The Burden of Leadership

I have been thinking about writing a post that connects the challenge of leadership with the wildfires occurring in California. Here are some thoughts on the issue.

It’s frustrating to see and hear national-level leaders and company CEOs blaming the fires on actions taken by state leaders that have nothing to do with the actual causes of the fires. Instead of extending a helping hand and support to the people of California, these so-called leaders are taking advantage of the situation to advance their political agendas. A good leader doesn’t do that.

Part of the problem is that some of these leaders have never served in a leadership role with the responsibility of directly caring for thousands of human lives. Some of these leaders are in Congress, where most of their responsibilities consist of debating, drafting, introducing, and approving bills that later become laws. However, there is a significant difference between sitting in the comfort of the Senate or House floor speaking nonsense to increase campaign contributions and actually leading and taking direct care of citizens, as governors and mayors do every single day.

Leadership is hard, and in my opinion, we need to differentiate between what a governor or city mayor does and what other leaders, such as CEOs of tech companies and corporations, do. According to Wikipedia, California has a population of 39 million people.1 Think about that number, and then think about the governor’s responsibility to manage the well-being of all those people. Then think about the mayor of Los Angeles and the responsibility of managing the well-being of nearly four million people.2 Those are staggering numbers, and just thinking about that level of responsibility sends chills down my spine.

Now consider the largest company in the world. According to Wikipedia, it’s Walmart, with about two million employees.3 Their CEO leads a large number of people, but the level of responsibility is much less than that of a governor. CEOs can fire employees to balance finances and long-term plans, but governors and mayors cannot abandon their responsibility to their citizens. Do CEOs truly care if their employees and their families have enough to eat or a place to live? Probably not as much as a governor or city mayor does. And their salaries are not even close to what CEOs earn.

As citizens, we can debate all day about what happened in California. Ultimately, it’s up to the people of that state to assess the situation and decide the path forward. Perhaps leadership and management changes are needed at the state, county, and city levels, but that’s a decision for Californians, not for politicians or billionaires from outside the state.

Expectations for leaders are high—or at least they should feel that pressure. Leaders are human and, of course, imperfect, but once someone becomes a leader, they are bound by a set of responsibilities.

My thoughts on leadership are based on the following definitions:

  1. The U.S. Army defines leadership as “the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.”4
  2. Dr. Andrew J. DuBrin defines leadership as “the ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed to achieve organizational goals.”5
  3. Dr. John P. Kotter says that, “Leadership defines what the future looks like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires them to make it happen despite the obstacles.
    • Establishing direction: Developing a vision of the future—often the distant future—and strategies for producing the changes needed to achieve that vision.
    • Aligning people: Communicating direction in words and deeds to all those whose cooperation may be needed, influencing the creation of teams and coalitions that understand and accept the vision and strategies.
    • Motivating and inspiring: Energizing people to overcome major political, bureaucratic, and resource barriers to change by satisfying basic, but often unfulfilled, human needs.”6
  4. Dr. Barbara Kellerman says that “A leader chooses a particular course of action and then, in some way, gets others to go along; or, more subtly, the leader encourages the led to ‘choose’ the course that the group will follow.”7

Based on these definitions, you can see how damaging some of the comments made by politicians in Washington and billionaires can be to the people of California and their leaders as they try to fight the wildfires and return to normalcy. These comments do not provide motivation, inspiration, cooperation, or encouragement. Instead, they are divisive, and some are simply flat-out evil.

I’m sure the people of California can pinpoint the exact causes of the fires, which may include poor leadership and management by state, county, and city officials. I’m also confident they will take action when the time is right. However, for outside politicians to pressure state officials in the middle of a crisis is wrong and demonstrates poor leadership.

At some point, the governor and city mayors will need to assess what happened and address the issues. Those responsible for maintaining water hydrants, forest management, urban planning, fire prevention, and related tasks may need to be replaced—but not now. The main priority right now is to fight the wildfires and care for the people affected by them.

In combat, if a leader is injured or killed, others step up immediately to continue the fight and achieve victory. Incompetent leaders can even be relieved on the spot because the immediate focus is on the unit’s success in the fight. However, in the case of a state dealing with wildfires or other natural disasters, firing a governor or mayor in the middle of the crisis is impractical. They are responsible for more than just the fires; there are countless other duties to manage simultaneously.

Leadership is a complex pursuit, and not everyone is capable of it. We need to be prudent in our judgment and allow leaders to work through crises. There will be a time to hold those responsible accountable, but we must also be wise in choosing who runs our government. We need leaders who will hire the best people, address critical needs, and take proactive measures to prevent future crises.

Today, we are observing Martin Luther King Day, and I want to leave you with one of his quotes:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Let leaders heed this call and extend grace to those who are working through challenges and taking care of people.

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California ↩︎
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles ↩︎
  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue ↩︎
  4. https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN18529-ADP_6-22-000-WEB-1.pdf ↩︎ ↩︎
  5. Dubrin, Andrew J. Leadership – Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. (pp. 2). Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company ↩︎
  6. Kotter, John P. Leading Change. (P. 25-26). Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. ↩︎
  7. Kellerman, Barbara. Bad Leadership. (P. XIII). Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2004. ↩︎

74 thoughts on “The Burden of Leadership”

    1. I’m really sorry to hear that your family was directly affected by the fires. I’ve started reading some of the reports about the lawsuits, and I’m sure the state and city will end up paying a lot of money to the plaintiffs.

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  4. Ambition blinds so many of these so called leaders. It is sad to witness how the impact this tragedy is having on so many people is being utilized for political gain. This is a good piece, Edward.

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  8. I think in my opinion it’s very telling that small business are trying their best to help but CEO’s and billionaires are playing the blame game. And I agree that leaders need to do better than pointing fingers, causing division when there is already so much devastation is a cruel thing to do.
    Great post, I think you looked at things both rationally and with empathy for those affected by the fires.

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    1. Thank you for your great comment, Pooja. You made an excellent point about small businesses. These small business owners are close to the community, and their interests are genuine since most of them share the same difficulties.

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  11. A great post! I admire how you logically walk us through your carefully thought-out words and values with supporting evidence. If I may offer this view, based on your 4 definitions of leadership, the current president did that: “influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission”. The mission was to get him elected. He motivated his voters by mainly using the illusory truth effect (repeating lies often enough for them to be believed) by accusing others of horrible things (ex. ‘they’re eating the dogs and cats’, ‘the evil leftists are killing babies and changing children’s gender in school’…). He’s the leader of a group of people who hold deep rage and hatred for anyone different, and have little concept of kindness or truth. Your 4 leadership definitions focused on missions and goals, and in the current president’s case, ‘mission accomplished’. Even though he divided the nation, he did lead his specific group.
    The out-of-state oligarch response to the LA fires is preposterous, blaming the governor or telling the governor to turn on the Northern California water main, when there is no such thing. These comments are the equivalent of yelling at a neighbor when their house is burning down, “This is your fault because you didn’t do something impossibly imaginary.” A good neighbor would jump in to help, by first putting the fire out, and then figuring out what caused it, and thinking about what needs to be done to prevent it in the future. Many leaders don’t have the basic traits of a good neighbor.
    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr has a multitude of inspiring quotes, however I can’t think of any that fit with the current administration. It’s on the rest of us to live up to Dr. King’s dreams as best we can.

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    1. Rose, thank you for your comments. You are absolutely right. I believe a leader can succeed in all four of those definitions, and the initial response from followers could be positive because, in theory, it seems the mission was accomplished. However, a leader’s ultimate goal should always be to improve the lives of the majority of their followers. We need to analyze the situation four years from now to determine if any meaningful improvements were achieved. Additionally, bad leadership and bad followership are a thing, and I believe what is happening right now aligns with this leadership theory.

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  12. Your noted contrast between leading an organization vs. a municipality reminded me of working for a principal who was mostly concerned about the stats… excuse me, but these are children/young adults with complicated lives, not just merely numbers that can be put into a tiny box for the betterment of a school label. So frustrating! Thank you for sharing your thoughts on leadership (or lack thereof) and the quotes you’ve provided. 🙏🏻

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    1. Stats 🤦🏻‍♂️—a horrible way to lead. Nothing compares to face-to-face interactions and sensing people’s needs on a personal level. I understand that some stats are necessary to secure funding, but sometimes leaders go overboard. Thank you, Michele.

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      1. One principal in particular was overboard, almost robotic in his emphasis on stats. A student’s growth in writing is not easily broken down by stats, or grades for that matter. Some things I don’t miss. Thank you!

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  13. Well said! Leadership is a privilege not a right to be wielded shamelessly, thoughtlessly…for personal gain. I love that you included actual definitions and examples — I love Kotter’s model. And I believe you, you, you, Edward, know far more than many because of your service and sacrifices. What a perfect post as an alternative perspective on Inauguration Day.

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    1. Thank you very much, Vicki, for your kind words. Kotter is amazing, and I really like his approach to leadership. I think he and Dr. Kellerman have been the two most influential to me in the last decade or so. I didn’t watch the inauguration, but I will definitely read the speech at some point.

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  14. Spot on, Edward! As always, you deeply touched on delicate aspects! The main focus of a leader defines their leadership: whereas money is the main focus and goal of a corporate leader, people are the main focus of a state or local leader. It’s not easy for the first to accommodate the main concern of the latest, and, unfortunately, these days even the latest are being seduced by the main focus of the first. Broadly speaking, it seems that when money is involved, people’s well-being is always partly or totally neglected. I really appreciate your post, my friend! You sensibly drove us into the backstage of an important societal question. For California’s inhabitants, extra light and love during these tough times! Blessings to you, today and always*

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    1. Thank you, Susana, for reading and for your insightful comments. You’re right—the focus on money, power, and prestige continues to derail our ability to care for people’s well-being, which is sad because there’s no higher calling, in my view, than taking care of one another’s needs. Prioritizing the well-being of family, the community close to us, and society at large is more important than riches.

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  15. I like how you’ve described leadership, Edward. Also, climate change has not occurred because of one governor or mayor’s action. There is a larger picture. We can point fingers, but with such complicated problems the solutions will come when we work together.

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    1. Absolutely! The blame game is counterproductive. The climate is changing because of decades of pollution generated by the citizens of this planet. There was a terrible wildfire in Texas last year, but I don’t remember much finger-pointing during that event. Like you said, we need to work together, and in good faith, I might add, to solve this problem. Thank you, Rebecca.

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  16. You’ve captured the essence of leadership perfectly. Leaders need to act with grace and compassion, especially when people are suffering. I love how you differentiated between the leadership responsibilities of governors and CEOs—it adds a real layer of understanding to the complexities of leadership. Your call for patience and support in difficult times is a powerful message that more people need to hear.

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  18. I agree with your findings, Edward. We do have different ideals for our leaders today, which was a surprise to me a decade ago. I don’t know why I thought we all wanted the same things, held the same beliefs.

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    1. Thank you, Mary, and it’s really troubling. Pinpointing the exact time for that change is hard. Some people say 2016, but I think it goes back, maybe, to the early ’70s when Nixon was president. But I’m not completely sure.

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  19. I really appreciate this piece. I especially liked how you point out the huge responsibilities that Governors and Mayors have and compare those numbers and responsibilities to CEOs of big corporations. Politicians get such bum raps so much of the time but most Governors and Mayors really care about the people of their cities and states and are true public servants, especially in times of crisis.

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    1. Absolutely, Donna. They truly care and do the best they can. There’s no way to perfectly prepare for every contingency, and they handle a lot of crisis management, which is not easy. Public service is a calling that not many people accept. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you, Sheila, and I partially agree with what he is saying, but he loses credibility, at least with me, when he says that the state should have C-130 airplanes flying around the city in case a fire starts so the airplanes can extinguish it quickly. The city would run out of money quickly if they did that. The airplanes can be on standby at the airport and ready for action, but not flying around for days waiting for something to happen.

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        1. Oh yeah. That, plus activating pilots and bringing them to active duty, along with maintaining those planes—I don’t think the California Air National Guard has enough pilots in rotation for 24/7 operations. It’s going to be a logistical nightmare and a lot of money.

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  23. Oh my goodness, Edward, you have clearly and graciously brought points that so desperately need bringing out. I say graciously because you make some tough, but accurate, points with politeness rather than with harsh words. Your definition of enlightened leadership and mine are the same. I was pleased to see the definition from the U.S. military. Thank you for this post.

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    1. Thank you so much, Jane. I think some politicians need to learn civility and stop playing politics in times like these. Some of them are like sharks—when they see blood in the water, they go after their prey relentlessly.

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  25. A great post for today and how true about more local leaders, the millions they have care for and unlike business leaders can’t really get rid of any. Or is that the route to fascism.
    The same though happened in the Valencia floods but it was the local leader under criticism for not understanding and warning about the scale of the rainfall due. He had taken away funding from emergency response and then blamed the national government. Meanwhile people from all over Spain went to help in the clear up.

    Unfortunately climate denial, inaction and no funding allows for weakening any infrastructure to protect against more extreme weather conditions. That’s Global, National and then local pick up the pieces.

    Democracy would be a good idea and really wise leadership in these challenging times.

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    1. Great points, especially after what happened in Valencia. Sometimes leaders get blinded by others and lose track of their priorities. Then, when something catastrophic happens, they start the blame game, which is counterproductive. Thank you for reading and for your comments.

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    1. Thank you, Melissa, and you’re right about their motivations blinding them from their responsibilities. It’s just embarrassing to see how they act sometimes. Luckily, as you said, that happens in this world and not in the perfect kingdom to come.

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