Last summer, I posted about startup lessons from Martha Washington. Today I spent some time at Mt. Vernon where she and George Washington are buried.
In thinking about George Washington, it is clear that there is one gift he gave us that is very uncommon in the history of the world: he stepped down from a position of authority when he could have retained power.
And he did it twice: 1) at the end of the war he turned over military power back to the constitutional congress, and 2) after serving two terms as the first president, he stepped down again.
In an age of monarchs and with his celebrity status and military leadership, he could have easily exercised his power, pride, and vain ambition. He did not. He tempered himself. He gave up his position, titles, and control. He gave it up to a system that he surely knew would be messier than what he probably thought he could have instituted himself.
Few men in the history of the world have been in such a position of control and chosen voluntarily to step aside for the greater good.
In some small way, startup leadership is similar. In order for startups to grow, startup founders need to delegate and give up a level of control to others in the organization. Sometimes startup founders need to fully step aside. It is a bad analogy because it does not at all compare to the magnitude of Washington’s gift, but the principle of selflessness in leadership is something to be learned and exercised at all levels of an organization.
What are your thoughts on Washington’s gift and on servant leadership?
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