alexander

Leadership Process Three: Establishing Identity 109
tions must forgive honest, well-intentioned mistakes. How
else can organizations develop their next generation of leaders?
Alexander made horrible mistakes. Most of us have too,
though maybe not killing a close friend. What we learn
from that mistake is what makes us better. If we dwell on it
and allow the past to immobilize us, we do not grow and
become tentative in the future. If we think about it, learn
from it, and move on, we grow.
The second level of identity building is organizational.
Simply put, the primary job of a leader is to create organizational
reality by promulgating a vision, creating or overseeing
the creation of a plan, putting together a team, and
helping that team implement that plan. Each activity
changes the world in which we operate. Vision gives the
organizational members a new target and a new identity. A
plan (developed with the team) advises us how to achieve
that new reality. The team does the work, making the leader
the chief human resources officer and head identity builder.
Monitoring the team’s implementation helps us achieve
what we conceived.
When he died prematurely, Alexander was building one
identity out of two primary cultures that were incompatible.
Identity building today seems to me to be underappreciated
and not pursued as vigilantly as leaders should. I
recently had the privilege of observing Marine Corps officer
selection and training for four days in Quantico, Virginia. I
was flabbergasted, literally, by the careful selection and
training processes in place for recruitment, selection, and
development. There is nothing in industry that even remotely
comes close to the identity building that is central