Virtue Leadership and Power

“Keep this thought handy when you feel a fit of rage coming on—it isn’t manly to be enraged. Rather, gentleness and civility are more human, and therefore manlier. A real man doesn’t give way to anger and discontent, and such a person has strength, courage, and endurance—unlike the angry and complaining. The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength.”–Marcus Aurelius.

Lord Action wrote, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” When I was younger, I thought this was wrong. I thought leaders can use power for good to make the world better. While true, I did not fully understand the siren call of power that Lord Acton well understood. As an example, I doubt most people entering Congress expect to be corrupt. Rather, I expect many come to Congress with great expectations of reform and public service. Soon, however, they feel the siren call of power and it seduces many, if not most, of them. Little wonder why many Americans feel Congress is the most corrupt institution in the US.

So, what is the answer? Plug your ears to the siren call like Odysseus? That solves one problem but opens many others. Someone will use that power. Power, like nature, abhors a vacuum (Aristotle: horror vacui). Often, especially in today’s environment, that someone will not use the power for the greater good. Or if he or she does, power’s siren call quickly seduces them. The answer is virtue.

I covered virtue and its requirements in three recent blogs: Virtue and Courtesy, A Solutions-based Approach to Social Justice, and Do Not Dig Two Graves.

The first blog list above spoke directly to virtue and courtesy. It discussed the four cardinal virtues and how leaders can use them to develop effective solutions. It also discussed that while virtue was once part of the classical education most of the founders of the Republic experienced, it is no longer part of the typical American education. That may be why they took such pains to separate powers and create a government that could function without explicit virtue. It may also explain why America’s state disillusioned many of them by the 1820s (see The Radicalism of the American Revolution). Virtue, it seems, is required and you cannot engineer a government that functions effectively without it.

We need to bring virtue back into our education and our society. This is not sexual virtue, although that can be a part of it. It is virtue in the classical sense, built around the four cardinal virtues. It is both a mindset and a way of life. Piaget and Kohlberg tied moral development and cognitive development together and discussed stages of cognitive and moral development. This is important in an educational setting, as are the classic writings of Plato and Aristotle. Another thing we have learned is that virtue takes effort and continual focus. Most of do not understand the concept of virtue and then lead a continually virtuous life. Temptations and siren calls try to lead off the path. Staying on the path takes continuous effort and reflection, which requires an understanding of virtue and a defined approach to integrating it into their actions.

As I discussed in the Education Reform and Re-construction history series, the Education Institution is broken. The odds of it instituting true virtue education are probably small. Therefore, change must come from elsewhere. Organizational leaders need to step forward and bring a sense of virtue to their organizations. But they cannot just talk about virtue. They need to live it.

The figure above provides the beginning of a conceptual framework to help leaders live virtue leadership. It builds upon the virtual approach to solution development discussed in Virtue and Courtesy and brings in the elements of position, discourse, dialog. Communication and critical thinking are critical elements of effective solution development. This figure helps to show how they are related, influence each other and the need to leaders to facilitate and support effective discourse and dialog.

Position is the person’s formal organizational role and duties, as well as the informal roles people often assume. There is an old saying, “where you stand depends on where you sit.” In other words, a person’s position often shapes and defines how they engage in discourse and dialog. Depending on the position, it confers position power that people may use to control and dominate discourse and dialog.

Discourse is most often a single person communicating information. At its best, it factual, unbiased, and often leads to dialog about the information and ideas. At its worst, it is politically focused to benefit the speaker and dominate the decision-making process.

Dialog is a discussion between two or more people, designed to present ideas and discuss them. Ideally, this is a free and candid discussion that helps to build team rapport and effectively present and assess ideas. At its worst, a few people dominate the discussion and dismiss other ideas and block them.

Leaders use power to bring out the best aspects of position, discourse, and dialog and discourage abuse and domination. They understand conflict can be constructive and spark ideas and fuse them together in an effective solution. They also understand that conflict can destroy ideas and organizations. Avoidance of conflict can also suppress ideas and allow suboptimal ideas to drive an issue because of who put the idea forward and the unwillingness for others to critically discuss it. The four cardinal virtues provide tools to help leaders effectively use their position, expert, and referent power. See Types of Power and my book Thrive in the Age of Knowledge for a broader discussion of the types of power.

Temperance. A leader can be tempted to intervene in a discussion headed toward conflict to prevent it or watch the team struggling with ideas and want to just give them the solution. He or she needs to temper their natural inclinations and watch the team dynamics and guide and nudge rather than dictate approach and solutions. He or she also needs to understand when the situation requires a more assertive approach. Another aspect to consider is the tempering of steel to make it more effective. For a leader, this is deep exploration of knowledge to improve referent and expert power. It also helps to build the leader’s confidence and ability to determine when to intervene and how.

Fortitude. Fortitude is strength and courage. They build upon the tempering process. Leaders, especially junior leaders or leaders in a new situation, need the courage and strength to effectively lead and govern their teams and organizations. Strength and courage come from a deep understanding of the issues and the knowledge to employ this understanding at the right time and place.

Γνῶθι σαυτόν—Know Thyself. This admonition or advice was carved at the entrance to Delphi Temple and oracle. It was key to understanding the oracle’s prophesies. Today, it is critical to understand your inner motivations, biases, and fears.

Meditation and contemplation help to “know thyself”. This also works to maintain the calm that Marcus Aurelius speaks of. Knowing yourself and maintaining calm provides the quiet strength and courage leaders need to handle difficult situations and stress. Even when people are working well together, emotions can rise and cloud people’s judgment. Leaders need to be the calm source of strength in the center of a storm.

Prudence. Prudence is a form of wisdom, tempered with caution. Wisdom is the skill to apply knowledge at the right time and place to solve problems, resolve issues, and to execute tasks. Wisdom depends on the deep understanding gained in Temperance and Fortitude. This skill helps the leader to intervene effectively when required to keep discourse and dialog flowing in the right directions and to stimulate new discourse and dialog that support organizational goals and objectives.

Justice. In Virtue and Courtesy, I discussed Justice as the identification of stakeholders and ensuring that their issues were addressed and they had a voice in a solution approach. Another key component of Justice is to ensure the people who do the work get the credit and the organization recognizes them for their efforts and achievements. People who take credit for others’ work are not leaders and undermine the virtue environment.

The four cardinal virtues help a leader use power, without being totally seduced and corrupted by it. The virtue-based skills discussed above give the leader tools to ensure effective communication and collaboration that supports organizational goals and objectives. The leader also needs a character firmly rooted in virtue. Two key aspects are honor and integrity. The next blog entry will discuss the character elements and how they support and sustain virtue leadership.