Leadership and Followership Analysis: A Message for Garica

People new to leadership often get placed in challenging team dynamics when taking over their first team. Many will have attended an introductory supervisory class that teaches them how to deal with human resources and risk management issues.? The new leader will be full of knowledge on “what not to do” but lacking in the area of leadership tools to use with the new team members. Due to the lack of leadership tools, these new leaders will seek out more experienced leaders to get advice. These conversations between new and more seasoned leaders are rarely documented but are often full of good leadership stories. In 1900, A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard (1900) was published after a conversation between leaders about leadership. This book is a short story about a man selected by a military leader to get a written document to an insurgent leader behind enemy lines (Hubbard 1900). The man chosen had to find the insurgent leader without fully knowing where the insurgent group was in the mountains of Cuba (Hubbard 1900). The summary quote of this book is, “It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies”(Hubbard 1900). Leadership skills have advanced since this book was written, but the leadership principles referenced in this book are issues that leaders of today need to develop and educate themselves about. The analysis of Hubbard’s book will focus on building trust within a team by using vision casting.

Attributes of Trust

Leaders cannot be leaders if they do not have a group of people willing to follow them. In A Message to Garcia (1900), Elbert Hubbard speaks of “loyal to a trust” as a critical component of the leadership story.? Developing trust starts with leaders working on building personal competence. In The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, Kouzes and Posner state, “The most meaningful and important way that you can take charge of becoming an exemplary leader is to make learning leadership a daily habit” (2017). Taking the time to become a student of leadership and making that fact known to the people around you helps build connections with those you lead. Brene Brown was quoted during her 2011 presentation titled The Power of Vulnerability, saying, “Start with connection” (2011). Brown describes that connecting with others is critical in creating a high-trust environment for everyone involved. Hubbard’s description of Rowan is one example of when a person develops trust, they can help an organization reach higher goals. A leader cannot just focus on learning about leadership but they must be seen putting the skills learned into action. A clear leadership vision is critical for leaders to show trust in action.

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Vision Casting and Trust

??????????? ?Hubbard ends A Message to Garcia with the following line: “The world cries out for such; he is needed, and needed badly – the man who can” (1900). This quote exemplifies the need for a leader to be able to share a vision. Kouzes and Posner are quoted in The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, saying, “Visions are projections of one’s fundamental beliefs and assumptions about human nature, technology, economics, science, politics, art, ethics, and the like” (2017). With the word vision covering such an expansive list of topics, many leaders find it challenging to create a unifying vision. Author and speaker Simon Sinek shared a vision-casting tool called “The Golden Circle” during his 2009 TEDX Talk titled Start with Why – How Great Leaders Inspire Action (2009). “The Golden Circle” resembles a three-ringed bullseye-shaped circle (Sinek 2009). The inner ring is the main focus of the circle, and it is the circle with “why” in it (Sinek 2009). Sinek believes that establishing a “why” solicits a biological response from people (Sinek 2009). “The Golden Circle” and its components replicate the human brain (Sinek 2009). The outer ring is the neocortex, and the inner ring responds to the limbic brain (Sinek 2009). Once a leader can establish their own leadership vision using this model, it leads to being able to inspire others. Inspiring others is not the final goal of vision casting but just the first step. Brene Brown addressed the second step of developing team members in her 2011 presentation titled The Power of Vulnerability, saying people need to “Believe they are worthy” (2011). A team of inspired and worthy people can be an unstoppable force, much like Hubbard discusses in his Message for Garica (1900).

Conclusion

?The story of A Message for Garica by Elbert Hubbard (1900) is timeless and illustrates the need for trust in today’s organizational environments. This analysis shows that constant leadership education, trust-building, and vision-casting are core skills needed for a leader to inspire others to become a person who can deliver a “Message to Garcia” (1900). Organizational leaders who take the time to look at the past and future to inspire others will lead teams that thrive. Many leadership voices like Sinek, Brown, Kouzes, and Posner developed theories and techniques with biological and scientific data that Hubbard could not access at the turn of the century. Human psychology and psychological research have advanced. Using techniques like “The Golden Circle” and other resources to build a clear vision will inspire others to become the leaders needed for the future. Leadership is not a new concept or a new bandwagon to jump on. It is about learning how to inspire yourself to become like Rowen and find Garica without a map or directions, but knowing your vision and communicating it to inspire others to lead.

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?References

Brown, Brené. 2011. “The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown.”?YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o .

Hubbard, Elbert. 1900.?A Message to Garcia.

Kouzes, James M, and Barry Z Posner. 2017.?The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. 6th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Sinek, Simon. 2009. “Start with Why -- How Great Leaders Inspire Action | Simon Sinek | TEDxPugetSound.”?YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA .

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