Blog about Leadership

Tomorrow is a day that may very well be “a date which will live in infamy.” The date will be either when the first black man became President or when the first woman became Vice President. Either way tomorrow is an important opportunity to exercise our power to vote. The next President will have great responsibilities with our economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the top of the list.

A few days ago, I started reading the new book by Thomas Craughwell, Failures of the Presidents. Craughwell’s book covers stories from history that highlight that “Everyone makes mistakes, but when an American president blunders the result can be catastrophic” (front cover description). While I’ve only read the first couple of chapters, I started to think that an underlying problem was the sense of a need for decisive action. To many fall on the sword of black and white decisiveness while this world not only has many shades of gray, but the full spectrum of color.

Dale Carnegie, the author of the business book that after 70 years still is a top seller, How to Win Friends & Influence People, is quoted as saying, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

Presidents and national leaders are people of action, but leadership requires more than decisive action. It requires knowing that action comes in many forms and decisiveness can have painful consequences when it is wrong. Decisive action, when it is the right action, requires thorough planning and flawless execution.

We don’t live in a perfect world, so while the best laid plans may still result in failure, failure is a life lesson. Failures are the building blocks that every leader has had to work with. You may think that accomplishments are the building blocks of leaders, but in this world, most accomplishments only follow failures. I get concerned when people purport to have never made mistakes or have regrets. I find those to either be lying or ignorant.

While Presidents and other leaders must make decisions, decisive actions are the inflexible, hard-lined barriers of the points of no return. Once the first bomb is dropped, there is no taking it back; and countering that action is a war of many dead soldiers and many dead civilians in harm’s way. Decisions are the directions in the path through life.  When leaders make decisions they learn from the experience and with each decision confidence and capability improve.

Craughwell’s book, while at first may seem to be satirical or be a book bashing failed leaders; it is actually a book filled with stories of some of the greatest presidents who have ever lead the USA. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison all have chapters in Craughwell’s book, but all are directly responsible for the success of an infant country on the brink of a new chapter in world history.

In the end, I guess I’m writing this to encourage all leaders, the next president included, that while a failure may be in the cards, failure doesn’t have to define you. It matters what other actions you take as well – how you respond to failure.

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