Dear Leaders,
Today, I’m reminded of the story of Admiral Jim Stockdale, (summarized in Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great”) the highest-ranking US military officer in the “Hanoi Hilton” prisoner-of-war camp at the height of the Vietnam war. Imprisoned for eight years, tortured multiple times with no idea when, if at all, he would be released and able to see his family again.
Stockdale continued to lead while imprisoned, doing everything he could to encourage and support his fellow prisoners, seeking to help as many of them survive as possible, while at the same time continuing the battle against his captors.
Efforts included helping his fellow prisoners resist torture by having milestones to survive towards, finding ways to exchange intelligence with the outside world, and establishing an internal system of communication with his fellow prisoners, via tapping out codes with their feet, to reduce the sense of isolation.
On one occasion, during a period of mandated silence, prisoners swept the yard, swish swashing out the message “We love you” to Stockdale on the third anniversary of his being shot down.
After his release, Stockdale was often asked about how he had dealt with his imprisonment, and with not knowing the end of the story…
“I never lost faith in the end of the story,” he said, when I asked him. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”
Finally I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?”
“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.”
“The optimists? I don’t understand,” I said, now completely confused given what he’d said earlier.
“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart. This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end–-which you can never afford to lose–-with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
So, fellow leaders…
How will you lead, today?
How will you hold on to both hope and reality?
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