Leading by Principle. Not Pride

Leaders make choices, and one of the most significant is how they will lead. Some lead by position, power, or pride. Others by principle.

In a 2018 interview with Business Because, Sarah Mangia, the senior director of the Leadership Initiative at The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business, explained that “We define principled leadership as the alignment of a leader’s behavior, or perceived behavior, with his or her values.”

 Yet, human nature is motivated by pride and seeks positions of power. We want what we want. But great leaders operate out of principle, not pride. On this President’s Day it is good to be reminded that our Founders were able to launch a nation because they knew the difference.

Principles, not pride.

Consider the contrast.

On February 4, 1789, the 69 members of the Electoral College made George Washington the only chief executive to be unanimously elected. They were elated. But Washington was not waiting around to be heralded as the first President. He had withdrawn to Mt. Vernon so the spotlight would not be on him. The war was over and he was finished. Though the world unanimously assumed he would be the first to take the office, he made no assumptions.

He was a man of principle, not pride. He would let the new nation work the way it was supposed to work.

So they sent a messenger to get him to accept the invitation to be the nation’s first president. Washington officially accepted, then set off on the one-week journey to the nation’s temporary capital in New York. He intended the trip to be quiet and without glamour. But it was hard for the nation’s greatest hero to ride around unnoticed.

When Washington entered Philadelphia, he found himself at the head of a full-scale parade, with 20,000 people lining the streets, their eyes fixed on him in wonder.

“His Excellency rode in front of the procession, on horseback, politely bowing to the spectators who filled the doors and windows by which he passed,” reported the Federal Gazette, noting that church bells rang as Washington proceeded to his old haunt, the City Tavern. Washington, the Gazette gushed, had united the country, and her citizens were delighted to see the hero of the Revolution become their first national leader.

But by the next morning, Washington had grown tired of the jubilation. When the light horse cavalry showed up to accompany him to Trenton, they discovered he had left the city an hour earlier “to avoid even the appearance of pomp or vain parade,” reported one newspaper.

His greatness did not show in hubris, but in his humility.

And his principled leadership was further established as he sought to shed the trappings, even the appearance, of anything that remotely resembled a monarchy. In an era when one’s dress declared his place in power, Washington refused to wear the long, black outer coat of the Presidency at his inauguration. Instead, he had his tailor make a suit out of simple, inexpensive broadcloth.

And when the time came for the leader of the free world to be properly titled, the Senate proposed that Washington be called by the official designation “His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of Their Liberties.” Washington was embarrassed. No thank you. “Mr. President” will do.

Principle. Not pride.

Great leaders know that pride is deceptive (Gal. 6:3). It makes you think you are something when you are not. And pride leads to foolishness—it deprives you of wisdom and makes you want to be the center of attention. That’s why church leaders can be disqualified by excessive pride (Titus 1:7). Humility, on the other hand, makes you principled and circumspect, a person that sees beyond their own interests and desires to build a greater future (Prov. 11:2).

And, most of all, God opposes pride (James 4:6). He doesn’t dislike it. He opposes it. The organization driven by self-centered agendas, populated by agenda-driven people, or directed by prideful leaders will fail, crumbling under the weight of its own hubris.

Consider how easily George Washington could have transformed our nation into a dictatorship, how quickly the Republic would have become a monarchy. He was popular. He was powerful. But he refused.

Principles. Not pride.

Washington, like most of our Founders, applied a biblical worldview. He knew that “humility comes before honor” (Prov. 18:12).

He exercised patience. He kept the long look in mind (Gal. 6:9). He knew he was in the business of establishing a nation, not gaining power or position.

And he believed that he served a higher purpose. His job was to advance the cause of the nascent Republic, not to get his own way or advance his career. He didn’t need his ego groomed to do his job (1 Thess. 2:5).

There’s a reason for Presidents Day, and there’s a reason it coincides with George Washington’s birthday.

So next time you have a choice, remember George Washington. Choose to lead and to live by principle. Not pride.