Freedom: The Secret Sauce For High Performance Leadership

Forbes

15-04-2025

Rabbits in cage
'Leadership is a journey…you never arrive,' says Duke Energy CEO Lynn Goode. She spotlights the demand for adaptability, resilience, and growth for those in charge. Bookend her sentiment with Albert Einstein's quote, 'For everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom' and you have the essence of leading in today's wild world of work. High performance is spawned and nurtured in a milieu of freedom. Let's explore a parable.
A maverick band of rabbits, threatened by the spread of industrial construction near their home, start on a journey in search of a better world. This is the backstory for Richard Adams's 1972 best-selling book, Watership Down, the story of their long odyssey complete with extreme danger, delightful fun, contemporary parallels and powerful lessons.
At one point in the story the band of rabbits encounter caged rabbits on a small farm. The wandering pack needs more females for their new society and there are two females and two males inside the small cage. They extend a heartfelt invitation to all (does and bucks) to join them on their wild journey. 'Do you ever come out?' asks the leader, Hazel, puzzled by the caged rabbits' docile nature. 'Yes, sometimes,' one of the nervous rabbits declares. 'The little boy takes us out and puts us in a pen on the grass.'
Opening the cage door, Hazel works hard to convince the four to abandon their confined dwelling and join his band. As he spins his saga of adventure and liberation, the caged rabbits resist with concerns for their security. 'Besides,' one laments, 'the nice little boy always comes to feed us and keeps us away from the big dog.' As they continue their 'freedom versus security' discussion, Hazel comes to a powerful realization:
'Although they welcomed his visit because it brought a little excitement and change to their monotonous life, it was not within their capacity to take a decision and act on it. They did not know how to make up their minds. To him and his companions, sensing and acting were second nature, but these rabbits had never had to act to save their lives or even to find a meal.'
Today's Work World
We live in a brain-based economy, not a brawn-based one. In such a work world, employees thrive with more autonomy, more affirmation, and a sense of ownership in the goals of the unit. They want professional growth not necessarily upward mobility. They want to make a difference. They desire elbow room to innovate and experiment without snoopervision. Winning leaders are those who demonstrate trust and respect while trumpeting challenge and cause. They invite, inspire, instruct, unburden, and then get out of the way.
Hazel provides a prototype of a leader excelling in the wild. His band of renegades is deeply committed to their mission and the members enjoy working together to overcome obstacles. They operate more as a partnership—a confederation of equals with different skills and talents but a shared calling and a collective zeal to see it through. Below are four tenets from Watership Down for leading in the wild today.
Digital compass.
It was not easy to enlist a few rabbits to trust Fiver's nightmare vision of the impending destruction of their home while ignoring the naysaying 'Great Rabbit' and risk an unfamiliar journey. It required a compelling sense of purpose. At the end of the book, the band of rabbits learns that Fiver's vision came true--bulldozers destroyed the warren the band had abandoned. Today's workers value a cause, not just a course. They learn the capacity to make wise decisions when propelled by a noble mission. They require a clear sense of the why, not just the what or how.
Each evening before the rabbits went to sleep, a story was shared. Adams' book devoted a full chapter to each story. Filled with promise and courage, the stories enlisted as well as encouraged. They yielded hope and courage. Great leaders are storytellers. Stories are more than just tall tales or campfire yarns. They include discussions of the enterprise in the future tense. They are visions of what can be, not just what is. They are captivating dreams, not just concrete plans. In a complex, unpredictable and volatile competitive work world, stories of promise instill conviction, nurture confidence, and bolster resilience. 'The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.' wrote Apple founder Steve Jobs.
Diverse team
Wise leaders know that today success in the future will not come from incremental improvement but rather through disruptive innovation. Surviving organizations have squeezed most of the waste and inefficiencies from their operations. Playing to win requires divergent perspectives, risk-taking confidence, and the bold embrace of change. That means a culture filled with a sense of adventure and an open reception of different perspectives. Diversity is more than 'does and bucks;' it is an attitude of continual learning and passionate curiosity--the engines of breakthroughs. Malcolm Forbes labeled such talent blending, 'the art of thinking independently together.'
From abandoned warren to a new home, leadership among the rabbits influenced and inspired their collective success. While Hazel was the 'appointed' chief, leadership was communal--coming from the rabbit best able to deal with the challenge or situation. Hazel believed in the goodness of everyone and nurtured each to be a fellow leader. He respected the astute instincts of Fiver, the runt of the warren. Leadership in the wild is an adaptable and helpful force, not a role. Since it is shared power, it is trusted power. It nurtures rather than controls, mentors instead of commands. It is freedom in action.
A wise coach once said: 'My responsibility is getting all my players playing for the name on the front of the jersey not the one on the back.' Leadership today is about achieving an honorable collective purpose while building a better society. In the end, Hazel and his band of rabbits were successful, not for their victorious house hunting, but for their virtuous community-building fueled by a freedom fighting leader. 'Freedom,' wrote Moshe Dayan, 'is the oxygen of the soul.'