What Makes A Leader?
In Search of Leadership
Sunday, June 03, 2007 1:13 AM
Ken Conner has a very good dissertation on this subject. To cut a long story short, namely for myself, the essence is this.
When considering the slate of presidential candidates, three qualities are especially important.
The first is principled leadership. A strong leader needs to identify the principles that will inform their decision making and stand by those principles even when it is politically inexpedient.
Second, America needs a leader who can cast a vision and bring people together in pursuit of that vision. Some presidential candidates seem to have a policy position on every possible issue, but no overall vision for where America should be headed. Some candidates are veritable founts of facts and figures; they revel in data and statistics. But Americans should not mistake policy wonks for leaders. A leader needs to be able to see the big picture, understand the fundamental problems, and inspire people with a solution. Vision—the next President needs to have it.
Third, a good leader must be authentic. Too many candidates today think leadership is finding a parade and getting out in front of it. For these candidates, polling prevails over principle.
Having read this article several times and even took some notes, I will be watching this 2008 electioneering to see which candidate can pull the above off with some kind of credibility.
Some additional input from this article and it speaks for itself:
This presidential election, America is looking for a leader who will stand on principle, who has a vision, and who is willing to provide authentic leadership. We cannot afford to fall into a pattern of waiting until a crisis has spun out of control before we are willing to address it. The price is too high and the consequences are too great. Strong leaders are needed now to bring our nation together and to start tackling tomorrow’s problems today.
As we look at the slate of presidential candidates, we must ask ourselves who stands out as the most authentic, principled and visionary leader. It is that candidate that deserves our vote.
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