Lost Hope and Leadership – The Obama Case
During the last election I had the opportunity to meet with both Candidate Barack Obama and his Deputy Campaign Manager Steve Hildebrand. They wanted an independent perspective, and at the time (July 2007) I believed candidate Obama was coming across as a junior senator, and he needed to step up and show leadership, and I told him so. During the next debate, candidate Obama asked the question “Who says we can’t negotiate with our enemies”. What ever your position on that statement, it seemed they got the message and the then candidate showed some courage, original thought, and took a chance. Moments after that debate I received an email for Steve Hildebrand asking me for more feedback. The next 6 months we heard a lot or original messages about hope, and we were all being called to action. Later in the year I met with candidate Obama and I believed him, I liked his style and fell for it all. The candidate convinced me that he was a leader.
Now that I have some time to reflect on just how President Obama has done, I can honestly say I am terribly disappointed. In July 2007 I was not suggesting that the candidate fake leadership. Rather, I wanted him to demonstrate the leadership he possessed. Looking back, I’m afraid, he might not have really held good leadership talent. This is hard for me to write, but it is honest. I spend my life studying leadership, and I was fooled too. At every turn he has been out maneuvered by a caustic system, dishonest opponents, and a selfish electorate. While we are all to blame for this mess, there is no excuse. We crave a leader, someone to take us out of this. Yet, on the horizon we only see postured leadership, fake politicians, and selfish and divisive parties.
Other Presidents have had a second wind after being knocked down their first few years in office, but they recovered quickly. John Kennedy changed his approach after the Cuban missile crisis, Clinton changed his cabinet after his first few years almost went off the rails. They learnt from their mistakes. President Obama negotiated a bad healthcare bill, and was held hostage by fringe conservatives who have admitted that their role is to rid the country of him. The challenges were clear where leadership should be applied, but it was not. At this point in this post I should be writing that there is still time and hope that our President will begin to lead. However, I don’t feel that is true. Instead, I call on the many leaders we have in this country to run for office. I mean qualified people who are running our companies, universities, military… the proven leaders who we can count on to lead our country back. The career politician model does not work and we need a better test to select our leaders.
Time for leadership
Russ, I agree that there is a fundamental flaw in our political process. I don’t want to get into the specifics of current politicians as I don’t think this issue is unique to our current situation. We have created this wonderful system of democracy, but the interview process is not based on experience as a leader. Instead the process is based on the ability to be a good public speaker. Historically we have elected good public speakers, some of whom also turned out to be decent leaders, but it seems like an odd method. Running for political office should be like any job interview. You should submit a resume and if it’s a leadership position as a congressman, mayor, governor, or president you should have to show a progression of leadership positions and demonstrated success to get an interview. It’s why I like behavioral interviewing, it’s not about what you promise to do, but “tell me about a time when you had a challenging situation and how you handled it.”