Leadership

Presidential Debates We Can Celebrate

Person with head in mouth of whale

[A version of this essay 
was first published in September 2016] 

If the world got really strange and I were asked to create a format for the 2020 presidential debates, here’s my starting point.

No gotchas.  Just simple, open-ended, non-judgmental queries a candidate can either knock out of the park or hang themselves with––depending on how well they know the person in the mirror, and how willing (and able) they are to be frank. 

The suggestions below are designed to reveal a couple of things.  

    • One, the values and priorities the candidate carries in their heart.  Leadership, after all, is perspective that helps those we serve make healthy choices.  Clarity on values and priorities at the deepest place within us is where a healthy perspective begins.  
    • Two, how well a candidate employs life’s most important activity: learning from our experience––embracing what is, no matter how painful, and allowing it to teach us.  

Further, I wouldn’t spring these requests on the candidates.  I’d give them a few days to prepare their responses.  While none of these inquiries should be that foreign to a thoughtful person, what we want from them are answers that represent what they consider their best thinking.  Which is why I would also scrap the traditional debate format.  Out-snarking the other guy isn’t as illuminating as how appropriately naked each is willing (and able) to be.  Read More

A Primal Force of Dignity

Soccer player's foot pointed to a star

I’ve wept more than once with feelings I find hard to name as I take in the USA women’s World Cup championship. 

I search my memory.  Have I ever witnessed anything akin to it in spirit: women as a unit representing a primal force of dignity?  

The closest I can come occurred in 1963.  I was 19.

I watched Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech live on TV with a dozen or so African American cleaning ladies in the day room of a bachelor officer’s quarters on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, mine the only white face in the group.  

Integrity Seeking Light

One way to get a glimpse of a person’s inner geography is to ask them to explain how a given action they have taken represents their definition of integrity. 

Further, how it reflects values indispensable to the health of the human family.  

And (especially if the person is a public figure), how they would present their position in an interactive setting with all the planet’s youth who hunger for strong examples of people worth emulating and principles worth embracing.

Obviously this isn’t the kind of request most of us this side of Mr. Rogers can respond to right off the cuff, so giving a person time for reflection is an important, and respectful, part of the exercise.  It also makes their answers much more telling.

However they respond, we learn something vital about them.  

This is the kind of inquiry that’s missing in the Brett Kavanaugh spectacle.

There’s much to learn from the drama surrounding the Supreme Court nomination of Mr. Kavanaugh, not least of all that his youthful behavior isn’t first on the list.  Yes, the details of Mr. Kavanaugh’s life are important; it’s just that they are less important than the process of discovering and evaluating them.  Establishing that process might be thought of as integrity seeking light.

Every choice we so-called adults make is an implicit statement of what constitutes integrity as we define it––our sense of what is sacred, what is essential, the values and practices we aspire to have guide our actions.  

The audience for this statement includes everyone we serve in some way––ourselves for sure, but also our loved ones, colleagues, acquaintances, and, should we be a public figure such as a Supreme Court nominee or a member of Congress or, golly, even the president of the United States, our constituency can include the world at large.  

Imagine if the confirmation process required Mr. Kavanaugh to make a presentation in any format or length he chose that conveyed the life experiences that have been most meaningful to him, what he has learned from them that he feels shapes his sense of self today, and how that shaping has taken place.  It would be great if the audience were nationwide and he was obliged to respond to follow-up questions.

A mature person, in my view, is one with a healthy capacity for reflection, for learning from his or her experiences, and for growing his or her understanding for what is essential to respond to any situation in a positive way––a way that serves the needs of the moment and, by example, the whole of humankind.  

In this spirit, imagine if all those responsible for filling this Supreme Court seat, including Mr. Kavanaugh himself, were given the opportunity to define as throughly as they could how a nominee’s fitness to be a Supreme Court Justice can be addressed in a manner that offers the world, for generations to come, an example of exceptional integrity.

That such a possibility can seem ludicrous suggests what a good reminder the Kavanaugh confirmation circus is.  Specifically, how much love, courage and persistence is required for any of us to establish a strong sense of integrity––and act on it. 

A Noose On Campus

A noose unexpectedly appears on the football field of your beloved alma mater.

If you were the institution’s president, responsible for providing perspective that might help each member of your community consider this incident in the healthiest light, how would you begin your message?

I offer you this question (along with a photo of three of my grandchildren, who are each members of such a community) because I asked it of myself and found it a useful way to deepen my understanding of the person I aspire to be.

Here’s my answer.  Read More

If You Were Moderating the Presidential Debate

If you’re like me, daydreaming of moderating a presidential debate, and are contemplating what questions, or requests, you might ask the candidates to address, allow me to share the first ten items on my list.  No gotchas.  Just simple, open-ended, non-judgmental queries a candidate can either knock out of the park or hang themselves with––depending on how well they know the person in the mirror, and how willing they are to be frank.

Read More

"The push to change the words “nigger” and “injun” in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, because the so-called offensive nature of those terms might limit today’s readership and appreciation of that literary classic, is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how we avoid taking responsibility for our feelings––and therefore miss the chance to become more awake, more whole, more useful friends to one another."

The Essay: The Gold in Niggers and Injuns