The Courage to End: When Great Leaders Humbly Exit
Humility is not a virtue that always comes to the top of our mind when we think about great leadership nowadays, but it is an essential element of leadership. Humility enables leaders to acknowledge that they are not indispensable, and that the mission of their organization is far more important than themselves. Here is a story of great leaders who had the courage to exit when it was time to do so. Their actions undoubtedly offered a valuable lesson for all of us.
If it was a blessing in disguise, as his wife Clementine had suggested, “It seems to be very effectively disguised indeed,” said Churchill gloomily. It was Thursday, July 26, 1945, and the election results in the UK had been steadily coming in since 10 AM. By noon, it was clear that Churchill’s Tory (Conservative) Party was being severely beaten by the Labour Party, meaning that he would lose the Prime Minister position. After serving his country in the military and politics for more than 40 years — and leading Great Britain tirelessly with unmatched leadership, courage, and tenacity through its darkest hours in 1940–1945 — Winston Churchill was booted out of the office by British voters.
It was “the most depressing atmosphere I could have ever imagined,” wrote Marian Holmes (Churchill’s personal secretary), in her diary that day. Just two-and-a-half months earlier, Great Britain had won the arduous war against Germany, ending World War II in Europe. Over the following week, Churchill gave numerous victory speeches to the cheering crowds. All over the country, people loved and admired Winston (as the nation called him). Later, historians would widely credit his personal leadership with saving Great Britain from Hitler and his Nazi war machine. But on that July day, British people handed him a shocking defeat. The sad King George VI told Churchill later that evening that he felt the “people were very ungrateful to him.”
Thirty-six years later, across continental Europe, another leader also received a stinging rebuke. On August 7, 1981, Pedro Arrupe, who was the Superior General of the Society of Jesus (or the Jesuits, the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church) for 16 years, suffered a massive heart attack in a Rome airport after a long and tiring trip to the Philippines and Thailand. The stroke left him paralyzed on the right side and slowly made talking more difficult. In accord with the Society’s constitution, he appointed Fr. Vincent O’Keefe three days later to lead the Jesuits until a General Congregation could be convened to officially elect a successor.
Two months later, Pope John Paul II assigned Fr. Paolo Dezza, an Italian Jesuit, to govern the Society of Jesus. This unprecedented and shocking action replaced Fr. O’Keefe and essentially nullified Fr. Arrupe’s decision. In essence, it was a vote of no confidence on Fr. Arrupe and the Jesuit organization. In his infirmary in Rome, Fr. Arrupe wept with grief when he heard the news.
The Jesuit community was stunned. Don Pedro, as he was affectionately called, was widely admired and beloved by its members. A Spanish priest from the Basque country, Don Pedro had been serving the Catholic Church for 54 years. In 1927, after a visit to Lourdes, the then 19-year-old medical college student gave up his academic pursuits to join the Jesuits. Upon finishing his education, Don Pedro was sent as a missionary to Japan. He lived in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on the city on August 6, 1945, and with the novices (prospective priests in training), he cared for countless victims. In 1958, Don Pedro was appointed as the superior of all Jesuits in Japan, and in 1965, the global Superior General. He was just the second Basque person to hold that position (the first being St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the society in 1534).
The Courage to Accept Defeat
As sad and disappointed as Churchill and Don Pedro were, rebellion and defiance never crossed their mind. In the same evening after he saw the election results, Churchill went to the Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation. “No single word of condemnation passed his lips,” wrote Leslie Rowan, another secretary of his — not even privately. Churchill even sympathized with the British people, saying that they simply “have had a very hard time”.
The story was similar with Pedro Arrupe. After the Pope’s intervention, many expected the Jesuit community to rebel, but that never happened. Fr. Arrupe never expressed any resentment, and he (along with Fr. O’Keefe) instructed the Jesuits everywhere to obey the Pope’s order and maintain loyalty to him.
Humility is not a virtue that always comes to the top of our mind when we think about great leadership nowadays. Bold vision, bravado, and grit often come first. But humility is an essential element of leadership, and it is present in every great leader worth remembering, from Abraham Lincoln to Nelson Mandela to Billy Graham. Humility enables great leaders to acknowledge that they are not indispensable, and that the mission and the longevity of the institution that they lead are far more important than their self-preservation.
In this era, many of us could readily name leaders, now and in the past, who just won’t leave. They stubbornly hang on to their position and power forever, even if their time is clearly past due. But can we self-examine ourselves through this same lens? How many of us have been hanging on to a job, to a leading role (however small) in an organization, for too long after our passion or stamina for it has dwindled? Our hearts (and sometimes our supporters) whisper that we should sail on to a new island, but the comfort and security of the current harbor is oh-so difficult to leave behind.
The Courage to Resign
Two names from very different fields come to my mind when I think of having the courage to exit voluntarily: Pope Benedict XVI and Bob Stoops. The former resigned from the lifetime post of Papacy in February 2013, humbly stating that his strength was no longer suited to the physical and mental demands that the job required. In doing so, he became the first pope to voluntarily resign since Pope Celestine V in 1294.
Bob Stoops, head football coach of the University of Oklahoma (the archrival of my alma mater’s team), voluntarily handed out his job to Lincoln Riley in June 2017, ensuring a smooth transition of leadership and the continuation of the program’s success. During his 18-year tenure there, Stoops held an impressive 190–48 record which included ten conference championships and one national championship. We may argue that it would have been easy for Stoops to leave because he was already financially set, but the fact of the matter is that his action is a rarity among coaches, even ones suffering from losing seasons.
Lessons for Us
I believe Winston Churchill, Don Pedro, Pope Benedict XVI, and Bob Stoops offer a lesson in humility for other leaders, and all of us. While they have wildly different fields and stories, they all put the success of their organization above their ego, and they humbly left when it was time to do so. Not only that — their selfless action also inspired the leaders that came after them. On the Saturday after his bitter election loss in 1992, George H. W. Bush, who — like Churchill — had served his country in military and politics for decades, started his radio address by saying, “Way back in 1945, Winston Churchill was defeated at the polls. … That is the exact same position in which I find myself today. I admit, this is not the position I would have preferred, but it is a judgment I honor.”
For all of us, these great leaders remind us that we are more than the title we have, and that there is life beyond our prized occupation, however noble the occupation may be (see the Appendix). They had the courage to end, and history will remember them fondly for that. May their examples give us the courage to do the same when our time comes.
“That which you cannot let go of, you don’t possess. It possesses you.”
Appendix
Churchill’s defeat turned out to be a blessing in disguise indeed. The downtime allowed him to rest and preserve his health, as well as giving him more time to write. For his many writings, Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953. He became the UK Prime Minister again in 1951–1955.
Crippled by his stroke, Fr. Arrupe laid in his infirmary in Rome where he received many visitors. His act of obedience in 1981 was widely credited for calming the Jesuit community and restoring the Pope’s confidence in them. Pope John Paul II visited him a few days before he passed away in 1991.
Pope Benedict XVI, now Pope Emeritus, lives at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in Vatican in his retirement. He continues to study and write, and has made several public appearances with his successor, Pope Francis. In September 2020, he became the longest living Pope in history.
Bob Stoops remains a special assistant to the OU Athletic Director, and he helps with football practice from time to time. In spring 2020, he briefly coached the Dallas Renegade XFL football team before the pandemic shut down the league.
President George H. W. Bush retired with his wife Barbara in Houston. He refused to publish a memoir, but he delivered many speeches and received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2011. He and President Bill Clinton later became good friends. President Bush died in November 2018.
References: for a list of references, please see the original article at https://rsatrio.com/blog/
Originally published at http://rsatrio.com on January 14, 2021.
