BY TONY BOUZA
Tony Bouza
In the English history of man the wise (Homo sapiens) there has never been even one who didn’t consider him(her)self a national leader. It might tempt you to ask—then where are all those cockups coming from?
People—leadership is in short supply.
Just looking at our last few years together renders the vista of hundreds of thousands of deaths—mostly preventable and unnecessary. And all in the service of an inherited economy and its momentum. And a mask-less life.
Leadership is morally neutral—as likely to produce Hitler as Gandhi. It connotes power and requires skill. Crises should not be wasted. We’ve just been through four years of what appalling leadership can produce.
A scientific, disciplined and logical approach would have spared countless lives and illnesses. Our wartime leaders usually had the excuse that they were doing their best and hadn’t—usually—provoked the bloodshed in the first place.
Look around.
How do you get effective leadership?
Amazingly that’s what capitalism is really all about. Produce or perish. The bottom line. Nobody cares that the chief has all the virtues of an Eagle Scout.
Our companies are well led. Our governments are champion featherbedders. How come? The former are capitalisms and the latter are socialisms.
Nuclear science and brain surgery combined, right?
I’ll risk gross immodesty and admit I actively and energetically sought leadership skills. Why?
Out of desperation. I had failed at everything. Perhaps management’s the answer? The only thing I hadn’t tried. What do managers do?
Leaders move organizations toward the realization of objectives through making decisions, outlining objectives, budgeting, writing, even public speaking and the generic virtues associated with leading the pack.
We have, nationally, just witnessed the results and costs of inept and dishonest leadership. The man has made us experts at such evaluations. Pardon me for withholding thanks. Staggering, really, to think that, maybe, of the more than half a million deaths, three-fourths might have been spared had effective leadership been applied.
I live in an amazingly managed geezer-land.
We had a rigorous, enforced and widespread lock-down from the pandemic’s earliest stages. Vaccinations were done early. The entire staff was engaged and pleasant. No recorded infections.
The leader of all this is a lady not embarrassed to wield a broom, lift heavy furniture, swab toilets or elevators or prepare informative memos.
Jennifer Volkenant will never have a statue as a memorial, but there are people alive and walking about because of her.
Brava!
