Leadership
Over the past year President Barack Obama’s largest failure has been the almost complete absence of leadership he has shown. He has fairly good ideas, and he gives great speeches. But when it comes to leading a group of people into battle, or confronting conflict, he suddenly is nowhere to be seen.
So it got me to thinking about leadership.
The leadership preparation courses, the leadership seminars, and books are all important. But cumulatively they account for only about 5% of what it takes to be a good leader.
Experience in being a leader under trying circumstances is the 95% of the learning curve. This doesn’t include being head of the debating team in college.
When you are charged with leading a group of men into conflict, the responsibility forces you to learn. You soon realize that people very rarely follow the direct orders of a dictator. People are incredibly intelligent and creative, and they will figure out all sorts of ways to sabotage a dictator without ever actually directly disobeying him.
A good leader gets his troops to follow him because they respect him and trust him. Inherent in this is never lying to your people. Very few military people who have had front line experience as a leader behave like dictators. They understand that it simply is not possible for them to do all the work alone, and in order to get the help of the people around them they must achieve their cooperation.
In general I find ball sports where one throws, kicks, bats, clubs, or hits a ball as extremely stupid and inane. But when it involves one team battling another team and they all take it rather seriously, having performed well as a respected and successful captain of the football team is a vital part of the track record. Being a team leader or a hands-on production manager in a production company under a difficult and demanding environment can teach one many of the same lessons. So can being an effective leader of men going into combat.
One thing we can learn from Obama’s failures is the importance of electing a person who has a proven track record as someone who can lead of group of people. A candidate who has the leadership skills to both earn the respect of their colleagues (and opponents), and at the same time meet the organization’s goals.
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