For the past
3 years I have heard the repeated refrain of "This country lacks
leadership from this president". I've heard it from segments of both sides
of the political spectrum. But what makes a good leader?
The
definition of leadership, by necessity, changes to match the circumstance at
hand. We are hearing from the right and even from some on the left that
business experience is the form of leadership we need today. The problem with
that is, in the current political environment, the divide is substantially
different than what is faced in business. In business a leader is faced with competition
and is backed by employees and investors who have the same goal in mind, which
is financial gain. This goal is clear and easily defined and quantified. In the
challenging present day politics there is no competition, only opposition. The mission
of those that form this opposition is not to reach a common goal that benefits
everyone, but to ignore the general welfare of the country in the short term to
gain what they hope is a long term grasp on power.
By
that measure, have we ever had a true
leader? Has there ever been a military leader that has been able to
change the
goals of our enemies? No, we fight wars and kill the opposition until
they feel
it will be too costly in lives and money to continue. They surrender but
seldom if ever deny their beliefs. Is there a sports coach
who has, by virtue of his leadership, caused the other team to give up?
No, the
game is played on until the time runs out and the score is tallied. But
the
other team keeps playing through to the final whistle. The losing team
walks away thinking wait until next time. So are those generals
and coaches not good leaders, are they failures?
To say that
this president lacks leadership skills based on the inability to change the minds of an
ideologically entrenched opposition is to imply that anyone who has led a
select group against a group that is fundamentally programmed to oppose
anything offered, regardless of historic agreement to those offerings, and not changed that groups beliefs is a
flawed leader. Why has there been a new definition of leadership been written
for this president alone? A leader can lead only those that are looking for
leadership, who envision a common goal, not those who live only to oppose.
