Episode 170: Randall’s Dream Leadership Dinner Table: And What We Might All Learn

Welcome to another edition of Around with Randall, your weekly podcast for making your nonprofit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

It's really a pleasure to have you back here with me on this edition of Around with Randall. I was listening to a podcast recently, one that I enjoy about local athletic Nebraska-related activities. And they started talking about, it's kind of a question from the audience, who would you like to have dinner with? Which brought me to the transitional thought process of who are the people that I would be most intrigued with, historically having dinner with.

And that led me to kind of put some things down on paper like, you know, what would I think about on this? Today I want to talk about leadership. And I want to talk about who are the people that if I had a dinner table, and I'm not going to limit it to a certain number, that I would love to have around the table and what I'd like to ask them or what I'd like to talk about or what I'd like to know more about from their life and what we know of it around leadership and what they had to go through to become and be a leader.

And then also what can we take from it? What can I take from it that could make you be everyone more engaged as a leader? Just a couple of maybe thought processes or entry points to the conversation, I'm not going to include family members. You give me one day more with my dad or one day more with my four grandparents who I knew into my 20s and 30s. I would take it in a minute. Certainly, they would be at the top of the list and I kind of eliminated major religious figures depending on your particular religious belief system. I certainly think whether it's Christ or Mohammed or Abraham, Buddha, I mean there's a lot of Confucius. There's a lot of interesting people that probably did and did do amazing things.

The last thing is that I kept it somewhat related historically for where I live and what I know. So if I'm missing someone from incredible, let's take Galileo, we're a little farther away from that. So it doesn't maybe connect me quite as much. So there are six names I want to bring up and really what I think of them or what I would ask them. Maybe some of the things I would try to figure out.

There is a group of seven that I interested enough I had a longer list than I thought. I want to start with just kind of the honorable mentions of Randall's dinner table so to speak. I certainly would start with Rosa Parks and Courage thinking about the timeframe in which she lived and where she lived and what our country was going through in the process of unequal treatment towards people based on skin color of nothing else amongst other things. I'd ask her my courage. What caused her to sit down on that bus? Why her? I think that's fascinating.

Another person I would love to have a conversation with is Elenor Roosevelt. I'd love to know how she viewed her own lens of impact and leadership beyond that of being the wife of the president of the United States at the time. And frankly, Elenor Roosevelt was a big personality. So was she. She did incredible things. I'd love to know how she looked beyond not sitting in the back seat to take a step forward in serving this country, herself and leadership and those the things that she believed in and represented.

I'd want to talk to King George VI who passed away. Birdie I believe was the nickname that he was given inside the family. King after Edward abdicated in 1937 or so, it stayed until his daughter, the longest-serving queen in monarch of all time. He George passed in the early 1950s. The reason I'd ask him is really simply he had an immense stutter. Was never meant to be King. His brother was to be and then he was thrust into the forefront of the world. I'd be overcome personal fear of that. Incredible. And the King's speech kind of walks through that. I think that it's an incredible moment when we look at our deficiencies and kind of people that can work through them.

I would throw Lamar Hunt in there, which is a name many people, maybe not know. Lamar Hunt is the founder of the Kansas City Chiefs, but more importantly that he was the founder of the AFL, which merged in the late 1960s with the NFL. And he was turned down a number of times from being an NFL owner. He finally said to Hacley, I'm going to start my own league, my own teams. Where do you get the ability to be creative and have no fear? That helps when you've got hundreds of millions of dollars because your family's an oil, family in Texas. But no fear is something that's important.

I would also throw in from a creative standpoint, John Ford and Steven Spielberg. I'm fascinated because I have no artistic ability at all, seeing what's not there and then creating it in front of you. John Ford, a legendary filmmaker from the 1930s and 40s, particularly in the 50s and 60s. Obviously Steven Spielberg more recently. I find what they do. Amazing. Your favorite director, Otto Preminger, still is my favorite. And you're like, who the heck is that? Google him. Natty of a murder, Pest Movie ever made with Jimmy Stewart. But I would tell you that I have the creativity piece.

The last thing is, the last person I would say on the honorable mention is Margaret Thatcher. How she stood tall in a man's world and brought the British Empire into the latter part of the 20th century. Excuse me, the 20th century. And was unafraid. I think she's kind of an amazing figure in terms of leadership. The context is, as you may not agree with any of these people's politics are, I'm interested in the skill sets, the learned knowledge of how to be a good leader, not their belief system. What is it about them in these various areas, which gets us to our six?

The first would be Nelson Mandela, who I think is one of the most amazing people I've ever read about, obviously never met him. But I find his ability in one particular area to be so distinct and so critical and yet so unconquered in terms of leadership. And that's his idea of patience and endurance and no retribution. For those who don't know Nelson Mandela, and you may know the name, but he was a freedom fighter for lack of a better term in South Africa for equality.

And what's really the piece of the puzzle for me is that he was convicted of crazy charges where he was standing up for what he believed against the white population and they imprisoned him. And I believe for about 27 years on a place called Robin Island, which you could still go to, to an island off the coast, to prison. He was there 27 years. He comes out of prison and there's a number of movies that document this either TV or large screen. And he comes in back in society because the pressure was mounting on the white population and we got to do something here. This is wrong. A part tied, worldwide pressure.

And he comes out of prison and the clerk who's the president of the company realizes he's pretty much the negotiating piece of the puzzle for the white population to begin giving democratic power, which should have been done centuries before, to the African population. Nelson Mandela comes out, is elected president thereafter and talks about unity, talks about no retribution. We have to share power that we can't inflict what was inflicted upon us because that will denigrate us and our cause. How is it that you have been wronged? So the learned lesson that I always try to figure out from Nelson Mandela, when you've been wronged, how do you remove the personal?

He was put in prison for 27 years, lost, touched with his wife, with his children. Comes out, becomes president of the country, the most powerful man is out of Africa, the most powerful man probably in Africa, one of the most powerful men, people, individuals in the world. And he's preaching, we've got to pull together. He took the personal, removed it and put the greater good in front of him and in front of everyone else. What an amazing leadership quality, the ability to have endurance and patience and stood by his belief system at the same time for a freer Africa. It's out of Africa. I would love to hear why those things were important, how he pushed his own personal feelings aside and being wronged for the betterment of all. Nelson Mandela.

Number two, I would love to have an opportunity and just to sit and watch, I think would be more important than actually talking, although listening would be a privilege and a joy, would be Mahatma Gandhi. And here is this highly educated attorney who obviously is of Indian descent is educated, fell overseas, comes back and reduces his lifestyle to that of a very plain person and becomes the leader. And really, in some ways, the elevator, I'm not sure he founded nonviolent protest, but he certainly brought it into the modern day.

And in doing so, I'd love to know about two things with Mahatma Gandhi, as he moved to free India from British rule, finally doing so in about 1947, is that why is it that he had the emotional intelligence to receive beatings, to receive disparaging thought, to know that people weren't going to like what he was doing, to have the depth of conviction that would allow the long term view of freedom for his people. And then secondly, I'd want to know, he was a master at persuasion. Today's world, we seem to yell at each other a lot. And what is a lost art, which Mahatma Gandhi, I think, really personified, was persuasion.

How do we take someone and who has a little bit of a different view and work in partnership with them, but persuade them as to our particular perspective and where we can find mFutual agreement to move forward? I think Congress could use this an awful lot right now. You do a lot of yelling at people rather than speaking with people. I think Mahatma Gandhi could teach us all a lot about persuasion and about the ability to listen and find collective solutions that don't, you know, slick with or compromise our greater goals.

The third, I mentioned probably five, six minutes ago, just off-shoot, but I've been struck by the television series, The Crown. And so the third is Queen Elizabeth. I'm fascinated by her. I'm fascinated by her leadership. I'm fascinated by her sacrifice. And really, that's in part with duty and responsibility what I'd want to talk to her about. In the last several episodes of The Crown, her sister is being discussed or the world of the crown in the monarchies through her eyes, talking about what Lulabat, as she was called in her family, had to give up. And that struck me.

Here's someone who was on the crown was on the throne, excuse me, wearing the crown for 70 plus years. Is that really who she wanted to be? What was she willing to give up to duty and responsibility for something she believed in? She truly thought was a hallmark of the British society. They also, they, lots of people, they threw the crown or through actual reporting or first-hand knowledge, indicated that she was incredibly fair and impartial. When she's being drug under the bus, various times in her reign, how did she stay that way? Certitude is really what I would want to ask her about this duty and responsibility and what she was willing to give up on herself for the greater good. I think that's incredible leadership.

Again, in any one of these people you may say, I don't like their policy, I don't, all legitimate conversations, I'm looking at attributes. And in her case, for us to learn is about what can I give up to get to the greater good? And how do I stay of that duty of what's most important? Number four, probably number two on my overall list and I'll get to number one last is Abraham Lincoln. When people ask me and I've talked about this on the podcast, other places, what book is to you the one that would best exemplify leadership?

I always give the exact same response and it's about Abraham Lincoln and it's by Doris Kern's good one, team of rivals, probably the most powerful book I've ever read on leadership and has nothing to do with the tactical pieces of authoritative leadership, title leadership. It's the story of Abraham Lincoln becoming president and through the Civil War being able to bring together a group of people, cabinet members, Secretary of State Stewart, Stewart, there's Stanton as the head of the war department, all of these people who thought of him as a rube for Illinois, who that is this guy, he got elected and he brings all these people who not only don't like him, they don't like each other.

But Lincoln realized that he needed a group of power brokers to move the country through the Civil War and that his job wasn't to be the smartest guy in the room, but to bring the smartest people into the room and guide them, convince them or sway them, work together with them. Not against his convictions, but to bring them online with his convictions and strategy to get through the challenging days of the 1860s. The movie Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis, is a phenomenal example of where he's trying to get the 13th amendment passed and the politics. And we think about the 13th amendment as like a no-brainer, no slavery. It almost didn't pass, Congress, which meant there were people who voted against it because they claimed state rights.

I think there's still even in the middle of the Civil War, even though they're in the North anti-slavery issues. There's immense politics and he has to work the back rooms and using his cabinet to do so, while fighting the war. I think and also misunderstood or not discussed possibly that great greatly is the idea that he began the modernization of America. He was the starting point of the industrial revolution. The Civil War pumped immense growth into new products and the industrial revolution then follows when it goes into Rockefeller and Carnegie and certainly Cornelius Vanderbilt with railroads, the growth of America, Transcontinental, railroad, Lincoln.

I'd like to know from him how he brought people together. What was the self-sacrifice, say, "I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I know who needs to be in the room to get to where we want to go?" The fifth Winston Churchill. For him, I only have one thing I want to talk about and that was his ability as a communicator. If you listen to the actual speech, read it or in the movie The Dark Stowers with Gary Oldman, there's a speech at the end about when they lose Dunkirk and he goes before Parliament and it's pushed over the radio waves across the world about what they're going to do and that's the famous speech about we'll fight them on the beaches, we'll fight them in the hills.

He had a number of those kinds of speeches. He moved people, brought people together through his ability to be in order. So powerful was words that Edward R. Murrow, who was the voice for America in Britain. He was in Britain giving regular news reports sent back to the United States into the wireless radio networks of America. Had this comment about Winston Churchill and his ability to motivate, to communicate, he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. On the movie, they give it credit to this account Halifax, who was sent over to the United States after that particular speech.

But what's interesting is that there were many people who said it was Churchill's motivation verbally that got him to where he wanted to go and got their country where they needed to go. He came up with a speech in Missouri about the Iron Curtain. He was not a natural speaker, which I find fascinating. He really struggled at it and the movie The Dark Sourge really goes through that and how he would have an assistant typing all the time and then he needed to work at it. It wasn't natural. But I think the last thing that I take from Winston Churchill is actually something that most people don't give him credit for.

But he famously said, at least famously for me, is that making a living, you make a living by what you make. You make a life by what you give. The essence of the interview. Lastly George Washington, my favorite, not without question, I've read so many books. And what I'm fascinated by most with him is that he would walk away from power, from prestige. He fights and leads the revolutionary war. He's the most popular, most known person in America. And he leaves the army and goes back to Mount Vernon in Virginia. He left, didn't take power, didn't just kind of walk away. He's then called back in particular with the Continental Congress in 1887 or so. And he's immediately made the chair of the president of the Congress.

And they go through and they dig after the articles of Confederation, which did not work for several years, create the Constitution. We know it today. He is unanimously seen as the face of America. He sits quietly and moves things very slowly to keep order through the constitutional conversations, that constitutional convention. And then he walks away again. Goes back to Virginia. He's then almost unanimously elected the first president of the United States. Except the role serves eight years, could have served till the day he died, tries to downgrade his position with creating respect for the presidency, but not just about him. And he walks away. What is it about leadership when it's time to walk away and realize that others need to take the mantle? What an amazing example of integrity and vision and about civility, about how they work, you work through those situations.

He wrote famously the 110 rules of civility that he kept with him about how you treat other people. He was also an amazing identifier of talent. There's no question he was a bright man, but he surrounded himself with, much Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. And these people's thoughts drive who we are as a country today 200 in some years later. His ability to walk away, identify talent, have civility, create direction. I find fascinating and till you to walk away when things are the best to say, I'm good with who I am, I'm out of here. That's leadership. Washington's ability not to overstay one's welcome.

Mandela's ability not to have a sense of retribution for those that are against you. Gandhi's ability to think about the long term and have the emotional intelligence to use nonviolent protests. I find fascinating. Who are the people that find ways not to be the troublemaker in the issues of leadership when we're not organizations? The duty and sacrifice of Queen Elizabeth, who are the people in your organization? What do you have to do to be duty led to what's best overall Abraham Lincoln bringing people together that don't always agree and being the facilitator of the catalyst for a group effort. In St. Churchill, the ability to move people through words. That would be my table. Not perfect table, but my table. And if there's a few chairs extra, I named a few people at the beginning that I would add to it.

Leadership's an undervalued position right now in nonprofit world. We have challenges and the greater our leaders are from the philanthropy leaders to organizational leaders, the better off we're all going to be. Don't forget, check out the blogs at howletflanthropy.com. You can get an RSS feed right to you if you want to reach out to me. It's podcast howletflanthropy.com. It's important that nonprofit work not just exists, but flourish. There's a lot of challenges in this world and nonprofits serve primary purpose to fill the holes that government, business can't take care of. People needing help, things being protected. That brings me to my favorite saying, some will make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wonder what those who make things happen are leaders.

And hopefully they grab a couple pieces and say, I could do more of that or this person does that. I need to spend more time with them or I need to learn about that. People who make things happen are the things and the people who are wondering what happened. Those that are the underrepresented that not heard. Those who we need to be focused on in the film, Robert. Thanks for joining me. I'll look forward to seeing you next time right back here on the next edition of Around with Randall.

Don't forget, make it a great day.