What Jimmy Carter taught me about leadership

The many recent tributes to President Jimmy Carter on the occasion of his 100th birthday today highlight his work as a humanitarian, environmentalist, politician, and man of faith. I had the honor of working for him for almost 36 years, and I would add that he is also an exceptionally brave and prescient leader.Over the years, three key lessons from President Carter’s leadership emerged that can inspire and guide any executive trying to navigate complex organizations or multifaceted problems. They’ve certainly helped me in my role as vice president of overseas operations for The Carter Center, where I manage 30 programs in 17 countries. And I can think of few better ways to honor President Carter than to lead in his image. Engage with antagonists and use the information to find solutions President Carter was a man of strong moral character, but he was willing to meet with unsavory characters in the pursuit of peace and human rights in such places as North Korea, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia. To help resolve a major conflict between Sudan and Uganda in the 1990s, Carter met with two strong-willed heads of state, Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, to understand their differences. The negotiations between the two countries, which I had been involved in, progressed but resolution seemed unlikely. President Carter assured us we had the dispute 95% resolved. He said, in effect, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it. I’ll finish the job.” His confidence came from his extensive knowledge of the leaders and their countries as well as his proven ability to find common ground. Showing the antagonists their mutual interests resulted in the Nairobi Agreement, signed in December 1999. The agreement led not only to the restoration of diplomatic ties, but also to the repatriation of perhaps 300 child soldiers from the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Don’t be afraid to be ahead of the curve Starting on the day he was inaugurated in January 1977, President Carter has unapologetically advocated for human rights, a stance that wasn’t always popular in Washington, D.C., or in foreign capitals. He was an early proponent of energy sustainability, drawing the ire of the oil and gas industry. He supported Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s candidacy for director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) because he saw the value in putting the first African and the first former minister of health in that position. He and Dr. Donald R. Hopkins teamed up to fight Guinea worm disease, a parasitic infection that afflicts those who drink contaminated water. Many in the health community had no interest in addressing the disease, but Carter and Hopkins partnered with countries to attack it with careful planning and persistence. The goal of eradication is within reach. Carter’s convictions gave him the fortitude to stand up to naysayers, and because his views were based in science or morality—or both—the rest of the world eventually caught up to him. Use your platform sparingly and wisely My colleague Karin Ryan, a senior human rights policy advisor at The Carter Center, notes that much of President Carter’s advocacy took place out of public view. He frequently wrote private letters on behalf of political prisoners and other victims of human rights abuses. One letter he wrote even resulted in the release of hundreds of political prisoners in Nepal. Keeping these efforts quiet made them more effective. At the same time, President Carter understood that this subtle approach made his public actions and pronouncements all the more powerful. As for health projects beyond Guinea worm disease, he leveraged his good name and gift for coalition-building to take on other diseases of the poor as well. He persuaded major pharmaceutical companies to donate vast amounts of medication to fight such neglected diseases as river blindness, trachoma, and lymphatic filariasis—maladies most Westerners had never heard of.   During a 2016 address to the House of Lords in Great Britain, President Carter repeated a line from his Nobel Prize lecture: “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.” He has lived this principle every day. He’s taken risks, challenged orthodoxy, sought peaceful solutions to intractable challenges, and highlighted the inherent dignity in everyone. If that’s not leadership, I don’t know what is.