If You Want to Lead Well, You Have to Be a Politician

We often reject the label politician because it comes with a lot of cultural baggage.  

In the 1975 book Power: The Inner Experience, the late Harvard psychologist David McCelland wrote, “People are suspicious of a man who wants power, even if he wants it for sincere and altruistic reasons. He is often socially conditioned to be suspicious of himself. Since he does not want to be in a position where he might be thought to be seeking power in order to exploit others, he shuns public responsibility.” 

Organizational cultures also tell us to avoid being a politician. The right decision is the one that comes from dispassionate, logical analysis of evidence. (Of course, in that previous sentence, “right,” “analysis,” and “evidence” are all terms of art, and are subject to bias and political influence.)  One doesn't get away with “I’m advocating for this course because it’s the best one for me as an individual.”   

And many nonprofit leaders I know, especially those in the work of increasing equity and justice, recoil at the notion that they need to coerce others to achieve their goals. Surely, the righteousness of the cause will get everyone to voluntarily arrive at the same perspective and unified action.

What’s curious about people’s reluctance to accept the politician label is that, in actuality, most of the tasks we associate with leadership are inherently political. Consider things like:

• Communicating effectively

• Creating buy-in

• Aligning budgets to strategy

You tell me: Is there a way to do any of those things without being a politician?