Happy Independence Day!
Today’s blog could be about historical leaders in our country’s history that showed courage in the face of fear and serious personal jeopardy. Since so many examples are readily available, I wanted to keep that theme, but write from a different perspective.
Who is the real Cowardly Leader?
I enjoy reading books about leadership. I have twenty or so on the bookshelf (and it being our Independence Day, a few of those include 1776 and John Adams, both by David McCullough, and Team of Rivals, about the Lincoln administration, by Doris Kearns Goodwin). Between those and the many magazine articles and discussion blogs about leadership, I am confident that I know at least as much as the average bear about what constitutes a good leader. Based on the research I’ve done to write these blogs, and, what I’ve experienced personally, I also feel pretty comfortable in laying out the traits that define a cowardly leader. One category is how cowardly leaders interact with and supervise the employees that work for them.
The traits themselves are not earth-shattering revelations. In fact, cowardly leaders, to a great extent, act and supervise like a third-grader. Furthermore, anyone who has ever been in a supervisory position, even at the most entry-level, has learned what to do and not to do. “Do What I Say or Else.” “Damn the Policy, I Call the Shots Around Here,” and more. Almost everyone has, unfortunately, worked for a cowardly leader. We know what one is.
To me, what is more important, and more worthy of discussion, is why these cowardly leaders get into the positions they are in. Even more to the point, how are they allowed to stay there? The bully on the playground is in a position of power because he is the biggest, meanest kid. We all get that. But eventually he isn’t anymore. And as an earlier blog explained, power is not leadership.
Who is to blame?
So how is it that politically appointed cowards are allowed by politicians to stay in these positions of power? When a cowardly leader is clearly in a position of leadership, and over time exhibits countless examples of cowardice, why is he or she allowed to remain? That is the overriding and much more important question.
I guess, honestly, as I dig into this, a just as legitimate question is, who is the bigger cowardly leader? The political hack who is a yes man by design? Or, the politicians who allow that person to remain and fail to lead, thereby affecting each citizen and taxpayer they are sworn to represent?
No easy answer, and probably a combination of both.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR
Or maybe there is a third answer:
If we the people, the voters, the citizens, allow it, then it’s our fault.
We can, and should, question the political appointments for being hypocrites and blaming everyone else for failures on their watch. We can also call and write our elected representatives, whether a local park board member or a U.S. Senator, just as we were taught in high school civics class.
We can do those things. But do we? Do you stop your elected official and ask why the cowardly leader is in a position of power? Do you encourage, even demand, that they do something about it?
Or do you shake your head and say, “It’s city hall, nothing will ever happen or change there.”
One of the great, and true, quotes of all time came from Henry Ford:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
And as long as we think we can’t, we get what we deserve.
II-41
