In every field, you learn very quickly the value of great leadership.
Whether it's on the football field or in the business world, I’ve learned from great leaders and seen just how critically important they are to their organizations. But the leadership I’ve seen in athletics and business towers over most of the leadership in Washington these days.
In our sports-obsessed society, we see often how much impact great leadership has in athletics.
The New England Patriots are still going in the 12th year of an incredible run, and it’s all because of the leadership from head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.
Other players have come and gone, assistant coaches have come and gone, even whole strategies and team philosophies have come and gone, but they are still going strong because of great leadership.
The Patriots have won 10 games in 10 of the last 11 years (and 9 in the other season) because the team’s leaders identify problems, take responsibility, and come up with solutions.
What’s more, they do all those things quickly. They can’t ignore a problem and assume it will get better on its own. They can’t decide to get around to fixing it when they can. They make it a top priority and take care of it as soon as possible!
Great leadership is just as visible in business. Apple became the most valuable company in the world thanks to the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs. When he returned to Apple in 1996, the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. He had to work swiftly to identify the company’s problems and fix them — or else see the company lose everything.
Not only did he succeed at that task, but Jobs also set the course for an incredible run that continues to this day. He identified the direction the company should go and charged forward, leading innovation in music players, mobile phones, and tablets.
Where there were problems, he quickly identified them and took steps to correct them. Ignoring problems was not an option, because competitors would be sure to jump on any advantage they could find. That’s leadership at the speed of business!
On the other hand, we rarely see that kind of leadership in politics. Think about the top issues and problems of the day: what leadership do we see on those issues?
In Chicago, the teachers’ union has been on strike for more than a week, and 350,000 children have been out of school and missing out on classroom time.
Everyone acknowledges that our education system is broken and needs reform, but this strike is about resisting change and preserving the status quo. Even The New York Times has sided with the city of Chicago on this labor question. But have we heard anything from Washington advocating reform and urging the teachers to return to work?
We would expect better leadership in the business world.
In Libya and Egypt, our embassies are under attack. Our ambassador and several other Americans were murdered. But administration voices, including White House spokesman Jay Carney and UN Ambassador Susan Rice, have spent the last week blaming Youtube and amateur filmmakers for causing the violence.
Real leadership is about taking responsibility and addressing problems, not searching for scapegoats. When will someone step up and talk seriously about our foreign policy in the Middle East?
We would expect better leadership in the business world.
We are at the edge of a fiscal and tax cliff. Our debt is growing faster than any of us could have ever conceived just a few years ago, while the economy continues to sputter.
Everybody sees that we need some kind of reform in the tax system, in the entitlement system, and in our spending generally! We might disagree on what to do, but everybody agrees about the problem. But have we heard any real plans from the White House about solving these problems, beyond simply saying, “Trust us!”?
Has our leadership stopped looking for excuses and taken responsibility for the situation?
We would expect better leadership in the business world.
In the business world, you have to be willing to change and reinvent yourself every day, even if it means taking on established interests. In the business world, you have to be willing to talk about problems seriously and identify the real underlying issues, not find a convenient source of blame. And in the business world, you also have to move beyond “who did it?” and come up with a solution. In the end, nobody cares who “did” it.
They care about who can fix it.
I believe that we have lowered our expectations of politicians so much in recent years that we accept leadership that we would never tolerate in any other part of our lives.
We have very high expectations for our favorite teams or for well-known companies, but we shrug our shoulders when Washington is dysfunctional for years on end.
Why shouldn’t we expect and demand better?
Fran Tarkenton is the Founder and CEO of OneMoreCustomer.com, a web resource for Small Business Advocacy and Education. After his Hall of Fame football career, Fran had a successful career in television and then turned to business. He has founded and built more than 20 successful companies and now spends his time coaching aspiring entrepreneurs. Read more reports from Fran Tarkenton — Click Here Now.
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