At the Bush Foundation, we "invest in courageous and effective leadership." That’s a great headline, and I have to admit that when I saw it for the first time in the Foundation’s vision statement, I got pretty excited.
 
However, saying we support it and knowing what it is are not necessarily the same thing. And even if we know what it is, how do we create more of it? On this the Bush Foundation certainly doesn’t have all the answers. And so we are on a relentless journey of discovery.
 
In that search, four people have shaped my personal thinking about courageous leadership—Robert Greenleaf, a Minneapolis elementary school student named Andernetta, Ronald A. Heifetz and Parker J. Palmer.
 
Robert Greenleaf came into my life many, many years ago, when I read about his concept of servant leadership—a leader is first and foremost a servant to his or her followers. Greenleaf says leaders provide "certainty and purpose” to those they serve by “going out ahead to show the way." The focus on "showing" is radically different from the notion of leaders as authority figures telling the rest of us what to do. Leaders have to walk their talk and are accountable to those they serve.
 
Some years later I met Andernetta. She was in elementary school in Minneapolis and had just been asked by her teacher "What is a leader?" Andernetta didn’t hesitate for a second: "A leader is someone who goes out and changes things to make things better." What a fantastic and eloquent distillation of the job of leader—not a protector of the status quo, but a catalyst for change; and not just any change but change for the better.
 
Greenleaf and Andernetta taught me a lot about leadership, but what about the meaning and sources of courage?
 
In his book Leadership Without Easy Answers Ronald A. Heifetz’s argues that the central challenge facing leaders is in making change when you know a problem exists (from the stress it creates), but don’t know how to solve it and cannot find an answer using the traditional tools of technical analysis and authority. Of this quandary Heifetz wrote, “How to manage sustained periods of stress … poses the central question for the exercise of leadership.”
 
Heifetz joined with John V. Kania and Mark R. Kramer to describe what this means for foundations in "Leading Boldly," published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Their conclusion:

Adaptive problems require ... the stakeholders themselves (to) create and put the solution into effect since the problem is rooted in their attitudes, priorities, or behavior. And until the stakeholders change their outlook, a solution cannot emerge.   Therefore the central task of adaptive leadership is mobilizing people to clarify what matters most, in what balance, and with which trade-offs. People and institutions that lead must harness, manage, and ultimately defuse conflict. … Tools that depend on a known answer and the authority and organizational capacity to impose a solution are not likely to be effective....   Getting people to pay attention to tough issues is the heart of adaptive leadership. This is an especially potent tactic for foundations, as they are in an unusually strong position to direct attention to specific issues....   If foundations are to become effective institutions of adaptive leadership, they must understand the value of employing their expertise, political access, media skills, and bold strategies, rather than just their grant dollars, to generate change in society. They should reject the artificial dichotomy between proactive and passive grant making, and firmly lead social change without imposing the answers.

Now there’s a challenge—lead without knowing the answer or having the authority; lead by embracing the conflict inherent in tough problems; use the energy of the conflict to power the change necessary for resolution. In this formulation courage comes not from knowing and imposing but from not knowing and trusting in the power of conflict (something we fear) to generate answers.
 
Finally, Parker J. Palmer connects fear with the courage it takes to lead. Palmer is best known for his book Courage to Teach and his work helping teachers reclaim the passion for their profession. In 2000, he wrote Let Your Life Speak, which includes a key chapter on “leading from within.” In that chapter he challenges leaders to face their fears rather than projecting them onto those they serve.

A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light upon some part of the world, and upon the lives of the people who dwell there. … Leadership is hard work for which one is regularly criticized and rarely rewarded, so it is understandable that we need to bolster ourselves with positive thoughts. But by failing to look at our shadows, we feed a dangerous delusion that leaders too often indulge: that our efforts are always well- intended, our power always benign, and the problem is always in those difficult people whom we are trying to lead! … If we, as leaders, are to cast less shadow and more light, we need to ride (our) monsters all the way down, understand the shadows they create, and experience the transformation that can come as we "get into" our own spiritual lives.

Palmer’s message is powerful: Courageous leaders face their fears rather than projecting them onto those they serve.
 
I am grateful for the lessons these four have given us about courageous leadership:

		A leader must first be a servant.
		Leaders change things to make things better for those you serve.
		Leaders embrace the conflict inherent in tough problems and use the energy to discover solutions.
		They can do so because they have embraced the conflict, and fear, from within.

From those lessons we have crafted this working definition of courageous leadership to help guide our work.

Courageous leaders embrace the conflict inherent in tough problems. People and institutions that lead courageously harness the energy released through conflict in order to mobilize entire communities to discover solutions that foster adaption of community members to one another and their changing conditions and improve their quality of life. Courageous leaders face their fears rather than projecting them onto those they serve.

Learn about...
The Foundation goals to:

Develop Courageous Leaders and Engage Entire Communities in Solving Problems
Support the Self-Determination of Native Nations
Increase Educational Achievement

Parker Palmer’s Center for Courage and Renewal


To approach the Foundation with an idea or to ask a question, contact a member of our staff.