What We're Missing Is Leadership
There is the old saying that 'you can't legislate morality' meaning you can't create enough laws to force people to do the right thing. No amount of punishment or enticement will ever be enough to get everyone to toe the line all the time. Even the threat of the death penalty isn't enough to get everyone to agree not to murder others. Most of us speed in our cars knowing that at some point we'll get caught, pay a ticket, and move on. Its worth the one time expense for most of us to get where we're going a little quicker all the times we don't get caught. No one has been convinced by the threat of fines that going the speed limit is the right thing, we just all poke at that line until we get caught.
Its the same with a lot of other things. Why are there bottle deposits? To encourage people not to litter. Do I think someone should have to be incentivized not to chuck their trash out the car window? Absolutely not, but here we are and the roads always have plenty of trash on them. Why do we have signs telling people to stay off the grass? Because someone puts a lot of work into maintaining that grass and they know if you walk on it you'll ruin it. Human nature isn't about doing the right because we want to, usually its a constant equation in our mind of how right of a thing are we willing to do competing with the convenience we get from doing the wrong thing.
Sometimes though, people will allow themselves to be inconvenienced into doing the right thing, the harder thing. Its not because they are forced to through threat of punishment or promise of reward, but for a much simpler reason.
Belief.
Belief, true belief in something than inspires people to do all manner of things. I don't mean simply religious belief which is obviously one example, but also non-theological belief in goals, purposes, or causes. People who are foster parents not because its easy or they are looking for the money, but because they believe in what they are doing. Someone who starts a meal service for the homeless, certainly they don't do it because its easy but because its right and they believe in that rightness. An individual who spends their free time picking up trash on the highway because they believe in leaving the world a better place than they found it.
When people with a belief can inspire others to have a similar belief, this is leadership. True, good leadership is not dictating orders and laws or mandating what you can and cannot do, but rather inspiring people as to why they should or should not do something and making them believe it so completely, that they have no desire to do anything differently.
Our national and global leaders in this crisis have lost sight (if they ever knew it) of what true leadership is. We don't need laws and rules and detailed dissections of freedoms, we need our leaders to inspire us. A good leader at any level whether doctor, governor, president, or local politician would not be telling us what to do with a threat of punishment, but inspiring us as to why this is important.
If you think back to some of the most iconic speeches of our time, they have no partisan name calling, no threats of what will happen if you don't get on board. There is no fear, there is simply a message that speaks into the heart of all that unites us, and rallies all towards the common goal. George W Bush in his first speech after 9/11 begins simply with 'Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and Freedom will be defended'. That line cut through all the politics at the time, and rallied a nation in a time where we were in shock. There were no threats to what would happen to those who did not support the effort, and no incentives to comply. It was simply a statement of why we should believe, what we would be agreeing to by believing, and that we would overcome. FDR's speech after Pearl Harbor was similar '... a date which will live in infamy, was suddenly and deliberately attacked...'. The statement is powerful and stirs everyone who listens to action. Before Pearl Harbor the US viewed the wars as other peoples problem and the isolation movement was not a small one. After Pearl Harbor and FDR's speed, no considered isolation, everyone was behind the war effort to an extent that we have never seen its kind again the US. Neither of these speeches start with 'because of the actions of those scum on the other side in congress' or 'because of past political failures', no they were rallying cries to unite even though the cost would be high and it would not be easy.
JFK uttered his famous sentence 'And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' as part of his inaugural address. He was inspiring people not to sit back and watch what others would do to support the cause, but to call on all Americans and then people of the world, to do their part, not because they were forced to, but because they were inspired to.
How different would this pandemic have been, if leadership around the world had addressed it more like this? If inspiration had been the goal as opposed to fear. There is much to fear in the world right now, but there is no fear that cannot be overcome if we are united in our goal. What if we didn't have Stay at Home orders and fines? What if we didn't have mandatory cancelling of hospital appointments but rather an understanding of what was critical and what was not? What if the world had handled this not as a matter of throwing policies at people, but rallying their people towards a common goal? What if we all believed in protecting our most vulnerable, staying home not because we had to but because we wanted to, supporting our businesses that are in ruins with thoughtful planning, and in all of this, we worked towards a common goal because we believed in it.
We will never win by shouting the loudest, and fighting on Facebook will never convince anyone to our cause. Maybe its time that we all begin to approach this differently and if we cannot count of our leadership around the world to actually lead us by inspiration instead of fear, we remind them how to do it.
Its the same with a lot of other things. Why are there bottle deposits? To encourage people not to litter. Do I think someone should have to be incentivized not to chuck their trash out the car window? Absolutely not, but here we are and the roads always have plenty of trash on them. Why do we have signs telling people to stay off the grass? Because someone puts a lot of work into maintaining that grass and they know if you walk on it you'll ruin it. Human nature isn't about doing the right because we want to, usually its a constant equation in our mind of how right of a thing are we willing to do competing with the convenience we get from doing the wrong thing.Sometimes though, people will allow themselves to be inconvenienced into doing the right thing, the harder thing. Its not because they are forced to through threat of punishment or promise of reward, but for a much simpler reason.
Belief.
Belief, true belief in something than inspires people to do all manner of things. I don't mean simply religious belief which is obviously one example, but also non-theological belief in goals, purposes, or causes. People who are foster parents not because its easy or they are looking for the money, but because they believe in what they are doing. Someone who starts a meal service for the homeless, certainly they don't do it because its easy but because its right and they believe in that rightness. An individual who spends their free time picking up trash on the highway because they believe in leaving the world a better place than they found it.
When people with a belief can inspire others to have a similar belief, this is leadership. True, good leadership is not dictating orders and laws or mandating what you can and cannot do, but rather inspiring people as to why they should or should not do something and making them believe it so completely, that they have no desire to do anything differently.Our national and global leaders in this crisis have lost sight (if they ever knew it) of what true leadership is. We don't need laws and rules and detailed dissections of freedoms, we need our leaders to inspire us. A good leader at any level whether doctor, governor, president, or local politician would not be telling us what to do with a threat of punishment, but inspiring us as to why this is important.
If you think back to some of the most iconic speeches of our time, they have no partisan name calling, no threats of what will happen if you don't get on board. There is no fear, there is simply a message that speaks into the heart of all that unites us, and rallies all towards the common goal. George W Bush in his first speech after 9/11 begins simply with 'Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and Freedom will be defended'. That line cut through all the politics at the time, and rallied a nation in a time where we were in shock. There were no threats to what would happen to those who did not support the effort, and no incentives to comply. It was simply a statement of why we should believe, what we would be agreeing to by believing, and that we would overcome. FDR's speech after Pearl Harbor was similar '... a date which will live in infamy, was suddenly and deliberately attacked...'. The statement is powerful and stirs everyone who listens to action. Before Pearl Harbor the US viewed the wars as other peoples problem and the isolation movement was not a small one. After Pearl Harbor and FDR's speed, no considered isolation, everyone was behind the war effort to an extent that we have never seen its kind again the US. Neither of these speeches start with 'because of the actions of those scum on the other side in congress' or 'because of past political failures', no they were rallying cries to unite even though the cost would be high and it would not be easy.
JFK uttered his famous sentence 'And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' as part of his inaugural address. He was inspiring people not to sit back and watch what others would do to support the cause, but to call on all Americans and then people of the world, to do their part, not because they were forced to, but because they were inspired to.
How different would this pandemic have been, if leadership around the world had addressed it more like this? If inspiration had been the goal as opposed to fear. There is much to fear in the world right now, but there is no fear that cannot be overcome if we are united in our goal. What if we didn't have Stay at Home orders and fines? What if we didn't have mandatory cancelling of hospital appointments but rather an understanding of what was critical and what was not? What if the world had handled this not as a matter of throwing policies at people, but rallying their people towards a common goal? What if we all believed in protecting our most vulnerable, staying home not because we had to but because we wanted to, supporting our businesses that are in ruins with thoughtful planning, and in all of this, we worked towards a common goal because we believed in it.
We will never win by shouting the loudest, and fighting on Facebook will never convince anyone to our cause. Maybe its time that we all begin to approach this differently and if we cannot count of our leadership around the world to actually lead us by inspiration instead of fear, we remind them how to do it.
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