Lessons of Leadership
The 1990’s restoration of our State Capitol Building brought alive the ornate building’s original design, but so much of its 19th and early 20th century functions have changed. The ground floor once served as stables for legislators’ horses. Most rooms were occupied by a small corps of executive branch administrators.
Today, with the advance of digital technology, the pace of social, economic, political disruption is accelerating.
What has not changed over time: the importance and impact of leadership. You may find relevant to your service lessons I learned as an elected representative, a minority leader, co-speaker and speaker.
Pilot—Not Autocrat
In an increasingly diverse and divided society, awash in information and misinformation, a successful leader will inspire and facilitate consensus-building:
Complex organizations like the legislature must rely on highly motivated teams whose members bring different experiences and skills to the problem-solving process.
Problem-solving will be driven by leaders who are able to steer their teams toward successful conclusions rather than trying to dictate results.
Steering is not reacting. Steering is going into a committee or caucus meeting with a well-defined outcome in mind—but with a willingness to encourage and listen to different ideas about desired ends and means. Steering is asking and inviting thought-provoking questions. It is managing an open process that enriches the ultimate consensus.
The information age you serve in has placed an even higher premium on gifted legislative pilots.
Steward of the State
We are confronted with so many challenges as a state, among them: talent development, retention and attraction in an information and service-based economy; an opportunity gap and troubling education, health and income disparities; an aging infrastructure; the impact of climate and human activity on our environment. Public policy and investment decisions regarding such issues are critically important. Good stewardship requires strong bonds of trust between citizens and their elected decision-makers:
Too often sowing seeds of distrust and cynicism about the opposing party and governmental institutions, today’s political campaigns can make it much harder for Democrats and Republicans alike to govern after the elections are over—to find common ground on the politically challenging issues requiring compromise. The tone of campaigns, for elected office and leadership positions, matters.
Successful majority leaders are stewards of the state first, who see retention of the majority not as an end in itself, rather as a means of addressing pressing societal problems. Who understand that the best long term politics is good public policy.
Successful minority leaders shed their minority mentality—the temptation to simply oppose what the majority proposes. Good public policy most often is built on a foundation of bipartisan negotiation and support.
Consensus and compromise are more achievable when leaders work overtime to earn the trust of their constituents and colleagues. Holding town meetings and writing personal reports to my constituents about issues I was struggling with, describing pros and cons and inviting dialogue, gave me more room to find common ground in Lansing. When trust is earned, constituents and colleagues may not always agree with a leader’s decisions, but they will respect the leader’s ability to listen, learn and make a reasoned judgment.
Steward of the Institution
The day following the 1992 general election, the speaker of the house asked me to stop by his office. Not only had his caucus apparently lost control of the House after more than two decades of majority status, the speaker himself had been defeated in a bitterly contested race.
Devastated though he was, the speaker wanted to congratulate me, his assumed successor. The responsibility I would bear, he offered, was to maintain the honor and civility of the institution of state government that is closest to the people.
The function of State Capitol rooms may have changed from harnessing horses to harnessing the impacts of technology, but a legislator’s success will depend on what it always has: human relationships.
Interacting with constituents, colleagues, media corps and lobbyists, holding fast to your word is a bond which a leader can never afford to break.
In an age when public dialogue is increasingly uncivil, it is the leader’s task to insist on decorum and respectful behavior in the legislative process. How an issue is debated and negotiated sets the stage for the next big issue needing resolution.
Partisan, geographic and ideological divides begin to melt away when leaders encourage legislative committees to deliberate, taking time to learn about the problems they are being asked to address, taking time to conduct oversight and evaluation of enacted programs and policies.
My introduction to Michigan tax policy was made possible by a wise, veteran committee chair who initiated for legislators a series of seminars on the history and structure of state taxation. By their calendar and schedule setting powers, leaders have the ability to institutionalize this kind of continuing education for new and experienced lawmakers. The guaranteed results will be deeper member knowledge of policies and procedures—and more collegiality among policymakers.
When, in 1992, Michigan voters elected 55 Democrats and 55 Republicans to the House of Representatives, a shared power agreement was forged. From that unusual arrangement emerged a voter-approved, landmark proposal breaking a decades long deadlock over the funding of K-12 schools. The legislative institution will be strengthened by majority and minority caucus and committee leaders who encourage in conventionally organized legislatures more shared agenda-setting, risk-taking and problem-solving.
Stewards of our government and state must ask themselves: “How do we want our leadership to be remembered after we have completed our service? Did the ideas and values we imparted inspire respect, trust and greater unity in our society? Have I left the legislative institution and state I served better places?”
How you exercise the leadership with which you have been entrusted will shape the legacy we all leave for the generations who will follow us.
