Quiet Sacrifice
Tami Longaberger, chair and CEO of The Longaberger Companies and was appointed the Chair of the National Women’s Business Council in 2005. She spoke to the attendees at the
2007 Global Summit of Women in Berlin about leading. She made the following comment about a word directly related to leadership that doesn't come up much when people are asked, "Why do you want to lead?"
Leaders also understand the meaning of quiet sacrifice. This is something I have had to do several times in my career and will, I am sure, have to do again.
What do I mean by “quiet” sacrifice? I mean a leader puts her employees and customers, as well as the community, ahead of her own private interests and takes the hard step of giving up something dear so others can benefit and prosper.
Kay Graham surely did this at The Washington Post when she sold her company to Newsweek magazine. She did so in order for her people to have a better opportunity to do what they did so well. She did not personally benefit at all. In fact, she suffered greatly, giving up an institution to which she was so dedicated for so many years. But The Washington Post, and the people who worked there, after they overcame the initial shock, did very well.
Time and again, Margaret Thatcher put her countrymen and women ahead of her own interests and withstood vicious personal criticism to ensure that the British people might live a better life. Her difficult battle with the coal miners union is one example all of us may recall.
Quiet sacrifice is not easy. You have to look into the mirror and ask yourself what is best for my people, my organization, and my community. Am I prepared to act and suffer any personal consequences? And then you need to step into the deep end of the pool without a lifesaver in sight. In my own case, this has never been easy. And it is not going to get any easier as I do so in the future. But it is necessary.
Well put. Nothing great comes without costs.
Stumble It!
Comments
I agree with Tami about the idea of "quiet sacrifice" as an attribute of a leader.
However, I don't agree with the example of Margaret Thatcher - the battle with the miners was a war of ideology, rather than a "quiet sacrfice".
Posted by: Les Hutchinson | August 7, 2007 11:01 AM
Tami, I'd like to crank it up a notch and suggest that extraordinary leaders stand in quiet sacrifice. Always. Sure, the examples you list highlight incidents of huge sacrifice. From a different vantage point I see leaders, albeit too rarely, that stand for their team, their company, their community and their life is a series of sacrifices of all shapes and sizes for those very things. Raw selflessness is, indeed, rare amongst the leader ranks but when it is present it makes all of the difference.
Posted by: Sue Melone | August 7, 2007 12:30 PM
I think this "selflessness" the author talks about is another way of expressing "compassion". And compassion is a feeling that every relevant leader feels for others. That is part of what drives true leaders to move to the forefront of a struggle or a movement.
Posted by: Ivan | August 7, 2007 09:13 PM
I put President Bush in this category. May not be a popular vote but...he sure embodies the role of quiet sacrifice. He does not promote himself. He does not shift with the polls. He is taking a pounding but does what he does...for the country. Like him or not (and I like him) he has to be considered as another leader in the same vain as these others.
Posted by: Tom Magness | August 7, 2007 09:45 PM