Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day
Anne Scheiber was 101 years old when she died in January 1995. For years she had lived in a tiny, run-down, rent-controlled studio apartment in Manhattan. The paint on the walls was peeling, and the old book-cases that lined the walls were covered in dust. Rent was four hundred dollars a month.
Scheiber lived on Social Security and a small monthly pension, which she started receiving in 1943 when she retired as an auditor for the Internal Revenue Service. She hadn’t done very well at the IRS. More accurately, the agency hadn’t done right by her. Despite having a law degree and doing excellent work, she was never promoted. And when she retired at age fifty-one, she was making only $3,150 a year.
“She was treated very, very shabbily,” said Benjamin Clark, who knew her as well as anyone did. “She really had to fend for herself in every way. It was really quite a struggle.”
Scheiber was the model of thrift. She didn’t spend money on herself. She didn’t buy new furniture as the old pieces she owned became worn out. She didn’t even subscribe to a newspaper. About once a week, she used to go to the public library to read the Wall Street Journal.
WINDFALL!
Imagine the surprise of Norman Lamm, the president of Yeshiva University in New York City, when he found out that Anne Scheiber, a little old lady whose name he had never heard—and who had never attended Yeshiva—left nearly her entire estate to the university.
“When I saw the will, it was mind blowing, such an unexpected wind-fall,” said Lamm. “This woman has become a legend overnight.”
The estate Anne Scheiber left to Yeshiva University was worth $22 million!1
How in the world did a spinster who had been retired for fifty years build an eight-figure fortune? The answer is, she did it one day at a time.
By the time she retired from the IRS in 1943, Anne Scheiber had man-aged to save $5,000. She invested that money in stocks. By 1950, she had made enough profit to buy 1,000 shares of Schering-Plough Corporation stock, then valued at $10,000. And she held on to that stock, letting its value build. By the time she died, those original shares split enough times to produce 128,000 shares, worth $7.5 million.2
The secret to Scheiber’s success was that she spent most of her life building her worth. Whether her stock’s values went up or down, she didn’t sell it off with the thought, I’m finished building; now it’s time to cash out. She was in for the long haul, the really long haul. When she earned dividends—which kept getting larger and larger—she reinvested them in additional stocks. She spent her whole lifetime building. While other older people worry that they may run out of funds before the end of their lives, the longer she lived, the wealthier she became. When it came to finances, Scheiber understood and applied the Law of Process.
LEADERSHIP IS LIKE INVESTING—IT COMPOUNDS
Becoming a leader is a lot like investing successfully in the stock market. If your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you’re not going to be successful. There are no successful “day traders” in leadership development. What matters most is what you do day by day over the long haul. My friend Tag Short maintains, “The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda.” If you continually invest in your leadership development, letting your “assets” compound, the inevitable result is growth over time. What can you see when you look at a person’s daily agenda? Priorities, passion, abilities, relationships, attitude, personal disciplines, vision, and influence. See what a person is doing every day, day after day, and you’ll know who that person is and what he or she is becoming.
When I teach leadership at conferences, people inevitably ask me if leaders are born. I always answer, “Yes, of course they are . . . I’ve yet to meet an unborn leader! How else would you expect them to come into the world?” We all laugh, and then I answer the real question—whether leadership is something a person either is born with and possesses or is not born with and doesn’t.
Becoming a leader is a lot like investing successfully in the stock market. If your hope is to make a fortune in a day, you’re not going to be successful.
Although it’s true that some people are born with greater natural gifts than others, the ability to lead is really a collection of skills, nearly all of which can be learned and improved. But that process doesn’t happen overnight. Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing—the list goes on. As you can see, many factors that come into play in leadership are intangible. That’s why leaders require so much seasoning to be effective. That’s why I felt that only after reaching age fifty was I truly beginning to understand the many aspects of Leadership with clarity.
LEADERS ARE LEARNERS
In a study of ninety top leaders from a variety of fields, leadership experts Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus made a discovery about the relationship between growth and leadership: “It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.” Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing, a result of self-discipline and perseverance. The goal each day must be to get a little better, to build on the previous day’s progress.
“It is the capacity to develop and improve their skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.”
—BENNIS AND NANUS
The problem is that most people overestimate the importance of events and underestimate the power of processes. We want quick fixes. We want the compounding effect that Anne Scheiber received over fifty years, but we want it in fifty minutes.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate events. They can be effective catalysts. But if you want lasting improvement, if you want power, then rely on a process. Consider the difference between the two:
| AN EVENT | A PROCESS |
| Encourages decisions | Encourages development |
| Motivates people | Matures people |
| Is a calendar issue | Is a culture issue |
| Challenges people | Changes people |
| Is easy | Is difficult |
If I need to be inspired to take steps forward, then I’ll attend an event.
If I want to improve, then I’ll engage in a process and stick with it.
THE PHASES OF LEADERSHIP GROWTH
What does the leadership growth process look like? Every person’s is different. However, whether or not you possess great natural ability for Leadership, your development and progress will probably occur according to the following five phases:
PHASE 1: I DON’T KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW
Many people fail to recognize the value of leadership. Some don’t recognize its importance. Others believe that leadership is only for a few—for the people at the top of the corporate ladder. They have no idea of the opportunities they’re passing up when they don’t learn to lead. This point was driven home for me when a college president shared with me that only a handful of students signed up for a leadership course offered by the school. Why? Only a few thought of themselves as leaders. If they had understood that leadership is influence, and that in the course of each day most individuals usually try to influence at least four other people, their desire might have been sparked to learn more about the subject. It’s unfortunate because as long as a person doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, he isn’t going to grow.
As long as a person doesn’t know what he doesn’t know, he isn’t going to grow.
PHASE 2: I KNOW THAT I NEED TO KNOW
At some point in life, many people find themselves placed in a leadership position only to look around and discover that no one is following them. When that happens, we realize that we need to learn how to lead. And of course, that’s when it’s possible for the process to start. Benjamin Disraeli, former British prime minister, wisely commented, “To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.”
That’s what happened to me when I took my first leadership position in 1969. I had captained sports teams all my life and had been the student government president in college, so I already thought I was a leader. But when I tried to lead people in the real world, I found out the awful truth. Being put in charge is not the same as being a leader.
PHASE 3: I KNOW WHAT I DON’T KNOW
I struggled for a while in that first leadership position. To be honest, I relied on my extremely high energy and whatever charisma I possessed. But there came a moment when I realized that leadership was going to be the key to my professional career. If I didn’t get better at leadership, my career would eventually bog down, and I would never reach the goals I had set for myself. Fortunately at that time, I had breakfast with Kurt Kampmeir of Success Motivation, Inc. At that breakfast, he asked a question that would change my life.
“John,” he asked, “what is your plan for personal growth?”
I fumbled for an answer and then finally admitted that I didn’t have one. That night my wife, Margaret, and I decided to make financial sacrifices so that I could get on the program Kurt offered. That was an intentional step toward growth. From that day to now, I have made it a practice to read books, listen to tapes, and go to conferences on leadership.
Around the time I met with Kurt, I also had another idea: I wrote to the top ten leaders in my field and offered them one hundred dollars for a half hour of their time so that I could ask them questions. (That was quite a sum for me back then.) For the next several years, Margaret and I planned every vacation around where those people lived. If a great leader in Cleveland said yes to my request, then that year we vacationed in Cleveland so that I could meet him. I can’t explain how valuable those experiences were for me. Those leaders shared insights with me that I could have learned no other way.
PHASE 4: I KNOW AND GROW, AND IT STARTS TO SHOW
When you recognize your lack of skill and begin the daily discipline of personal growth, exciting things start to happen.
Several years ago I was teaching leadership to a group of people in Denver, and in the crowd I noticed a really sharp nineteen-year-old named Brian. For a couple of days, I watched as he eagerly took notes. I observed him interacting with others. And I talked to him a few times during breaks. When I got to the part of the seminar where I teach the Law of Process, I asked Brian to stand up so that I could talk to him, and I wanted everyone else in the audience to listen in.
“Brian, I’ve been watching you here,” I said, “and I’m very impressed with how hungry you are to learn and glean and grow. I want to tell you a secret that will change your life.” Everyone in the whole auditorium seemed to lean forward.
“I believe that in about twenty years, you can be a great leader. I want to encourage you to make yourself a lifelong learner of leadership. Read books, listen to tapes regularly, and keep attending seminars. And when-ever you come across a golden nugget of truth or a significant quote, file it away for the future.
“It’s not going to be easy,” I said. “But in five years, you’ll see progress as your influence becomes greater. In ten years, you’ll develop a competence that makes your leadership highly effective. And in twenty years, when you’re only thirty-nine years old, if you’ve continued to learn and grow, others will likely start asking you to teach them about leadership. And some will be amazed. They’ll look at each other and say, ‘How did he suddenly become so wise?’
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
—BENJAMIN DISRAELI
“Brian,” I concluded, “you can be a great leader, but it won’t happen in a day. Start paying the price now.” What’s true for Brian is also true for you. Start developing your leadership today, and someday you will experience the effects of the Law of Process.
PHASE 5: I SIMPLY GO BECAUSE OF WHAT I KNOW
When you’re in phase four, you can be pretty effective as a leader, but you have to think about every move you make. However, when you reach phase five, your ability to lead becomes almost automatic. You develop great instincts. And that’s when the payoff is incredible. But the only way to get there is to obey the Law of Process and pay the price.
TO LEAD TOMORROW, LEARN TODAY
Leadership is developed daily, not in a day. That is the reality dictated by the Law of Process. Benjamin Disraeli asserted, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.” What a person does on a disciplined, consistent basis gets him ready, no matter what the goal.
You can see the effect of the Law of Process in any walk of life. NBA Hall of Fame player Larry Bird became an outstanding free-throw shooter by practicing five hundred shots each morning before he went to school. Demosthenes of ancient Greece became the greatest orator by reciting verses with pebbles in his mouth and speaking over the roar of the ocean’s waves—and he did it despite having been born with a speech impediment. You need to have the same dedication. To become an excellent leader, you need to work on it every day.
FIGHTING YOUR WAY UP
There is an old saying: champions don’t become champions in the ring—they are merely recognized there. That’s true. If you want to see where someone develops into a champion, look at his daily routine. Former heavyweight champ Joe Frazier stated, “You can map out a fight plan or a life plan. But when the action starts, you’re down to your reflexes. That’s where your road work shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, you’re getting found out now under the bright lights.”3 Boxing is a good analogy for leadership development because it is all about daily preparation. Even a person with natural talent has to prepare and train to become successful.
Champions don’t become champions in the ring—they are merely recognized there.
One of this country’s greatest leaders was a fan of boxing: President Theodore Roosevelt. In fact, one of his most famous quotes uses a boxing analogy:
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Roosevelt, a boxer himself, was the ultimate man of action. Not only was he an effective leader, but he was one of the most flamboyant of all U.S. presidents. British historian Hugh Brogan described him as “the ablest man to sit in the White House since Lincoln; the most vigorous since Jackson; the most bookish since John Quincy Adams.”
A MAN OF ACTION
TR (Roosevelt’s nickname) is remembered as an outspoken man of action and proponent of the vigorous life. While in the White House, he was known for regular boxing and judo sessions, challenging horseback rides, and long, strenuous hikes. A French ambassador who visited Roosevelt used to tell about the time that he accompanied the president on a walk through the woods. When the two men came to the banks of a stream that was too deep to cross by foot, TR stripped off his clothes and expected the dignitary to do the same so that they could swim to the other side. Nothing was an obstacle to Roosevelt.
At different times in his life, Roosevelt was a cowboy in the Wild West, an explorer and big-game hunter, and a rough-riding cavalry officer in the Spanish-American War. His enthusiasm and stamina seemed boundless. As the vice presidential candidate in 1900, he gave 673 speeches and traveled 20,000 miles while campaigning for President McKinley. And years after his presidency, while preparing to deliver a speech in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot by a would-be assassin. With a broken rib and a bullet in his chest, Roosevelt insisted on delivering his one-hour speech before allowing him-self to be taken to the hospital.
ROOSEVELT STARTED SLOW
Of all the leaders this nation has ever had, Roosevelt was one of the tough-est—both physically and mentally. But he didn’t start that way. America’s cowboy president was born in Manhattan to a prominent wealthy family. As a child, he was puny and very sickly. He had debilitating asthma, possessed very poor eyesight, and was painfully thin. His parents weren’t sure he would survive.
When he was twelve, young Roosevelt’s father told him, “You have the mind, but you have not the body, and without the help of the body the mind cannot go as far as it should. You must make the body.” Make it he did. He lived by the Law of Process.
TR began spending time every day building his body as well as his mind, and he did that for the rest of his life. He worked out with weights, hiked, ice-skated, hunted, rowed, rode horseback, and boxed. In later years, Roosevelt assessed his progress, admitting that as a child he was “nervous and timid. Yet,” he said, “from reading of the people I admired . . . and from knowing my father, I had a great admiration for men who were fearless and who could hold their own in the world, and I had a great desire to be like them.”4 By the time TR graduated from Harvard, he was like them, and he was ready to tackle the world of politics.
NO OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
Roosevelt didn’t become a great leader overnight, either. His road to the presidency was one of slow, continual growth. As he served in various positions, ranging from New York City police commissioner to president of the United States, he kept learning and growing. He improved himself, and in time he became a strong leader. That was further evidence that he lived by the Law of Process.
Roosevelt’s list of accomplishments is remarkable. Under his leadership, the United States emerged as a world power. He helped the country develop a first-class navy. He saw that the Panama Canal was built. He negotiated peace between Russia and Japan, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in the process. And when people questioned TR’s leadership—since he had first become president when McKinley was assassinated—he campaigned and was reelected by the largest majority of any president up to his time.
Ever the man of action, when Roosevelt completed his second term as president in 1909, he immediately traveled to Africa where he led a scientific expedition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution. A few years later, in 1913, he co-led a group to explore the uncharted River of Doubt in Brazil. It was a learning adventure he said he could not pass up. “It was my last chance to be a boy,” he later admitted. He was fifty-five years old.
On January 6, 1919, at his home in New York, Theodore Roosevelt died in his sleep. Then Vice President Marshall said, “Death had to take him sleeping, for if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight.” When they removed him from his bed, they found a book under his pillow. Up to the very last, TR was still striving to learn and improve him-self. He was still practicing the Law of Process.
If you want to be a leader, the good news is that you can do it. Everyone has the potential, but it isn’t accomplished overnight. It requires perseverance. And you absolutely cannot ignore the Law of Process. Leadership doesn’t develop in a day. It takes a lifetime.
Applying
THE LAW OF PROCESS
To Your Life
1. What is your personal plan for growth? If you are like I was when Kurt Kampmeir asked me this question, you have a vague intention to grow, not a specific plan. Write out a plan. I recommend that you read one book a month, listen to at least one CD, tape, or streaming message a week, and attend one conference a year. Select the materials in advance, set aside time for growth on your calendar, and start immediately. If developing a plan from scratch seems difficult, you may want to read my book Today Matters. It contains the personal growth plan I have used for years.
2. One thing that separates great leaders from good leaders is the way they invest in those who follow them. Just as you need a growth plan to improve, so do those who work for you. You can take groups of employees through books, bring in trainers, mentor people one-on-one—anything that works. Make providing opportunities for growth your responsibility.
3. If you are the leader of a business, an organization, or a department, you can create a culture of growth. When people in your sphere of influence know that personal growth and leadership development are valued, resourced, and rewarded, then growth will explode. And the environment you created will begin attracting high achievers and people with great potential.