Map Insights
By Joey A. Bermudez
In this season of Lent, it is
timely to think about the way the greatest leader of all time was
welcomed enthusiastically by a throng that crucified him less than
a week later. As a young man, I could not make sense of this piece
of history. Now that I have seen enough of leaders’ fates in
corporate life and in public service, I know better.
Leaders are often larger than life because their followers make them
so. Whether they admit it or not, people know right from the day they
anoint their leader that he is not exactly built to their specifications.
Yet they gloss over his many imperfections as they get carried away
by his take-charge attitude and his ability to get things done. They
naively imagine him to be their knight in shining armor, the one who
will take all the risks for them and pluck them out of their sordid
state, the all-mighty superhero who will single-handedly trounce the
evil legion, rescue the damsel in distress, and then cursorily acknowledge
the adulation of his awe-struck fans. This explains the phenomenon
of the "honeymoon period" with new leaders. When the romance
is over, people realize that their superhero also blinks, that he
backs off more often than he should, that he is no more than life-sized,
someone who cannot possibly deliver all the lofty expectations they
unilaterally wrote into his job description. Disappointed, they transit
from feeling "they were had" to taking offense at their
superhero’s "sins of omission." They start to turn
against him. As they gang up on him, they magnify his imperfections
and begin to see flaws that aren’t even there. Remember, it
was they who made him larger than life in the first place. As he diminishes
in their view, they mount a new search for the next superhero. This
was how it was with Jesus Christ. This was how it was with the great
leaders of nations and global corporations who rose to the pinnacle
of fame and fell like Humpty Dumpty.
In the real world of rice and fish, there are no superheroes. But
people cling to the self-deceiving thought that they can find someone
who is not only honest, incorruptible, courageous, and competent but
has vast experience, has exceptional IQ and EQ, has great management
and administrative abilities, has political savvy, has great social
skills, has enviable diplomatic talent, and has inexhaustible patience.
They point to icons who "measure up" to these exacting standards.
If truth be told, they merely extrapolate from the little they really
know of these icons. A preponderance of these qualities based on limited
first-hand observation plus a generous dose of anecdotal evidence
can tempt people into a sweeping conclusion that their man indeed
measures up.
But does he? Those who weren’t born yesterday know for sure
that he doesn’t.
Leaders are imperfect. The sooner we accept this, the better we can
help our leaders succeed. It is enough that a leader strives for perfection.
The rest is up to his followers. This is where great nations and great
organizations set themselves apart from the stinking heap. Where you
see great followers helping their leaders succeed, you see successful
companies and proud nations. Responsible constituents do not stop
at recruiting or electing a morally upright leader. They empower him,
share the burden with him, heed his call for sacrifice, protect him
from those who seek to undermine him, open his eyes to the treacherous
risks along the way, shield him from unjust accusations, make available
to him all the resources he needs, constructively criticize him, and
do everything to ensure that he does not stray from the straight and
narrow. Failing this, constituents can at best expect only mediocre
performance from the greatest leaders. The tragedy of the malleable
and foolish throng is that they leave a well-intentioned leader alone
after they pick him.
They mandate him to fight the powerful and the wily, but they either
do nothing to help him or desert him in the heat of battle. A well-intentioned
public servant who steps on powerful toes as he tries to do well by
his people had better watch out. As he struggles with the huge obstacles
erected every step of the way by his powerful enemies and as he swims
against the tide of bad propaganda mounted by them, he is likely to
find himself isolated, vilified, and crucified. In much the same way,
a well-meaning CEO who disaffects certain stakeholders and powerful
protégés as he clamps down on wrongdoings and conflict-of-interest
situations had better cover his back. He can expect to get stalemated
every step of the way by the operators of the informal power structure
and to get assailed right where it hurts most: his character. But
the biggest pain for the well-intentioned public servant orthe well-meaning
CEO is not the deadly stab at his character but the sad thought that
people whose best interest he had in mind can so malleably and foolishly
embrace the vicious canard being purveyed by his detractors.But great
leaders never lose. The well-intentioned public servant and the well-meaning
CEO do not get poorer by the loss of malleable and foolish followers.
Instead, they get wiser and become stronger leaders, not because they
become street smart (for street smartness is an essential attribute
only of the cunning, not necessarily of good leaders) but because
they become better choosers of followers. They invariably end up with
followers who know how to reinforce their leader and make him succeed.
On the other hand, his detractors predictably self-destruct, weakened
by their lack of credibility and sick motives. Their tragedy is that
they cannot fight in the open because their lies can only be patronized
by the unthinking mob in the shadowy confines of the anonymous grapevine.
Before an intelligent audience, it is a badge of honor to be accused
by the guilty. It is a distinct privilege to be badmouthed by those
whose breath stinks with venom. What happens to the malleable and
foolish followers? Their fate is boring but dreadful. Superhero after
superhero, they move from disappointment to frustration, from frustration
to anger, from anger to hopelessness, and from hopelessness to knocking
their heads as they ask "God, why can’t we have a good
leader?"
This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does
not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the
Philippines. The author is president of the Management Association
of the Philippines, chair of MayBridge Asia, Inc. and former president
and CEO of Chinatrust (Philippines), Inc. #