Staying the Course: Leadership for the Common Good
Staying the Course: Leadership for the Common Good
In a world that celebrates quick and easy results, choosing to stay can be a radical act.
In his 2021 white paper Ecological Civilization: From Emergency to Emergence, David Korten - a Stanford MBA and PhD, and a former Harvard Business School professor - wrote:
The purpose of a functional economy is to provide all people with material sufficiency and spiritual abundance while supporting the wellbeing, beauty, and creative unfolding of Earth’s community of life. To be born human is to be gifted with an extraordinary potential to experience wonder, beauty, love, and the satisfaction of contributing to the learning and wellbeing of life. No human should be denied the opportunity to actualize that potential.
How often do you hear the words “love”, “beauty”, and “unfolding” in your company, or in the business world in general?
In our growth-at-all-costs business culture, we've forgotten and even pushed down fundamental human needs and truths. One of those truths is that building anything worthwhile takes self-sacrifice and patience.
Business professionals are constantly encouraged to chase the next opportunity, to change jobs every two years so that they can grow their career. But what if I told you that successful leadership sometimes means staying put and seeing things through?
The Problem with Premature Departures
I've seen it time and time again: passionate leaders kicking off major change initiatives, only to move on to their next opportunity a year or so later.
Each time this happens, I feel a surge of disappointment and exasperation. Why? Because real, lasting change takes time - at the very least three years- to take root in a an organization. Beginnings are full of energy and they capture our attention. And when you start seeing the first results, it can be inebriating, and fool us into thinking that we’re done. It’s around this time, or when the first signs of “change fatigue” appear, that I often see key leaders leave. And I don’t mean the leaders who disagree with the change, it makes sense that they do. I’m talking about the leaders who initiated or are leading key parts of the change. Leaders who catalyze transformation have a duty to see it through.
This isn't about martyrdom. It’s not even about you anymore. It's about the common good. Leadership is a generative act, a selfless commitment to affect positive change that will last beyond your tenure in that organization. That means sometimes saying “no” to whatever comes your way that looks more important and attractive until the change you've started can stand on its own.
The Challenge of Staying
The work of change in large organizations happens in the trenches, day in and day out. When your job is to ensure that hundreds or thousands of human beings move towards the same place in a coordinated way, it can feel like you’re trying to melt an iceberg with a match. “Why are they so slow?!”.
With all the benefits technology has brought to our lives, it also robbed us of patience. We expect same-day shipping and instantly available information. We can barely wait for a pedestrian to cross the street when we’re driving. No wonder we have trouble tolerating the time it takes for organizational change to materialize.
Being a change leader takes a toll on you. You are a lightning rod for the organization's tension. Everyone comes to you for answers you don’t have. Or to blame you when things go wrong.
Because it's a difficult position to be in, the temptation to move on can be strong. “I’ve done all I can here”. The world is full of other places where the grass looks greener, where (you tell yourself) you can have real impact, faster, at a bigger scale. You can convince yourself that it’s the right thing to do, not just for your career but for everyone involved.
But I challenge you to resist that urge. Instead, ask yourself: why did I sign up to do this in the first place? What do I honestly think will happen when I leave? Are the obstacles I am facing in this company unique, or will I find them in any organization? What will I do when things get difficult again? If leaving is a better career move, what will that get me? Will that be enough, or will I still want more? More of what?
These are some tough questions. They can either be stressful to ponder because you realize you don’t know the answers. Or, they help you come to terms with what really matters to you in life.
I once sat down with a senior executive for some career advice. I walked her through my journey, with plenty of career pivots and roles crisscrossing the company. I had always chose to chase problems rather than promotions.
When I asked her about her own career journey, she drew a straight line at a 45-degree angle, shooting straight up to the top, with a well defined list of the next few roles needed to take her there. Compared to hers, my career journey looked like a bunch of tangled strings. I was only a couple of years younger than her, but various levels below in the org chart. I wondered if I had made a big mistake with my approach. Could I have climbed higher up the corporate ladder? Probably. Have I paid a price for this choice, given what society tends to define as success? Perhaps.
But here's the thing… Many of the organizational initiatives I started stood the test of time, living on through others who have taken them forward. Most people today probably don't even remember that I initiated them, it’s just the way things are done. That makes me genuinely happy. In my mind, that is what legacy is all about.
I believe that one of the things that contributed to that success was precisely my disinterest in climbing up the ladder. My role models at the top seemed to be sacrificing a lot to be there. Most women had a stay-at-home spouse. I had worked with a few execs who died of heart attacks in their 50s. All I wanted was to do meaningful work, with interesting people, and live a good life. The rewards for being at the top didn’t seem to be worth the price tag.
Not climbing the ladder came with some advantages. When you have no authority to, say, define people’s salaries or advance their careers, they end up working with you because they want to. Because they believe in the vision, because they enjoy being around you, and they know whatever you do together will make a difference.
The irony is, as the organizations I worked for became flatter and flatter, I felt more and more at home. But many leaders and managers today are going through an identity crisis. They are being stripped of their direct reports, of decision-making power, of straight-line career paths. They don’t quite know who they are and what their purpose is in this new world of flatter organizations.
The way out of this leadership identity crisis is to shift our focus: from success to the common good.
Leadership for The Common Good
I lived in Spain for a short while, and I loved the way people there asked what I did (for a living):
“A que te dedicas?”, was the question.
Not just “what do you do”, but “what are you dedicated to?”.
Whenever I dance in a live performance, I spend a few seconds backstage going through a couple of rituals to get me in the right mindframe. One of those rituals is to dedicate my performance to someone who is in need of support or good luck. It’s a whole different feeling to dance in service of a person’s wellbeing versus dancing to look good for the audience.
In an ethnic dance festival I participated in, I shared the dressing room with an Indian classical dance troupe. The small Hindu altar that they set up in a corner of the room reminded all of us dancers that there’s a higher purpose to art.
I believe the same applies for leadership. We need to reframe success for leaders. We need to dedicate ourselves to something larger than our performance.
In leadership for the common good, you are a citizen-leader. The focus is on the collective. This means that everyone in the organization, regardless of their position or role, is a potential leader.
One of my favorite definitions of leadership is by a non-profit called Girls Leadership, an organization that uses social-emotional learning to develop leadership competencies in girls. It is simple and easy to visualize:
Leadership is making others and situations better as a result of your presence, and making that impact last in your absence. This work can begin at any age, and doesn’t require a title or role.
Leadership for the common good means recognizing that you have the power and responsibility to positively impact the world around you, be it at work, at home, or in the public arena. With small or big gestures.
One example from leadership in action in everyday life: When you park your car, do you do it in a way that leaves space for others? Or are you done as long as your car is parked? That's the kind of foresight and consciousness we need, and it’s really hard to do. That’s why leaders are still needed, and are in short supply.
this approach requires sacrifice. You may not benefit much personally, at least in the traditional ways we define success. You will need patience, self-effacement and resilience. But the rewards are seeing your work take root, flourish, and continue even in your absence.
Should You Stay or Should You Go? A Decision Framework
While I advocate for staying the course, I’m not a fundamentalist either. I recognize that sometimes moving on may is the right choice. Here's a framework to help you decide:
Assess the state of your initiative:
When you are absent, do people still seek or need your direct involvement?
Is there a critical mass of role models and champions who can carry it forward?
Are there systems and processes in place to ensure its continuity?
Evaluate your personal growth:
Are you still learning and developing in your current role?
Do you have more to contribute, or are you feeling stagnant?
Is your passion for the work still alive, or has it waned? If so, have you been feeling this way for a few days, weeks or months?
Consider the organizational context:
Does your organization (senior execs, your peers, shareholders) still support the change you're trying to implement? Or do you want it more than they do?
Are there structural barriers preventing further progress?
Is there alignment between your values and the organization's direction?
Do you have your management’s support? Do they trust and believe in you, even if they might not quite get what you’re going for?
Reflect on your long-term goals:
How does staying align with your life’s vision and purpose?
What would you be sacrificing by staying? By leaving?
In five years, which decision would you be prouder of having made?
What would it be like to tell the story of how you saw this change through?
Gauge your energy levels:
What would it take to continue pushing through challenges?
Are you at risk of burnout if you stay?
How would leaving impact your mental and emotional well-being?
Seek outside perspective:
Do you have trusted mentors or colleagues you can confide in? What do they think about your situation?
How do those who will be most impacted by your decision feel if you left?
What help do you need right now? Are you asking for it? Is it available?
Another thing that has been hugely helpful for me to do BEFORE initiating a change is to work on the Definition of Done. This term is borrowed from the agile methodology, and it is akin to a pre-mortem or a “go /no-go” criteria in project management. You simply define what you will need to see, feel, touch and/or hear to know that your job is done. For example, “I need to see X many leaders walking the talk in my organization before I can move on to my next step”. This definition will be your lighthouse in the middle of the storm, when things get complicated and emotional during the process of change. You are therefore being kind to your future self, as one of my teachers says. I have also found that it was a great regret-preventing mechanism. Extra points if you share it with someone else and ask them to hold you accountable.
Deciding to stay can be a great tool to engage others in the transformation. Share with them why you’re choosing to chain yourself to your job until the job is done. I once met a C-level executive who said in front of the top leadership in our division: “I am not retiring until this gets done”. There’s something really powerful about a personal commitment like that- we knew he meant it! Your commitment to seeing things through can inspire others and create a ripple effect of positive change. You're not just completing a project; you're modeling a different kind of leadership that values long-term impact over short-term gains.
Moreover, by staying, you give yourself the opportunity to deepen your understanding of what it takes to truly transform an organization. Not a lot of people do that. This kind of deep knowledge and experience is rare and invaluable, both for your personal growth and for the success of your initiatives.
In a world that celebrates quick and easy results, choosing to stay can be a radical act. The world needs more steadfast leaders. I know you are one of them!
For more insights on leading change with synchrony, and adaptability and confidence, visit my website. You'll find case studies, resources, and practical tools to apply in your work.
If you’re ready to inspire authentic change in your organization, let’s talk.