Leadership, Hard Times & the Hard Work of Truth Telling
It’s July 4th and time to read again Frederick Douglass’ 4th of July speech delivered on July 5, 1852, readily and freely available online in abridged and full text. I’d suggest that we all read the speech at least once a year. The lessons abound for us all in these important and trying times and especially the lessons in leadership.
First, the scope and incisiveness of the perspective so articulately presented in this speech by a person who grew up enslaved and who had to fight to gain access to reading and writing (let alone his freedom) bears witness to the power of opportunity combined with passion for self-development, even for the seemingly hopelessly disadvantaged. Talent is talent. Regardless of race, sexual orientation, age, or ... Look for talent, look hard and then look some more.
Second, the power available by honestly and directly integrating the narrative, laying out the pieces and showing how they fit. Douglass masterfully does the work throughout his career and certainly in this speech of making sense by laying out the incongruous pieces of reality and then showing how they need to be fitted together. The work is hard and not necessarily ‘pleasing’. It may not be ‘psychologically safe’ nor is it for the faint of heart, but it is good for the soul, because, truth be known, it needs doing. Anyone who would lead, especially into and through trying times, needs to speak honestly from her or his personal truth and to see and to speak clearly in the service of making sense of the world encountered and the world envisioned.
Third, tracing truth across time. A leader who would be great, who seeks to move all ahead and not just him or herself, and not just for the moment or through the time at hand but rather to guide others deep into the future, such a leader needs to lay out the journey, to cast a sharp eye on the past, the present, and the future-- their glory, tragedy, and trajectory—and to connect them. What needs carrying forward? What should be left along the trail? What does forward or progress look like? What gaps of unknowing or self-inflicted blindness need overcoming? What remains undone or unfinished, perhaps painfully so? What fuel can the best in each of us provide for the journey? What better place might we reach? How might our journeys intertwine across time, what work might we share? Consciously travel across time and guide the travels of others.
Fourth, the potentially mind, body, and soul numbing difficulty in procuring change, even that seemingly and obviously needed. To secure change, I have long written about the need for systems thinking and structure. To procure it in the first instance requires developing felt need: what’s the threat or opportunity and just why should someone care enough to exert the required energy? Douglass never stops laying out the ‘what’ and ‘why it matters’, not in this speech and not in his life. Far before the acronym appeared, Douglass understood WIIFM and he pounds away at it, crisscrossing the terrain of individual and collective WIIFM of anyone who might listen. Obvious to the would-be change leader is by no means necessarily obvious to anyone else, let alone to the critical mass of stakeholders the change requires. To lead change, understand, articulate, refine and repeat incessantly the what and the why of it.
A few quotes from Douglass’ speech (with apologies for all the male pronouns, another legacy needing addressing to fit our evolving times and the use of which belies Douglass’ deep and ongoing commitment to and involvement with the women’s suffrage movement. In fact, Douglass delivered this speech to as many as 600 people in Rochester, NY at the invitation of the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society.):
Of the founders: “You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation.”
“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future.”
“Your fathers have lived, died, and have done their work, and have done much of it well. You live and must die, and you must do your work…You have no right to wear out and waste the hard-earned fame of your fathers to cover your indolence.”
“There are seventy-two crimes in the state of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man, (no matter how ignorant he may be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment.”
Of slavery: “Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employments for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.”
“You can bare your bosom to the storm of British artillery to throw off a threepenny tax on tea; and yet wring the last hard-earned farthing from the grasp of the black laborers in your country.”
“You declare, before the world, and are understood by the world to declare, that you ‘hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal; and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; and that, among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;’ and yet, you hold securely, in a bondage, which, according to your own Thomas Jefferson, ‘is worse that ages of that which your fathers rose to oppose,’ a seventh of the inhabitants of your country.”
“Fellow-citizens! I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and bye-word to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it; and, you cling to it, as if it were the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! Be warned! Be warned!...for the love of God, tear away and fling from you the hideous monster…”
“Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must, inevitably work the downfall of slavery...”
Douglass concludes his speech with five ‘keep the light of hope burning’ stanzas from a poem by his white colleague in abolitionist arms, William Lloyd Garrison, several lines of which being,
“That year will come, and freedom reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.”
(For more about Frederick Douglass, you might start with David Blight’s recent and highly regarded biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom You can find related links on my website and particularly within this blog)
May you and those dear to you be well this holiday and for all to come and joined in the celebration of liberty for all.