Let's Get Back to the Basics of Leadership

October 28, 2013

Any great golfer, baseball player or coach of any sport will tell you it’s all about the basics.  Being a great success is not about doing something sensational.  That is called a stunt.  Success is about doing the basics, exceptionally well, time and time again. 

Life has basic rules that if followed, practiced and repeated, produce expected results.  It takes misinformation to keep people from learning from their mistakes and producing good results.  Every good carpenter goes through a period of missing the nail and hitting the thumbnail.  After centuries of recorded history, it would seem we would know what works and what doesn’t work.  One would think that we would recognize the difference between good leadership and folly.  But, with Hollywood and the mainstream media, coming from a different worldview and pushing that view through music, movies, and TV, a warped view of thinking has been fostered in this generation.

With visual imaging and the re-scripting of History we are being asked to believe evil is good and good is evil.  The “truthful” politician will tell you when a bill before Congress is entitled one way but its intended purpose is the exact the opposite.  A prime example is “The Affordable Care Act”, which is totally unaffordable. 

The Republicans are being vilified by the Media as people who just say “No” to every good idea.  However, look at all the legislation passed by the House of Representatives (controlled by Republicans) and sent to the Senate (controlled by Democrats) who refused to even vote on those bills.  The truth is many politicians in both parties don’t want to say no.  They want to go along to get along.  They want to be liked by the Media and Hollywood as reasonable leaders, but going along to get along is not leadership.  Leadership is following the basic lessons of life and repeating what works, it is not following the crowd so that the “leader” does not stand out.  But, their goal is to blend in.

Mark, Bill and I have heard it said that God judges individuals in the next life and nations in this life.  Could it be the United States is being judged through the leaders we have elected, many of whom are more interested in themselves and their power and do not put a priority on what is good for us and our children?  It’s a story that has been repeated throughout History; when people turn their backs on truth and go their own way.  But who cares about History, after all we have Hollywood and the Media to read us a story. 

John, Mark and Bill