What to Look For in Leaders

During the Civil War Lincoln's advisers wanted him to fire General Grant.  Why?  Because he drank, a lot.  Lincoln said he can't fire Grant, "he fights! "

By Rich Kozlovich

 

I have no idea why anyone wants to be a politician, everyone lies to them, and Harry Truman was right when he said if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.  If that's true, and it is, why do these people keep running?  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that.

As regular readers know I owned a pest control company, and I spent many years heavily involved in my industry's affairs serving on four trade association boards in defense of the use pesticides and fertilizers.   

One of the things that amazed me was that defending who and what we are can be an amazingly thankless task.  There's always someone, or a group, who are in opposition to that effort.   Why?  Because it's in their interests to be opposed and totally ignore the long term consequences for short term gain.

They simply refuse to see farther, deeper, or wider, and unfortunately, entirely too many of them are in positions of responsibility in trade associations, especially when it's at a national level.   Government regulators, many of whom are in reality environmental activists disguised as government employees, will promote idiocy that happens to support their philosophical flavor of the moment.  All of which works to the detriment of America's industries.  And what do we find?   The national associations will embrace it.   

In pest control it involved efforts to stop the use of pesticides, and the national leadership embraced it.  A classic example with the lies regarding Colony Collapse Disorder.  Why?  It's simple.  A failure in values.  There was more than ample evidence CCD was not being caused by pesticides, and they ignored that evidence.  

I published this in 2014, Presidential Pollinator Protection: Myths, Facts and Hyperbole, and sent it to who at that time was the head of pesticide regulations at EPA.  He forwarded it to his colleagues.  I don't know how much impact my article had on this issue, but that was the end of the EPA's challenge of pesticides and Colony Collapse Disorder. But why did a bug man have to do the research on this and challenge what was now the conventional wisdom?  Where were the Ph.D's?  Where was the leadership?  The answer is simple, there simply aren't enough John Boyd's in the world.   The patterns of life keep repeating over and over again, and when choosing leaders it's necessary to evaluate their life practices.  

Entirely too many "leaders" are in it to be served, not to serve.   Too many leaders want to have all the privileges that go along with being in prominent position, but they really don't want to do the work, and unfailingly put their needs ahead of the needs of those they represent, and leaders such as that have never found a limit to their "needs", which are in reality their "wants".   Especially at the expense of others.   

Real leaders are willing to stand as rocks in the current telling the world, "you're wrong, and I'm going to tell you why."  Most lack the courage to fit in the John Boyd mold, and are cravenly more than willing to go along to get along.  They self interestedly cater to those who pander to them, and defy any who challenge them, no matter what the facts may be, or the consequences for ignoring those facts.  

While they claim to be concerned about people's problems, and insist they're going to fix them, in reality, it's all emotional rhetorical pandering to the crowds, knowing full well they're going to do nothing.  

There's a difference between self confidence and arrogance.  Both wish to be right, but a self confident person will accept correction in order to be right.  An arrogant person will accept no correction.  Most of these "leaders" are arrogant.  

So, why does anyone wish to be a politician?  A few really are willing to row against the tide and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to defend what's right and true.  But most of them are in it to feather their own nests.

Finally, how can we tell the difference.   Find out how they treat the least important people in their lives.  How do they treat the janitors, the waiters, and waitresses, how do they treat the nobody's in their life.   All that's observable, pay attention to how they live their lives, because that's who they are.