21 Great Leaders: Learn Their Lessons, Improve Your Influence (18 page)

By January 1945, the Soviet Red Army swept across Poland, driving the Nazis back. On the night of January 17, the Germans pulled out of Kraków. The next morning, Karol Wojtyła and his fellow seminary students went to reclaim the old seminary building. They found its tile roof collapsed, windows shattered, heating system broken, and the rooms blackened by smoke from open fires used for makeshift heat. The lavatories were heaped with frozen excrement. Karol Wojtyła volunteered to chop up and haul away the filth.
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Karol saved the life of a fourteen-year-old Holocaust survivor, Edith Zierer. Her family was captured during the 1939 German invasion of Poland, and they died in Dachau. Edith went to work in a weapons factory in occupied Poland, laboring twelve hours a day in freezing conditions without shoes. She continued working there until the Germans fled in January 1945.

Once the factory was abandoned, Edith walked outside and made her way to the train station. The people there ignored her. She recalled:

That priest was Karol Wojtyła. He brought Edith a sandwich and a cup of tea. When she had eaten, he said, “We’re going.” Then he picked her up and carried her in his arms. He took her to Kraków and placed her in the care of Lena Kuchler, who rescued many orphans of the Holocaust. Edith Zierer later emigrated to Israel and raised a family.

In 2000, Pope John Paul visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, and Edith Zierer was there to honor him. She said to him in Polish, “He who saves the life of even one Jew is likened to one who has saved an entire world.” She was moved to tears when he placed his hand on her shoulder. “I had closed a circle,” she later said.
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Karol Wojtyła completed his studies at the seminary in Kraków and was ordained on All Saints Day, November 1, 1946. He continued his studies at the Pontifical International Athenaeum Angelicum in Rome.

In 1947, the young Father Wojtyła went to Foggia in southern Italy. There he attended mass at the friary at San Giovanni Rotondo. He made his confession to the friar there, Padre Pio. During their conversation, Padre Pio told the young Polish priest that he would one day “gain the highest post in the Church.” (Karol Wojtyła later believed that Padre Pio’s prophecy was fulfilled in 1967 when he became a cardinal. He couldn’t imagine holding any higher post than that.)
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Karol Wojtyła returned to Poland in 1948 to take up his duties at the Church of the Assumption in Niegowi?. On arriving, his first act was to prostrate himself and kiss the ground—a gesture that would become the trademark of his papacy.
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He used his people skills to mentor and influence young people, organizing student groups that met for prayer, Bible study, and service to the needy. He also led them on outings that included camping and kayaking.

The end of World War II replaced the tyranny of the Nazis with the tyranny of the Communists. The Communists considered Christianity a “corrupting” influence on the youth, so priests were not permitted to organize youth outings. So, when Father Wojtyła went on these outings, he would remove his collar and ask his young friends to call him “Wujek” (Polish for “Uncle”). The nickname stuck.

In 1958, one of his kayaking trips was interrupted by the news that he had been elevated to bishop. When his young friends asked if this would change their relationship with him, he told them not to worry—“Wujek will remain Wujek.”
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He then became a cardinal in 1967. And in August 1978, after the death of Pope Paul VI, Cardinal Wojtyła attended his first papal conclave and voted in the election of Pope John Paul I. Thirty-three days into his papacy, John Paul I died at age sixty-six. His death triggered another papal conclave.

On October 16, 1978, the word went out: “
Habemus papam!
We have a pope!” To the astonishment of the world, the new pontiff had an unfamiliar, non-Italian name. He was Karol Wojtyła, the cardinal from Kraków, and he had adopted the Latin name of John Paul II. Cheers went up around the world, especially in the Soviet-oppressed land of Poland.

Pope John Paul II appeared on the balcony and broke tradition by delivering a speech in which he accepted his new role “in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord.”
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Instead of a lavish papal coronation, he chose a simple papal inauguration on October 22, 1978. During the inauguration, at the point where the cardinals were to take their vows on their knees then kiss his ring, Pope John Paul reached out to Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński of Poland and embraced him in a bear hug.

These symbolic breaks with tradition might seem like small matters, but they were powerful examples of the new pope’s people skills. Through these gestures, Pope John Paul II was saying loud and clear, “Wujek will remain Wujek.”

On June 2, 1979, Pope John Paul II flew to Warsaw. On arrival, he went to his knees and kissed the ground. More than a million people lined the motorcade route as he drove to the Old City. There, at Victory Square, he celebrated Mass and delivered a bold homily that indicted the atheist regime of Communist Poland:

In response, the people chanted, “We want God! We want God!” It was a cry of spiritual yearning—and a shout of defiance against the atheistic state.

A week later, on June 10, the pope held outdoor mass. Though the government had not allowed any publicity, word of mouth produced a crowd of at least two million people. In his sermon, Pope John Paul II indicted Communism again. Peggy Noonan, President Reagan’s speechwriter, later recalled:

Pope John Paul II had exposed the rotting underpinnings of Soviet Communism. His sojourn in Poland led directly to the founding of the Solidarity labor movement at the Gdańsk Shipyard in 1980, and the rise of Polish labor leader Lech Wałęsa. By 1989, Eastern Bloc Communism was collapsing like a house of cards. Lech Wałęsa later said of the pope’s visit, “We knew the minute he touched the foundations of Communism, it would collapse.”
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The fall of Communism is the cornerstone of John Paul’s legacy. He was part of a concerted effort by several world leaders to consign Soviet Communism to the ash heap of history. Lech Wałęsa was one of those leaders. Czech dissident Václav Havel was another. And Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of England and President Ronald Reagan of the United States also played key roles.

Pope John Paul II and President Reagan had a strong working partnership. President Reagan hammered away at the Soviet monolith with American “hard power.” Pope John Paul II chipped away at the crumbling foundation with spiritual “soft power.” Both forms of power were needed to bring down Communism.

In June 1982, President Reagan went on a ten-day tour through Western Europe—a tour that included a lengthy discussion with Pope John Paul in the Vatican. “Hope remains in Poland,” Ronald Reagan told the pontiff. “We, working together, can keep it alive.”
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Ronald Reagan spoke of a special bond between them: both men had barely survived assassination attempts less than six weeks apart. On March 30, 1981, a bullet missed Ronald Reagan’s heart by less than an inch; he nearly died from loss of blood. On May 13, 1981, the pope was shot, and he, too, nearly died from loss of blood.

And there are more parallels: both Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II publicly forgave the gunmen who shot them. Both men believed God had spared them for a greater purpose. Working together, they both helped bring down Soviet Communism.

Could it be that the people skill of forgiveness was actually the driving force that toppled atheistic Communism?

What does the example of Pope John Paul II teach us about the role of forgiveness in leadership? Let me suggest a few principles:

1.
Forgive others to liberate yourself
. Pope John Paul II lived free of bitterness, resentment, and fear. Forgiveness enables us to make peace with our past and move forward with our lives.

2.
Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling
. Even when you don’t feel like forgiving, you can make a choice to forgive. Even when the other person is unrepentant, you can make a choice to forgive. The decision to forgive others doesn’t depend on anyone else. It is completely up to you. Very often, when you make a choice to forgive, the feelings of forgiveness soon follow.

3.
As the leader, set an example of forgiveness
. The people in your organization need to know that you don’t hold grudges—you forgive. Bitterness and resentment can tear an organization apart. Forgiveness enables teams, organizations, and nations to function smoothly. Like Pope John Paul II, become an inspiring example of forgiveness to the people you lead.

4.
Forgiving does not mean forgetting
. The reason we forgive is precisely because we can’t forget. The memory of being hurt will keep hurting us until we make a decision to let it go. You will probably feel wary around a boss, a subordinate, or a coworker who has hurt you. That’s normal. Memories and feelings won’t immediately change. What
will
change is your determination to let go of all bitterness and resentment.

5.
Forgiving does not necessarily mean maintaining a relationship with someone
. Pope John Paul II forgave the gunman, but he did not become close friends with the gunman. Sometimes the person you forgive is simply toxic to you, and you can’t maintain contact. But at least you can let go of the bitterness and get on with your life.

Pope John Paul II led by forgiving, and so should we. Though he forgave, he suffered. His wounds healed, but the pain never completely went away. Later in life, he was afflicted with weakness and tremors due to Parkinson’s disease, but his forgiving spirit was strong to the end.

On April 2, 2005, Pope John Paul II died at his apartment in the Vatican. His funeral, held six days later, is believed to be the largest funeral in the history of the world. Almost immediately after his death, people chanted, “
Santo subito!
Sainthood now!” The Church canonized him on April 27, 2014, making him Pope Saint John Paul II.

Of all the saintly qualities that marked his life, I think the greatest was the people skill of forgiveness.

CHARACTER

G
EORGE
W
ASHINGTON

When the Summons Comes