Attending City College opened up a world of possibilities for Herb, who was filled with enormous hope, dreams, and expectations. He initially saw himself pursuing law, where, as a cross between Clarence Darrow and Perry Mason, he intended to save the downtrodden, free the innocent, and then get ready to do it all over again the next day.
However, as Herb started taking his required classes in college, he was drawn to psychology—partly because he was fascinated with the inner workings of our minds and, equally, because his psychology professors were world renowned and intimately involved in some monumental changes that were occurring in the profession and in society.
Gardner Murphy had just been lured from Harvard to chair the Department of Psychology at City College. His interests ranged from humanistic psychology to parapsychology, with an enduring belief in a form of reincarnation in which our minds merge into a collective consciousness. “While heading the department,” Herb says, “Gardner Murphy sent a positive and democratic message by teaching my freshman class. That is unlike so many schools where the freshmen are left in large classes to be taught by assistant instructors.” Murphy surrounded himself with a brilliant and eclectic array of professors, including Ruth Monroe, who brought the Rorschach test to the United States; Kurt Goldstein, whose theories deeply influenced the development of Gestalt psychology; Anna Freud, who contributed significantly to developing the field of psychoanalysis; and Kenneth Clark, whose experiments using dolls to study children’s attitudes about race became pivotal in Brown vs. Board of Education, the landmark United States Supreme Court case in which it was declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students were unconstitutional.
Much to Herb’s elation and amazement, he got to study with all of them. He particularly enjoyed being able to imbibe their teachings and, at times, challenge some of their premises. Those intellectual debates, particularly with some of the country’s most brilliant minds, stirred him. “Studying with Kenneth Clark,” Herb adds, “opened up new ways of thinking about psychological experiments for me. He showed us the results of his studies—where black children were internalizing stereotypes of the time by preferring to play with white dolls—before they helped to change the course of history.”
Once again, just getting to school, for Herb, showed enormous determination and independence. He would have to leave his parent’s apartment at 6:30 a.m., and with his cane, walk several blocks to catch a subway, change trains twice, then walk three more blocks to get to an 8:00 a.m. class. But it was worth it because in school, Herb was in his element. Beyond being engaged in classes, he was active in student government and was one of the organizers of a student-led strike against two of the professors who were openly anti-Semitic and racist. Herb says that the students returned to classes after a week, and the following year, those two professors were no longer at City College.
Meanwhile, because Herb was interested in accelerating his learning, he was also taking summer courses at Brooklyn College. That was where he took a class with Abraham Maslow—and debated with him about his hierarchy of needs. Herb felt that it was more important to focus on the need that was most deprived. “In other words,” he says, “I told him I believed (and still do) that the need most deprived is what drives an individual. So, for instance, a hypothetical college student feeling sexually deprived might just chase after every remote opportunity to have sex, to the exclusion of other fundamental needs. My message was that in order to understand someone, you have to first get clear about what is deprived in his or her life. What need are they trying to fill?”
How did Maslow take to being challenged by a student?
“As I recall, he loved the engagement, the challenge and mental stimulation. I don’t believe either of us changed the other’s mind. But it was exhilarating to debate with someone on that level,” Herb says.
Debating with an icon is interesting to consider. As a leader, how willing are you to having others openly question some of your premises? Do you invite questions? Are you creating an environment where healthy debate is encouraged? Or are you, unconsciously, seeking to have everyone go along with your decisions?
How can you encourage a workplace that allows for healthy debate? As with most things in life, this has to do with your words and your actions. The key point here is for leaders is to repeat, often, their core messages. That is how those who are following you will understand that your message is vital to you. Say out loud what is important to you. Repeat it, like the chorus of a song. So, if you want to encourage a free exchange of opinions, ask for healthy debate. Request it in your meetings. And seek it out as you meet with people individually. Let everyone you meet know that you want and need to hear their opinions. Tell them that the vibrancy of hearing everyone’s ideas is what keeps you engaged, grounded, and connected. From there how you act will tell the rest of the story. Are you really interested in healthy debate? Or do your reactions say otherwise? Do you adjust your perspective or alter your opinion as the result of something new you have heard? Or are you just looking for confirmation of your previously held beliefs? Between your words and your actions, others will quickly catch on as to whether you are seeking to create an environment where healthy debate is encouraged or whether you are more interested in maintaining the status quo. Your words will speak loudly. And your actions will speak even louder.
In Herb’s final year at City College, the basketball team did what no other team has ever done before or since. It won the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Invitation Tournaments in the same season. “When Kentucky came to play us in the semifinals,” Herb says, “their coach Adolph Rupp said his team would wipe the floor with those ‘kikes and niggers.’ Our coach Nat Holman told his starting players, consisting of three Jews and two blacks, to shake hands with the Kentucky players just before the tip-off. When the City players extended their hands, the Kentucky players turned away. And with that final insult, City went on to crush Kentucky, 89–50. We went on to defeat Bradley, one of the best teams in the nation, for both tournaments.” Herb pauses, then says, “Our team spirit was not just about the sport, which we loved, and it was not just about winning the championship, which was a David and Goliath kind of thing; it was also about being on the right side of social wrongs and taking a stand for what mattered.”
Challenges to our principles—what we will stand for and what we will not stand for—can occur when we least expect them. For the City College basketball team players, they were just trying to win a game. But because their principles were challenged, they ended up winning more than just a sporting event. By standing up for what they believed in, each player was able to reach deep inside of himself and raise the level of his game. The final numbers on the scoreboard only told part of the story. There was a much bigger point to be made. As a leader, this message becomes extremely important. When you pull those around you into a cause that is noble and just, their collective spirit can transcend what they are capable of individually. That is when true leadership inspires. By tapping into our aspirations. We are all seeking meaning—and to be meaningful. We want to be part of something that is larger than ourselves. When a leader creates a clear sense of purpose, we respond because it helps to clarify our identity—why we are here, what we, ultimately, stand for. And when we stand for something together, feeling a strong sense of belonging, we get a glimpse into new possibilities—for ourselves and for others.
That is why you want to consider leading as not just trying to get people to do something. That is managing. Leading is about getting people to do something meaningful. That is where true leadership can transform us.
After his final year at City College, at the age of 21, Herb was accepted into the master’s program at City College. He wasn’t quite sure what he would do with a master’s degree in clinical psychology, but he felt that the extra degree would serve him well as, perhaps, a college instructor or a therapist.
Then, as he continued to learn, he decided he might as well continue on, go all the way, to be “just a little better” and get his Ph.D. from New York University. He felt that with that credential he would be able to teach at most colleges, or head up programs in social work. But at that point, he also had to start making a living. He was becoming serious with his girlfriend, Beverly Hymowitz, who already had a child from her previous marriage.
So as he pursued his Ph.D., Herb got what he describes as “a hideous job” as a placement counselor with the New York City Department of Welfare. “I was earning $2,764 a year, which even back then was nothing. I had to fill out Form 531 whenever I came across someone who I felt had promise. These were for very menial jobs. But still, I could count on one hand the number of people I placed while working there for several years. It was pathetic. Very disheartening.
“At that point, my mentor in high school, Sam Ellis, whom I had stayed in touch with, said, ‘Herb, you’re a natural salesperson. Why don’t we start a company together? We can sell mutual funds and insurance.’ So I said, ‘Sure. Why not?’ I needed the money. And working with Sam could be a lot of fun. So we formed the Ellis Greenberg Company, while I was pursuing my Ph.D., and I got my license and packaged and sold life insurance along with mutual funds—which, back then, was something that was not done before. In fact, if the insurance companies or mutual fund companies knew we were doing it, they would have terminated us. They were in fierce competition with each other, but we figured it was best for our clients. I also got into selling wholesale furniture, dealing with barter, arranging cruises, and all kinds of legal ways to make money.”
So you were working full-time and pursuing your Ph.D. full-time, with a slew of part-time jobs?
“I had to,” Herb says with a shrug. “I was living in Brooklyn, so I’d get up early and catch the train on Utica Avenue and take it to 125th Street and Lennox Avenue, where I would work all day at the Department of Welfare. Then I would head down to NYU on West 4th Street, where I was taking 12 credits a semester for three years to get my Ph.D. Then, on weekends, I would sell a bit of life insurance, mutual funds, wholesale furniture, and barter to scrape together some additional money. That’s how I spent my three years, after I got my master’s degree.”
Always looking for a way to make an extra dollar when he was not in school or studying, Herb was struggling to make ends meet. Along the way, he got married to Beverly and adopted her two-year old son, Gary.
Then, one night when he was studying, Herb got a disturbing call that threw him into a tailspin. He was asked to testify that a fellow student at City College was a communist. Beverly Rubin (who he ran together with and lost for president and vice president of the student council when they were at City College) had applied for a teacher’s license and was denied because of her “communist affiliation.”
This, of course, was in the midst of the McCarthy era. It was a time when fear was winning out over reason. Many in this country were consumed with the notion that the Soviets had infiltrated our country, were operating in secrecy, and had to be uprooted. They saw communists hiding around every corner. And if someone was accused of being a communist, the person had to prove that he or she was not one. Accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason could be made without evidence. All that had to be said was that someone who seemed too liberal was a communist. And people could be blacklisted in the blink of an eye—which would mean that they would be virtually unemployable.
In that paranoid environment, Herb was told by an affiliate of Roy Cohn, one of Senator McCarthy’s top staff members, that he had a choice. Herb could testify against his friend, or he would lose his job at the Department of Welfare. It was Herb’s choice. In a meeting with Roy Cohn, Herb said, there was no way he could testify that Beverly was a communist. “She was bright, caring, socially aware, and she deserved her teaching certificate. I knew she would be a great teacher,” he says. But he was very worried because he was in no position, as he says, “to lose my paltry salary.” Roy Cohn told Herb that he had until the next day to either agree to testify against Beverly or the commissioner of the Department of Welfare would receive a letter suggesting that Herb be fired because he was disloyal.
As it turned out, Herb’s father made custom shoes for Congressman Emanuel Celler’s wife. The congressman himself was a target of attacks by Senator Joe McCarthy. Rather than cowering in fear, Congressman Celler responded to Senator McCarthy’s accusations toward him by publicly saying, “Deliberately and calculatedly, McCarthyism has . . . undertaken to sow suspicion everywhere, to set friend against friend. . . . It deals in coercion and in intimidation, tying the hands of citizens and officials with the fear of the smear attack.”
Herb’s father asked the congressman, who at that time was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, if he would meet with his son just to hear his story. After telling his tale, Herb recalls the congressman saying, “This is so wrong. Let me see what I can do to help with this.”
The next day, Herb says, he received a call, just like the first one, from the person with the same ominous voice, but a much different tone. Herb heard, “We weren’t threatening you. We were just asking for your help. Just call off the dogs, all right? Let’s make this easy for all of us.”
Herb replied, “I’m glad you’ve seen the light of day.” At the time, Herb wrote a poem to himself, in which he asked, “Will I go on like the rest? Crawling from year to year, dreaming of courage, but living in fear?”
Fortunately, his fear disappeared.
Herb completed his Ph.D. at New York University in 1955 with a dissertation in which he conducted original research exploring the effects of segregated education on three groups that he identified as disadvantaged—the blind, women, and African Americans. His comparisons were made between high school and college students attending integrated schools with those attending schools for the blind, what were at the time called “all-girls” high schools and colleges, and what were called “Negro colleges.” He conducted assessments at Howard University, Vassar, Skidmore, Smith, Swarthmore, Wilberforce University, Indiana University, University of Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. Most interesting, he discovered, after having students in these integrated and segregated schools take a battery of personality assessments, was for the blind and African American students, “integrated education had a more beneficial effect” on developing their personality strengths than those who received a segregated education. In other words, they were more confident, self-sufficient, and sociable. Interestingly, though, “the segregated college women were more sociable than those who were integrated.”
Beyond these findings themselves, what strikes me as being most significant in Herb’s dissertation is his early and consistent commitment to discovering ways, through the insights of psychology, to help people who were disadvantaged. His goal has been to empirically shed light on those situations that many people define as “just the way things are.” At the same time, he is interested not just in highlighting wrongs but in discovering ways to change situations where people are not given a fair shake because they are part of a “disadvantaged group.” His hope, all along, has been to give an advantage to anyone who finds himself or herself in the position of being disadvantaged. In fact, he says, he used the word disadvantaged in his dissertation rather than the word minority because in many situations blacks and women are actually majorities. His concern, ultimately, was to level the playing field so that everyone has an equal opportunity to realize his or her potential.
It is also interesting to note that as a student, Herb’s entrepreneurial spirit was already evident. He realized that in order to conduct this study effectively, the travel costs alone “would run into figures far beyond my ability to pay.” So he turned to the American Foundation for the Blind and presented this problem—and opportunity. “Fortunately, they became interested in my project because of their desire to gain increased knowledge about the most effective ways to teach blind students. Not only did they grant me a $1,500 fellowship, which, of course, went a good way toward solving my financial problem, but they also provided me with complete access to their libraries, as well as introducing me to contacts throughout the country. In addition, the Foundation’s research director, Dr. Nathaniel Raskin, provided me with invaluable insights,” Herb says.
As Herb ‘s experiences highlight, our guiding principles take wing when they are challenged. Otherwise we are just philosophizing.
As a leader, when have your principles been challenged? Did that challenge modify or strengthen your beliefs? Are you clear about your guiding principles? As a leader, others are looking for you to express your principles out loud. Then they want to see how closely your actions match your words. To the extent that you live your beliefs, your leadership moves from style to substance. Of course, challenges can come from any direction—from your competitors, from the economy, and sometimes from your key employees. What matters is whether and how you rise to those challenges. Rather than seeing a challenge as something that gets in our way or slows us down, the best leaders among us view challenges as tests that help define us.
It is important to keep in mind that while Herb was writing his dissertation, the country was in a time of turmoil and transition. The fear of communism seemed to lurk around every corner. Political and social unrest was brewing. Amid all of this, controversies were raging about the inequities of segregated education. There were people who felt that “separate but equal” was the way forward, and those who felt that segregation was nothing but an unfortunate legacy of the past that had to be changed legislatively.
It was a time of extremes. Controversy was heated. Fervently held beliefs were mutually exclusive. Integration and segregation were either-ors. Divisions and debates were rampant, with much pontificating but very little listening.
Amid this cacophony of disagreeing viewpoints, some people were trying to find compromise solutions that were a middle ground between the two extreme points of view. Was there a way to find agreement, someplace that borrowed the best from both extremes? Herb says, “All of the groups were very verbal, and very sure that they were right, and that the other side must be brought around to their point of view. But neither group was bothering to get scientific evidence to back them up. I was most interested in seeking scientific information to demonstrate which system—segregated or integrated—was better for educating the blind, women, and African Americans. Empirically, through research and experimentation, I wanted to prove the right solution. I just wanted to get at the truth. I was not interested in finding a compromise. A compromise between scientists saying that the earth revolves around the sun and those believing that the sun revolves around the earth would not bring about a correct solution.”
On April 5, 1947, when Herb was a 17-year-old freshman at City College, the Dodgers made history by breaking professional baseball’s “color barrier” and signing Jackie Robinson to play for the team.
Branch Rickey, the president of the Dodgers, said he saw integration as not just the right thing to do but an equally smart financial decision. The tension and backlash from signing an African American, he knew, would be strong. But he assumed it would be temporary. And once the playing field was leveled, the game would go on to become even more exciting.
Still, with his strong social conscience and keen awareness of the historic moment he was helping to create, Rickey realized that the player he signed to break the color barrier would face enormous discrimination and would need an unusually balanced temperament. He would have to let racial slurs slide off his back in the heat of the moment, in public arenas, as he set records on the field, when he was at bat, and while he was stealing bases.
After an extensive search, Rickey felt that Jackie Robinson was the man he was looking for. He told Robinson that to make integration successful, he could not respond in kind to the abuse he was bound to receive. In order for this to work, Rickey said, they needed to have a bond and pact between them, knowing the prejudice they would be facing.
Rickey said, “I want to win pennants . . . but there’s more here than just playing, Jackie. I wish it meant only hits, runs and errors—things you can see in a box score.” Rickey then challenged Robinson with racist scenarios—from players to sportswriters to fans. Robinson asked, “Do you want a ballplayer who’s afraid to fight back?” Rickey responded, “I want a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back!” Robinson thought about it, and agreed.
The racial tension actually began inside the Dodgers own clubhouse, where some of the players started brewing a mutiny. Pee Wee Rees, however, in a gesture that has been immortalized in a statue, put his arm around Robinson in response to fans who were shouting racial slurs before a game in Cincinnati.
Robinson went on to become the first Rookie of the Year, and the Dodgers made the World Series that year, though they lost in seven games to the New York Yankees.
There would always be next year.
Meanwhile, Herb’s team made him proud, reflecting the qualities and making the kind of decisions that he would want to be known for himself.
Psychological Insights—Courage
It is natural to think of people who are courageous as being braver than most of us. Their strength of conviction can be inspiring.
As children, we first hear fairy tales and folklore about heroes that embody qualities we hope to attain as we grow older. Most of us, of course, can remember the one word that Dorothy, the Tin Woodsman, and the Scarecrow say in the movie The Wizard of Oz when the Cowardly Lion suddenly feels confident enough to announce, “What makes the dawn come up like thunder? . . . What puts the ‘ape’ in apricot? What do they got that I ain’t got?” Together, everyone: “Courage.”
“Those childhood messages are carried with us, shaped slightly differently, as we seek our identity through adolescence and into adulthood,” Herb says. Ernest Hemingway’s stories, for instance, often are tales of courage, which he described as “grace under pressure.”
Senator John McCain (R-AZ), however, has another definition. McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war for five and a half years after his Skyhawk dive bomber was shot down while on a mission flying over Hanoi, emphasized that courage is more than just the style with which a situation is handled. He maintains, “There is only one thing that must always be present for courage to exist: fear. Because part of courage is overcoming fear.”
“We often think of courageous people as being totally fearless,” Herb adds. “But courage really involves feeling fear, facing it head-on, then moving beyond it. Courage is about standing up for ourselves, for others, or for a belief.”
Courage comes from following your heart, persevering in the face of a daunting challenge, or standing up for what you believe is right. Sometimes courage comes in a single, extraordinary act, when someone, in a moment of self-sacrifice, rises to the occasion and becomes a hero. Ultimately, courage is about moving beyond what you are familiar with and believing in something bigger than yourself.
Courage, it turns out, is at the heart of every hero’s story.
The hero’s journey, as Joseph Campbell has told us, is to face a daunting challenge, then return transfigured to teach us all the lessons learned from a life renewed.
And the lesson is always the same: the powers sought and dangerously won by the hero through his or her courageous acts are revealed to have been within the heart of the hero all the time. Sometimes we come to recognize that the loud, thunderous sound that has been petrifying us is really just the beating of our own hearts.
As Dorothy discovered by clicking her heels, she “always had the power.” She just “had to learn it for herself.”
“It is just a matter of facing our fears,” as Herb says, “acknowledging them, then looking deep within and all around us, as we rise to the occasion, turning up the volume on our beliefs and giving it all we have.”
Questions to Ask Yourself About Courage
These questions are posed for you to consider as you create your own vision, tap into your personal strengths, and pursue your own leadership journey. Your answers to these questions will provide insights into how courage informs your approach to leadership. You are encouraged to consider these questions at different times, as your answers will undoubtedly evolve and change as your leadership journey unfolds.
1. Who are you willing to question?
2. Are you able to question yourself?
3. Do you have any hesitations about questioning authority? What happens when you are the authority? Do you forget to ask questions?
4. When was the last time you faced one of your fears? What did it feel like?
5. When were you most courageous? What have you learned about yourself when you were courageous?
6. Can you recall a time when you wish you were more courageous?
7. What is your biggest fear now?
8. How do you look at an obstacle? Is it something that you are up against that seems bigger than you? The same size as you? Or smaller?
9. Have you ever been able to turn an obstacle into your own advantage?