This is true on the small scale as well as one an international relations stage. Mikhail Gorbachev observed what Ronald Reagan used to describe the Soviet Union and used those descriptions to help push through reforms of Perestroika and Glasnost in the 1980s.

As much as the Western world may detest and deplore Osama bin Laden, if we want to succeed in the struggle with terrorism (which is more a struggle of the minds than a struggle of battlefields) we have to observe and learn from the terrorists as well. Osama bin Laden described his viewpoint of power by saying, “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”

Some may cite the failure of the IMF to stave off the financial crisis, but this is short sighted since the failure rests on multiple shoulders in a complex basket of contributing factors. It is quite unfortunate that major multilateral initiatives (such as the proposal of the IMF) only get implemented after a painful and destructive disaster. But alas, such is the hard-headed nature of mankind – wait until a fork in the road to stop and think about the direction that one is heading.

Leadership lesson: don’t be so hard-headed. Leaders need to always think about the direction that they are headed and the direction that they are leading their organizations. You can’t wait until a problem arises, until your market share is diminishing, until your competitor comes out with a revolutionizing product, or until your core business is irrelevant. Leaders need to look around the corners and anticipate the future. This is a main difference between leadership and management: managers seek to continually improve what the business is doing; leaders seek to continually drive what the business is improving.

My only critique of the strategy is that it overstates the impact of American oil consumption on Iran and disregards the consumption of other modern economies in Europe and particularly growth economies in India and China. I do agree that a green revolution in America could make significant strides in opening up freedom and reform in the Middle East and that America is still well positioned to lead this green revolution, but a critical requirement is that European and Asian countries must follow suit with their own green revolutions to produce the effect that Thomas Friedman writes about.

Other than this critique, I want to highlight a great quote that is used in this article. The quote is from Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy specialist at John Hopkins University:
“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.”

This is a great quote for leaders. Significant emphasis in leadership studies is the influence that leaders must have to drive change in their organization. This change also involves people. While a leader may seek to influence change, the best tool available is influence; coercion produces negative effects in attitude and motivation that hinder the positive effects of the change. Leaders need to practice the art of leadership to motivate people to change themselves.

Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

I am not very consistent in my opinion of Bill Clinton as a leader.  He certainly had and has influence which is the primary characteristic of a leader and the goal to leave things better than how he found them is a truly admirable goal for any leader; I would actually go so far to say that a leader is someone who leaves a group, organization, etc. better than how he found it.  I just take a couple of different positions with Clinton in the “how to” leave things better.

Here’s my quote for the day:
“A leader will leave a nation better than how he found it”

To apply the same standard to George W. Bush, you would have to admit a critical problem with the state of things as it is.  The US is not really better than it was when he took office.  I think time will be the best indicator, but right now the state of affairs is quite disappointing.

1. The military is spread thin.

With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military is not in a position to respond or otherwise deal with a major or significant threat to the United States.  I don’t want to argue the position of whether we should be in Iraq or not or how the war on terror is being conducted, but I want to speak critically about the current state of the military to protect and defend the people of the United States.  If another major world power were to declare and conduct war against the United States, would the military be able to redirect attention from Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, North Korea, and every other location that we have troops?

2. The economy is notably volatile.

The Fed cut a key interest rate by half a percent last week.  The steps were taken because the concern over the housing slump and credit crunch.  I was watching CNBC and heard one analyst report that the half a percent cut probably indicates the problem was worse then was previously thought as several analyst were anticipating merely a quarter of a percent cut.

The Presidency has very little direct impact on economic policy and certainly has very little impact on the banking practices that has lead to the credit crunch.  However, the leadership from the White House does have influence on the policies and practices of the US.  Right now, our government is spending billions of dollars on wars that are controversial at best.  At the same time, we are having difficulty raising the billions of dollars needed to rebuild the southern gulf after Hurricane Katrina.  There’s a problem of priorities and leadership.

3. The US does not have the needed clout with other nations to impact change.

After the UN general assembly, we should take a hard and critical look at the state of the US as a nation of influence.  We have many of our neighbors taking positions directly against us – Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia… While at the same time, we are unable to make a difference in more problematic areas – Darfur and Burma.

We are so split on areas of controversy – Iraq – that we are weak in the face of other problems.  We need leadership.  We need someone who will arouse faith and confidence.  We need someone who will make the tough decisions and will garner respect rather than spite.  We need someone who will unite rather than divide.  We need someone who will inspire rather than discourage.  We need a leader…

Enjoy this article? Subscribe to my RSS feed.