Thoughts on Just Leadership

Portland, Oregon

I have recently assumed the position of lead arborist with a tree care company in Portland. I am the foreman and I am in a position of leadership. A philosophical excursus on leadership is in order.

In the first place leadership is concerned with the care of others. Just leadership--and by that I mean leadership with genuine authority--always proceeds from the point of view of a caring relationship: the leader should be in a caring disposition towards his charges.

Secondly we may wish to distinguish just leadership from petty authoritarianism. I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. Even small pieces of power can be misused, such as when a leader attempts to fulfill some personal need for power, acting out of a Napoleon complex, as it were. Just leadership, by way of contrast, rather describes the way in which a leader subdues his own needs for the sake of the group and its collectivity of individuals.

Thirdly, leadership is only as good as the rules out of which it is constructed. In my case, I insist that everyone follows the ANSI standards on tree work. This way, I--and they--are neither higher nor lower than the objective laws. The merely personal preferences of the leader are thereby constrained by common reason. By insisting that he and everyone follow these rules he gives employees a reason to trust their leader because he is just.

Fourth, a leader must show that he is neither higher nor lower than the work he is prescribing that others do. He must, at least in my particular level of authority, actually do the work that everybody does and show that he is master of their work, of all work.

Fifth, a leader must show by example, becoming a model that he wishes to cultivate in his group. To do the work well and with gusto is, though not a necessary part of justice, certainly a closely attached virtue. Leadership is done by participation in the work of the group as a model for others to follow.





more to come....