The Power of a Mandate

Creating a mandate that is larger than the leader

By Fred Smith

Leadership ultimately is synergizing effort so that you get extraordinary effort out of ordinary people.
Berle, in his book on power, said that "power is personal — it needs an organization for amplification and must be disciplined by a mandate." That's true whether we're leading a corporation or a church. Establishing a mandate helps us to define that reality and to lead with integrity. Leaders need to ask, "Why are we operating? What are we about? What are we dedicated to?" Once these questions have been addressed and consensus around their answers developed, a leader has a mandate, a foundation on which to determine programs, recruit leadership, establish organizational culture, and figure out what and what not to do.
One critical function of a mandate is that it separates loyalty to the leader from loyalty to the cause. The leader has to say, "I am subservient to this mandate. You don't serve me. You don't make me happy. And don't keep me in charge unless I fulfill the mandate."
I was talking to ten pastors who were highly educated and leading large churches. One asked, "How can I get my church to do my program?" I responded by asking him two questions. The first was, "Did you found the church?" No, he didn't. The second was, "Would you leave if you got a better offer?" Yes, he would leave. "Then what right do you have to call it 'my' church?" I replied. "You'd be better off saying 'our' church."
While the leader is responsible for the initiation of the mandate, he has to build a consensus for it among people—first, that they buy into the mandate, and second, that they are willing to dedicate themselves to carrying it out. Many current business authors and consultants talk about "taking ownership." This phrase simply means having their people dedicated to the mandate.
There are two dangers in carrying out the mission:
1) Often leaders will put their friends, their associates, their politically loyal people into key positions, whether or not they belong there. It's easy to fall into this double agenda, this popularity contest. But we're not in leadership to become popular; we're there to advance the mandate. Personal loyalty is dangerous because you are tied to the leader's success rather than the organization;.
2) An organization centered on a leader rather than a mission is threatened by the possibility that when the leader leaves, his people may follow and leave no effective group vested in the cause and dedicated to carrying on the mission. William Fenton, the German band master, made it imminently clear to each band member that the cause was greater than the person by saying, "You cannot play like that and play in this band because we are a championship band."
Great leaders of the past have always worked from a mandate.
Three examples are Hitler who said "we are a superior race", Roosevelt whose mandated action was for the poor and the power of Mother Theresa's mandate to give dignity to the dying. Coach John Wooden's coaching philosophy was that each player do his best. In so doing the player was fulfilling his responsibility to the team. The coach never used the word "win" in his team talks — just hammered home that each player was to do his best. Of course, he recruited players whose best had winning potential, but he didn't focus on the win but the individual best efforts. Wooden's strategy was to build individuals as well as a team.
As Peter Drucker says, "Mission defines strategy, and strategy defines structure."