The London Times recently carried commentary about the Legendary American sportsman, Shipwreck Kelly. His 'sport' was that of Pole Sitting. That is, his feats of endurance involved spending inordinate amounts of time perched high up on 9-inch poles. His record was 1,177 hours (49 days). His 'secret' was not a claim to magical powers but rather he stated simply that "…it takes guts, a certain power of the mind…it's what is going on inside that wins the day".

The commentator went on to reflect how easily these days we are 'wowed' by modern day 'mega magicians' (i.e. David Blaine et al) who lay claim to superhuman powers to sustain them when spending just a few days on a similar high pole. Plainly, we settle for so much less today. The bar is definitely lower.

In a similar way, recent history would seem to suggest that we may have done the same with leadership. We have easily been impressed by those who can create some early wins, crunch a few numbers, invent catchy phrases and nifty business models or produce a fantastic, gleaming smile on the front page of Newsweek or Time magazine. We have created a value structure that rewards surface charisma with little regard to the internal characteristics of courage, honour and personal integrity. This has cost us dearly and many fear that the recent leadership debacles with Enron, WorldCom etc may not be the end of the story.

However, there is another way, one in which the bar is far higher. We can probably all point to leaders who have inspired us by their character and heart. People whose very example calls us to deeper internal fortitude and a higher bar of personal leadership behaviour.

A new CEO of a large UK based media company stood in front of his employees and announced the following. "I know that often people find themselves feeling pressured to compromise their personal ethic to hit the numbers for the sake of the company. Well, I want to state very clearly today that I never want anyone to feel pressured to do that. We don't want to be that kind of company. If you feel that pressure, come and speak with me. I don't ever want you to feel you need to compromise on our behalf. However, I also want to state that if, for whatever reason, you choose to compromise and put the reputation of this company at stake then I will not back you - I say again, that is not the kind of company we want to be'".

This set a high bar for those within the company that under his leadership went from a £100 million market capitalisation to £400 million in 6 years. Integrity is, and can be, profitable.

Why is it then that we find ourselves in a context where people have such low expectations of leaders? Certainly disappointment and its accompanying response of cynicism have surely played their part. However the issue that may be more apposite for this article is not so much how high a bar people set for us, but rather how high is the one we choose to set for ourselves? How high is your personal bar? What have you said to your staff as to what they should expect of you and what you expect from them?

As we reflect on these questions it could be that a long dead pole sitter has something profound to say to those of us who lead today " …it takes guts, a certain power of the mind…it's what is going on inside that wins the day'".

Phil Wall
CEO