Are The Presidential Candidates Lacking These 3 Leadership Qualities?

It is another election year and everyone is talking about the lack of great Presidential candidates. Regardless of your political bent, there are certain leadership qualities we all want in our President. Most people I talk to don’t see those qualities clearly present in the current candidates.

Great Presidential Candidates?

In fact, my son asked me one time why we don’t have more presidential candidates like Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington anymore. I explained my thoughts on that and we had a great conversation about leadership. But this conversation got me thinking about the most common leadership qualities everyone wants in their leaders and how this could apply to Christian business owners and leaders.

Leadership Behaviors

Babson College, near Boston, MA, did a survey as a part of their Executive Education program. They asked the question, “What leadership behaviors do you value the most?” Below are the top three responses to this question.

1. Creates a clear vision
2. Keeps his or her word
3. Builds teamwork

Again, depending on your political views, you may see some of these qualities in one or more of the current Presidential candidates. You may not. The closer we get to the election and the more we learn about them, the worse it seems. There is a lot of frustration building up around this election. People are not sure what to think.

Our Leadership

However, this post is not about the Presidential candidates at all. It is about you and me. But you probably knew that already, didn’t you?

In his book, EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey talks a lot about leadership. In his very first chapter, Ramsey shoots straight and gives the following quote.

The big deal here is to remember that the very things you want from a leader are the very things the people you are leading expect from you. You must intentionally become more of each of these every day to grow yourself and your business. And to the extent you’re not doing that, you’re failing as a leader.

Room For Improvement

See, we all like to talk about the lack of leadership in the current Presidential candidates. We may even apply this thinking to our churches and the other organizations in which we are involved. We may even be right about that.

But what we need to realize is that the people we are leading have the same expectation from their leaders – and we are those leaders!

Rather than griping about the lack of leadership we see in those leading us, we need to turn our attention inward and become the leaders others need us to be. Rather than complaining about the lacking in other leaders, let’s commit to being the leaders God created us to be – the leaders worthy of those who are counting on us.

Leadership Assessment

I encourage you to assess your own leadership. Enlist the help of others in your organization because it will help you get more of a 360 degree view. Ask the following questions:

• Have you created (and continued to communicate) a clear vision for your company?
• Are you trustworthy? Do you keep your word, regardless of the cost to you?
• Do you build up teams or tear them down?

Once you have your answers, be intentional about improving in each area. We can not afford to spend time complaining about the lack of leadership in our presidential candidates when there is still room for our own leadership to improve. Let’s commit together to get the log out of our eye before we set out to remove the speck from someone else’s!

Are you the leader for your people that you desire for yourself?

What qualities are you missing?

What do you need to work on first?

Photo by Shu-Hung Liu/Shutterstock