Rule #46
Tough leaders wear their hearts on their sleeves

By Alan Webber
(buy book here)

Every year for the past four years the Waldzell gathering has had some of the world’s most inspiring men and women as speakers. And every year, regardless of who these famous people are or what they say, they are upstaged by an anonymous group of presenters: the Architects of the Future—young men and women chosen each year for the work they are doing to offer hope and help to the neediest people in the world.
They are not literally architects. Paulo Coelho gave them the name after he’d championed the idea of bringing together a group of young people from around the world as part of Waldzell. The thought was to give talented young social entrepreneurs a chance to learn from the world’s thought leaders.

But here’s the remarkable part: every year it’s the Architects of the Future who do the teaching, the inspiring, and the uplifting. It doesn’t matter who else is on the program. The people who come to Waldzell always leave talking about the work the Architects are doing. Although each one is given only five minutes to describe his or her project, the Architects always get a standing ovation. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Richard Alderson from the U.K. who’s training India’s next generation of social entrepreneurs, Denisa Augustinova from Slovakia who’s building a non-profit to help at-risk children, Sari Bashi from Israel who’s offering legal protection to 3.4 million Palestinian refugees, or Ridwan Gustiana from Indonesia who’s providing emergency medical help in his country, the response is always the same: deep respect, admiration, and thankfulness that each is doing the work they’ve chosen.

Now here’s the question: Why is it that when you have a chance to listen and talk to Frank Gehry, Isabel Allende, or Craig Venter, you end up moved and inspired by Nazrul Islam, Ola Shahba, and Ruth DeGolia?

The answer is that these young social entrepreneurs give us what we desperately need and want: they are pragmatic idealists. They are tough enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves. They bring us the rugged romanticism of young people who believe they can change the world, and are willing to do the hard work to make it happen. That mix is what the world desperately needs, secretly wants—and will do everything in its power to disparage and discourage. What’s inspirational about these young people—about tough and loving leaders everywhere—is that they are doing it anyway.

Most of the time when it comes to the pairing of toughness and love we get one or the other. Business magazines are filled with profiles of tough leaders who use their power in familiar ways: to make money, to build a career, to gain fame. Social causes are often championed by leaders who encourage us to show our love to the have-nots of the world: to be generous, to reach out, to show compassion. The first tell us to accept the world as it is. The second tell us to wish the world could be different. Neither is much of a surprise.

What’s different about leaders who are tough enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves is that they have a clear-eyed commitment to change that actually works. They are interested in more than good causes—they have to be real causes that stand a chance of winning. There is no honor in noble failure; radical pragmatism points to real results.

We’re all tired of watching well-intentioned change agents sacrifice their lives in the name of doing good. We’re tired of dying for our causes. We want to live for our causes—and see our causes succeed.

So What?

Jean Shinoda Bolen is an internationally acclaimed Jungian analyst and a professor of psychiatry at the University of California. Recently I heard her tell the story of Procrustes taken from ancient Greek mythology. According to the story, Procrustes would set up his famous bed on the road to Athens. As a traveler approached, Procrustes would size him up: if he were tall, Procrustes would set the bed to be short; if he were short, he’d make it long. Each traveler would lie on Procrustes’ bed. Parts that were too big for the bed were lopped off; parts that were too short were stretched. Every traveler left the bed altered to fit Procrustes’ formula.

Today the Procrustean bed cuts and stretches business leaders and social activists to fit a modern mold. Tough-minded business leaders have their hearts removed before they can continue on their journey to Athens in search of success. Soft-hearted social activists have their toughness removed before they can set off to do their work of making change. Both end up badly served by Procrustes’ bed.

The world is hungry for heart and for effectiveness. Not one at the expense of the other, but both together. That’s what the Architects of the Future represent—inspiration and implementation. They make change through the current of inspired action.
Whether you’re an aspiring social innovator or a corporate change agent, it’s worthwhile to take a look at where you started and where you are now. Have you unknowingly submitted to Procrustes’ bed?

When you started your work what motivated you? Did you have a commitment to doing things differently? As you’ve made decisions along the way, how has your original intention changed? No doubt, if you wanted to bring change to the world, the world has pushed back—that’s how it works. Or if you sought to be a different kind of leader in a company, you’ve had resistance from within—no surprise there. But it’s useful to take stock of the way you’ve reacted to the push back. Have you gotten softer? Or harder? Have calluses covered over your heart? Or has a steady diet of defeat made you accept losing as your portion?

Now comes the hard part. Have you changed tactics—or have you compromised your values? Have you changed course—or have you abandoned your course?
The world is not an easy place for those who seek to change it. It doesn’t welcome with a warm embrace those who say that the status quo is inadequate and who argue that just because things are the way they are now doesn’t mean that’s they way they’re meant to be tomorrow.

That’s okay; that’s the Procrustean bed. Today there is another way to play the game: we’re seeing the emergence of a new kind of leader. Today we’re seeing leaders in business, government, and non-profits who combine radical hope with pragmatic solutions. These are leaders who aren’t afraid that by wearing their hearts on their sleeves they’ll be derided as “weak” or “ineffective.” Because they’ve got serious practices and real results to demonstrate that tough leaders have warm hearts. That’s the kind of leadership the world needs. It’s also what the world ultimately responds to.