Leadership

Tonight we introduce a new feature at the Reason Forum.  Nearly a month ago, a bizarre traffic accident destroyed the fire hydrant in front of my apartment.  The fire hydrant still has not been repaired here in Lee Brown's America (Houston Held Hostage), where the roads are crumbling, crime is resurgent, and the city regularly has to transfer emergency funds to meet payroll in these economic good times.  There's visual evidence everywhere of the decline of this city under Lee Brown's "leadership."  Perhaps one of these days, the charred remains of the homes on this block (due to lack of functioning fire hydrant!) will serve as more visual evidence.  Or perhaps the fire hydrant will be repaired one of these days.  Until either of those circumstances occur (or I move in May), we will offer the information above, just our small contribution to Lee Brown's "neighborhood oriented government." 

* * * *

While we're on the topic of leadership:  Our group at work has an Office Administrator who has been with the organization for ages.  In recent times, she has lamented the lack of advancement potential in her current position, and has applied for a number of other positions in the company.  She recently secured one of those positions, and it represents an exit from office administration for her (which has just become sheer drudgery), and the potential for advancement.  Her last day with our group was to have been a week from today, and most of us were pleased for her, both for the professional aspects and the personal (she has recently become a single mom, her husband having flaked out and decided he didn't want to be with her or her teen daughter any longer -- so the bump in pay certainly will be helpful to her).

The manager of our group, however, decided that the customary two weeks' notice didn't leave him enough "transition time" and threw his weight around with the "big shits" in the company (he being one of them) so that the person in question will now be "forced" to stay in her position until mid-February, and will be "forced" to split time between her new position and old through the rest of February.  

I'm sure our erstwhile leader thinks he's exercised great managerial leadership.  In reality, he's just behaved like a shit.  Leadership is not simply the exercise of power; real leadership is the principled exercise of power. Leadership is not squashing people's dreams and making them unhappy (in addition to hurting them financially) because it might inconvenience you for a short time.  Leadership in this case would be celebrating the fact that there is advancement potential in the company, that the company prefers to nurture and promote from within, and that our group fosters that attitude in particular!  That sort of leadership draws other capable people who might see the Office Administrator position as THEIR chance at growth.  

But why should I expect real leadership from someone whose home in River Oaks is paid for by the company, whose wife's car is paid for by the company, and who still stiffs his employees on those rare occasions when they go to lunch together and it's time to ante up for a group tab?

What is even more disgusting about the whole thing is that the extra time won't matter a bit, because this "leader" doesn't manage his time well.  And BECAUSE this "leader" doesn't manage his time well, someone in an inferior position of power will suffer -- again.  Blar.

<<<<   MAIN   >>>>