On Leadership in Politics
As I drove home today, I was listening to a Rush Limbaugh rant about the lack of leadership in the Republican Party. I try to avoid absolute statements of any kind, but I think I’ll risk it this time: Rush Limbaugh has got to be one of the most arrogant, self-centered, egotists to have ever been given a microphone to rant on a daily basis. Of course, I find myself agreeing with Mr. Limbaugh on his larger points on occasions, but I’ve never been fond of his delivery.
He went on his tirade for quite some time about how there was no conservative that really “revs [him] up as of now.” Mr. Limbaugh was reacting, in part, to an article in the New York Post by George Will about the folly of conservatives looking for the “perfect” candidate vice one that was “good.” It’s a good article. In any case, as the ranting went on, it occurred to me that Mr. Limbaugh was not talking about leadership at all.
He was talking about charisma.
There’s a big difference between charisma and leadership. True, a good leader needs to be charismatic, but charisma is not the defining quality of leadership.
But what is?
Businesses value it so much that teaching leadership is a multi-billion dollar industry in and of itself. People crave it so much that they blindly place their faith in anyone that possesses any of the qualities that look like leadership. Of course leadership is important—a bad quarterback can ruin an otherwise great team and a good one can make a bad team look better than it is. But what are the essential qualities of a great leader?
In my military career, I’ve seen my share of great leaders and horrible ones. Almost all of them had some semblance of charisma—the submarine force is no more immune to the illusion of the power of charisma than the rest of American culture. We all want that leader who will lead us into the bowels of hell and back.
To me, there are three essential characteristics of leadership. You can decide for yourself if, based on those traits, we lack leadership in the political arena:
Honor
Courage
Commitment
Oh, I know you’ve seen those before—I didn’t claim my thought was original. Simply because something is old doesn’t mean it’s irrelevant or outdated.
I really hate it when he's right.
3 comments:
Oh wow I feel the same way about Rush. His arrogant manner is so annoying. I can't stand to listen to what he says even though I may agree with him.
I think it is dangerous to look just for charisma but it happens all of the time. It is important because no one will pay attention to you without it but having a lot of it doesn't mean you can do the job of a good leader.
Rush is paid to rant. Your point about charisma is well made though. It's a dangerous commodity (Stalin, Hitler), but seemingly more and more expected in American politics.
Kat
Kat,
You're absolutely right that Rush is paid to rant, and he does that very well. Ann Coulter is also paid to rant and does so well. In both cases, however, their methods take away from the power of their arguments.
I'm glad you and Cathy B see the danger in looking only for charisma. Your pointing out of Stalin and Hitler as charismatic leaders made my point far more decisively than I ever could. ;)
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