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Conviction

February 21, 2000

"Abraham Lincoln believed fervently in the preservation of the Union and in the principles found in the Declaration of Independence.  Winston Churchill was passionate in his hatred of fascist tyranny.  Margaret Thatcher was equally vehement about her abhorrence of communism.  And, on a less lofty plane, Bill Gates believes down to his nerdy core everything he says about the future of technology and Microsoft's role in making it happen. Such zealous certainty about the rightness of one's cause is neither a luxury nor a nice-to-have leadership characteristic: it is a necessity.

Convictions are necessary because, without them, leaders would not be able to sustain the energy required to persevere.  Leadership is so devilishly difficult - constant battering of pride and ego, two setbacks for every step forward, the burdensome responsibility for the welfare of others, the cross of unpopularity, the manifold risks- that only those who believe passionately in what they are doing can muster the will to get up morning after morning and resume the often thankless task (O'Toole, 1999, p.61)."

Reference:  O'Toole, J. (1999).  Leadership a to z: A guide for the appropriately ambitious.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Do you have conviction?

* Leadership A to Z is available on loan at the OSU Leadership Center.  A listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

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Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-12