Follow the Leader

We are searching for a leader. Between the Democrats and Republicans who are running for president, we have a choice of over a dozen with less than two months before the first primary ballots are cast and eleven months before the general election. There are polls every other day measuring who’s ahead, who’s behind, who’s gaining, and who’s losing ground. They all have different ideas about how to lead the country in this time of uncertainty and divisiveness. We all have our opinions on who will keep us safe, defeat terrorism, fix the immigration system, balance the budget, simplify the tax code, heal the racial divide, and add any other issue you are worried about. But no matter what your political beliefs, we have to elect a leader who must convince us to follow them even if we don’t agree with everything they want to do. Presidents are never unanimous choices.

Author Michael Siegel writes about presidential leadership in his book “The President as Leader”. Back in 2012, he did an interview with Tom Fox who writes a blog, “Federal Coach” for the Washington Post. Siegel spoke about the four attributes a president needs:

-A Compelling Vision
-Political Savvy to appoint pros, not friends, to develop and influence policy
-Focus on the big goals
-Understand the implications of your decisions, and hire people willing to tell you the truth

After you decide who you want to follow politically, it’s just as important to take the measure of that person as a leader. Getting like minded people to follow your choice is easy. Getting your opponents to agree, or at least, listen and compromise, is what defines successful presidents. Not everyone agreed with Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt, or Reagan but they could articulate a vision, were politically smart, focused on the big picture, and understood the consequences of their decisions to save the union, recover from The Great Depression and win World War II, and help engineer the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin believes presidents can learn lessons of leadership from their predecessors, “…obviously you have to set the context for each person because that changes the nature of the challenges that they’ve met. But they are all dealing with human nature. Leadership is about mobilizing people. Its about persuading people. It’s about getting people through obstacles. So there’s no question in my mind that there are lessons to be learned from people who were leaders in the past or otherwise we’re assuming that history can’t teach us anything. And what are we doing?

Presidents make history and can change it for the better or worse. We live in an age where we have more access to information and ideas than ever before in history. There is no excuse for not being engaged in the decisions that define who we are as a people and a nation. Our system of government does provide for checks and balances so one branch or person doesn’t become too powerful. But the office of president is unique in the world. Because it’s that person who is the symbol of the greatest form of government ever created. They are the person the world looks to for leadership.

We will never all agree on who we think will make the best president. The majority decides that. But when making our choice, we should ask ourselves how this person will lead a country that is becoming more diverse every day. No one can satisfy everyone. But a leader must make those who disagree feel included. The voices of hate and fear have always been overcome by reason and fairness. But that only happens when we choose leaders who rouse us to stand for what is the best course of action for all of us. President John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
That’s a leader we want to follow.