This is the fifth of ten columns published by Walter C. Wright, Jr., summarizing the message of
Max De Pree’s
Leadership Jazz

"Behavior flows from belief"

Column 5 on Max De Pree's Leadership Jazz
December

Behavior flows from belief.

December is here:  what does that mean to you?  Year-end, closing books, finishing budgets, completing records?  Or perhaps holiday celebrations with friends and family?  More likely some hectic combination of both.  Always a time of high emotion; often a period of tension and stress.

December marks another ending, creating space for the new year around the corner.  For many it pivots around religious celebrations focusing energy on formative beliefs.  For many it reconnects family with all the joys and stresses of multiple relationships. For some it reinforces loneliness and questions purpose.  A lot goes on in the month before January.

Max De Pree is very clear about his religious convictions.  He is passionate about his family relationships.  He believes deeply that behavior flows from belief -- that ethics and leadership intersect.  And he urges all of us to “take five” – to create space in our busy lives to reflect on life and leadership, theology and relationships, purpose and growth.  In Leadership Jazz, De Pree calls us to think back over our journey. 

Who has made it possible for you to be where you are? 

Upon whom do you depend for your leadership to be successful?  Leaders depend upon followers for “spirit, commitment, inspiration, expertise.”  Year-end is a good time “to ponder the nature of the contribution that other people make to your leadership,” acknowledge their efforts and say thank you.

What mistakes did you make this year? 

One of my favorite definitions of leadership is:  Leadership is the risk of deciding when the alternatives seem equal.  Leadership is about personal risk and commitment.  Often I have heard Max say that leaders are only right 50% of the time.  The other 50% is about learning.  Effective leaders learn well from their mistakes and act on their learning.  Take five and think about what you have learned the hard way this year.

To whom do you answer? 

This of course is where ethics and leadership intersect.  What defines right and wrong, morality and justice for you personally?  Max De Pree grounds his leadership on his Christian beliefs and calls us to reflect on the beliefs that shape our behavior.  What we believe is revealed in our behaviors.  And those who look to us for leadership watch and learn.  As Max says, “One of the most sacred relationships among teams of people is that between leaders and followers.  This relationship, so central and crucial, depends to an extraordinary degree on the clearly expressed and consistently demonstrated values of the leader as seen through the special lens of followers.  This is why leadership and ethics are inextricably woven together.” (Leadership Jazz, 126)

“Ethical leadership withers without justice.” 

Justice is seen in the way leaders distribute resources and results.  It shows up in the attention leaders give to those on the margins.  It sees leadership as a service not an accomplishment.  Justice asks, “What do I as a leader owe?”  It is communicated in every behavior, decision, policy and procedure.  Take five and reflect on the intersection of justice and leadership in your work.

“Leaders make room for the stewardship of limited resources.” 

This one we all recognize.  And December always underlines the constraints of our resources in corporate life, government life and personal life.  But that is the responsibility of leadership – to steward accountably those resources entrusted to our care.  What is important?  What is equitable?  What is just?  What is right?  What can we do?  What should we do?  Who is affected by the way you answer these questions?

Leaders exemplify personal restraint in their behavior. 

Once again, De Pree lifts up leaders as models and teachers.  Justice, stewardship and responsibility operate within organizational constraints.  Personal restraint however reflects what we really believe about these ethical issues.  What is valuable?  What is meaningful? What is appropriate?  Where are the edges of generous, lavish, unreasonable, indulgent, excessive, extravagant, and selfish in your mind?  Everyone defines these words out of their personal beliefs and organizational policies.  Followers expect clear definitions and modeled behavior from their leaders.

Leaders make room for the family. 

We began this series with the story of Zoe, Max De Pree’s granddaughter, revealing the deep emotion with which Max engages family.  Family taught Max about the connection between voice and touch.  It shaped his leadership and his leadership takes family seriously – both his own family and the families of those who look to him for leadership.  He encourages leaders to make family a priority in their own life and work as a source of nurture and accountability.  He also recognizes the particular responsibility of leadership to take into account the relationships of family that define every follower.  Leaders depend on the brains, hands, feet, mouth and ears of followers.  They also get the heart, spirit, health and relationships that make the follower a person.  The impact of leadership stretches beyond the relationship between leader and follower.

Leaders abandon themselves to the needs of the followers. 

Leadership is not about the leader.  It is first about the purpose or mission that determines the relationship, and second about the followers whom we seek to influence to accomplish that purpose.  The pyramid is upside down.  Leaders serve followers; followers serve the mission.  In pursuit of the mission, the needs of the followers shape the agenda of leadership.

Leaders bear pain rather than inflict it. 

Effective leadership absorbs the pain of organizational life to keep it from being destructive.  Again the upside down pyramid holds that image.  The weight of the pyramid rests on the leader, not the followers.  Leaders absorb the heat that the friction of relationships creates.  It is one of the reasons we are there.

Commitment flows from beliefs and shows up in behavior. 

Belief shapes character; character shapes leadership.  Leadership is revealed in the behavior of the leader.   “A leader’s commitments and beliefs are part and parcel of the same thing.  A true leader cannot commit herself without beliefs.  But in composing voice and touch, action must follow closely a solid sense of one’s ethics.”  (139) 

This December take five and reflect on the beliefs that shape your leadership behavior.

Questions for reflection:

  Back to top of page