What question could be more closer in people’s minds than right now? We are now in the last legs of our US political race for many very important seats. In the past, I have been very critical of using the term leadership with political candidates. Leadership is a term that I really have a hard time with placing with our political candidates. They really have a hard time with the basics of true leadership. Here are the basic traits that I like to see in any leader… When you read these – think about what you are going to do in November.. Think about what you will see and hear over the next couple of months..
- Must have a vision. You have to stand for something, or you will fall for everything. It is simple for us to listen to someone speak! Do the words you are hearing, actually match the actions of the past. I say past, because that is actually the only way to actually validate the words to actions. I really think if a person has follow through in the past, they will usually continue that trend in the future. If the position changes like the political landscape, I think that candidate is going to be falling for everything.
- You must have a passion. Passion is something that I can really get behind. Let’s face it, with political folks, they have been schooled in speak making. What you have to really look and listen for – is a true passion. Speaking well is not always a sign of passion. Look at their facial expressions, look for signs of real feelings that match the face to the words that are spoken.
- Must be a good decision maker. How are decisions made? Almost every leader has “their” process for how decision are going to be made. Do they share that process with us? Transparency is key! We all know that decision making is something that can be extremely difficult with our political system that we have today. Especially now. The test is to look at what the past has to offer. Another item to look at is – if the decision is not working, can the leader step up and make a change. Really we need some pretty tough decisions to be made..
- You must be a team builder. Getting everyone to work together in tough times is very difficult. Our political system definitely adds layer of difficulty that is not seen in most businesses. Our party system is not working well.. In fact, I would say that it is making it almost impossible to actually get anything done for the better of our future. I don’t mean that we have to elect “yes” folks but we do need to elect people that are actually willing to work together. To find common ground to make improvements. Doing what we have done in the past, is a recipe for disaster in the future. No one is always right!
- You must have character. We all have character. We have been shaped, molded and have developed our character as we have grown up. Do our candidates demonstrate character? Are they proud of their upbringing and what shaped them in who they are today? Do they hide some of who and what they are? Without character – the above other traits are plain useless..
We have some very difficult decisions to make.. We all have our own set of filters that we apply to our decisions. Our character, so to speak. What we have to watch out for is the words that haven’t match the past actions. We have to demand that our political folks – work together in order to move forward. Enough of this party rhetoric and start thinking what is best for our children’s children. We have to make sure that we stop the petty stuff (hiding the grey hair, what color tie to wear, the cost of the clothes you wear, where you went to school – just to name a few) that has no bearing on what is really going on.
I hope that people will actually make the best decision that they can when it comes to voting for the candidate that you think will do the best job. Time to stop listening to other tell you what you should do.. Time for you to get educated, make an informed decision without the help of the news media (especially those that are one sided on their reporting), or TV ads that don’t tie to facts. Time for us to listen to their words, think about what they are actually saying and what they are attempting to do. Review their public history. Do some fact checking on your own.
Look at one example… Balancing the budget. Both sides have pointed out that balancing the budget is important. We all have to balance our “own” budget.. We know that there is only few options to balance the budget. Reduce spending and increasing revenues… For us at home, we have to increase our salaries or get a second/third jobs to increase revenue. For the government – they can increase taxes on individuals and/or businesses. Reduce spending at home is not going out to dinner as often or making a purchase that you just can not pay for. For the government – they can look for ways to reduce spending – reduce budget for services or find more efficient ways to provide those services. Reduce overall salaries and/or jobs within the government. Simple arithmetic works.. With the debt the way it is, you have no choice but to do both (increase revenue, reduce spending).
Get educated, please…
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