A Picture of Courage: A Final Lesson in Good Disappointing Leadership

My favorite old movie is Casablanca.  It’s a classic film with Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, where Bogie owns Rik’s "Café Americain" bar in Casablanca, Morroco.  It takes place during World War 2, and Casablanca was then a French territory under German occupation. 

In one of my favorite scenes a group of Nazi soldiers who are drinking in Rik’s bar gather at the piano and start singing the German national anthem so loudly and without consideration of the number of French citizens sitting glumly around them.  

It is a rude gesture.  Here they are in occupied territory, a conquering army and they are spitting in the face of the French citizens.  The down cast French people sit glumly.  Then Victor Laszlo, a brave Czech resistance fighter (played by Paul Henreid), calmly and deliberately walks over to the band and says, “Play La Marseillaise” (the French National anthem). 

The band members are tentative, they fear the German officers.  But Bogie nods his approval and Laszlo begins to sing at the top of his lungs.  The band comes to their feet, playing their instruments with gusto.  The music soars, and the crowd comes to life.  They do not protest the Nazis.  They do not shout them down in anger.  They just sing so loudly this song of their hearts, that they overwhelm the German soldiers.  With that one strong positive voice, they drown out the destructive voices for that brief moment.

In many ways, what Victor Laszlo did in the midst of the destructive voices in that nightclub in Casablanca is what I believe we are attempting to do in leadership.  We want the positive passions and aspirations to overwhelm the negative, fearful voices that keep our families, companies, organizations or churches oppressed.

In this series about “good disappointing leadership” we have been considering what it takes to “disappoint your own people at a rate they can absorb.”  The strategy that we have been seeking to implement is as follows: “Start with conviction, stay calm, stay connected, and stay the course.”   In the last post we acknowledge that sabotage, by our own people is normal.   Every Victor Laszlo knows that there are ‘countrymen’ who will collude with the opposition, and every leader must recognize that sabotage is not so much a personal attack as the normal, natural reaction of a system that is seeking safety, security and maintaining the status quo (even if that means being “occupied” by the enemy.)  This “failure of nerve” is what leaders must resist in themselves and overcome in their followers.  Victor Laszlo gives us a good picture of how courage can be contagious.

First, leaders must act. Laszlo doesn’t cower at the sound of the German officers singing their songs with such bravado, he stands and heads toward the conflict.  He takes decisive action and determines not to let this moment pass by.  When the heat is on, leaders head TO the kitchen. 

Second, when sabotage or opposition appears, leaders continue to calmly stand on conviction in the face of it.  Laslo doesn’t rant.  He doesn’t rave.  He doesn’t start a fight or call the manager to complain.  He goes to the band (very likely French countrymen, all) and calls them to act with him.  From the back story of the movie, we know that Laszlo has already suffered for his convictions.  He has already spent time in a prison camp, he is being denied exit visas that would take him and his wife to safety.  The authorities have him on a watch list and he is certainly in danger.  But nevertheless, he continues to act on his convictions.  Even, especially in the face of danger, he lives out his calling: Calmly enlisting others to join the cause for freedom.  And once the band begin to play, the crowd comes to its feet and joins the song.  Which reminds us that…

Third, leaders inspire. The root word of "courage" is the Latin word for “heart.”  The actions of a leader should “give heart” to a people who sometimes amidst their fears and frailties “lose heart.”  (For two of several biblical examples, see Deuteronomy 20:3 or Hebrews 12:3)  When a leader can maintain calm and demonstrate courage in the midst of opposition or sabotage, others find the strength to act on their own convictions.  When one voice is willing to sing aloud, other are far more willing to join in.  But let’s be clear.  That act of inspiration only turns up the heat on Laszlo, by further angering the German authorities.  By standing against the opposition, the opposition will now resist him even more, so it is crucial not to miss the whole point of the film (and of this series):

Lastly, leaders don’t act alone.  Yes, Laslo is first to his feet and willing to stand alone. As I wrote in the first installment to this series, leadership begins in a conviction that leads to a stand whether anyone follows or not.  But for a leader to become a leader, someone must follow.  And when Laslo makes his  move to stand against the boorish and demoralizing tactics of the German officers, he doesn’t just stand on a table and try to sing over the voices of the German soldiers, he enlists others in his cause.  The whole film is about how Laszlo slowly wins over the crowd, then Rik himself and finally even Louis, the local French constable who up until then had colluded with the Germans. As a leader, Laszlo's presence and example are a catalyst for others to join the good fight. 

Casablanca is about both love AND war and how relationships and the good fight are always intertwined.  So many scenes are conversations between potential friends, or possible enemies, building trust, working out relationships, discerning character and who can be trusted.  What makes the movie so intriguing are the relational dynamics being worked out amidst the backdrop of conflict--which is, of course, just like "real life." 

(I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen it—as long as you promise to rent it soon!—but this is especially poignant when you consider the romance between Bogart’s Rik and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa.) 

The paradox of “Good Disappointing Leadership” is that the very conviction that causes the leader to be willing to “disappoint your own followers at a rate they can absorb” is what ultimately--when handled well--wins “your own followers” to join you in your cause.  If we as leaders start with conviction, stay connected, calm and on-course in the face of opposition, then others around us have both the time and conditions to take on these very convictions as their own and allow, in the words of a truly great disappointing leader "the better angels of our nature” to soar.

(And here's the clip of the whole scene above.  It's a great one...)