The demonstration of moral purpose exists in the manifesto of the Lance Armstrong Foundation presented below.
The Manifesto of the Lance Armstrong Foundation
We believe in life.Your life.We believe in living every minute of it with every ounce of your being.And that you must not let cancer take control of it.We believe in energy: channeled and fierce.We believe in focus: getting smart and living strong.Unity is strength. Knowledge is power. Attitude is everything.This is the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
We kick in the moment you’re diagnosed.We help you accept the tears. Acknowledge the rage.We believe in your right to live without pain.We believe in information. Not pity.And in straight, open talk about cancer.With husbands, wives and partners. With kids, friends and neighbors. And the people you live with, work with, cry and laugh with.This is no time to pull punches.You’re in the fight of your life.
We’re about the hard stuff.Like finding the nerve to ask for a second opinion.And a third, or a fourth, if that’s what it takes.We’re about getting smart about clinical trials.And if it comes to it, being in control of how your life ends.It’s your life. You will have it your way.
We’re about the practical stuff.Planning for surviving. Banking your sperm. Preserving your fertility. Organizing your finances. Dealing with hospitals, specialists, insurance companies and employers.It’s knowing your rights.It’s your life.Take no prisoners.
We’re about the fight.We’re your champion on Capitol Hill. Your advocate with the healthcare system. Your sponsor in the research labs.And we know the fight never ends.Cancer may leave your body, but it never leaves your life.This is the Lance Armstrong Foundation.Founded and inspired by one of the toughest cancer survivors on the planet.
LIVESTRONG™
Through this manifesto, Lance and the foundation demonstrate the intention of making a positive difference in the lives of people and society as a whole. To succeed in this endeavor an understanding of the change process is critical. People must understand that change takes time and that battles worth fighting will not be easy. Lance Armstrong demonstrates this in his approach to bike racing and in his approach to the fight against cancer. To be a leader one must understand change and communicate the process to those invested in the organization and/or the community. Through his work and his communication he has accomplished such a necessity.
Effective leaders foster purposeful interaction and problem solving, and are wary of easy consensus. (Fullan, 2001) For the foundation to succeed as it has thus far, the leader of the foundation must be effective as Fullan has stated. Indeed, Armstrong does contain within him these traits. Part of this process involves knowledge building. This is a critical aspect of the manifesto and is demonstrated through his communication on behalf of the foundation. In speaking with international organizations and world leaders, knowledge building is a priority as before action can occur, knowledge must be provided.
Coherence making involves bringing everything together after allowing for ambiguity to stimulate the conversation. This involves prioritizing and focusing and is facilitated when guided by moral purpose. (Fullan, 2001) To succeed on an individual and organizational level this capacity is necessary for Lance Armstrong to succeed. In fighting back cancer and establishing a world wide fight against cancer he has accomplished all that is required to be considered a true leader.
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. Indianapolis: John Wiley & Sons.
Lance Armstrong Foundation (2008). The manifesto of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
Retrieved on January 28, 2009 http://www.livestrong.org/site/c.khLXK1PxHmF/b.2661055/k.E8CE/Manifesto.htm
Dr. Reese,
ReplyDeleteI, too, admire Lance Armstrong but chose Bill Clinton because he is not such an obvious hero. Many people judge him [Clinton] for his lack of mature emotional intelligence. I, on the other hand, am one of those Americans who tries to separate his personal indiscretions from his leadership ability. Armstrong was faced with the challenge of overcoming a serious illness. Clinton, as a young boy, had to stand up to his abusive, alcoholic step-father in order to protect his family from further abuse.
Our leaders are very different in personality. Armstrong portrays himself as self-absorbed and arrogant, while Clinton's charismatic gift of identifying with the average American makes him a people person. He leads by listening and giving people a voice, but he still seems to get them to see things his way.
Dr. Reese,
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting to learn more about your leader, Lance Armstrong. In your post you stated "To be a leader one must understand change and communicate the process to those invested in the organization and/or the community". I agree with this statement and feel that throughout the posts it was clear how Lance has not only come to understand change but how he has communicated the process of change to others. I agree that Lance is a true leader.
My leader, Michelle Obama stated to a group of high school girls in her mentoring program, “We have some expectations from you as well, that when you get to this position, you do the same for someone else. And if we keep building in that way, holding one another up, there’s no telling what we can do”. I feel Michelle and Lance both share the idea of change being a process. First she is starting with this one group of girls, however she expects change and that change to grow and become part of a process. She is also knowledge building, as Lance has done, and bringing the information on mentoring, childhood obesity, and other issues she feels are important, and helping others build their knowledge in order for further change to take place. Each of them have a moral purpose, are building relationships, knowledge and sharing while leading in the change process.
As Fullan (2005) points out, "successful change involves learning during implementation. One of the most powerful drivers of change involves learning from peers, especially those who are further along in implementing new ideas" (p. 55). Interestingly, my leader Michael J. Fox is fully aware of this learning process, and one of the peers that he chose to turn to when forming his foundation was Lance Armstrong. Since both Fox and Armstrong have personal experience with the cause that they advocate for, it makes them understand the change process on a different level and it also increases their ability to engage people's moral purpose.
ReplyDeleteFox devotes a portion of his memoir to his interactions with Armstrong during and after the Tour de France and he writes,
"In addition to our high regard for Lance's accomplishments as history's greatest competitive cyclist, both Tracy and I had been inspired, like so many others around the world, by his courage and perseverance in overcoming the challenge of testicular cancer that threatened not only his career, but his life as well. He had become a hero to many stricken with cancer. I was especially impressed by his strength in facing his own ordeal and his recognition of the situation faced by others. The Lance Armstrong Foundation, although still relatively young, was already living up to its mission statement: "To inspire and empower cancer sufferers and their families under the motto, 'unity is strength, knowledge is power, and attitude is everything.'" I considered Lance, along with Christopher Reeve, a role model for what I hoped to accomplish. They were both men who had met transforming challenges. Each had taken a negative and turned it into a positive."
From this excerpt, I determined that it is important for role models to have role models themselves and I also learned that desire to make a difference can be contagious. As unfortunate as the circumstances are for Fox and Armstrong and as bad as they were for Christopher Reeve, they were all able to capitalize on the situation to make a difference that is much bigger than they are - which is saying a lot considering the magnitude of their celebrity.
Fullan, M., Cuttress, C., & Kilcher A. (2005). 8 Forces for leaders of change. Retrieved from http://michaelfullan.ca/Articles_06/8ForcesforLeaders.pdf
Fox, M. J. (2009). Always looking up: The adventures of an incurable
optimist. New York: Hyperion.