ested in giving their people what they want as they are in giving them what they need. Great leaders aren’t interested in appeasing, pandering, or keeping the peace. Great leaders are peacemakers. I am not at all suggesting that great leaders shouldn’t listen to their people or consider feedback from others. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Without wise leadership, a nation falls; there is safety in having many advisers.” I believe this maxim wholeheartedly. Great leaders are great listeners. Great leaders are willing to learn from others and are always open to alternative points of view. They become great by surrounding themselves by
even greater people. I want to make that very clear. Great leaders willingly admit that they stand on the shoulders of giants. Nevertheless, at the end of the day and after all has been taken into account, the great leaders are those who are willing to take a stand. It’s easy to simply back down and keep the peace at all costs, but great leaders will resist that temptation in order to do what’s best for leading their people. No one ever said leadership was easy. But, if you are strong enough to stand up for what’s right, it will always be worth it in the end. So what about you? Which path
will you take? Are you a peacekeeper … or a peacemaker? David Lykken is president of mortgage strategies and managing partner with Mortgage Banking Solutions. He has more than 35 years of industry experience and has garnered a national reputation, and has become a frequent guest on FOX Business News with Neil Cavuto, Stuart Varney, Liz Claman and Dave Asman with additional guest appearances on the CBS Evening News, Bloomberg TV and radio. He may be reached by phone at (512) 977-9900, ext. 10, or e-mail dlykken@mortgagebankingsolutions.c om or dlykken@mbs-team.com.
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back on the right track. If you were trying to keep the peace, you would allow them to keep practicing the destructive behaviors that they are practicing. But if you were instead a peacemaker, you would be willing to confront them head on and help them to regain the proper perspective before they do further damage. Keeping the peace won’t help. If you want your people to head in the right direction, you’ve got to be a peacemaker. The third reason why great leaders will tend toward peacemaking rather than peacekeeping is that, while peacekeepers are prone to burying problems, peacemakers will be more inclined to solve problems. Peacekeepers don’t like trouble. They prefer to think that, if they ignore it, it will go away. So, they dust the poor business practices under the rug and hope that will take care of the problem. Unfortunately, it always ends up blowing up in their faces. If you want to solve the problems your people are encountering, you’ve got to be a peacemaker. You’ve got to face the challenge and deal with it immediately rather than letting it slide. Especially if the issue is a matter of integrity or ethics, you’ve got to solve the problem right away. But even if it’s a performance issue, you’ve got to be willing to tackle the issue when it presents itself. Delaying the solution never solved the problem. Peacekeepers prefer to turn a blind eye to pressing issues in hopes that they will sort themselves out. But that never happens. If you want to be a great leader for your people, you’ve got to step forward and solve problems right away. You’ve got to be a peacemaker. One final reason why great leaders will opt to be peacemakers rather than peacekeepers is that, when it really comes down to it, peacekeepers aren’t leaders at all; they are followers. Sticking with the educational theme that we opened up with, imagine a kindergarten teacher attempting to resolve a disagreement between two children. Suppose the children are fighting over a puzzle. They both want to put the same puzzle together so, rather than making them share or take turns using the puzzle, the teacher simply buys another identical puzzle so they each can have one. If that’s the solution the teacher offered, who really had control in the situation—the teacher or the children? Who was really leading and who was really following? That’s something that you should ask yourself as you attempt to settle disagreements with your people and as you attempt to guide your people to making better decisions and becoming better professionals. If you attempt to solve their problems just by always giving them what they want, aren’t you really following them? Great leaders aren’t as inter-