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

"The gift of change"

Column 7 on Max De Pree's Leadership Jazz
February

The gift of change

February is not necessarily known as a time for change.  For those still embraced by winter cold the hope of spring change is just appearing on the horizon.  In the United States we highlight two days in February:  Valentine’s Day and Presidents’ Day.  Both in their own way celebrate the kind of change that Max De Pree underscores in Leadership Jazz.  De Pree calls leaders to ponder some of the gifts they can offer:  space, opportunity, challenge and clarity, meaning and accountability and a culture for change.

Max lists these gifts as fundamental to the task of leadership, essential to the relationships between leaders and followers.  Valentine’s Day sees them through the eyes of love.  And Presidents’ Day adds the perspective of history.  In all three instances we are looking at gifts given and received by persons in relationship.

Space

Good leaders give us space to be the kind of person we can be.  They provide room for followers to explore their abilities, to polish their gifts, to enlarge their competencies, to test their creativity.  By protecting space for others to grow leaders reduce the risk of change and unleash potential for the organization.  When candy and flowers change hands on February 14 we think more of intimacy than space.  Yet long-term lovers know that relationships mature only when we allow the other space to become the person they were born to be.  Relationships of love, like relationships of work, atrophy when we try to keep another conformed to the person we want them to be.  This of course is the principle that launched the independence the United States acknowledges in the presidency of George Washington and the equal potential of human kind celebrated in the remembrance of Abraham Lincoln.  Space to risk change may be the single most important gift we can give to one another.

Opportunity

Effective leaders offer us the opportunity to serve others, to use our abilities, experience and interests for a larger good – opportunity to learn, to grow, to contribute.  Opportunity harnesses potential to purpose.  It is a gift that enables us to see beyond ourselves.  Valentine’s Day celebrates the opportunity to love, to invest oneself in the happiness and potential of another, to affirm who that person is becoming.  And Presidents’ Day of course is all about opportunity.  It celebrates the establishment and reformation of a way of living together and governing ourselves that prizes individual opportunity and service to one another.  The gift of change is wrapped in opportunity.

Challenge and Clarity

Effective leaders articulate clearly the constraints within which we work and live creatively.  Leadership is not about removing obstacles, but rather about challenging us to design a way around, through or over the hurdles.  Challenge is an invitation to stretch, to change the way we think and work, to become and achieve more than we are today.  The challenge of Valentine’s Day is usually obscured by hearts and candy and flowers.  Behind this praise of passion however is the hard work of relationship and commitment.  To commit ourselves to a person who is still growing is a risky challenge, a promise to be there in someone’s future without knowing where change will lead.  For Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln the challenge of change was huge.  They called for a bold experiment in independence, interdependence and equality.  The constraints of government defined the laws of the land and articulated the equality of freedom.  Challenge is the expectation that we will change if we want to grow. 

Meaning and Accountability 

If leadership provides clarity around the challenges that invite growth, it also articulates vision in a way that gives meaning and shapes accountability in the measurement of change.  Change for change sake satisfies no one.  Change is about learning and growth, about being and becoming.  It is about movement and meaning.  Leadership asks:  Why?  Leadership clarifies purpose and progress and cares enough to provide accountability enabling us to see where change is leading.  It gives meaning and worth to our work. The heartbeat of Valentine’s Day is the meaning of love in the commitment of relationship.  Any lover who ignores this day learns quickly the accountability of meaning.  Through the American Revolution and the Civil War two presidents defined meaning by demanding accountability.  Meaning and accountability circumscribe healthy change.

A culture for change

Good leaders model and create a culture for change.  Long term lovers embrace an ethos of change.  Presidents promote the progress of change.  A culture of change reveals the quality of relationships, the vision of leadership, the effectiveness of followers and the necessity of trust.  Leading change raises the visibility of leaders whose every action incarnates the beliefs and values of the organization.  It requires lavish communication and a vulnerable openness to the scrutiny of others since change starts with the leader.  Leadership models and gifts change allowing followers to grow and realize their potential.

Questions to ponder:

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