by Bernie Otis, Featured Contributor
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]A[/su_dropcap]S TECHNOLOGY has slowly been changing our ability to get instant news about world events and to communicate instantly with others there is an unrealistic expectation that a good leader can get instant solutions to complex problems.
We tend to evaluate our leadership based upon their popularity and their popularity is determined by what they did to make our lives better today—whether it be our business success or personal happiness.
A good leader is one who has a clear vision, understands the complexities of the issues, and has a plan to address those issues, the patience to find and implement workable answers and put that plan into action, making adjustments along the way.
Sometimes the successful accomplishment of those actions may happen quickly, and at other times it may take months or years to meet those objectives—even beyond the time of service by that leader.
We often hear that “He is another FDR, or she is another Margaret Thatcher etc, a leader is not one who strives to be someone other than themselves, nor do they look at polls to decide if they are loved. Abraham Lincoln was most unpopular most of his public life, Winston Churchill was voted out of office immediately following the end of WWII. Charles Wilson the genius behind the success of General Motors was never highly popular.
An effective leader never tries to gain favor by saying different things to different groups to gain their support and does not do things that will gain them short term popularity and in fact may have to make very unpopular decisions in order to achieve long term goals—–as Franklin Roosevelt did with immigration during pre-WWII.
In business or politics we should keep in mind that Great Leaders have the courage to live with unpopularity.
Editor’s Note: Bernie’s new Book “How to Prepare for Old Age—Without Taking the Fun out of Life” is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
