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information on the qualities of great
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leadership I think we would probably all
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agree that whether in politics in
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religion in the community in business
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there are several enduring qualities
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that pretty much Define great leadership
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all times all places all
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people having said that there are
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particulars and particular times that
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are on top of the universals very
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important but to get back to the
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universals at the top of the list if you
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don't have a vision you don't have a
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strategy for getting there you don't
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have a way of making things happen call
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it execution to use a business word here
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uh you are probably not long for a
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leadership role in this world whether
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it's business in the community or in
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politics number two you need to bring a
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set of call them character qualities to
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the table or to the
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setting that usually boil down to such
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enduring varities as Integrity
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transparency
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honesty all these adding up to whether
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people will trust you when they give
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their money to you in business or maybe
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their political future to you in
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politics you've got to have that
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character
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foundation and you have to be able to
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communicate that so your character and
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an ability to help people understand who
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you are and that those elements of
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integrity and honesty are there and
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reliability number three people who are
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going to work for you in a company
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people who are going to vote for you in
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an election people who are going to to
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join your community
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organization they all do need to know
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it's unequivocal that you have respect
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for them my phrase to sum that up is
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when you're with people
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publicly over the internet in a room a
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grand Gathering that might have a couple
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thousand people in
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attendance uh in the course of your
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communication with them you do have to
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tell them that you know who they are
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that you have great respect for their
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abilities and where they're coming from
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and the values they represent sum that
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up here's my phrase to keep that much in
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mind you have to honor the room at some
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point when you're with people and I'd
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even strengthen that to say at every
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point you need to in passing reference
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the people there who they are what they
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represent and how good they are because
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after all leadership as a team sport if
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you can't bring them in your direction
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you're leading nobody and people want to
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know if they're going to join your team
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that you understand who they are and
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that you have respect for them
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third it first it first
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is let's call it Vision strategy
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execution second is having a character
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that is the kind of character that we
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need you need ambition you need honesty
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you need these qualities you need to be
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able to communicate that
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third honor the room room so you need to
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communicate that
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unequivocally and fourth I think you
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need to have an ability to take all the
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above and when you talk with people work
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with people for them to understand what
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you stand for and to hear those messages
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in a way that it sticks my phrase to sum
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that up you have to be in effect a great
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communicator and the way I would capture
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that though when you have a point of you
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you have to say it so it
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sticks well leadership by definition is
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a team sport we have a captain of a team
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but we have a team and to say the
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obvious here the most important
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decisions you're going to make of your
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entire
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Administration will be the people that
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you put in office who are with you and
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right below you so secretaries of the
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major agencies your chief of staff and
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vital to have great people in those
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positions take time to make those
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positions uh properly described the
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people who are coming into them well
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prepared for them and
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then you are a team and so very good my
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point of view anyway to take time to uh
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work with that group as a group of
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individuals but at the end of the day
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they're all pulling for the country and
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they've got to pull together so
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call it team building lots of words that
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pretty much sum up to the same point but
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you do need to take them for uh let's
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just say a couple days of rafting down
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to Colorado or whatever it might be
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that's maybe a little bit far out for
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whoever takes the White House on January
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21st but the main point is great people
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and then with them in office you really
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need to pull them into your vision your
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strategy and ultimately where you're
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going number two people are going to
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wait to hear with great expectation do
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you have a a vision for where the heck
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we're going and how we're going to get
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there many of these ideas obviously in
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the campaign we're going to hear them in
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the debates and the weeks ahead but as
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you take office now it is a time for
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your Visions the rubber of your vision
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to meet the road and so great team and
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then a powerfully communicated statement
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of of obviously you're working
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philosophy but in particular particular
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what is your plan for the weeks ahead
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what's your vision for the months ahead
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David ggen on several occasions has
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said CNN prominence now director of the
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Center for Public leadership at the
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Kennedy School at Harvard University has
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said whoever takes office in January is
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probably taking office at one of the
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most critical junctures in American
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history certainly over the last 50 years
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I think that sounds right between the
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wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the economy
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which hopefully will be in better shape
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then than it is right now the issues of
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Health Care the issues of Education the
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questions of retirement funds Social
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Security will make the challenges for
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the incoming president as probably as
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big as they have been in a
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generation and that's a way of saying to
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make my last point on this as you take
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office great people around you
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a vision and a strategy that will help
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take them in the right direction
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collectively with you along with the
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country and then your Readiness to make
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the tough judgment calls you've got to
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be ready to do that they will be ready
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to do that and what I think that comes
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down to is a good sense for how to make
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a good decision that's obvious that or
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it's obvious what ought to go into that
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but to be able to make that decision in
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a timely fashion some things we can let
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let go some things we can put off but
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the country's problem is enormous and
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thus I think there'll be a premium on
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making good and timely decisions whoever
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takes the Oval Office late
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January it's a really good question
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because given the universals of
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leadership have a vision communicate
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your character and so
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on within a given context the demands
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become more specific so at this moment
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in American history understanding
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strategically how the Middle East
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operates appreciating how people feel
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about the our social security system
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very very important and that's a way of
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saying to use a little bit of a business
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phrasing
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here you do want to see a kind of
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strategic fit between a specific skill
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set that our next president has and
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what's going to be required once he is
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in that job
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and thus looking more specifically at
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the circumstance we face at the
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moment the challenges here are enormous
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and thus you want somebody in that
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office who has a pretty good stomach of
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iron and ability to stay focused and
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calm under enormous demands and stress
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upon
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you and a person who can because the
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this these problems are so complex so
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hard to get our hands around who can
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work with great to use a phrase here
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cognitive complexity just so many moving
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parts to Afghanistan to Iraq so many
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complexities in our financial system
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that a mind that can
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absorb facts Trends underlying
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developments that you can absorb all
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that information and then to give it one
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more phrase that I think captures the
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essence of what's going to be needed so
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then you can think strategically how we
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going to get from here to there
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how are we going to get derailed
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potentially on our way from here to
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there so thinking ahead thinking
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strategically very important at this
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particular moment in US
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history well as we think about
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leadership for the White House come and
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of January 09 it is I think extremely
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useful to look back in our
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history and not
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necessarily take any past president as a
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paragon of success but to draw from them
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what they have done very well and I
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think it's appropriate here to take on
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a caseby casee basis what our previous
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presidents in particular have helped us
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appreciate is important so let's take
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John F Kennedy the inauguration address
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1961 January he did offer this line that
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I think is going to be part of American
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memory
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forever ask not what your country can do
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for you but ask what you can do for your
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country now we we know that I've asked
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people about what our President John F
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Kennedy said ever can you can anybody in
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this room name anything that he said
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I've asked that in China I've asked that
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in Japan I've asked that in
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Argentina everywhere in our universe
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people not Americans born after
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Kennedy's death in
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1963 they know that statement they do so
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John F Kennedy was pretty good at saying
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it so it sticks and thus an ability to
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set forward your plan for the country in
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these different areas in a way that
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people remember it is the art of saying
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it so it sticks John F Kennedy a pretty
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good example uh we can draw and learn
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from him as a great Exemplar of that
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particular ability Abraham Lincoln well
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known now as we have all read or many
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people have read atima Rivals for the
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ability to take people of different
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instincts who were in fact Rivals for
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the presidency when Lincoln did become
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president to not only appreciate what
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they're saying but to bring them in to
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work with
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you it's a good I think illustration of
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the fact that often teams of people who
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think differently all of whom are pretty
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good but they think differently and
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sometimes competitively with you can
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often be stronger than a team of people
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who are just like you so A Team of
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Rivals the phrase We tend to use the
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these days is we want great diversity
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and I think that's right not necessarily
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only demographically of course but we
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want people who've had different
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experiences they have different
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instincts and assuming that they're good
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and able to focus on the mission and not
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their own career I think you want a Team
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of Rivals or a team that's
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diverse from President Ronald
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Reagan an ability
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to remember that you are in a
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role you're on stage in leadership
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Shakespeare had it right all life is a
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stage and in leadership you're always on
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stage and that's not just a metaphor you
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literally every time you appear with
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anybody you are in the role of the
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president and I think among the images
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that have stayed with us and will
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probably always be part of American
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memory is Ronald
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Reagan's ability to walk out to meet Mr
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gorbachov at the arms negotiations in
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rovic Iceland to be seemingly completely
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at ease a kind of Master of the moment
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seemed to make everybody feel
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comfortable and all that of course
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looked natural but Ronald Reagan he was
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an actor and I say that in the way that
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is meant to bring out the point here uh
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all that was not left to just his
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natural tendencies he was conscious that
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he's in a role and when you're in a role
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in a leadership position you have to act
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the role and thus from Ronald Reagan
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just a reminder to our next president uh
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you're going to be on a world stage
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and keeping focused on on who you are
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and what you stand for and keeping that
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out front and keeping your vision out
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front and reminding people of how much
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you have confidence in them to get the
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job done out front and remaining cool
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and confident is the kind of demeanor we
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expect and we hope that the next
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president does bring
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the
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president's job is probably as hard as
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the person who walks into that office
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January
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09 as any job anybody has ever had in
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part because we're an enormous country
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in part because we're so interdependent
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with the world now what we do here
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ramifies through the Indian economy
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affects Chinese stock market
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pricing and having said that and knowing
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that I think there's going to be a
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premium on the ability under that world
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scrutiny and anxiety if you will to
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remain completely focused on why you
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were in that office and by way of
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parallel here I one time did a a study
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of a project on the president of El
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Salvador who brought that Civil War that
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terrible Civil War to an end back in 199
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W he had actually been a classmate of
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Bill Clinton's at Georgetown he was from
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El Salvador had come to the states for
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his college
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days uh Freddy christiani Alfredo
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christiani is his name he went back to
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El
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Salvador became president at a young age
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younger than Bill Clinton became
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president in the middle of a truly
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horrendous Civil
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War and he said to himself
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uh I appreciate the other side does want
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to kill me the fmln which is the name of
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the Guerilla group on several occasions
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did try to indeed assassinate the
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president extremely dangerous to be in
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San Salvador the capital but he said I
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ran for office and I was elected to
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office for one reason which is to bring
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this war to an
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end and through all that uh including at
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one point the Guerilla occup occupation
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of much of San Salvador the capital it's
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as if of as if half of Washington was
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taken over by a Guerilla group uh he
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stayed unequivocally focused on bringing
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that war to an
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end and he said in the sort in some of
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the darker days I know I'm here because
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I've got to get the gorillas to
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come in from the cold today if you in
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San
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Salvador half the police force half the
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Army are are the former gorillas that
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Alfredo Cristiani persuaded to put down
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their rifles and their the radio that
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They Carried the broadcast radios that
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They carried on their back to come in
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from the cold
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and now the war is over it's what it
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took uh it's what was required to give
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the gorillas that is they wanted jobs
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they wanted in a sense to be
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reintegrated into the society in a way
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that was fair main point I would say is
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this Alfredo Cristiani case in point we
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can often look to history as a way to
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understand what we ought to do going
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forward and from his history we are
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reminded in the toughest of times think
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Lincoln during the Civil War as well
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staying unequivocally focused on why
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you're in office it's not about you it's
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a it's a calling it's almost a sacred
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trust that has been put into you by the
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people who elected you and since the
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problems are not
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probably bigger ever than they are right
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now I think this President whoever it's
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going to be I think we should have
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confidence because both candidates I
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think are going to be good at this will
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stay focused on the fact that they are
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in office to take us to where we want to
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get to from where we are right
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now for more information please visit
00:18:22
knowledge. won. up.edu
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