Reflections on Leadership and Life Choices

Dr Brendan Nelson MP is the Federal Member for Bradfield. Brendan is probably best known as the immediate past president of the Australian Medical Association. Brendan has been a valued speaker at the last two New Leaders Forums.

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance". — Robert Kennedy 1966

In Capetown on 7 June 1966, in his address to the National Union of South African Students' Day of Affirmation, Robert Kennedy gave what I consider to be his finest speech.

"A tiny ripple of hope" was spoken at that time, not only to the students of South Africa who were affirming their commitment to human liberty and academic freedom in the face of Government oppression, but to the young people of the world in his generation and those to come. His words also embody much of what leadership and spirit is all about.

Leadership is many things, but as Kennedy so rightly identified, it embodies the unshakeable belief that one person can make a difference. Inflamed by passionate idealism, the courage to achieve and commitment to an ethic of service to others, change can be effected.

In the text of this same address, Kennedy observed "moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence" and that eventually each of us would be judged on the contribution we make to "building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that effort". How true.

In choosing a path in life one of the most important questions to ask is, "When I get to the end of my life, will I consider this has been one well spent?"

If you look throughout society to those for whom we have the highest regard, they are invariably people who have fought for the things in which they believe. Facing adversity, hardship and criticism in their chosen field, these are people who persevered in seeking to make the lives of all of us that much better.

I well recall at the age of seventeen being enrolled in an economics degree at Adelaide University, the year after leaving school. It seemed that with only one life to live which is so short, would it be one well spent in the economic or accounting sector? As I dropped out into the workforce I then spent almost a year wondering how best to spend my working years.

The choice for me was guided by the contentment of those I either knew or had observed reaching the end of their working lives with a sense of satisfaction. Invariably it was not the accumulation of wealth, nor the acquisition of powerful and influential friends, but rather the satisfaction that comes from knowing that you made a difference - to yourself, your family and to the society in which we live. There is a contentment deeply rooted in successfully challenging and changing the thinking of others as you place their interests ahead of your own, that cannot be matched by the material trappings of economic success as an end in itself.

True leaders are people who are at ease with themselves and others. Around them are those who are attracted by their vision and energy, driven to follow, inspired by a common cause which invariably is for the benefit of others.

Although clear thinking and common sense is important, one of the things that I learned in my own profession of medicine that is absolutely fundamental, and which I have used as a reliable guide for measuring the strength and wisdom of my teachers, is their ability to learn from their mistakes. So much of life's pain and unhappiness comes from people making themselves the centre of their own lives. The heroes of medicine are those prepared to apologise to others when those errors have caused personal or physical injury, and most importantly in teaching, to share their mistakes with students in whom they seek to instill a sense of what is right.

Consistent with these values, exceptional leaders make others feel good about themselves and in doing so inspire and evoke loyalty.

Sir Weary Dunlop was a man of both greatness and strength, yet it was measured in terms of his humility. He did not expect recognition, yet through the care, concern and compassion shown to those in need, he exuded a strength few of us will ever achieve.

Effective leadership also requires wisdom, a quality that is learned more through life than picked up in the gene pool. In experiencing and sharing the pain, achievements and triumphs of other people's lives, wisdom is slowly acquired. With understanding, good leaders seem able to think things through for themselves, resisting group pressure as they tease out the circumstances of any given situation.

When such people also have vision, dreams which guide the direction in which they are going and what is required to get there, power is created. The kind of power that brings with it enthusiasm for change and the ability to get other people moving towards those goals.

For leaders there is always a tension between what is popular and what is right. Pauline Hanson, for example, is popular, but is she right? Does she and those who support her offer us a positive vision for change and a better future for our country? Hope is fragile but it has always been a powerful force for positive change. The greater achievements of history have been effected by those who treated all others as equals, by those who eschewed selfishness and fought with idealistic but practical wisdom for change that was of benefit to others.

Neither Robert Kennedy nor Weary Dunlop were driven by bitterness or rancour. Despite suffering dreadfully inhumane treatment at the hands of his World War II captors as he administered care to his stricken colleagues, Weary Dunlop harboured neither hatred nor contempt to those who brought these injustices upon him. Robert Kennedy and his brother before him fought for civil rights when it was neither fashionable nor popular to do so. Each had a message of hope that was felt as much as it was heard.

Leaders are also people who exercise the right to freedom of speech with responsible restraint. They are not people who demean, denigrate or alienate any section of society. The art of true leadership is to evoke in people a genuine enthusiasm for overcoming their own self interest, to support ideas that serve the best interests of society. It also means taking people where they need to go, rather than simply following populist sentiment.

At the heart of decision making also lies the eternal question, "What is the right thing for me to do?" Close to the surface should lie a set of principles - values which act as a guide, and if followed mean that you will never have any trouble sleeping at night no matter how unpopular the decisions to be reached.

It is difficult to distill the essence of "success" into succinct statements. If I were to rate my own successes they would be to have contributed to making tobacco control a public priority, elevating the importance of aboriginal health, effecting a recognition of the need for health financing reform and perhaps reminding the medical profession of the greater power that lies in altruism.

Whatever path you choose, there seem to be some fundamentals.

Many of the "facts" we now learn will be superseded and many of those that aren't we forget.

Success depends on your ability to acquire new knowledge, the inner integrity of your intellect and the humanity with which you deal with other people. Those who give in life generally end the journey much happier than those who take all they can get. In the end, you will be remembered not for what you know - but who you are.

When leaders are out of touch with those around them—when we fail to recognise the need to lead, rather than follow public opinion—our vision and goals are vulnerable. When facts bow to bias truth is in danger, and evil in all its guises finds an environment in which it may flourish, if not triumph.

Robert Kennedy's life was cut tragically short, leaving the world to grieve in the knowledge that he left an enormous unrealised potential. His legacy though was the knowledge that he had achieved a great deal for the betterment of mankind. Whatever you do with your life and however long it may be, the words of the great American poet Thomas Wolfe are well worth remembering:

Man's youth is a wonderful thing

It is so full of anguish

and of magic

And yet he never comes

to know it as it is,

Until it has gone

from him forever.

© 1997 Dr Brendan Nelson MP, Member for Bradfield

This article first appeared in the March 1997 edition of Spirit, the newsletter of the Johnson & Johnson New Leaders Foundation.