Leaders Include Everyone

Dignity, respect, and love are at the origins of success

Official Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt by Frank O. Salisbury, 1947 (White House Historical Association)

“It is shameful and inhuman to treat men like chattels to make money by, or to regard them merely as so much muscle or physical power.” — Pope Leo XIII, 1891

People want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

This was one of the guiding principles I used when I served as a leader for Ford Motor Company’s digital communications and social media strategy.

It’s a universal human truth. People want to feel like they’ve made a difference.

But that doesn’t happen by accident. To motivate people, to make them feel as if they matter in the process, we need leaders to acknowledge the dignity in every single person.

For millennia, humans have contributed toward the improvement of society in numerous ways — better tools and technology that have allowed us to accomplish more in every succeeding generation; thoughtful architecture that has served a functional purpose and made surroundings more beautiful; the arts that have evolved and expanded, enriching our workaday world.

Everything worthwhile has come from collaboration.

All of these are initiatives were possible at scale because someone had a dream, shared their vision, and motivated other people to collaborate.

Motivation is where the magic happens. It’s no mistake that the words emotion and motivation are based on the same Latin word: motus, the past participle of movere, to move.

If we want people work together, we have to move them. And moving them means acknowledging them. Including them.

Including everyone means listening to your people, treating them with dignity and respect, and showing them that they matter. And that’s a motivator.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. — Theodore Roosevelt, 1903

The Forgotten Man

In a landmark radio speech in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt talked about “the forgotten man.” The country was in the throes of the Great Depression with millions of unemployed Americans.

He recalled Napoleons loss at Waterloo, made “because he forgot his infantry — he staked too much upon the more spectacular but less substantial cavalry.”

He made the case that America had forgotten about the backbone of its own economy:

“…approximately one-half of our whole population, fifty or sixty million people, earn their living by farming or in small towns whose existence immediately depends on farms.”

In doing so, FDR made it clear that every American mattered — not just the corporations and wealthy businessmen that President Herbert Hoover had made his priority.

The Great Depression, he opined, was a great national emergency, much like World War I. In that case, when America decided to throw its weight against the Kaiser, it was “a great plan because it was built from bottom to top and not from top to bottom.”

Bringing that concept forward to 1932, he said:

“These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.”

To FDR, everyone mattered. Especially the forgotten man.

Working Together

The history of the American auto industry is filled with instances of union-vs.-management battles. Unions have tended to rise in significance and utility when management treated them as chattel and muscle power, as Pope Leo XIII indicated in the quote above.

James P. Lewis, in his book Working Together, captured the sentiment:

“When management shows by their actions that they do not have regard for their people, the workers respond by becoming resentful, resisting, and ultimately militant.”

Management and labor interactions turn into moves and countermoves, which tend to cancel each other out.

But with a leader who has principles rooted in love, respect, and dignity, the idea of including everyone is as natural as breathing.

In my time at Ford, I saw CEO Alan Mulally’s leadership philosophy play out firsthand. His Working Together© Leadership and Management System is based on a number of principles that were integrated into Ford.

The Expected Behaviors we all carried around on our badges outlined this spirit of Working Together:

• Believe in skilled an motivated people working together

• Include everyone; respect, listen to, help and appreciate others

• Build strong relationships; be a team player; develop ourselves and others

• Communicate clearly, concisely and candidly

“Include everyone” wasn’t merely a platitude or a way of making sure managers were running their plans past everyone. It was lived.

I saw Alan engage with employees at all levels, from the boardroom to the plant floor. And it was more than a simple greeting. He made each person feel like they were the center of the universe during their conversations.

My team was responsible for producing a daily “clipsheet,” filled with relevant news about the world,  the industry, our competitors, and our team. We physically printed it and hand-delivered it to the executive offices the floor above.

Invariably, when Alan found a story that mentioned a Ford employee by name, he would write a personal note to the employee on that page and send it to them, with a copy to their supervisor. People treasured those notes like actual currency.

Why? Because they were acknowledged, included, and loved.

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Related: Alan Mulally on the Timeless Leadership podcast:

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Alan came from the aeronautics industry, but none of this is rocket science.

This is about seeing people for who they are and giving them a chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.

As Benjamin Zander, conductor and music director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra realized after 20 years of conducting:

“I had been conducting for nearly 20 years when it suddenly dawned on me that the conductor of an orchestra does not make a sound! ... his true power derives from his ability to make other people powerful.”

And isn’t that the job of leaders? To help others succeed.

Franklin Roosevelt helped Americans believe in themselves again. Alan Mulally returned Ford to profitability and got 200,000 employees pulling in the same direction. Benjamin Zander ensured Bostonians had enriching experiences at every concert.

Go and include everyone.

You never know who you’re going to make powerful.

There’s so much to learn,

Bonus: Books referenced in today’s newsletter

• The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Benjamin and Rosamund Stone Zander

• Working Together: 12 Principles for Achieving Excellence in Managing Projects, Teams, and Organizations by James P. Lewis

You can get these books and others I’ve mentioned in the newsletter in this curated list. When you purchase books through this link, a small portion goes toward supporting my efforts. Thank you!