at our core, a culture of “leaders creating leaders.” When I think of my own vocation as a US Marine, I see how the Corps does a superior job of creating this expectation for leadership. Within the first 24-hours of my arrival at Officers Candidate School, I knew, without doubt, leadership was the sin qua non, the alpha and omega, of life as a Marine. Past accomplishments, current specialties, or future ranks did not matter; all that mattered was leadership. Leaders must therefore assess these key questions in their current organizations: Do we create an expectation for leadership in our culture? Does a person joining our ranks understand our expectations for leadership, our core leadership behaviors, and our demand for all leaders to develop other leaders? If not, go back to square one and build these expectations.
Shadow Boxing
When I was young I spent a lot of time at the Boys Club and YMCA in our city. Our area had a rich boxing legacy–home to champs like Rocky Marciano and Marvin Hagler. I recall some of the old trainers in these gyms teaching us to shadow box; to learn first to master our stance, our balance, and our movements before we ever tried to engage another in the ring. This image of shadow boxing is a great metaphor for leadership development. Before we can effectively lead others, we must first master ourselves. We must shadow box as we grow as leaders, carving out the necessary time and devoting the required energy to see our shadow on the wall as we move and act, reflect on our state of mastery, and continue to work on the basics of our craft. Yes, we will have to get into the ring—to lead and gain experience—but we must never stop honing our craft away from the ring. We must never stop shadow boxing and assessing the state of our character, our inner authority, and our inner mastery. This is how champions are built–far from the ring and before the fight ever occurs.
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