The Leader's Journey
First things first, I am not a leadership expert. Read some of Jim Collin's work (BE 2.0 is excellent) if you want one of those. However, I am a practiced leader and have spent most of my life saying yes to leadership opportunities when they came along. I ran the high school newspaper, founded this or that club in college, and eventually found myself leading hundreds of men and women as a Captain in the US Marines. I have also spent the last seven years starting or working in startups. Presently, I am transitioning from leadership in one of the fastest-growing crowdfunded projects in history, BibleProject, to a new Fintech startup I founded.?
I decided to take this transition opportunity to reflect on many hard-earned lessons learned over the last 15+ years as shaping leadership development and culture becomes top of mind. I hope you might find some of this helpful too.
Leadership is an Allusive Topic
There's no shortage of guides, systems, and leadership methodologies that can prove as helpful tools, and that's great, but they can mislead us as they are often overly reductionistic. They can make leadership appear formulaic and easy, of which it is neither. There is an art and science to leadership, sure.
These are fundamental leadership skills, and I don't want to minimize them; I am merely positing that while they're essential to being a good leader, they are simply not enough. They may make you a sufficient leader, but it won't make you a great leader. There is only one pathway to?great?leadership, and that one thing should be our primary focus in leader development.?That one thing??
Character
Character is the foundation of great leadership; therefore, character development should be the primary focus of any leadership development strategy, both for yourself and your organization. It doesn't mean you neglect the art and science of leadership, but don't be distracted by them either.
This begs the question: how do you develop character, and what?characteristics?are you trying to develop? These questions can lead to a very esoteric conversation, which we will try not to do. Yet, I am afraid I don't have a direct 3-point training manual or motto to make this easy, so bear with me as we explore the abstract. I promise we'll return to the concrete.?
We are going to explore this conversation through the lens of story.?
The Hero's Journey
In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's journey, or the monomyth, is a common template of stories involving a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and who comes home changed or transformed. You may be familiar with Joseph Campbell's modern exploration of this narrative template in his work,?The Hero with a Thousand Faces.?It is not reaching the goal that makes a story meaningful; it is the transformation and arc of the character. The external struggle serves as a vehicle of transformation.
Spoiler Alert:?Skip this paragraph if you haven't watched Avengers Endgame. Take the character Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man) from Marvel's blockbuster series. He is the most narcissistic and selfish character depicted in the franchise. He battles the shadow of narcissism from the first Iron Man movie and in every subsequent film. In the final battle scene between Thanos and Earth, the most selfish character does the most selfless thing you can, willfully giving his life for others (in the defeat of Thanos). Thanos' defeat is secondary to the most emotionally moving aspect of the film, the inner transformation of Tony Stark. Tony Stark was not the same man we met at the beginning of that franchise; he is a transformed human. Selfless love, not selfishness, defines him now.
Life is very much this way, so the hero's journey is helpful to explore because?we too are story.?We interpret reality through what we know, and what we know is based on our childhood, experiences, successes, and failures.?Our story?is how we interpret ourselves and identify/relate to one another. Yet, not every moment in our life is valued the same. We have?transformative moments?in our story that are most memorable, most shaping.??
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These shaping moments come in many ways: hurt, pain, adversity, betrayal, love, loss, victory, success, and failure. Why do these external struggles, especially failure, shape us so profoundly? It's because we come in contact with the deepest aspects of our humanity when our weaknesses, shortcomings, and limitations are exposed. We must confront our reflection and the darkness we sometimes find. Acknowledging what comes out of us when life shakes our cup (it's probably not just pure, holy water) provides a pathway to internal transformation.
As we wrestle and reconcile with our failures and painful moments in an honest and self-reflective way, we encounter opportunities to be courageous in our willingness to change. This doesn't mean we minimize the event as?only?learning lessons. External struggles are not meaningless, and the fact that they are meaningful makes them powerful character forging events. However, these challenges are circumstantial and fleeting—pain and adversity don't last forever. The more we identify adversity as an opportunity, both in leadership and life, the more we grow in our character from all of our lived experiences.?
The Leader's Journey
So how is this template helpful to those who are in or who are aspiring to leadership? Every leader remembers their first real call to leadership and the challenges/successes of those first years as a leader. If you have been at it a few years, you probably remember your first big leadership failure. If you don't, give it a few more years (or tune in to hear about how you might need a dose of our first character trait, self-awareness). The real question is, how did you, or how will you, respond to this failure? Will you run from the pain and the opportunity to grow? Or, will you recognize your fault and reckon with the lack of character inside yourself that led to failure? Yes, a lack of character. We will all lack the substantive character necessary to navigate leadership wisely, at times.
It is when we fail to fail well that it leads to a much bigger fall. Many of the most significant falls in leadership, from companies to churches, were because the leader did not have sufficient character to support the position of power entrusted to them... and they were unwilling to acknowledge it. In every case, they and the people they served suffered as a result.?
This process does not need to be condemning or shameful; it actually shouldn't be if done healthily. Self-compassion and patience with the self are essential leadership characteristics too. Leadership is hard. Typically, the most criticized individual within an organization is the person at the top. Every decision, or indecision, is weighed and judged by those that follow you. We all hope that when our people judge, the balance of confidence tips in our favor. Leadership is a vulnerable exercise, but get used to it because we all have a long journey ahead of us.?
Embrace the "Journey Mentality"
None of us are perfect, and reconciling this truth is necessary as we can't demand it of ourselves nor our people. To require perfection alienates us from our humanity. To be broken and make mistakes is part of being human. All we can demand, first of ourselves and then of our leaders, is to do our best to respond appropriately.
As we move through life as leaders, we never arrive, and we never finish growing. We must embrace the "journey mentality." Vulnerable leading, failing honestly, and pushing through hardship is not a single exercise; it is a cyclical journey of iterative transformations. Sometimes the lessons are big and painful, sometimes they are quiet and gentle, but the invitation is always to see failures and adversity as gifts.?
Let's now make this more concrete. As we continue the journey from the call to lead, to encountering failure, growing, and then mentoring and coaching others, there is no shortage of opportunities. How do we do this? This is a virtuous self-enforcing cycle that we can tap into with simple reflective contemplation. Why did that happen? What role did I play in that conflict? What action, or inaction, did I make that prompted that crisis? Perhaps it was out of our hands, utterly uncontrolled chaos. Well, how did you respond when you couldn't manage and control? This quiet, reflective experience helps build character because our story shapes who we are whether we like it or not—but by?engaging with our story,?it becomes intentional and transformative.
This does beg a practical question though, what character traits should we be building? There are many, but I believe seven unique and distinct leadership traits forge the strongest leaders. I'll explore these seven traits, how they connect, and the fruit they produce in future posts.
Let's press on in this journey together!
Office Manager
2 年You are so intelligent and I am so proud of you.
Pangea.io (Ex-BibleProject)
3 年If you don't believe me, check out this TED Talk on Failure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJRopau0g0
Partnership Director - Distribution and Marketing @ The Chosen
3 年Also, this artwork is ?? Andrew Imamura
Partnership Director - Distribution and Marketing @ The Chosen
3 年Another great article Aeron Sullivan. I’ve really been resonating with your vulnerability and willingness to see the big picture in the midst of trials. Keep it up.
Technology Strategy & Leadership | Public Sector | Public Safety & Justice
3 年Well said Aeron Sullivan. The journey of leadership is a character building exercise in itself and we are somehow trained to look for a finish line when in reality the journey is endless. Looking forward to reading more