Dissenter's Dilemma: When to Stay; When to Go?

Copyright © 2004 by Don Blohowiak
Don@LeadWell.com www.LeadWell.com

When a good leader smells that something isn't right, he has to do something.

 —Colin Powell

Every leader eventually finds herself balancing precariously on the high wire known as Allegiance—perpetually strung tensely between the poles of Personal Conviction and Institutional Loyalty.

That's the place Colin Powell found himself struggling for footing during most of the past four years. As secretary of state, and former chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs who served both Republican and Democratic presidents, he was the Bush administration's prestigious, credible, moderate—and increasingly frustrated—Voice of Reason.

The fact that the 67 year old international point man submitted his resignation to the newly re-elected president ("we came to the mutual agreement that it would be appropriate for me to leave at this time"), surprised no one.

Many observers wondered how Mr. Powell managed to continue to soldier on as long as he has in the face of losing many internal battles with other administration chiefs: over policies concerning Iraq, North Korea, and other critical matters. (It must have been unimaginably disconcerting for Mr. Powell to see his colleagues over at Defense planning and prosecuting the current Iraq war. They did so while largely ignoring the thoughtful principles to guide U.S. military actions that actually were named for then-General Powell after the first Gulf War.)

Powell's example of continuing to serve in the administration even as his leadership effectiveness increasingly diminished speaks to a challenge that nearly every one of us faces in his or her career: How do you decide when to stay or go? Should you work for change from the inside—even if that's extremely frustrating—rather than abandon the Good Cause?

Powell himself provides an interesting perspective. In 1997, Context magazine asked him, "What if you’re a leader of a piece of an organization, and you have a radically different vision than that of your superiors?"

Powell replied, "Unless you reconcile your views at some point, the situation becomes dysfunctional, and you should move on. But every organization should tolerate rebels who will tell the emperor he has no clothes."

Here are some other poignant thoughts on those difficult questions from the renowned leadership thinker Warren Bennis (in his 1989 book, Why Leaders Can't Lead):

"Loyalty" is often given as a reason or pretext for muffling dissent. A variation on this is the claim that candor "gives comfort to the enemy." …

Resigning becomes a reasonable alternative as soon as [one's] voice begins to fail. The individual realizes that hours of sincere, patient argument have come to nothing, that his or her influence within the organization is waning, and so probably is his or her loyalty.

If the individual stays on, he or she risks becoming an organizational eunuch, an individual of no influence publicly supporting a policy against his or her will, judgment, or personal value system…

I think it is important for everyone in a decision-making position in any of our institutions to speak out. And if we find it impossible to continue as administrators because we are at total and continuous odds with institutional policy, then I think we must quit and go out shouting.

I, for one, am eagerly waiting for Secretary Powell to candidly share his thoughts publicly. Whether he shouts or whispers.

[Originally posted 16 November 2004]

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