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What John F. Kennedy Didn't Say to Congress in 1962 |
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When John F. Kennedy spoke to Congress in 1962 about the possibilities inherent in human beings, he did not exactly use those words. What he DID say, however, was that the United States would put a man on the moon before the decade was out. WOW! A man on the moon. This at a time when we had barely escaped the atmosphere; when missile launching systems were as likely to blow up off the launch pad as propel a manned object into space. This at a time when the actual probability of space flight was a distant reality to the fantastic imaginings of science fiction writers around the world. And yet, the President did not hesitate to put every American on notice. He never said “if we don’t do this, heads will roll!” He didn’t have to. What he did do was set for all of us the great possibilities of our very existence.
High performance teams all have one thing in common; a high performance objective. And that is the third secret of inspirational leadership; define the high performance objective. In 1962, JFK said to team United States, here is our objective, we are going to go to the moon. What he was also saying was deeper than that though. JFK knew that people everywhere will respond to the excitement of exploring the unknown within themselves. Getting to the moon was the objective. Seeing what we could do whether we went to the moon or not, well, THAT was the high performance objective. This is a crucial difference. Champions will always go for the high performance objective. Champions are concerned with winning and losing, no doubt. However, more than anything else, true champions want to find out what they are made of. How far can they go? How good are they, REALLY? Sometimes, if they are lucky, these people get to find that out in the crucible of human competition, against other humans in the court of public knowledge. In that venue, they are sometimes pushed to the absolute limit of their capabilities. It is only in those moments where the champion will find complete contentment. Trophies, awards, victories, all of these are symbols of achievement, but not necessarily evidence of high performance. High performance resides within the heart of each champion and only that person knows when they have truly achieved the high performance objective.
That was exactly the case in the great space race of the 1960’s. The scientists, engineers, academics, workers, and associated team members of NASA and affiliated organizations had to create the plan and the process for achieving a heretofore unimaginable achievement; getting to the moon. But the actual day to day process of putting together all of the elements required to get there was all about pushing the personal limits of each individual’s ability. It was all about the unknown. The more it became about that, the more likely the goal was to be attained. It wasn’t that the objective of getting to the moon receded in importance as the years went on, it is just that it became another (very notable) step along the journey to the truly possible.
In all of human history, the great achievements of our species have been defined for us in those terms. History notes these trends in a series of fits and starts, of giant leaps followed by plodding sameness or slow progress. It is when we are challenged to be truly our BEST, that we create the reality of an extension of the human spirit. It is usually in crisis that true generosity emerges, or true heroism, or true compassion, or justice. It is only when faced with the challenge to our better selves that we expend the energy and the focus on going places where we would normally avoid, or ignore.
That is the challenge of the inspirational leader trying to develop a high performance team. The objective defines the team, because without an objective, the raison d’etre of the team ceases to exist. Having said that, the HIGH PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVE provides the motivation. Why must we achieve the objective? Because it gives us the excuse we need to truly live life by finding out who we really are. The inspirational leader speaks to the high performance objective, to the motivation behind the process in creating the passion necessary to move a group of human beings from one point to another, together.
That is what President John F. Kennedy did in 1962. He painted the possibility of the future and challenged all of us to go there because all of us WANTED to go there. We wanted to see what we had in us, as a nation and as individuals within that nation. We could all feel the pride swell within every person at just the audacity of the goal and we could imagine the wonderful pride and power that would come with the achievement of the goal. What we could not imagine but what was the whole reason for the request was the unbelievable power of the journey along the way. We’ll talk more about the high performance objective and objectives in general and how they relate to secrets 2 and 4 in our next blog! Till then stay tuned for a few thoughts on the primaries!
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