Harvard: one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

Founded in 1636, Harvard is the United States oldest institution of higher learning.  Located in Cambridge Massachusetts across the Charles River from Boston, it comprises 210 acres of land and boasts the largest endowment of any university in the world at over $36 billion.

There are currently close to 21,000 students with approximately 4,600 academic staff, giving it a teacher/student ratio of less than 1:5.  It has an acceptance rate of 5.9%, which means that 355,932 students applied for the 21,000 openings.  Harvard’s list of distinguished graduates includes: 8 American Presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires and 355 Rhodes Scholars.

The school is named after its first benefactor, John Harvard, who in 1638 donated significant amounts of land and money to ensure a secure future for the university.  A statue of John Harvard can be found in Harvard Yard, the epicenter for the campus, indicating he founded the university I 638.

The statue is known as the “statue of the 3 lies” because John Harvard was not the founder, he was the school’s first benefactor.  It indicates the school was founded in 1638, which was the date of Mr. Harvard’s donation, not the founding of the school.  And, the statue is not John Harvard – it was fashioned after a body double because the only images of John Harvard were lost in a fire prior to the creation of the statue.

Someone I know recently took a course at Harvard.  Her prof was excellent.  One thing he said that she shared with me, particularly caught my attention:

He spoke of the 3 types of teachers – which we could refer to as 3 types of leaders.  1.  Embracers.  2. Encouragers.  3 Tyrants.  His thoughts were as follows:

Embracers are those teachers/leaders who embrace us.  They celebrate who we are.  We know we are cared for, and that we belong.  They build in their students/followers a desire for growth and learning.  They create a thirst to be better and a delight in the learning/growth process.

Encouragers are those who encourage us to be better.  They paint a picture of who we can become and what we can create as we reach to accomplish more and to grow further into the person we want to become.  They encourage us to grow, to develop, to accomplish and achieve.  They help us create a vision for who we can be and what we can do.

Tyrants are those who push us far beyond what we think we can endure.  They demand more of us, oftentimes in a fashion that can be aggravating and demoralizing.  Nothing is ever good enough.  Tyrants are those for whom we are rarely grateful.  We are often quite glad to be rid of them.  They come across as rude, insensitive, selfish, uncaring and disheartening.

The Harvard prof’s take on the tyrant is that we need to learn to celebrate the tyrant because it is the tyrant who pulls more out of us than anyone else.   Not that he was condoning that type of leadership, but that the tyrant’s demands force us into a higher level of production.  Their expectations cause us to elevate our own expectations of ourselves.  Simply put, the tyrant forces us to up our game.

Without the tyrant we may never be forced to step up to a higher level of performance.

Now, no one can survive being led by a tyrant for the long term.  However, we can learn to celebrate those short seasons in our development which were perhaps directed by an overbearing, demanding, insensitive and callous leader.  I would not consider this as an excuse to be a tyrannical leader, but sometimes it’s those people who drag us kicking and screaming into greater growth.

Perhaps you have a tyrant in your life?  I have no doubt it will help your motivation and your mental well-being if you can learn to see this person as one whose demands can facilitate your personal growth in a way that neither an encourager nor an embracer ever could.

Embracers and encouragers make us feel good, but sometimes it’s the tyrant who forces us into higher accomplishments.

Learn to celebrate the tyrants.