Wilson Defines Leadership as Having Followers
Posted Feb 3, 2021
This morning, Justin Wilson, the Comptroller Emeritus of the Tennessee Treasury spoke on leadership to Dr. Evans' Presidency class via Zoom. Wilson has been involved in Tennessee Republican politics since Winfield Dunn became governor in 1970. Since that time, he has been Deputy Governor for Policy under Governor Don Sundquist, Commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation, and more recently has served as Comptroller of the Tennessee Treasury from 2009-2020.
Wilson said that leadership can defined in many ways. Some define it as confidence in a person, the ability to translate a vision into reality, the ability to inspire others, and more. However, Wilson defines a leader has someone who has followers. Because of this, leadership and titles do not always coincide. For example, managers are different than leaders. Managers may have a title and can direct people to do things but that does not mean that people follow them.
A real leader finds a common purpose for a group and gets his followers to believe and advance that mission. The classic example of this is NASA which had its mission to put a man on the moon within a decade. Every person at NASA, down to the janitor, understood how their work contributed to this goal. As Comptroller, Wilson created a mission to “make government work better.” He wanted every employee of the Comptroller’s Office to begin the day wondering how their work would make government work better. He said it took about 4-5 years to convince employees to adopt this.
Wilson suggested that there are three types of workers in any organization. The first group are those who want to do a good job. The second group see the job as something to spend their time and view the job as a source of a paycheck. The third group are those who complain. This group is unhappy and want to make others unhappy. The job of the leader is to get more people actively engaged in the mission of the organization. This is easy for the first group who already want to do well. The leader must make the second group view their job as a mission more than a paycheck. Finally, the leader must disengage or demobilize the opposition of the complainers.
The only way to get everyone on board with the mission is to get employees involved and interested in what they are doing. The leader’s job is not to make everyone happy, but a leader will be more successful if one can make members happy and engaged in their work. The leader can do this by eliminating tasks that do not fit with the mission and by convincing members that the leader cares what members/employees think. The leader does not have to agree with the employees, but the leader does need to listen and have empathy with employees and change their views and move them toward a common purpose. Wilson spoke about how 25% of employees/members of an organization may know the organization's mission, but only 30% are actively engaged in enacting that mission. Wilson's success changing the mission of the Comptroller's Office is demonstrated in 95% of Comptroller employees knowing the mission and 85% feeling that they are engaged in "making government work better."
When asked to identify the most successful leaders he worked with, Wilson first mentioned Democrat Ned McWherter. McWherter was Speaker of the Tennessee House from 1973-87 and then governor from 1987-95. He described McWherter as a fabulous leader because he could get people moving in the direction he wanted them to move. McWherter did this not by controlling others but by listening to them, finding out where he could work with them, including them in the decision making, and then excluding those not willing to work toward that goal. He also said former Nashville Mayor Bill Boner, despite his many flaws, could also get people together and work toward a common goal because of his ability to empathize with them and make them feel that they had a voice in the decision-making process.
The second leader he pointed out was Lamar Alexander. Alexander became governor when Democrats dominated the legislature and thought that Republicans did not belong in the governor’s office. Alexander was successful because he focused on 2-3 issues and then convinced those opposed that it was in their interest to support his policies. His education policy is an example. While Democrats repealed his master teacher program soon after Alexander left office, the basic edifice that he created for the Tennessee educational system still exists today. While many critics accused Alexander of being too focused on public relations, Wilson discounted the importance of PR. Everyone politician needs at least 45% approval to get anything done but if a politician gets the basics done, PR is less important. Wilson believes this because Tennessee has had several governors who were successful, even thought they spent less time on PR.