Tuesday, March 11, 2008

• What qualities does a person need to have in order to be a good leader?

  "You must have the fortitude to write the check and then have the gumption to cash it at the right moment."

  I was at the grocery store today buying some odds and ends and I happen to glance at the most recent issue of Time magizine. On it against a picture of Senator Obama's backside was the statement "Experience...Is it really nessecary?" 

  In the last fifty-two years you could say that I've put a little history behind me. As such, I can tell you that there is no substitution for being a graduate of the school of "been there-done that!" In politics, a case in point would be President John F. Kennedy. You tend to walk on egg shells around his memory, yet his record of decision making as President led us into both the Bay Of Pigs and The Cuban Missle Crisis. It also led to sending advisors into Vietnam which became a precurser to our involment in that protracted conflict.

  The lesson here is that a President must learn how to take the long range view, rising beyond the passion of the moment, because every decesion he makes is like dropping a pebble into a calm bowl of water. The ripple effect changes everything, and if the stone is large enough - chaos insues. While nothing really prepares you to sit in the oval office and make decsisions of that magnitude a case can be made for the mechanics of the job. A President wears four hats and it makes sense to get experience in a few of those areas before you make decisions affecting them. They are the Commander-In Chief of the armed forces, they are the head of their politcal party, they are the chief law enforcment officer in the government and the chief diplomatic representative of the American people to the world at large.

  On any given day they make hundreds of judgment calls on everything that effects us as a nation. They are responsible for running the entire show including all the people who work for it. Their choices are limited by political, pratical and legal constraints. Their time is controlled almost down to the second and, for four or eight years they become a prisoner of their job. Success is found in how well you can manage the dynamics of chaos. Failure is determined by how events can overtake you. You will spend your time in office making those kind of choices and then the rest of your life defending the choices you have made. You'd think there are easier ways to make $400,000 a year.

  Does this sound like a job you would want?  

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