This isn’t a political blog, but I’m cursed (or blessed) to see everything in terms of business. The current administration in the Oval Office isn’t my favorite from a policy standpoint, but it is the tell-tale clues of a leadership gap that concern me the most.
President Obama is the CEO of the Executive Branch of government. As such he acts much like any other CEO, albeit with incredible reach and power. He names his top managers, sets priorities, and develops the vision that he wants his organization to follow.
So the CEO says plainly that he doesn’t perceive something to be in the organization’s best interest (pursuing CIA activities at Guantanamo), that he has higher priorities (getting a health care bill passed) and that he expects his team to pull together to accomplish his vision.
One top exec, Attorney General Eric Holder, claims that the CEO told him that he could make independent decisions, and therefore he is going to do as he damn well pleases, whether or not it serves the interests of the boss, the organization, or the shareholders.
As the CEO, what should you do? Demand his resignation? Castigate him for going off the reservation? Fire him outright? One thing you plainly, obviously have to do is make certain the rest of the management team understands beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are setting the agenda, and they are expected to follow it.
Yet the President behaves as if there is some virtue in refusing to lead. I look at this and realize that no lifetime employee, no one that has received a paycheck every week, every month of his career, can possible understand “The buck stops here” remotely as well as a failed owner of a haberdashery store in Missouri.
