The chapters of this book, and their individual lessons, are very much intertwined and not meant to stand alone. They are intended to be short on words but long on message – especially when taken together. However, these three samples are offered in order for you to hear the author’s voice, and to illustrate how he creatively uses stories from work, and from everyday life, to define and illuminate the critical attributes of those passionate public leaders who will drive transformational change.
(From Part I – MY STORY)
CHAPTER 1: OUT OF THE CLAY
As I looked into their eyes, I could see the urgency, the intense fear that comes only in a life-or-death situation. I could feel the exhaustion, see the courage, and understand the sacrifice! I found myself caught in an emotional response, a tiny tear in the corner of my eye, a tingling in my spine. How could this be? It was only a block of clay!
Actually, it was a bit more than just a block of clay. It was a block of clay that had been molded into an incredible depiction of two firefighters in 1960-era turnout gear rescuing a fallen brother, dragging him away from the massive wall that would ultimately bear the names of those firefighters of New York State who had fallen in the line of duty. This was the last of four artistic proposals to be considered by the advisory committee.
I had the honor of being the facilitator on this important project and very much enjoyed working with this advisory group of top people representing the fire service in New York State, both paid and volunteer. They were focused, of a like mind, tough, decisive, and gutsy, exactly what I had expected of the leaders of this brave profession.
After the advisors selected a location for this memorial on the Empire State Plaza in Albany, the epicenter of New York State government, they set criteria for a figurative sculptural work. Their guidance was simple, clear, and direct, just as expected. Armed with these criteria, we began an open process for the selection of a sculptor. Ultimately, four artists were short-listed and paid a modest honorarium to prepare a three-dimensional proposal.
On the day of review and selection, each artist came before the panel, one after the other, clutching their proposals much like grade-school kids headed for show-and-tell. The first three submissions were excellent, and it would have been quite difficult to select one over the other.
Then, the fourth artist entered the conference room with a large maquette molded out of red clay as I described above. Far more impressive than any of the prior three, it was detailed with incredible accuracy from the hip boots, to the buckles on the rubber raincoats, to the cracks in the battle-scarred leather helmets. But the faces, oh those haunting faces! Aged beyond their years, they told an indelible story of exhaustion, fear, courage, and sacrifice.
I had never seen such a powerful and impressive piece of work. As I looked at the body language of the panel, firefighters all, my sense was that the competition was over as soon as that maquette was placed on the table.
The only thing this new artist had going against him was that he had never had a large commission, not one. Yet, as I expected they would, this panel of direct, decisive, gutsy guys relied on what their instincts told them and voted unanimously to award this young man his first major commission. So, not only did this decision result in a beautiful, moving, and singularly significant memorial for New York, it launched the career of a truly gifted young sculptor.
However, the story of cleaving, molding, and transforming a simple block of red clay into a spectacular work of art is not the story I want to tell. The story here is really about the transformation or the molding of the artist himself, Robert Eccleston.
Robert began his career by studying industrial design in college. He graduated through the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program and, rising to the rank of captain, spent six years as an officer in the United States Army, teaching in the Mountain Warfare School, which, he admits, he “took to like a fish to water.”
But all the while, he had an incredible gift, and his destiny lay quietly hidden within. Throughout his military tour of duty, he never forgot his love for drawing and creating. He found himself sketching whenever he could. And during his fourth year of active military duty, he sensed he was being drawn in another direction and took a continuing-education course in sculpture.
This unleashed his inner passion, and his hobby quickly turned into a commitment to pursue sculpture as a profession. Over a two-year period, he was transformed from soldier to artist, and the world is better for it as he continues to transform blocks of red clay, molten bronze, and stainless steel into beautiful works of art, both nationally and internationally.
The story of Rob Eccleston’s transformation has caused me to reflect on my own career and transformation, a career that began in architecture and construction, took me kicking and screaming into government, and culminated in the opportunity of a lifetime: the opportunity to lead people, the opportunity to transform organizations, and the opportunity to change lives. More importantly, it gave me the opportunity to make a difference!
How did this all happen? On the pages that follow, I reflect on how various events, people, and circumstances in my life influenced and molded me into what, I feel, I was destined to become from the very beginning.
Regardless of where your own career may have started or where it has taken you thus far, I suspect that you are beginning to see the potential rewards of public service and already aspire to a life of leadership. Your own transformation is well underway and you know now that you, too, want to make a difference. I can’t help but wonder how many other potential leaders are out there with you just waiting to be drawn out of the clay.
The premise of this book is my belief that such transformations are possible, that leaders are not simply born but must be molded, just as unique pieces are molded by the sculptor. And my experience suggests that the greatest public leaders have been shaped in a way such that they uniformly exhibit the five key attributes that I present and explore on the coming pages.
As I said in the preface, my goal here is to help you come to know and understand these attributes so that you can shape yourself around them, embrace them, practice them, and have your legacy of leadership guided by them.
So, as you read my stories about what influences shaped and molded me, I ask you to reflect on your own life experiences, interests, and passions and begin to discern who and what you can ultimately become. And that out of the clay, out of the raw material that is you, may emerge a truly transformational leader.
A leader who can garner the respect needed to lead people to somewhere they have never been. A leader who can create and articulate a vision of where that new somewhere is. A leader who can muster the courage to buck the status quo and defy overwhelming odds in order to get there. A leader who can sense some things that can’t be seen and skillfully employ intuition as well as data. And a leader who is believable and has compelling credibility.
My greatest hope is that, on the pages of this little book, you, and others, will hear the call to become part of a new generation of dedicated, talented, and passionate public leaders that we so desperately need to reshape, reform, reinvent, and reenergize our public institutions and restore trust and confidence in our government.
(From Part II – RESPECT)
Chapter 16: The Damn Dog!
When my wife-to-be and I were first dating, her family had a little dog, a purebred wirehair terrier, “The Duke of Meadowbrook.” Duke had been a gift to my wife’s little brother from her godfather, who believed that “every boy should have a dog.”
Wanting to be favored by the family, I tried hard to befriend Duke, who barked and growled at me whenever I came in the house or got anywhere near him. Although he looked cute, he really was an obnoxious little thing, and all efforts to build a peaceful relationship with him failed. I guess he never liked me, and truth be told, I didn’t care so much for him either.
And so, it was a happy day when I learned that my future mother-in-law, Lu Baker, wasn’t fond of the little guy either. Whenever she spoke of Duke, her statements always referenced “the damn dog.” She had not suggested a dog and was not at all happy when he arrived. With four kids to raise and a home to take care of, she didn’t need all the extra work that a dog entails. Simply put, Lu Baker found Duke to be nothing but a major annoyance.
I need to point out here that Lu Baker, a gracious descendent of the Whalen clan, had a significant repertoire of sayings. Some were, indeed, Irish sayings that had been passed down through the generations, while others were of her own creation. For example, when the kids were bugging her about “What’s for dinner?”, they were sometimes told “codfish and snowballs” or “nyet nyet on toast.” She had a seemingly endless list of these original, humorous retorts, and she would be proud that many of them are alive and well in our family today.
But one of my favorites related to Duke. As she went about her daily and weekly activities, both inside and outside the home, Lu Baker had to interact with many people, including friends, neighbors, store clerks, work associates, and the like, along with the occasional family member, sometimes even “Crazy Aunt Ruth.” (Hey, everybody’s got one!)
As you might expect, she would encounter the occasional gossip, lack of cooperation, dishonesty, undependability, unwanted advice, and many of the other kinds of common, but annoying, human behavior or interference we all experience. And when she did, Lu Baker had at the ready, “The more I see of people, the better I like Duke!”
As the passionate, dedicated, totally committed transformational leader, you are going to have days where everybody drives you crazy and you wish you had known Duke yourself. I know I still, from time to time, find it necessary to reach back for this useful phrase of Lu Baker’s.
It is just a fact of the human condition that even the best staff will, from time to time, be annoying. It is normal for them to make the occasional mistake, lose focus, forget something important, exhibit poor judgment, and so on. Figuratively speaking, in their interactions with you, with customers, or with each other, they will sometimes bark, growl, need to be groomed or fed, or make messes that will have to be cleaned up. And you can’t just scold them or throw them away every time something like this happens. Lu Baker never kicked the dog down the stairs, and neither can you.
The challenge for you is to deal with these annoyances without losing respect for your people or doing it in a way that they lose respect for you. After all, they, you, and I are just human, and the success of your transformation efforts will depend greatly upon your ability to embrace this humanity and maintain honor, dignity, and respect for all.
I know how it feels when someone brings to your attention something that has gone horribly wrong. I remember a project where our contractor got his equipment too close to an historic structure and it collapsed. Or the time we executed a contract for the demolition of a building on which we had just completed an exterior paint job. Or consider the large water-main pipe for a sprinkler system that was run right through the middle of the plush office of the institution director. And finally, the clerical error that resulted in a contractor being overpaid by several million dollars. In each case, I just wanted to throw my hands up! Who was watching the store?
But rather than hunt for the guilty, affix blame, and inflict punishment, such “malfunctions” must be viewed as learning opportunities. Your people are human, and even the best will mess something up once in a while. You need to work with them in a respectful manner as you talk about how things could have been done differently or better. An employee who has made a mistake but is treated with respect by the boss is far more likely to pay that back by trying much harder the next time.
In chapter 12, I told you about Jack Thero and the relationship he had with his teachers. Do you think for a minute that they did everything right all the time? Of course not. But no matter what had happened, he would tell the teacher what had worked well and then respectfully discussed how it could be even better the next time. They never felt they were criticized or put down.
My father-in-law, Bill Baker, an outstanding public executive in his own right, uniformly preached “emphasis on the positive.” No matter what had transpired, he searched first for the good and put the emphasis on that. There was always time later to identify and discuss opportunities for improvement.
Remember the plaque in Doc Bulmer’s office, “Essere Humano!”—in all things there must be humanity. My observation and experience suggest that this is, maybe, the most critical of all the attributes of the transformational leader.
So, now they’re ready to follow—but where are they to go?
(From Part IV – COURAGE)
Chapter 24: Stop the Car!
Many years ago, the great comedian Bob Newhart had a well-known routine where he played the role of a driving instructor. I think you will appreciate this chapter more if you take a look at the first few minutes of this skit. It’s easy to find on the internet.
If you have ever taught someone to drive, you can probably relate. I’m sure your parents can, most likely having taught you. I’ve been through the experience three times, and although our kids did rather well, there were some dicey moments. Actually, one was a rather harrowing experience, reminiscent of the Newhart skit!
It was a beautiful sunny fall afternoon and I had just finished waxing my nice, new, first-ever BMW. Needing to make a quick trip to the market, I asked our daughter if she would like to drive us. She had been one of the better students in “Dad’s Driving School,” and I thought this would be a treat for her to drive the new car. Of course, she enthusiastically accepted.
So I flipped her the keys, she jumped behind the wheel, and off we go to market. But much like Bob Newhart’s fictional Mrs. Webb, we didn’t make it very far. As my daughter started to back out of the driveway (there’s that backing-out thing again!), she was turning the wheel in the wrong direction and was going to hit the mailbox. I calmly said, “Stop.” But rather than stop, she turned the wheel in the opposite direction to make a midcourse correction—overcorrection, as it turned out. I said “STOP” again, but with a little more force. Unfortunately, rather than stop (she always was a determined young woman), she turned the wheel back again and kept moving, at which time I yelled, “STOP THE CAR!”
At that point, she slammed her foot down as hard as she could in an attempt to brake. Unfortunately, what she thought was the brake was actually the accelerator and my new, hot BMW took off with squealing tires at a high rate of speed down the driveway, straight across the road, through our neighbor’s shrubbery, skidding to a stop in the middle of his front lawn. There was dust, dirt, grass, stones, bushes, branches, and car parts flying through the air and my daughter burst into tears. At wit’s end and needing to take control, I yelled, “GET OUT OF THE CAR!”
So she jumped out of the car and ran into the house, right past her older brother, who was literally lying in the driveway laughing uncontrollably. As I got out of the passenger side and ran around the back to take the wheel, I discovered that the car was still in gear and backing up. It almost ran over me.
Yes, teaching your kid to drive requires courage. Giving up control and turning them loose is a difficult thing to do. In spite of the best instruction and coaching, one never knows what will happen. But it has to be done, unless you want to drive them wherever they need to go—forever.
This is the same courage that you, as the transformational leader, need to have when empowering people in the organization. I recall a period of time in government where “empowerment” was just a buzz word, and few people really did it right. Real empowerment means giving up direct day-to-day control and turning people loose to accomplish their work and achieve the objectives and vision of the organization. When OGS Commissioner Peter Delaney empowered me as the deputy commissioner responsible for the design and construction program, he simply said, “Go run it. Make your mark. Have fun!” And then he turned me loose.
I, in turn, empowered the people under me, understanding that this is how the organization would receive, and benefit from, the best work of everyone. Once you have mutual respect and a shared, compelling vision, people need to be given the freedom to do their own work in their own way, consistent with that vision. In such an environment, the staff knows they can pursue, be proud of, and take credit for their best work. Organizational success will be celebrated by all. But if the organization fails, it must be the leader who takes responsibility.
Unleashing the ultimate power of the organization lies in that difference between “telling” an employee and “allowing” an employee. If you could possibly think of everything that needed to be done by every employee and direct that it happen, things might be fine. There were points in my career when I tried it that way and it didn’t work. But when I figured out that people would rise up to their fullest when they were given the freedom to determine what work to do and how to do it in order to achieve the goals and vision of the organization, the results were amazing.
Think back to Dave, our director of construction at OGS. You will recall that I simply expressed an overall vision of where the construction program had to go and the goals we needed to achieve. Once I knew Dave understood it and bought into it, I empowered him to go and get it done however he saw fit. We collaborated from time to time, making sure things were tracking well, but he and the team he empowered were responsible for the great success of that program.
The organization could absolutely not have attained what it did if I had attempted to call all the shots, tell Dave and his people what to do, as it were. The reality was that these folks were closer to the work, knew it far better than I, and could best decide how to get things done. They were motivated because they knew they would own and be celebrated for what they accomplished, not me.
Similarly, on the design side, once we established the new structure of business units and set the overall goals of what needed to be achieved, the new business unit leaders were empowered much the way that Commissioner Delaney empowered me. Each was given total responsibility for the work of a specific client, enjoyed access to all the resources needed, and was allowed to determine exactly how the program for their unique client would be delivered.
The old procedures manual, filled with inhibiting red tape, was thrown out. Business unit leaders and their chief lieutenants were empowered to do things their own way, and they achieved great success. Success, I might add, that would not have been realized had I not “handed them the keys.”
The leader must not be afraid to be less than the smartest person in the room! You are, most likely, surrounded by many people who are smarter than you in a range of areas and filled with good ideas. This is a wonderful situation in which to find yourself, as long as you have the courage to empower them and let them play a meaningful role in building the organization that you envision.
For your organization to reach its ultimate level, everyone in it needs to achieve their own full potential. If we view each person as a little power plant, all of the power plants need to be running at full steam. To accomplish this, people need to be given guidelines, goals, and objectives consistent with the organizational vision, but then given their head, given significant autonomy to move forward and do their jobs as they see fit. Every time you take something out of their hands and do it, direct it, or decide it yourself, you erode that power and the ability to achieve full potential.
The empowerment of subordinates requires great courage on the part of the leader because things can go wrong, sometimes big-time wrong. The organization might fail to deliver services, desired performance might fall short, or some major screw-up might happen. There is risk associated with empowering subordinates, and the leader’s job is always at risk. But as I mentioned in an earlier chapter, empowerment is the route to the feeling of self-worth of the individual or, as I’ve described it, the holy grail of transformational leadership.
Consider the old parable of the chicken and pig and the eggs-and-bacon breakfast. Which is more committed? Well, the chicken is simply “involved” by providing the eggs, but the pig is clearly committed, all in, fat in the fire, so to speak.
That’s what you as the transformational leader need to be: totally committed, all in. You have to lead, create the vision, help set the guidelines, and so on, but then let go! It takes real courage to know that your fat is in the fire and fully dependent on those you empower and how well you empower them! If they succeed, the entire organization celebrates. If they fail, it’s on you!