Tenets of Leadership

On page two one will find my views on the current lack of leadership found in our elected and ap- pointed individuals at the national, state and local level. Honestly, the more I’ve thought about things, the more I believe most of these folks just can’t help themselves. Many are career politicians who are always angling for that next level up in the political food chain. Most have never had the chance to be exposed to real leadership, nor have they ever taken a course in leadership. More’s the pity. There have been thousands of books and millions of words written about leadership. Today, every living general seems compelled to write a book on leadership. Trust me, being in the military is no guarantee that one is a leader. One is exposed to leadership, but a lot of our officers get promoted for a lot of reasons other than leadership skills. Claiming leadership skills does not mean one has those skills.

Back when I was svelte and flying fighters, one could always tell the wannabes, because they were always bragging about how good they were, holding forth with one story or another. The really good fighter pilots were the ones who never had to say anything, because everyone else would be talking about how good they were. I don’t hear anyone talking about outstanding leadership of any of our elected or appointed politicos save one—The President of the United States. In my lifetime of leadership and the 40+ years I taught leadership courses, I have been able to distill all those books and words down to four tenets. The leader must be: Competent: Whether elected or appointed, one must demonstrate competenceion the job. It is not enough to be able to deal with the ebb and flow of the political vagaries of stakeholders. One must be able to show the ability to be good at what they were elected or appointed to do. I can say without qualification that most of those with whom I have dealt over the past 10 years were good politicians but were really not very good at anything else. Selfless: When one is thrust into a leadership position, one must always put the organization ahead of him or her self. Selfish, self-serving actions are unacceptable. In political arenas, leaders must go to the people and find out what their “temperature” might be and then put aside personal political gain to do the bidding of the people. TRUST THE PEOPLE. Decisive: One should never rush into a decision with sketchy information or with limited input from experts. One should make sure that the data one examines is valid, comes with all appropriate caveats and can be repeatable when variables change. One needs to be able to make sound decisions then convince everyone that the decision is sound. I abhor politicos who defer to “experts” who then must explain the decisions. There is one person at the top, and that person owns the decision, the process and the outcomes. Period. Courageous: This is where most politicos (and many military officers) fall flat on their faces. One must have courage if one is to be a leader. It is not physical bravery (that helps, though), but it is having a moral center and the courage to stand by decisions, even when the winds are blowing hard against one. It also means to have the courage to say one is wrong—when one is wrong. One should measure the elected and appointed politicians at all levels by these standards. I find most measured and left wanting.