I've been hooked on "24" this year. It's probably not a great show to watch but plays to one of my alter egos I suppose. If you've been watching, you might have caught a line from the season finale that made my ears perk up. Powers Boothe has been playing the power-hungry Vice President who has stepped in while the President was incapacitated due to an injury from a bomb. The Vice President has made several decisions which turned out not to be the right decision and after a bit of reflection, tells his Chief of Staff (I'm paraphrasing) "you think you have all the answers when someone else is making the decisions but when you have the ultimate authority, you find out the answers are much tougher to come by."
I read editorials in the paper, I hear employees talking about their work place, members of a church criticizing decisions that are made...you know the deal. Everyone has the right answer but few have or want to be the person who has to make those decisions. Being an analyst is much easier than being a leader because the analyst doesn't have much skin in the game.
Leaders are special people. Good leaders handle praise and criticism equally well, never getting too high on themselves or too low on others. The realize that most people don't want the ultimate authority, don't want to put their head on the line and remain willing to make their best effort to make the right decision.
I'm thankful for leaders who are willing to do their best, whether I always agree with them or not.
1 comment:
I thought about that too when he said that the other night. He was so right, and so are you with your observations. Monday-morning quarterbacking is a pretty easy job.
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