Be What You Desire: Leading by Vulnerable Example

St. Augustine is probably not often referenced in corporate leadership meetings, but he should be.

His basic conception of identity is that we are defined by what we desire. If he is right, and I think he is, we should be very careful about what we trust, what we hope for, and what we love.

Rather than dismissing Augustine's account as too theological, too philosophical, or too abstract, we should hear it as reflecting a basic truth of human social interaction. His point is simply this:

If you don't own your desire, your desire will own you.

Ask yourself what do you want most deeply? What do you love most profoundly?

The answers to these questions will likely determine not only the object of your energy, but the orientation of your life.

• Do you desire money? If so, then you are unlikely ever to have enough.
• Do you desire success? If so, then you are probably never going to feel adequately accomplished.
• Do you desire power? If so, then you are rarely going to feel sufficiently influential.

Alternatively . . .

• Do you desire to be virtuous? If so, then you are likely to live a life that inspires others.
• Do you desire to make a genuine contribution to humanity? If so, then you are likely to care more about being good, than about being remembered.
• Do you desire to be a leader worth following? If so, then you are likely to see service as not being beneath you.

Listen to Augustine:

"Do you wish to be great? Then begin by being. Do you desire to construct a vast and lofty fabric? Think first about the foundations of humility. The higher your structure is to be, the deeper must be its foundation."

I love the inverted logic that Augustine presents. Greatness is conditioned by what we share with others. Elevation is premised on humility. Height is conditioned by depth.

His point is simple to understand and yet ridiculously difficult to embody in a "real world" that says the economic bottom line is what matters most.

However . . .

• Unless we prioritize the most basic things, we are unlikely to be good at the technical specifics that distinguish us from others.
• Unless we first acknowledge and make intentional our desires, our hopes, our fears, and our loves, we are likely to find ourselves running as hard as we can without checking to see if we are heading in the right direction.
• Unless leaders stop and take the time to slow down, dive deep, and ask hard questions about their own priorities, they will fail to model what it looks like to live into the vision that they have attempted to set for others.

Importantly, Augustine's view of identity is not restricted only to individuals. Elsewhere, Augustine says that "a people is an assemblage of reasonable beings bound together by a common agreement as to the objects of their love." He goes on to note that "in order to discover the character of any people, we have only to observe what they love."

Have the courage to ask into the shared object of love that defines your company as a "people." Have the fortitude not only to write a mission statement that you give to new employees upon hiring them, but also to live missionally in front of them for as long as they are part of your community.

In order to be the leader that others want to follow, ask those who work under you what your leadership says about what your community should love. In order to foster the community you want to lead, ask those who work under you what they love most deeply about their work. Then, find ways to bring those loves into harmony. If they can't be harmonized then the community will fail to become a "people." No matter how much money you pay, how successful your corporation, or how nice you are, there will not be cohesion and mutual trust.

Here are two take-aways from Augustine that I think all leaders need to internalize:

• Focus on the foundations of your organization--what it loves--in order to foster the type of character that you hope it will have.
• Focus on the foundations of your identity--what you desire--in order to become the leader that others not only need, but respect.

Augustine's point can be made with an analogy: Tall trees without deep roots get knocked over in strong winds. Augustine's encouragement is to be vulnerable enough to bend, but deeply rooted enough not to break.

The data is clear that simply paying people more will not create long-lasting community investment. In the end, then, listen to Augustine and do whatever you can to support those around you not simply by playing off their problematic desires, but developing them to desire what matters.