The story of David E. Lilienthal (Watson, 1951, pp. 287-291) was inspiring. After World War II there was much fear and suspicion around atomic energy because “most people only saw the destructive power of atomic energy” (Watson, 1951, p. 287), however, Lilienthal saw potential and opportunity (Watson, 1951, p. 287). This is the first leadership lesson contained in this story. When there is a problem or a challenge, leaders see opportunity (The Global Leadership Summit, 2018). They innovate because they “seeing [see] what everybody else sees and thinking [think] what nobody else thought” (The Global Leadership Summit, 2018). Lilienthal is a great example of this; he saw that the atomic age was a challenge, but he also saw that it was a huge opportunity (Watson, 1951, p. 288).

The second leadership lesson is that the way to present this opportunity is through a positively focused clear vision of the future. Part of being a leader is creating vision, and motivating and inspiring followers (Northouse, 2016, p. 14). Lilienthal modelled this because he had a clear vision of atomic energy leading to “American development” (Watson, 1951, p. 290). Transformational leadership occurs when leaders inspire followers towards a shared vision (Smith, Montagno, Kuzmenko, 2004), which Lilienthal did through the message he wrote (Watson, 1951, p. 291). “The inspirational appeals of the authentic transformational leader tend to focus on the best in people–on harmony, charity and good works” (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999, Inspirational Motivation section, para. 1). Lilienthal’s vision focused on these things as he wrote about how we need knowledge, but that we also need understanding, love and faith (Watson, 1951, p. 289).

Lilienthal wrote that “we have the knowledge and the power to mold the very face of things… what we need is the will and the faith” (Watson, 1951, p. 291). This is a third key leadership principle. Leaders need to have the will and the faith to go after opportunities in the midst of challenges. I would propose that leaders need both will and faith in order to model the way (Kouzes & Posner, as cited in Northouse, 2016, p. 174) for followers. They have to hold onto faith that the vision they are casting is possible to achieve.

This story inspired me to be more intentional to practice positivity in my own leadership. I often see systemic flaws and ways things could be done better but I often do not know how to address them as an opportunity. When I discuss the flaws I see, it is with the intention of improving them and creating more efficient or effective systems and processes, however, I have learned that through this I can come across as quite negative. Being negative is not my intention and this could be alleviated if I could learn how to address these challenges as opportunities through casting a positive vision for a better future. Part of my hope in doing this Masters is that I will be more equipped to present solutions instead of simply seeing problems and not knowing how to fix them. This story encouraged me in this through making me see that the way to address a problem is not to focus on the potential disaster, but rather to have faith and hope and to focus on the potential ideal future.

References

Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. Leadership Quarterly, 10(2), 181. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=2406536&site=eds-live

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice, Seventh Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Smith, B. N., Montagno, R. V., & Kuzmenko, T. N. (2004). Transformational and Servant Leadership: Content and Contextual Comparisons. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 10(4), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190401000406

The Global Leadership Summit. (Producer). (2018). Craig Groeschel [DVD]. Available from https://store.growingleadership.com/collections/gls-2018-resources/products/2018-gls-team-edition-pre-order-dvd

Watson, L.E. (1951). Light from many lamps. New York: Simon and Schuster.