Category: Cowardly Leader Blogs

  Local government elected officials are the face, and often the personality, of a community.  It is easy to forget that they are also supervisors and are directly responsible for the results and objectives that their staff are expected to meet.  Every single elected official is a boss in some manner.  We can easily identify if, and how cowardly leaders supervise. The following breakdown covers most examples of locally elected officials, the government structure in which they reside, and the staff they direct: In a city council/manager form of government (sometimes city aldermen/city administrator), elected officials supervise the city manager/administrator directly. Sometimes that is the responsibility of the mayor alone; more commonly, it’s the entire city council.  In this form of government, at least one chief executive city employee- the city manager,…

Happy New Year!  Only 355 more days until Christmas… I just read a Steven Pressfield blog entitled The Power of Negative Thinking (which is here if you’re interested).  The Power of Negative Thinking made me think (hah) about the Power of Cowardly Leadership. Since this is the first Cowardly Leadership-Up Close and Personal of 2017, I decided to take a different direction than I was going to originally. One of the reasons- the main reason, actually- I wanted to do this (and just like with most things in life, this is a hell of a lot more work and time than I had anticipated- I’m not complaining, I’m just saying it’s not a 20-minute per day thing, either) was because almost everything I’ve ever read has been on positive leadership. Here…

  Power is not Leadership “Power should be reserved for powerboats and weightlifting; leadership involves responsibility, not power.” Herb Kelleher, CEO Emeritus, Southwest Airlines Power is not Leadership.  People in positions of authority in government- any government (federal, state, local), but particularly local government- have power.  Just an estimate, but 80% of my focus, my neighbor’s focus, my friend across town’s focus- is on what happens locally.  I’m as interested in the trade deal with India as the next person, but if I’m choosing to pay attention to the trade deal or whether my trash gets collected, then I’m going with the trash.  I’m interested in Trump’s cabinet picks, but I’m more interested in if the roads get plowed when it snows. My entire civilian career has been spent in…