We Can All Be Hazel

On Ordinary People and Leadership

Watership Down is one of my favorite books, not only for its gripping plot and allegory about how to build the best society,¹ but also because Richard Adams creates, in Hazel, a leader who is ordinary, but who nonetheless helps everyone flourish.

This is my beat-up and well-loved copy. I’ve had it since childhood and have read it at least four times.

Near the end of the book, Adams includes a revealing scene: Bigwig, the largest and strongest of Hazel’s group, meets General Woundwort, the imposing and brutal dictator of Efrafa. Woundwort assumes that Bigwig is the group’s leader because of his size, and when he learns that Bigwig is not the leader, he imagines that the leader must be truly awesome indeed. Woundwort, who values only force and dominance, doesn’t even realize that he has already met the actual group leader, Hazel. In fact, Hazel is an ideal leader not because of his own strength, but because of his humility. He is able to inspire, recognize, and draw out the strengths of others. Thanks to Hazel’s leadership, the whole group benefits from Bigwig’s strength, Blackberry’s intelligence, Fiver’s insight, and Dandelion’s creativity.

Remember the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? One of the lessons of that show was that when you ask the audience, you should always go with what they say. The group together is stronger than any single member alone, and the best leaders understand this truth; rather than dominating and controlling others, these leaders are teachers who help us use our own talents to improve the world.

Four leaders

I’d like to tell you about four leaders I admire. All of these leaders appreciate and bring together the talents of individuals to achieve positive change in the world. As it happens, of the four leaders I discuss, two are musicians and two are journalists, but you can find leaders like them in any field, in public and in private life. You can even be one yourself!

Deborah, the choir director. Many years ago, I was lucky to be able to sing in a small choir, now called Ember, whose members include professional singers as well as experienced amateurs like me. Right away at the audition I knew this choir would be different, when the director, Deborah, said she didn’t push singers to “blend.” Normally, choral directors strive to get their singers to match a consistent sound, which gives a clean, unified effect but which can be frustrating for those of us who have larger voices or more vibrato (to take a couple of personal examples). Deborah focuses instead on teaching her singers healthy technique so that we can express our natural, unique voices together. The result is a full and vibrant sound for audiences and more satisfaction for singers, especially the opera singers in her group.²

Deborah has said that “every single person in this group is here for a reason.” Some of the singers have glorious, professional-caliber voices. Some also play piano and can lead sectionals. Some have perfect pitch. Some take on organizational and writing projects for the group. In my case, I knew one reason I was in the group was because I learn music—even challenging contemporary music—very quickly³ and can thus help the other singers learn the pieces. Deborah also mentors young singers, conductors, and composers at the start of their careers. Like Hazel, Deborah understands that when we honor and bring together people’s unique gifts, the whole group benefits.

Bobby McFerrin, the singer, conductor, and teacher. Before I say anything else, I’d like you to watch this clip. Please! Do it now—I’ll wait.

Isn’t that amazing and fun? Were you humming along too? Did you hear how Bobby McFerrin demonstrated playfully but convincingly that we all understand the pentatonic scale intuitively, and that we all can make music together? McFerrin began his career as a solo jazz singer and improviser and had a brief stint as the artistic director of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, but his heart is in the music workshops he leads around the country, in which he offers thousands of people at a time the opportunity to discover their voices (literally). He believes that everyone can make music, and that music is play. His workshops help people overcome their inhibitions to make a joyful noise together.

Brian Lehrer, the WNYC talk-show host. For more than twenty years Brian has hosted a daily news and politics talk show. He is a tough interviewer; he always steelmans—as opposed to strawmanning—the arguments on the other side and asks his guests for a response. And he rigorously fact-checks claims made on his show, even when he already agrees with them. He thus fights against our natural tendency toward confirmation bias.

But for me Brian’s greatest strength is that he treats his audience as a resource whose experiences and observations give a fuller picture of the events his guests discuss. When he says, “Listeners, help us report this story,” I know that I will learn something new and important. Recently, for a segment on the crisis at Rikers Island, he took calls from men incarcerated there and gave them a platform to report on the sickness and violence they have personally observed or experienced. I have called in a number of times to talk about, among other topics, climate change (“I can see the Alps from my house”) and refugees in Switzerland. I am honored that Brian has referred to me as “our unofficial European correspondent.”

Eliot Higgins, the leader of Bellingcat. Higgins started out as a humble blogger and reporter. In 2012, he noticed that Syrian civilians were posting photos and videos from the civil war. Using geolocation—matching details from the photos to information available from satellite data and Google Maps—Higgins was able to prove that Bashar al-Assad was committing atrocities against his own people. Higgins went on to research and post about abuses in other countries, and people around the world started joining his efforts. In 2014, Higgins founded Bellingcat.

Using the work of citizen investigators around the world, Bellingcat has achieved some extraordinary journalistic coups, all of which are documented through information that is publicly available online and thoroughly fact-checked. They proved that Assad gassed innocent Syrians, and that the Russians shot down a Malaysian Airlines passenger plane over Ukraine, killing almost 300 people; they identified Russian operatives who assassinated diplomats, and white nationalists in the US who assaulted innocent people; they exposed deceitful social media campaigns against critics of the Chinese government; and they pursue truth and transparency in the face of human rights abuses wherever they occur. Bellingcat also trains volunteers in their methods so that anyone can offer their special skills to the investigations. Working together, the people at Bellingcat have put a bell on the cat: they show us the predators so we can escape or even declaw them.

Some inspiration

What traits do these four leaders (and Hazel) share? I would argue that they’re all ordinary people. Well, ok, Deborah and Bobby McFerrin both have extraordinary musical talent, Brian Lehrer is an ace interviewer, and Eliot Higgins is a computer whiz (and Hazel is a rabbit). But note that all four of them could have pursued success on their own but instead chose to spend their careers interacting with, learning from, and lifting up other people. We don’t need to be great musicians or investigators to be a leader; we just need to have four traits common to ordinary people who become extraordinary leaders:

1. They listen to and are eager to learn from people around them. When Bobby McFerrin leads his workshops, he improvises with the audience so that together they create powerful musical experiences.

2. They draw out the unique perspectives and abilities of other people who might otherwise be unheard. Brian Lehrer crowdsources his stories, so that his listeners can benefit from information they might not otherwise be able to access.

3. They reflect back and magnify what they learn by providing opportunities for people to contribute their unique talents. As Deborah says, “everyone is here for a reason.”

4. They hold themselves to high ethical standards. Bellingcat verifies its information and is totally transparent in its funding and methods.

None of these four traits is impossible for regular people. We can all be leaders like Hazel, if we simply listen to and encourage other people, help them share their talents, and follow basic ethical principles.

How about you, readers? Is there a time when you helped someone else contribute their talents? Or is there a leader like Hazel who helped you? Please share your story in the comments!

The Tidbit

There are lots of great videos out there of Bobby McFerrin improvising with people. In this clip, he gets literally thousands of people of all ages to enjoy the power of singing together. So inspiring!

1. Everyone remembers Efrafra, the regimented, dictatorial warren that resembles the Soviet Union. But people tend to forget that the novel contains another dystopia in Cowslip’s warren, where most of the rabbits live in luxury—a luxury that is purchased by the sacrifice of some of its members. Does this system sound familiar? Adams is warning us to beware of the excesses of communism and capitalism alike.

2. Another example of a choir that encourages its singers to use their unique voices is my all-time favorite choir, Collegium 1704, in Prague, whose twenty-four singers produce a precise, resonant, absolutely thrilling sound. I encourage everyone to check them out on YouTube!

3. For this I thank my high-school choir director, Mr. Hansen, who always required us to learn a piece from memory a few days after we had run through it the first time. He tested us in quartets in front of everyone! To this day I quickly learn and memorize all my music, and every time I learn a new piece, I think of Mr. Hansen.