What Is Leadership?
A walk through the maze of walls comprising FDR National Memorial is a welcome, quiet respite from the crowds at the National Mall in Washington, DC. The memorial’s design is interesting: it’s a series of four small plazas, each representing one term of FDRs presidency. He served 12 years in the nation’s highest office, longer than anyone ever before, since, or seemingly forever (thanks to the 22nd Amendment).
I don’t think you can doubt that those were the hardest twelve years in this nation’s existence. The Great Depression was the deepest economic catastrophe this nation has ever seen, and the Great War was the biggest geopolitical conflict the world has ever seen. These were tremendous challenges, and spawned tremendous change in this country. One steered us towards military power and global influence, the other steered us towards progressivism and social justice. In today’s highly polarized political environment, you probably think one is good, and one is bad (which is which depends totally on your point of view). Regardless, those twelve years undoubtedly shifted the path of the United States for at least 65 years, and perhaps more (depending on how we weather the current terrorist, economic, and environmental crises).
Anyway, as I write this essay about FDR, I find myself reflecting not on these matters of politics and FDR’s rewriting of the American resumé. Instead I find myself reflecting on a quality that even his enemies agree FDR had in spades: leadership.
I like to think I know a lot of things. More accurately, I like to think I’m capable of knowing a lot of things. If I put my mind to it, I can read and research and question and experiment and try most things, and come to a pretty solid understanding. But if there’s one thing that eludes me, and will continue to elude me to the end of my days, it’s leadership. I’ve worked and played under some great leaders, whether it was the farmers I worked for as a boy or teachers I’ve learned from in college or team captains on the playing field, but never understood how they were effective leaders. I’ve also tried to act as a leader, take charge of a situation or a group or a team, and failed poorly at every opportunity. I can’t even get a group of co-workers to meet up for Happy Hour (unless, of course, I’m buying). I think I recognize leadership when I see it, but I can’t quantify it, or define it, or explain how some people have it and others don’t, and in no way at all can I replicate it.
Is it charisma? Charisma seems to attract a following but, by itself, can’t sustain one. Followers, at least the smart ones, will flee in the face of failure, and then all you’re left with are the sycophants, the incapable, and the unstable.
Is it believing in people? Maybe, because people will gravitate towards those who put trust in them. But, again, by itself it’s not leadership. Face it, some folks are not worthy of trust. Good leaders have to always be on the lookout for that knife in the back.
Is it determination? The pharaohs were determined to make their great pyramids, but I doubt the slaves who labored under then would call them “leaders”.
Is it understanding humanity? Maybe, possibly, probably. That would explain why I’m so horrible at it, for I often fail to understand that complicated topic. A lot of good leaders started in the trenches with the troops, or on the assembly line, or playing shortstop. They work with folks and understand folks and then lead folks. But FDR was one of the bluest of blue-bloods. He was born into privilege and stayed there, yet still was inspiring to the country.
Maybe (as lame as it sounds) it’s just something you’re born with, like blue eyes or a musical ear or general athleticism. I do suspect it’s something that is not easily taught in a seminar or gained from reading a book. The few books on “leadership” I’ve come across read like leavings of the the rest of those infinite number of monkeys who didn’t write the complete works of William Shakespeare. Corporate America is full of three-day seminars on the topic, but Corporate America as of late is full of terrible leaders who’ve made terrible decisions and led their companies and countries to ruin. I’ve seen good leaders in the corporations I’ve worked in, but these were also folks who didn’t learn how to lead at some symposium. These folks had it in their genetic makeup long before they completed their first job application.
There is one thing I do know about leadership: I know what it is not. Leadership is not authority, and if there’s one thing I abhor, it’s authority without leadership. There are folks who use their power, earned or appointed, to bully or brag or taunt or inflame or bloviate or take their underlings down in the misery or failure of their own incompetence. These aren’t leaders, they are petty fools. Authority may be a handy thing in a leader’s toolkit, but it is not leadership and must not be confused with leadership.
Looking back at FDR’s legacy, it’s easy to see he had both authority and leadership. It’s not just because we won the war against Nazi aggression and Japanese imperialism, it’s not just because we emerged from dark times stronger and more powerful than ever before, and it’s not just because we kept our dominant position for about 60 years after his death while moving forward on his grand vision. It’s because, at the end, for a couple of generations after his death, millions of Americans respected and revered the man. If you had talked to anyone from that era, most of whom are now dead or dying, you’d have heard reverence in their voice. They respected the man, felt motivated by his radio broadcasts, felt inspired by his iconic rhetoric. This generation of Americans, called by some The Greatest Generation, really loved the guy and carried themselves forward in life inspired by his leadership. There are few Presidents, past or present, who inspired the masses during their terms in a way that FDR did.
Nowadays, right-wingers and Libertarians tear apart FDR’s legacy, and I can sympathize. It seems that the progressive agenda, taken too far, acts more like an albatross than an eagle. It seems to weigh us down instead of making us soar. Or maybe we’re just doing it wrong, I don’t know if I can say either with certainty. I can say that, regardless of whether FDRs legacy has helped or hurt this country, he was a strong and effective leader and probably the most inspiring President within his own time. The people who were there would have told you so. Some of them are still out there: find one and ask.
[Archival pictures on this post courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. I don’t have many specific photos of the FDR Memorial, but you’re welcome to peruse my copyrighted photos of Washington, DC here.]
======================================================
Links:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
The Wilson Center Essays on Leadership
America In Context 
Leave a Reply