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www.BurlesonCrowley.com
Randy Sheridan: Presidents know it’s lonely at the top
By
Jul 28, 2008, 16:45
The undiluted pressure that befalls those in leadership seems to have escalated over recent years, even with the plethora of modern conveniences that await our every beck and call.
It’s the kind of stress that can be so intense it has CEOs, world leaders and other top executives well beyond the “pulling out my hair” stage.
A reporter for the New York Observer, Rachel Donadio, wrote a couple of years ago about the exacting strain that befalls many of those in high places:
“This is the situation of the contemporary CEO: Work has crept into every available corner of experience. In a way, CEOs are like professional cyclists — champions in a team sport with individual winners. And just as a cyclist requires a whole entourage — coaches and trainers, soigneurs and nutritionists — to make it through the Tour de France performing at top speed, CEOs rely on speechwriters, social secretaries, private bankers, philanthropic advisers, chiefs of staff, highly trained administrative assistants and chefs — plus faxes and cell phones and BlackBerries for constant e-mail access, not to mention private jets and armored limousines.
“To some, all this may come across as remarkably indulgent, but if you’re a member of the corporation’s board of directors, or one of its shareholders, and you calculate the CEO’s hourly rate, you probably don’t want him wasting valuable time waiting for connecting flights or on hold with Ticketmaster. ‘The glamour associated with CEO life, the fancy jets and hotels — much of that is just a way of keeping the individual alive, given the intense stress of their jobs,’ says Stratford Sherman, the senior vice-president of Executive Coaching Network, in Connecticut. ‘It’s not as if these people are sipping champagne at 30,000 feet with their feet up. Some do, but it really isn’t the norm. The norm is not to have any time.’”
It sounds like a totally foreign world to most of us but very real to many who find themselves in top leadership positions. But, you may be wondering to yourself, what’s the relevance to ordinary people who are leaders in their own right without the array of perks that accompanies the presumably privileged?
Glad you asked. Stress has become the leading Achilles heel throughout the marketplace of leaders. It’s not as though this is a new disease. To the contrary, it’s always been around. But it seems with all of our enlightenment we have learned so precious little about processing life in the fast lane.
Look at past presidents, for example. Many of them, and understandably so, faced such horrendous stress as the whole world observed their every move that some were considered mentally unstable. Great responsibility often paves the way to greater isolation.
According to a highly debatable, but recent, analysis of biographical sources by psychiatrists at Duke University Medical Center, as many as half of American presidents from 1789 to 1974 had suffered from a mental illness at some point in life.
And more than half of those presidents, the study found, struggled with their symptoms, most often depression, while in office.
As a young man, Abraham Lincoln experienced bouts of despair so intense that friends were concerned he might commit suicide. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant and Calvin Coolidge all showed signs, by today’s standards, of mental illness. Grant, the leading general under Lincoln who later rose to the presidency, often avoided social occasions and retreated into alcohol.
Some have suggested that the White House, for all of its glamour and activity, can be one of the loneliest places in the world.
John Quincy Adams remembered his years at the White House as “the four most miserable” of his life. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to his son Kermit, “I enjoy being President, and I like to do the work and have my hand on the lever.”
But after a single year in office he confessed, “Everyday, almost every hour, I have to decide very big as well as very little questions and ... what it is possible ... to achieve.”
For Thomas Jefferson, the presidency was “a splendid misery.”
President Taft actually referred to living in the White House as “the loneliest place in the world.”
“What is this place that a man should ever want to get in it?” cried James A. Garfield, who was constantly hounded by office seekers and would eventually be killed by such a one.
Andrew Jackson referred to his time in office as “dignified slavery,” while Truman suggested it was “a great white prison.”
For he who was “first in the hearts of his countrymen” and considered the “Father of His Country,” George Washington and his dear wife, Martha, were never residents of the White House, even though he selected the site and gave his prestigious approval to the classical design for the mansion.
Washington was perhaps the only leader of the free world who did not seek the office, but sheer providence bestowed upon him the great honor. And when some of our founding fathers feared another monarchy in the making because of his popularity, the popular first president of the United States voluntarily stepped down, choosing not to seek a third term.
Perhaps George Washington knew something so many of us tend to forget: With position and privilege comes great responsibility.
Yes, it can be so very lonely at the top, but knowing when to take a step down may be the wisest of all decisions a leader makes.
Randy Sheridan of Burleson is a speaker, counselor and
mediator. He can be reached
at drsheridan@aol.com.
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