Musings at Altitude

I’ve been up close to some very powerful people in my life.  Those include leaders of nations, leaders of Fortune 100 companies, leaders of large military organizations, and even billionaires who had lost millions and made millions in their lives.  Each of these people had what some would say is “ultimate power”…they could make decisions that risked lives, risked jobs, risked millions if not billions of dollars, and risked national or international credibility.  Each of these people in their own way had a level of confidence and even arrogance that allowed them to seemingly abstract themselves from those who were affected by their decisions and in some ways create an emotional immunity to the possible consequences of the actions they were taking.  Certainly, they were each very human in their own way; but equally as certain, they each recognized and realized the power they had and leveraged it in both good and sometimes not so good ways.

As I’ve watched supposedly powerful people over the years, I’ve come to realize that the amount of power does not depend on the position, or the wealth, or the control over life and death of these individuals.  Instead, their power came from the authority vested in them by others who selected them, elected them, or supported them into the positions they then filled.  So the power wasn’t of their own making, but instead, it was something granted to them or enabled for them by others (even the billionaire). 

For each of the powerful people, a substantial percentage of those working directly with, for, or under them had very negative comments about those in the most powerful of all positions.  Each of them had those loyalists who supported and defended them at all costs.  But all of them had their critics and many of them had those who once supported them now aggressively opposing them.

So I’ve been thinking.  What would happen if we defined ultimate power as something very different than position or wealth?  What if we defined ultimate power as those individuals exhibiting these traits:

• weaknesses showing
• smiles breaking
• tears falling
• team building
• conflict resolving
• credit giving
• blame accepting
• help requesting
• prayers uplifting
• ego shelving

Wouldn’t that be cool?  I certainly think so.  And better yet, what if ultimate power was based on ultimate understanding of the consequences of decisions and then emotional mirroring of those who are impacted by the actions and decisions of those powerful people?  I wonder if the decisions and actions might have been different for any of these individuals if such mirroring did indeed exist.

Proverbs 16:19 says – “Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.”

The traits above don’t spring from a fountain of arrogance, but instead they come from a foundation of great humility.  Real power comes from real humility.  Real power comes from a real respect for those that have entrusted the decision making authority to you.  Real power comes from a very real understanding of the consequences of decisions and actions.  And ultimate power comes from the ultimate realization that we are all ultimately accountable for those decisions and actions.