Leadership & the Ichabod Principle

I first encountered Ichabod in the 1970’s cartoon film, The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow (the first version was made by Disney in 1949 and has been remade a number of times since). Ichabod was this physically ugly character, with a chisel sharp nose and gaunt cheek bones. What a strange name to call someone – Ichabod. Except that I later discovered it wasn’t that strange, it was a word that has over 2,500 years of history from ancient Jewish writings. The word means, ‘the grace has departed’.

Setting aside any religious connotation to the word ‘grace’, it simply means the good, productive, life giving energy. A life in ‘flow’, as psychologist Csikszentmihalyi[1] would call it. When any of us takes on a leadership role, we need the grace, the natural, generative energy to fulfil all the possibilities of this new job.  With the resourcefulness of grace, you can work long hours and keep going, face strategic and resource challenges as well as difficult people challenges and whilst demanding and exhausting, you can somehow refresh quite easily and move forwards. With grace you can be more balanced, more centred and more gracious towards challenging people in your team or your clients. Grace is like the high tide covering over all of the underlying rocks – the rocks are still there, they are still a present danger, but the high-water level keeps you floating above them. Grace is a vital ingredient in the leadership cycle.

But, equally important for a leader is to be able to spot the arrival of Ichabod – the phase when the grace has departed. When leadership’s Ichabod arrives it’s time to move on. It sounds so simple to say, but extremely hard to spot. What are the signs?

§  An undertow of weariness begins to seep in, “I’ve done this before and I couldn’t solve it last time and I’m tired of trying”.  You feel like your shelf-life has expired and it’s taking more energy than it should, with little progress. 

§  Next, you might notice the loss of joy. Someone once said, “Once you’ve lost your joy, you’ve lost your way”. And its true. Joy is a sign of grace and joylessness is a sign that the grace has departed. The fun, the laughter and lightness of being, have gone. The smile has been replaced with a serious frown.  

§  Another sign is an increased level of anger, frustration, or irritation creeping in to your conversations and interactions with people. You have moved from enjoying the process of empowerment, to being irritated that people can’t just see what needs doing and get on with it! 

§  You may also experience a growing inertia. You find yourself working just as hard, and getting nowhere; like car wheels spinning in the mud. You find yourself sitting and staring at your office whiteboard, hoping that somehow it will suddenly light up with some new answers that you haven’t already thought of, or actions that you haven’t already tried. You find your thinking cycling round in circles and not leading to courageous actions or innovations; you are not pushing forwards, like you did in the days of grace.

So, what are the consequences of ignoring Ichabod’s arrival, ignoring that the grace is, or already has, departed?  Leaders resourcefulness is like a car engine. When the tank is full, the car runs effectively on fuel. When the tank is empty, it just runs on fumes. In the time of grace the leader had a natural energy reserve, but when the grace departs the leader has to draw energy from within their own depleted inner reserves – body, mind, emotion, moral, relational and spirit. And it is in any of these areas, that the leader will eventually grind to a halt. This is why it is vital that every leader understands and recognises the principle of Ichabod.

Recognising Ichabod’s insidious arrival is always a challenge, as is anything that we don’t want to see.  There are many reasons why we don’t want to see his face on our doorstep. Leaving a leadership role by choice is often a really tough decision. The leader is asking themselves a host of questions underpinned by fear and fact. 

Is the organisation ready for me to step out? 

Is there anyone who can do what I have been doing? 

What job will I do next? 

Am I wearing the proverbial golden-handcuffs? 

Have I committed my lifestyle to the salary I’m getting right now? 

Who will I be if, I’m not in this leadership role? 

What will I do, if I step away from this job? 

If I fall, who will catch me?

What does it take to face down Ichabod in the leader’s life cycle? 

 Courage and Wisdom.

 The wisdom to read the signs and the courage to act on them.

However hard it may seem, not reading the signs is like our film character – it didn’t end well for him! 

Wisdom and courage often come from the wider group of people that a leader has surrounded themselves with. So, who a leader travel with, really matters.

Wisdom and courage provide the opportunity to use Ichabod to usher in a productive transition into the next chapter of your leadership journey.

[1] Flow. A Psychology Of Happiness      Mihály Csikszentmihalyi Rider 2002