Leaders Are “Good” Not “Great”

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Benjamin Paley
April 7, 2025

Introduction

Entertainment news outlets have been buzzing over cast revelations for HBO’s new Harry Potter series, which is set to premiere in 2026. That got me thinking: what lessons can Harry Potter teach public administrators about leadership?

A lot, it turns out! Harry Potter (the series’s main protagonist) and Lord Voldemort (the series’s main antagonist) are actually examples of the difference between “good” and “great” leadership, respectively.

For those readers less familiar (I’ll forgive you eventually for that), here is an overview of the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter is an orphan whose parents were murdered by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort (his name is French for “flight from death”). He was raised by his maternal aunt and uncle. When he turned eleven years old, Harry finds out that he is a wizard and that he has been accepted into a British wizarding school, Hogwarts (the name is a reference to the hogwort plant (woolly croton)).

Back to the article: Harry, in preparation for his studies at Hogwarts, had to purchase a wand from Garrick Ollivander (a sign on the store lets you know that the Ollivander family has been making wands since the fourth century BC). According to Ollivander, the wand chooses the wizard.

When Harry is matched with his wand, Mr. Ollivander comments on it: “The wand chooses the wizard, remember . . . I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter…After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.” (Emphasis added). Note: I am quoting from the British version of the book, published by Bloomsbury.

The wand that chose Harry was related to the wand that had chosen Lord Voldemort. Both wands shared a core from the same phoenix. However, that is where the similarities ended. Although both share a common core (a feather from the same creature), the men who owned the wands were otherwise diametrically opposed to each other: one lived his life by gaining and amassing power and followers; the other lived his life by trusting in his friends and trying to live as normal a life as possible.

Great but Terrible Things

On a Sunday night not too long ago, I was watching one of Professor Ted Sherman’s lectures about the Harry Potter series. (He is an English professor at Middle Tennessee State University. The course is about the renunciation of power in The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.) At one point during the lecture about the Philosopher’s Stone (here is the link to the video, go to minute fifty six), Professor Sherman discussed Ollivander’s remark to Harry about Voldemort doing “great but terrible things.” Specifically, Professor Sherman said that although many people treat “good” and “great” as synonyms, they are distinct terms. Thus, even though Voldemort did horrible things, Ollivander was still correct when he said that Voldemort did “great things.”

Here are a few definitions to illustrate Professor Sherman’s point. According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, the word “good” means “virtuous, devout, kind, dutiful,” while “great” means “eminent.”

In addition, The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus gives the meaning of “good” as “conforming to a high standard of morality or virtue.” And it gives the meaning of “great” as “having or showing exceptional knowledge, experience or skill in a field of endeavor.”

As can be seen, “good” denotes something that is “ethical.” On the other hand, “great” denotes something that is “adept,” “experienced” and a “master.”

But what does this have to do with leadership? I’ll tell you!

Ed Everett, in an article in PM Magazine, defines leadership as “the art of influencing and encouraging others to help move an organization, community or nation to a better place.” The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a need for leaders who can help lead government institutions through turbulent times.

By Everett himself, a leader is someone who strives to be good by acting with morals. A leader focuses on “empowerment,” “collaboration” and “values.” A leader “influences and persuades others” instead of “using position power” to get people to do things.

The following people have been held as “good” leaders:

• Cesar Chavez (American labor leader and civil rights activist)
• Mahatma Gandhi (nonviolent activist who led his country to freedom from the British Empire)
• Greta Thunberg (Swedish environmental activist)
• Malala Yousafzai (Pakistani girls’ education leader)

Everett posits that good leaders, like those mentioned above, have two “common threads”: a deep passion for an issue/cause and the courage to act on that passion. These leaders are engaging in ethical leadership—which, based on an article by Valerie Kirk, “involves leaders and managers making decisions based on the right thing to do for the common good, not just based on what is best for themselves or for the bottom line.”

If a leader does have a position of power, they “must be careful not to overuse or abuse that power.” If leaders in positions of power don’t heed that advice, they risk being comparable to Lord Voldemort—a man who does “great” things that are terrible.

Concluding remarks

Leadership, like power, comes with great responsibility. (I know, I know. That’s a Spider Man reference. But indulge me for a moment.) A leader must ensure that he/she is working with his/her constituents. Failure to do so (focusing instead on amassing and gaining power) can result in “great but terrible things.”

So learn from Harry Potter and be a “good” leader. I hope that those of you who were not Harry Potter fans are now encouraged to read the books (even if it’s just for the lessons to be gained for those who work in public administration).

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Author: Benjamin Paley graduated in 2022 from the Shepard Broad College of Law in 2022 with a J.D. and in 2018 from Florida Atlantic University with a Master of Public Administration degree. He can be reached at [email protected]. 

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