50 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY Leaders, Leadership, and “Sanctuary”: A Focus on Six U.S. Presidents and the Problem of Rest1 Dr. Michael E. (Mike) Williams, Sr. Dr. Michael E. (Mike) Williams serves as Senior Professor of History at Dallas Baptist University INTRODUCTION In his book, Leadership without Easy Answers, Ronald Heifetz entitles his last section, part four, “Staying Alive.” Within part four are two chapters, “Assassination” and the “Personal Challenge.” Within the section “Personal Challenge,” Heifetz identifies seven ways that leaders can adapt to handle the personal challenge and avoid the selfdestruction or assassination, either figuratively or literally or perhaps both, that can come to leaders. Of all these seven ways, the shortest section deals with perhaps what is the most important: how leaders should find a “sanctuary.”2 It is that key aspect of surviving the perils of leadership that this brief paper will discuss. Any type of leadership, done properly, is often inherently dangerous. While in some cases the danger may lie solely in the physical realm, quite often the danger to leaders can lie in what the stresses of leadership can do personally or professionally to the leader’s health, family, image, psyche, organizational health, or spiritual condition. As Heifetz advocates adaptive change as a tool, or the primary tool for managing conflict, initiating corrections or improvement, and handling problems that arise for leaders, he also provides a warning that goes with leadership challenges. As Heifetz writes, “Leadership is dangerous, with or without authority, because the stresses of adaptive work can be severe.” Heifetz adds, “People who lead frequently bear scars from their efforts to bring about adaptive change. Often they are silenced. On occasion, they are killed.”3 Significant leaders who suffered
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