Continued: Business forum: Leadership means acting, not avoiding

During this national election in a down business cycle, when citizens and businesses are searching for new leaders, let me offer a contrarian thought: Leadership is the least of what we should be focusing on.

Leadership is neutral -- it can be good or bad. It's "how we lead" that matters. I believe it so strongly that I've made it the title of my first book.

One of the stories I relate in the book is an early leadership lesson I learned from my father, legendary entrepreneur Curt Carlson. The improbable "classroom" for the lesson was the back seat of the family car, while riding home from our regular weekly worship at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church.

On this particular Sunday, the boys in the junior high Sunday school class were especially raucous and disruptive, with spit wads and hair-pulling drowning out any lessons of salvation being proffered by our teacher.

I'd decided I'd had enough, and would no longer attend Sunday school, but join the adult congregation in the sanctuary instead. From the back seat of the car, I proudly announced my decision. Expecting my parents to congratulate me on my maturity and discernment, I was shocked when my father pulled the car to the side of the road, parked, and turned to me and thundered, "You WHAT?"

He went on to lecture me: If I didn't like something, it was up to me to change it -- not run away. When we reached home, he ordered me to my room to make a list of things I would change about Sunday school. He then commanded that I meet with the superintendent at the church the following week to lay out my ideas.

I made the list, we had the meeting, and it started a process that did, indeed, change Sunday school.

Today's leaders face political and economic challenges as significant as any we've seen in a long time. And in accepting the mantle of leadership, they must also accept the responsibility for making transparent, foundational change. They cannot abandon their precious stewardship role by hiding issues and burying problems with political or management Band-Aids or indifference.

To succeed, the next generation of leaders cannot "leave problems for tomorrow." Many of them may not participate in those tomorrows, given our now-continuous campaigning and the fact that the average tenure of today's CEO is only around five years.

Robert Joss, dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, defined leadership as "complete responsibility for an organization's well-being and growth" -- not partial or short-term responsibility, but complete responsibility.

True leaders understand that they are but chapters, not books. They are part of a larger story -- they are stewards of a legacy, serving as links between the past and future.

But stewardship is not the rage in an era of instant communication and quarterly gratification. Steward-leaders must be prepared to do battle with many loud voices and strong forces arrayed against them, not the least of which is the common (and often wrong) wisdom of political and business "talkarazzi" and armchair generals.

To leaders so besieged, I recommend a healthy dose of the wisdom of former President Teddy Roosevelt, who in his famous "Man in the Arena" speech, reminded us that the honor rightly belongs to those actively engaged in the daily fight. In a less-quoted part of the same speech, he said: "Still less room is there for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are."

Unfortunately, the barriers to constructive progress our business and social leaders face today include vested-interest gridlock and heated debate vs. constructive dialog. The challenge to their skills as leaders will be to find ways to inspire commitment to the common good, in everything from taxation to health care to education to investment in the nation's infrastructure.

It is in the enlightened self-interest of all leaders to have a clear understanding of the interrelationships between public and private interests, national and global goals, and short-term and long-term objectives.

A "win-lose" equation is inherently unstable.

True leaders know this and must raise the level of discourse and get on to collaboration and commitment. True leaders must convince us that greed and narrow self-interest will only compound the issues our children will face.

Without a doubt, the challenges of leadership today are daunting. But aren't they always?

At the age of 12, I learned that it's possible to change the seemingly unchangeable and that if things are to improve, it is one's duty to at least try.

My Sunday school lesson is one that I hope will be heeded by the adults we have entrusted with the future of our country's businesses and institutions.