Don't Live Inside Your Head
I’m still struck by a sentence from Jon Meacham’s excellent 2015 biography of George H.W. Bush: “the president fell prey to a tendency to assume that other people were living inside his head with him and understood what he was doing and why he was doing it.”[1]
Though Bush would enjoy record-high approval levels for his handling of Operation Desert Storm, a budget deficit compelled him to compromise with Democrats on tax increases, violating his memorable “no new taxes” pledge. The pledge from his 1988 campaign was popular, so breaking it was problematic. It’s still debated whether making or breaking the pledge was necessary or prudent.
However, Meacham’s evaluation of Bush’s mindset is what’s most instructive to leaders. Are we living inside our own heads? Do we assume that those we serve live there with us, having immediate access to our good intentions and wise reasoning?
Observe first the centrality of communication to good leadership. Emphasis on overcommunicating is common to leadership training. To paraphrase one adage, “When you’re growing tired of hearing yourself say something, it’s only just beginning to sink in with people.” I’ve found this to be true time and time again. But pride prevents us from wanting to be dubbed a broken record. We therefore communicate, but often too little and often too late.
Other times we leave things implicit when they should be made explicit. We assume people will follow the logic. “Church, we’re called to grow!” Implicitly, we expect people will realize evangelism and discipleship are the path to that growth. After all, we talk about those from time to time. Or perhaps we come out and say, “Evangelism and discipleship is how we will grow.” However, we fail to explain how certain financial adjustments in the next budget will better reflect commitments to the mission and vision for spiritual growth. Wise leaders, however, don’t assume such things. They connect the dots.
In writing about Bush’s position on tax increases, Meacham observes that Bush mentioned the decision several days after the fact in a press conference, not in a speech. Nor did he offer a substantial, carefully crafted defense of the increases. Meacham explains: “Bush was more interested in the result, which he defined as responsible governance and sound financial stewardship, than he was in the political work of educating the country about the situation at hand.”
Leaders certainly care about results! Now this could sound as though leaders are just pragmatic, and unconcerned with the proper means. But conscientious leaders care about both ends and means. In Bush’s case, he thought that responsible governance and sound financial stewardship were the proper means that would lead to positive ends: the economic stability of the country. Yet he hadn’t considered his educational-rhetorical approach. He didn’t recognize that even if the ultimate, long-term outcome was positive for the country, an informed, supportive public in the meantime (especially during economic uncertainty) was a valid end to pursue as well.
It's not enough, then, to assume that people will give us the benefit of the doubt just because we’ve thought the matter through privately in the study. They need to hear some reasoning and even strategy behind the mission and vision.
The late Leroy Forlines used to speak about four basic relationships: relationship to God, to others, to the created order, and to self. I’ve long thought that the latter two receive shorter shrift in our reflection and discussion. We take them for granted.
Creation simply becomes an environment. Our technological habits have reoriented our ability to attend to our surroundings. When habits of attention are diminished, we’re no longer awestruck by or concerned with creatures and crops, flowers and fields, or skies and seas.
But look deeper. Listen carefully. Do you hear the internal dialogue constantly unfolding in your mind? It’s you talking to yourself. Only some people talk to themselves aloud, but everyone talks to themselves silently. Those words speak volumes. They contain our thoughts, impressions, feelings, hopes, fears, intentions, and reasons. These comprise the fourth basic relationship.
Some people are more prone to rumination than others. Some describe themselves as “textbook-overthinkers.” Some are just careful and analytical. But regardless of one’s intellectual tendencies, we typically don’t bring all our thoughts and reasons out from the cutting room floor for everyone to see. We leave some things behind. But sometimes we leave too much there. The result is that our intentions behind certain actions, and reasons for those actions, remain hidden. So how can those we lead and serve truly understand the mission they’re being asked to give themselves to?
No effective leader intends to leave people in a perennial fog. I can’t think of any wise Christian leader who would say blind trust is a virtue, even if being committed to consensus when you have some disagreements is. We expect conscientious people to have questions, spot inconsistencies, and voice concerns. It’s part of how people grow in organizational commitment, and therefore in mission fulfillment.
But to return to Meacham’s memorable line above, too often we assume people live inside our heads with us. We spend so much time thinking and rethinking that we develop an odd false memory—“Surely I’ve said that clearly out loud before.” Yet sometimes haven’t. We’ve lived with our plans for so long they’ve become a part of us. Surely those who’ve repeatedly rubbed shoulders with us see it, feel it, and know it! But often they don’t.
Fellow leaders, not only must we continue communicating mission and vision in new and fresh ways, but we must also help others grasp our intentions and reasoning behind the strategies and tactics that we employ. Sometimes solutions may emerge from inside our heads, but they need to be expressed, not assumed. Help people see, feel, and understand. They may not always stand with you, but you’ll at least give them an honest chance to.
[1] Jon Meacham. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (New York: Random House, 2015), 417.