I work in corporate America. The company I work at is huge; massive. I’m not a superstar. I’m not an over achiever. I’m a pretty low level manager in fact. But – BUT I know what makes a team tick.
I know what a good manager should say and what a bad manager does say.
In my years as a corporate denizen I’ve come to learn to fear the characteristics of a bad leader. And I’ve learned to identify those characteristics.
A good example of what I’m talking about is illustrated below. Each man was President when a sought after criminal was captured or shot:
First take the words of Dubya:
The success of yesterday’s mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq . The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator’s footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate ’em.
And the compare them to the words of Obama:
And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan . And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan .
I’m not sure you can sum up the effectiveness of a Presidency in so few words, but you can get a hint at the style of the man.
Go ahead – read it again.
You’ll begin to see the difference between a man comfortable in his role as leader and a man who isn’t sure; is running scared.
Obama wasn’t qualified when he won. And he isn’t qualified now.
And that’s my point.
For a long long time I resonated with a “team” more than I resonated with a concept.
