Recently I discovered House of Cards and am thoroughly enjoying plowing through the first three seasons. Initially seeing how Francis Underwood and the surrounding characters manipulated each other, constantly seeking ways to increase power, was almost intoxicating. Could I do that? Would I want to do that? Why not do that? It seemed possible, and Underwood’s confessions to the viewer of his mistakes and weaknesses made it human. However, by the end of season 1 the political manipulation between characters took its toll quickly and slipped from intoxicating toward revolting. How could people treat each other that way?

Kevin Spacey: “When you act or direct you have a responsibility to bring the right energy to create something with the group. I was fortunate to have mentors who were great examples, not because they sat me down and gave me lessons but because of how they behaved”

Therefore, it’s with trepidation that I read the March 2016 Harvard Business Review interview of Kevin Spacey on its last page. The fact that I associate him so closely with the negative traits of his Underwood character is a true testament to his acting ability.

I’m currently halfway through the class of 2016 Leadership Tomorrow class which is probably why I quickly gravitated to questions about leadership. Spacey says, “I was fortunate to have mentors who were great examples, not because they sat me down and gave me lessons but because of how they behaved.” This quote stems from his answer about to why he spent 10 years as the director of the Old Vic theater in London.

Later he says, “It’s incredible to help [young actors] find self-esteem, voice, and collaborative skills.”

Leadership Tomorrow uses two primary texts, “The Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Posner and “The Servant as Leader” by Robert K. Greenleaf. Spacey’s above quotes are excellent examples of some of the leadership traits espoused by these two great books.

From “The Leadership Challenge”

Spacey points out that when leading, behavior is more important than lessons. This demonstrates Kouzes and Posner’s first practice, Model the Way. Leaders must ensure they know their own voice before they can affirm shared values. Once they grasp their voice they are set to set the example by their actions. If the voice is truly there, this should come naturally. Spacey is lucky to have had mentors do this for him, and he’s an inspiration for passing what he’s learned forward by modeling the way himself.

From “The Servant as Leader”

The servant-leader is servant first. This requires a natural feeling that one wants to serve first. Then, and only then, through conscious choice, does one aspire to lead. As the Old Vic director, Spacey served his students by helping them find their voice and self-esteem. He served by wanting and trying to bring the necessary energy to his group while aspiring for a mutual, shared vision.

Kevin Spacey: “I wanted to make sure we built a theater company solidly so that when I left, it would continue”

The interview’s final question is about how House of Cards is made. I am intrigued to learn that it’s a highly collaborative process with a creative team. Spacey, who is one of the show’s Executive Producers, says, “It’s all about making the best show we can. It’s not ‘What’s good for me?’ It’s ‘What’s good for us?'” In other words, it’s not about what the leader can do to further his or her best interest (take that Francis Underwood), but rather how the leader inspires to help a team reach their mutually shared vision.

As a Seattle Seahawks fan since 1978 I found a recent quote from head coach Pete Carroll puzzling regarding their recently departed defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn. Mr. Quinn transformed the Seahawks’ defense into the best in the NFL and helped bring his team to two consecutive Super Bowls. So why would Carroll publicly comment on Quinn’s decision to take on the Atlanta Falcon’s head coaching position by saying, “I want to help Dan get whatever job he wants because he’s a great coach.” Really? If he’s so good then don’t you want to keep him in Seattle?

After a little thought it became clear that coach Carroll’s quote demonstrates a valuable and difficult quality in truly good leadership: invest in your team for the greatest return. Carroll knows that the best way for him to get the most out of his staff is to help them excel, even if that means eventually losing them. Demonstrating his trust and belief in his players and coaches by injecting them with an intangible shot of confidence and freedom to move forward is rewarded by maximizing his team’s motivation and morale to achieve their ultimate goal, win the Super Bowl.

Managers in the business world can demonstrate this leadership as well. Even if you know your direct reports don’t have much room to move within your organization, it’s still important to pay attention to their requests to become better employees and grow professionally. If they request reference material or training that’s not exorbitant, grant it. They will thank you and put what they learn to work for you. Your company will benefit from employees who feel valued and who can immediately put their new talent to work. If it turns out you help launch their career to a new position elsewhere then that’s a good thing. It may be bittersweet, but think about the pros and cons:

Pros:

• You help build internal morale by paying attention to and rewarding employees who show initiative.
• You will improve performance during your employees tenure under you. It’s better to have an employee fully invested while working on your team than to have an employee who sticks around longer while performing at a lower capacity with a compromised attitude.
• Your company will benefit when your employee talks about what you did outside its walls.
• When your company builds a reputation as one that allows their employees to grow, it will attract other highly motivated people who show similar initiative.

Cons:

• You lose a valuable employee after significant valuable contributions.

Managers, give your employees the benefit of the doubt and invest in them. If they eventually leave, they will leave happy. If you don’t and they stay, you will likely have the harder task of handling frustrated team members. I trust the Seahawks will weather Dan Quinn’s departure. Similarly, if you lead well, you’ll weather the loss of rock star employees who outgrow their role under you with grace and admiration.

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* Amara Touré - Amara Touré 1973 - 1980

SUCEAVA

The lightning storm at the end of the most recent post took out the internet provider in Suceava (pronounced SOO-cheva). I couldn’t find the internet until locating a cafe in Sighișoara (Si-gee-shwah- rah) just now.

Our hostess in Suceava is Monika, who is very sweet and giving and owns High Class Hostel. Her place is highly recommended in the guide books, and I concur. The hostel is outside the city for now – she says she is moving over summer into space closer to town. She serves breakfast with eggs and unpasteurized milk from her neighbor which is a real treat. We also ate her homemade dinner for two nights. One was a delicious chicken schnitzel, and the other night she cooked up pickled beans and sausage. Both meals were completely authentic, traditionally Romanian, and amazing.

Monika drove Allison and I through the Carpathian Mountains in the Bukovina region to see the four primary painted monasteries. They are amazingly beautiful buildings painted on the outside in the 15th and 16th centuries. It’s remarkable how the paint has lasted on most of them, though their southern sides didn’t fair so well due to sun exposure. All the churches are Orthodox. Monika knows many nuns at the monasteries who are kind when we’re introduced. By chance, our tour happened on a holy day so we witnessed a portion of a Mass outdoors. Despite it being a weekday, we witnessed many country folk enjoying their neighbors’ company at the Mass because the day is considered a work holiday.

Monika tells us that in the 1980’s Ceaușescu attempted systematization of living quarters, which uprooted hordes of citizens. They were told that part of the move involved eliminating pets. Understandably, most people had a hard time putting their pets to sleep so instead let their pets, most of which were dogs, go. This is the origin of their current stray dog problem.

While at the High Class Hostel we met one of the writers for the Rough Guide book on Romania, Tim Burford. He is good chap and we thank him for the offer of a few Lei at the train station.

BRASOV

May 19 – We caught the train to Brașov, the Prague of Romania some say. Monika arranges a place for us with her friend Gabriel, who has a very nice and brand new hostel in the old town. In fact, the place is so new that we were all alone in one giant room, making it our first night of the vacation to not sleep in two single beds. We even had a the common bath all to ourselves. During trip planning Allison and I allowed ourselves an unplanned night between Suceava to Sighișoara, and Brașov couldn’t be a better choice.

In Romania there are two trains, the Rapid and Intercity, and contrary to their names, the latter is faster and much nicer. We rode the Rapid from Suceava to Brașov. The ride took eight hours and it felt rickety with old rusty cars and lights that completely failed to illuminate when passing through tunnels. The ride, however, went through amazing country scenes, passing village after village, each with an Orthodox church in its center. We saw countless farmers doing manual labor and nearly zero tractors or other motorized help. It was all horse-drawn carts and we felt like we were in a time warp.

This reminds me of the Roma (i.e. gypsies) who live on the road to Monika’s place. We saw them racing their carts with children who looked absolutely terrified. Roma are not well-liked here, and Roma children and adults alike are seen often begging. At first we felt badly for them, but, eventually became numbed and instead focused on keeping all our belongings safe when in their presence.

Back to Brașov. It is a lovely old town encased in an medieval Citadel. Black Church, so named because of a fire many years ago, is one of the more beautiful churches. Oddly, when traveling, one can become numb to the beauty of all the old churches, perhaps similarly to the way one is desensitized to the Roma. There are two old gates that still stand in the citadel, and one, Catherine’s Gate, looks like it came out of Disneyland. Speaking of, Castle Bran, located near Bran, Romania and falsely advertised as Dracula’s Castle, was just returned to the Germans and there is rumor of Disney purchasing it.

Brașov was a brief stay. At 3:00p yesterday we caught a train to Sighișoara. It is a small town with a spectacularly well preserved citadel. We are finally at a real hotel, Casa Wagner, which is very nice and conveniently located inside the citadel. Yesterday evening we walked just outside the citadel and found several young 10-12 yr old boys playing. We took their photo and they started to pose for us. We showed them their picture with our digital cameras and they were enthralled. A minute later a woman approached us. She couldn’t speak English but we figured out she is the mother of one of the boys and she would like a photo. We found a teenager who could write for her, likely because she can’t do so for herself, and got her address in our book. We will send her photos of her boy with his friends hamming it up for us.

Yesterday we also had one drink in the house in which Vlad Tepes, also known as “Vlad the Impaler,” was born. It’s touristy and expensive, but a lovely house.

SIGHISOARA

Today, May 20, is sightseeing in Sighișoara. There’s not much to write about that isn’t already in the tour books. Some highlights were sampling apple, pear, and plum brandy, the latter of which is all over the novel Dracula, in a quaint small distillery. We quickly discovered brandy can packs a wicked punch. Speaking Dracula, it should be no surprise that he is everywhere. It’s certainly touristy, but the place is beautiful so what are you going do?

Tomorrow we head back to Bucharest by Intercity Train and the next day fly to Ljubljana where our Slovenian adventure will begin.

I’m writing from our Suceava hostel about our trip so far. It started with a brief layover in Amsterdam and then we headed to Bucharest. Writing about Suceava will be in the next post.

AMSTERDAM & LEIDEN

Monday morning: Allison and I arrived in Amsterdam on at 7am. Checked out Leiden during a six hour layover since it is only a 1o minute train ride from Schiphol airport. We walked around canals, saw an historic windmill, and ate a spinach and cheese pancake, which is much like a pastry. Delicious. Old homes lining canal are beautifully quaint, many with a rustic boat tied to backyard dock. Hundreds, if not thousands, of traditional Dutch bikes are parked in a double-decker parking garage for bikes, of which roughly half are not locked.

BUCHAREST

Monday afternoon: We flew to Bucharest at 1pm. I could not stay awake on plane, though I managed to have brief conversation with person seated next to Allison who is Dutch and does a lot of business in Bucharest as a rep for a chicken slaughter machine manufacturer. This guy cycles a lot in Germany, though not on an old-style Dutch bike. He says many of those are community bikes, which he says explains why they’re not locked. Ride in on one, ride away on another.

Monday evening: We arrive in Bucharest at 5pm in a groggy state. We’re very leery of a taxi driver seeking our business at the baggage claim, especially when he grabs my luggage and heads to an elevator, away from other taxis. We reluctantly follow. Fortunately it turns out many taxis are on a lower level,  and he’s on the level. He swiftly threads the needle through Bucharest rush hour traffic, which is horrendous. I’ve never been in a car with a more reckless driver. He passed a cyclist at well over 100 km/h with no more than a honk and no more than a foot was between the poor biker and our taxi. Seat belts are non-existent, so it was with a sigh of relief that we arrived safely at Hotel Carpati at 6:30. He apologized that the meter ran up due to traffic. Good guy and a mad driver.

Our room in Bucharest is like a closet with two beds. It’s tiny and rickety, and the cool old elevator with a cage door used to get to our floor is also miniscule. The elevator lurches as it starts and hops when it stops. The view from room is good, and the weather hot, most likely in the upper 80’s.

We are very close to the center square where the 1989 revolution happened. We see building where Nicolae Ceaușescu gave his last speech before being helicoptered away from the roof and shot to death. We wander around this area and marvel at the camouflaged beauty in the architecture. It’s easy to see that the old buildings were once majestic, but now they are covered with a layer of black soot, bricks have fallen off, and facades are eroding. I feel like the city is a house with a messy owner who hasn’t the resources to put things back together again.

Tuesday: We’re awake at 5:30am and are outside by 6:15 to see the square before it’s awake with the city bustle. The aura is very quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately, Allison forgot contacts so we find optometrist which opens at 10am. Who knew such modern conveniences could be taken care of so quickly on the other side of the world?

At 7am we enjoyed a large complimentary breakfast in our hotel of meat, meat, and more meat, including hot dogs with mustard. In the 1980’s meat was very difficult to find so they appear to be making up for lost time.

 

 

 

Before we leave the hotel the person behind the counter advises us to take a circuitous route to the square, opposite of how we went night before. I ask why, and she replied because of the dogs. I notice dogs in a parking lot the day before and was aware of their stray dog problem. She said they frequently bite, and our guide book says rabies is a real issue, so avoided that route for rest of our stay. I am highly aware of stray dogs and they tug at the heart strings. They look so sad. While I expected them in the urban cities, I am surprised they’re in Suceava, where I am now, a small town in northern Romania, as well. I saw one today with a grotesque goiter dangling from its chest and with no hair on its tail.

We did a lot of walking today and learned how to use the Metro. We bought a 6am train ticket which got us to Suceava today. I ask if we can pay by Visa and get laughed at. Most prices here are in Lei, though they accept Euros, and often do not take credit cards. Unfortunately, we failed to understand how to use our metro tickets so had the pleasure of being escorted by a disgruntled guard through a security gate in order to ride the subway. Their metro was built in 1979, perhaps using United States money given to Romania for their resistance to USSR troops when we thought Ceaușescu was a pretty good fellow.

[as I type, thunderstorms are starting – very cool].

We visit the Village Museum with a multitude of old buildings from 14th century forward from all over the Romanian area. They are fascinating works that were relocated from their original locations for the museum.

Our next visit was the Peasant Museum with a huge inventory of artifacts from the common people. On display are textiles from Romanian peasants over the centuries, as well as windmills, a church, clothing, tiles from stoves, and many decorated eggs. It really is amazing stuff.

Uh oh – I’m now being asked to stop using the internet in our hostel because of the lighting. More later.

It’s 11:18am Monday morning here in Amsterdam, or 2:18am back at home. We arrived safely and took a train in to Leiden for a walk around canals and some yummy spinach and cheese pancake-like pastry. Off to Bucharest by plane in about 90 min.

More later

Five days, 11 hours, and 45 minutes from now we’ll be on the plane to Bucharest via Amsterdam. Almost all preparations are done – hotels, train from Ljubljana to Budapest, flights. Our biggest unknown was northern Romania in the Suceava region until we finally reserved a couple nights at the High Class Hostel. The town is supposed to be less than exciting, but just outside it are the wonderful painted monasteries.

More to come.