Leaders Lead

The difference between executive experience and legislative experience is one that many Americans don’t seem to understand. Anyone who has managed a project knows what it is. Anyone who has run a department knows it. Anyone who has run a business and met a payroll knows. Anyone who has been responsible for making something happen gets it. Someone who sits at a conference table and participates in the process doesn’t get it.

Leadership requires bold action, aggressive participation, being in the front, running the risks and making difficult choices. You don’t have to be President to have experienced the pressure. You get a call at mid-night. The meeting has been rescheduled to the morning and we need updated numbers now, so you drop everything and get in the car to head for the office. You are on that long awaited vacation when there is an email from the office. Your Blackberry chimes and the vacation is over. Pack it up and rush back.

That is why last week was so illustrative of the difference between the candidates. The financial underpinning of our society was collapsing. The President had rushed to Congress with an emergency proposal. The 100 senators of the United States would have to get on the job to hammer out a solution. It must be done quickly.

One of the two suspended his stump speeches and headed to the office. The other went on with campaigning as usual. One said, “I’m a leader of the Senate and my party. I can make a difference.” The other tacitly admitted that he was a bit player on the Senate stage, didn’t understand what was going on, and didn’t want to run the risk of being on the wrong side of the outcome. He symbolically confessed that he couldn’t make a difference at all.

What he could do was carp about Wall Street versus Main Street; another vacuous slogan of class warfare to list with the other clichés. The fact that Wall Street and Main Street are America and deeply intertwined seemed to be beyond his conceptions. He would show up when the work was done and cast a meaningless vote. He wouldn’t take any leadership role. He would be able to discredit anything the opponent did. And finally, he could claim a piece of whatever success the others had managed.

I’ve seen leaders. I’ve seen leaders in combat. I know what leadership is and how it acts. I’ve followed leaders into the mouth of hell and I’ve led others who willingly followed me to the same place. You don’t lead by staying out of the conflict. You don’t lead by simply showing up for the vote. You don’t lead from a position of safety.

The difference is clear. Leaders get to make mistakes. But leaders know that the risk of failure is minimal compared to the risk of inaction.


Lead, Follow, or Get the Hell Out of the Way.