The Samurai superintendent.

For more than 1,000 years the Samurai warrior in Japan carried a tradition. While our Western notion of the Samurai conjures up a fierce fighter wielding a massive sword in battle, the real tradition of the Samurai is much more nuanced and appropriate for today's leaders.

The core of the Samurai is one of ethics and service. In fact, the meaning of Samurai is "men of service." And service should be at the core of our work, too. The code of the Samurai involved total devotion to a set of moral principles. The goal was to perform their duty and exhibit spiritual power. While the Samurai were warriors, they were also poets, artists and philosophers.

The principles comprising the code of the Samurai would be useful for today's leaders. The first principle was to show duty and loyalty. How many leaders today have lost their sense of duty to their children, their communities and, yes, even to their boards? How do we express our loyalty and fealty of service? It might involve going beyond adherence to the rules to a much deeper level of commitment to those around us and to the sacred work we have chosen.

Paired Principles

The second set of principles involves justice and morality, an unusual pairing. Can you be moral without exhibiting justice? Isn't justice based on a set of moral principles? The Samurai also needed to demonstrate complete sincerity in all things. Sincerity is authenticity--being real in word and deed.

The Samurai always were supposed to show compassion. Compassion is composed of equal parts empathy and respect. You must feel another's pain and honor that person's values with your respect.

Samurai also were to demonstrate heroic courage and honor. Have we or our colleagues cut corners to get something done? Courage must be coupled with compassion to yield a sense of honor. You can be courageous without honor, which just makes you a bad winner. You may prevail but without an inner gyroscope guiding you to the proper end. You can be honorable without courage, which leaves you a gracious loser. Our task today is to make our systems and our children winners. To do so without adequate support takes courage. Yet we also must win graciously.

The Samurai accepted responsibility for their words and actions. That is the task of leadership. Many of us like the glory of being in charge and the power we think comes with the title. Do we also revel in the responsibility it entails? That is far more than being responsible for the test scores or making the budget balance. We have the children of our community and their future in our hands. We are responsible for the welfare of our employees.

The essence of ethical behavior is to take responsibility for our actions. The Samurai knew that with power came responsibility. So should we.

Part of the code of the Samurai was to be prepared to die. They believed it was only in being prepared to die that you could truly live. A critical decision for any leader is to know which hills you are prepared to die on and to know you can't die on all of them. Making your choices about what is core to your own code is the first step toward being liberated to do what you must. Then you can live.

The Samurai believed the sword was in the man. The essence of who we are--not the weapons we might hold--makes us brave and makes us effective. A key weapon for the Samurai was the "stillness of mind" that would allow them to be centered and present. In the midst of battle they could still their minds and go to the inner source to find their truth and find their way. They believed that to know life in every breath is the way of the warrior.

How can we, as leaders, find that stillness of mind that allows us to see what is not there and to anticipate what is to come? I think it is found, as the Samurai knew, in knowing life in every breath.

Perfect Blossoms

A Zen proverb says there are no truths, there are only stories. In that vein, some of my understanding of the Samurai comes from "The Last Samurai." In the movie the Samurai leader Katsumoto says: "The perfect cherry blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking for it and it would not be a wasted life." While he sought perfection in his way of life, he also sought to find the perfect cherry blossom so he could complete a poem he had worked on his whole life.

Katsumoto teaches the Tom Cruise character, Nelson Algren, how to become a Samurai. He warns the way of the Samurai is not easy. Algren wonders if a man can change his destiny. Katsumoto replies, "I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed." The exchange perfectly captures the challenge we have as superintendents or as any kind of leader. Our work is not easy, but it is the work we must do as our destiny is revealed to us.

Near the end of the movie Katsumoto dies, and in his final moments he sees a grove of cherry trees with thousands of blossoms--all perfect--and he finds the final truth. Our duty as school leaders is to search for the perfection that is already inside of each of our children. A worthy life.

Paul Houston is AASA executive director. E-mail: [e-mail]