By Jack Cumming

Sometimes the next guy in line, call him Caspar Milquetoast, gets advanced to the top job. Other times, the board decides that a highly talented, creative outsider can bring fresh thinking to a drifting, moribund organization. When that happens, Caspar may have hurt feelings and move on to a new job elsewhere.

Passed Over

Whatever happens, though, Mr. Milquetoast is not entitled to the job. This came to mind recently when a CEO of a senior living enterprise shared with me his disappointment when a prior employer advanced someone else ahead of him. My acquaintance had been the COO and thought he would get the job.

But this is senior living. My acquaintance is just an accomplished businessperson and leader. The fellow who did get the job was a clergyman. That was common at one time not so long ago. You can imagine the result. My acquaintance’s new organization thrived under his leadership. His prior organization drifted.

Pretensions

A recent Olympics-inspired poll in Great Britain across 25 sports revealed that 27% thought that they could qualify for the 2028 Olympics if they started training today. Not surprisingly, younger people are more optimistic than older people. 39% of 18-to-24-year-olds think they could make it, dropping to 34% of 25-to-49-year-olds. Nevertheless, even 15% of those over 65 think they could be competitive at the 2028 Olympics.

In most corporations, and in all people-focused businesses like senior living, there are many wannabes who believe they could be better CEOs than the guy who actually has the job. Often the wannabes imagine that being CEO would give them unfettered, absolute authority to change everything and to make things “right.” As is only human, they imagine that what is “right” is what the wannabe thinks.

Moral Character

That clinging to one’s own beliefs is what philosophers call the “categorical imperative.” The categorical imperative is itself a modern version of the Golden Rule. Immanuel Kant’s formulation of the categorical imperative was rendered as: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In narcissistic reversal, it becomes, “Everyone would be satisfied if all people acted as I act.” By that concept of “father knows best,” there are many who think their dominance, if they were to become CEO or owner, would be the path toward success. Why father? We all know parents who operate on the precept of “do as I say, not as I do.” That is not a precept for leadership.

Greatness Is Rare

In truth, though, the great transformative leaders are few in any era, and fewer still attain the authority and influence to make a positive difference in the lives of many. A Google query returned just three for our time: Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, and Steve Jobs. It’s puzzling why Elon Musk isn’t on that list. Perhaps he’s a bit too roughshod. Expanding the query to all time brings in people like Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.

There are many others who are little known. For instance, some of the most quoted presidential or judicial statements were penned by unnamed, anonymous clerks. Some we do know. Some attribute “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country” to Ted Sorensen conceding, though President Kennedy elected to give it voice. The evidence, however, is that the quote originated with the president himself.

Nevertheless, there are many who toil, as the Bible would have it, unnamed in the vinyard with little regard for posterity. Some of them might rise to greatness if accidentally called to face a challenge, as Harry Truman did when he suddenly succeeded to the presidency. He might have been a mediocre president. His rivals thought he would be.

Leadership Is Not Entitlement

This rumination on the highest office in our land leads us back to our premise that “leadership is not an entitlement,” and that those who are called to lead have a responsibility beyond themselves, beyond self-aggrandizement, to use their authority and their position for the common good. For senior living, that includes not only the well-being of staff and employees but the well-being of residents and other stakeholders as well.

Leadership has to be earned. Recently, Howard Schultz’s chosen successor as CEO at Starbucks had to be replaced after he was unable to perform as expected. There is growing evidence that Andy Jassy at Amazon may not be up to the creativity called for by the larger job to which he has now ascended. He might be saved if Amazon were to be broken up into its parts: retail, logistics, video, and cloud services.

The hallmarks of great leadership are creative vision, inspiring team building, renaissance competencies, effective problem-solving, intelligent probing, staying on course, turning crisis into triumph, and on and on. The job of CEO is not a prize. Selection as CEO is only the beginning of a time of testing. The greats hit the ground running and quickly show results. The others are often just good enough to keep the job but do little to make life better for the rest of us.