I last posted to this blog over a month ago (April 2020). At that time we were relatively early in our COVID response in Alberta/Canada. Around the world we have witnessed a multitude of varied responses to this pandemic, its health and economic impacts, and hoped for relaunch. Many of us - myself included - were wondering what the short-term and medium-term future held for our employment and business prospects, how we might make ends meet, how we could still deliver on the educational requirements of our children (hello home schooling!) and protect vulnerable family members from a premature death.
How the world has changed in a month - and not in a good way! As I write this we are seeing continued massive economic dislocation throughout the world, the first faltering steps towards (perhaps premature) relaunch, documented deaths from COVID nearing or over 400,000 globally (and more than likely an underestimate), no ability to say when normal - whatever that means - returns, and now the greatest civil strife in the USA that I have witnessed in my lifetime.
Leadership has never been more in question and never more required than now. But, I dare say, we are found wanting for courageous and selfless leadership like never before. And I recognize as I say this that not everyone's definition might include a reference to selfless and others might well define courageous as draconian and iron-fisted, not conciliatory, considered and collaborative. I lament the political posturing and bravado that somehow seems to be more the norm than ever before. And this situation prevails not just in the USA - the easy target with a reality TV persona focused on dominating the streets and bible-holding photo-ops - but also in large parts of the world from Brazil to the UK.
How have we come to this crossroads in leadership and life?
I come to back to elements of a post I first wrote back in August 2014. At that time I had just completed a book by Sebastian Haffner, written in 1978 and translated from its original German in 1979. This analysis of a prominent historical figure of our time was entitled "The Meaning of Hitler."
Right off the mark you might now question how I could reasonably tie an assessment of Hitler's reign to our current state of affairs. And sadly others would not question this comparison at all. What possible insight could I have gleaned from a book analyzing the actions of a genocidal megalomaniac? Simply this: Haffner analyzed both Hitler's successes and achievements and contrasted that against his failures and defeat. What he concluded from both was that the rise and fall in Hitler's fortune was not a result of any physical, mental, emotional, intellectual or other change in Hitler himself. He suggests that Hitler was quite dogmatic and unwavering in pursuit of his ends and the means to achieve those ends. Rather, Haffner states, "[The] key lies not in any changes in Hitler. It lies in the change and alternation of the opponents with whom Hitler had to deal." He goes on to say, "Successes always involve two [people] - and the success of one is the failure of the other. Given constant strength one can be successful against a weaker opponent and unsuccessful against a stronger one...Hitler's successes and failures become instantly explicable if one turns one's attention away from Hitler and towards his opponents at the times in question." (Underline is my emphasis.)
Haffner specifically suggested that Hitler only succeeded as a leader when he faced weak opposition, when he faced weak leaders - Chamberlain, Daladier, and others within and outside of Germany - in the years leading up to World War II. After the invasion and subjugation of Poland, and most definitively after 1941 and declarations of war on the Soviet Union and the United States, Hitler faced a decidedly different calibre of leaders in the form of Churchill, De Gaulle, Stalin and Roosevelt. He ultimately was defeated even though his character and tactics had not changed at all from those that had led to his early, spectacular successes.
When I first wrote this blog, I focused only on the external opponents of Hitler and how that changed the fortunes and outcomes in World War II. What was clearly missing from my analysis, and became even more important in the eventual devastation of Germany, was either the active participation of others in the pursuit of Nazi utopia or the acquiescence of greater portions of the population in this march of doom. Hitler not only rose to power and achieved his earliest successes because of weak or naïve external leaders. First and foremost, Hitler had the active support of those that believed as he did, saw their advancement in his actions, or were simply complicit in allowing events to unfold as they did. Hitler had willing and willfully blind accomplices. Some believed as he did. Others turned a blind eye to what was happening before them so long as they could gain or not be adversely impacted. If it wasn't happening to them (e.g., constraint/ elimination of rights, persecution, execution), they kept whistling in the dark, convincing themselves there was a greater good at play, bad things were not really happening, or otherwise pretending life was normal or better than it had been or otherwise could be.
That's where I fear we have come to now. Collectively, if we lament the state of our society and the calibre of leadership that is with us or has led us to this point, we have only to look in the mirror for the answer as to "why?". If we have looked in the mirror, we have seen the enemy and it is us. It is with this line that I understand, if not fully comprehend, the protests and riots taking place in the streets of US cities - many of which I have walked in ignorance and bliss on countless trips before now. Columbus, Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, to name but a few. I also must appreciate that we in Canada are not so distant from this level of discord and polarity. We also tolerate, incubate and ignore leaders who would divide us from each other, create enemies of others, all in the belief that we are somehow above the ideological chasms that exist elsewhere. We remain blind, naïve and complacent at our peril.
This may seem like a somewhat belaboured point, but the insight I gained from this unlikely source is that mediocre leaders, poor leaders or destructive leaders succeed not so much by what they do but by what we ourselves fail to do. If we desire different leadership, we must have the courage to look for it, to ask for it, to demand it, and to support leaders that will inspire us to some more noble goals and achievements.
If the collective WE fails to exert our own expectations and standards for the type of leadership we desire, than we likely deserve the hand we are dealt. As well, look at the experience of other nations and societies we may find that while misery loves company it's no recipe for success.
It's about the choices WE make and It's All About Leadership!
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Greg Hadubiak, MHSA, FACHE, CEC, PCC
President & Founder - BreakPoint Solutions
gregh@breakpoint.solutions
www.breakpoint.solutions
780-250-2543